Halloween!

What a fun time we had in October! So many fun things to do. I'm so glad the weather has been so beautiful this fall, we've been able to play outside a lot, which Rebecca loves. Here we are at the local pumpkin patch. My friend and I picked the right time to go, we had the place to ourselves, and it was soooo cute! They had rows of pumpkins, corn stalks, hot chocolate and cookies, this cute barn, and a straw-bale maze. It was really fun! I tied Halloween ribbon in Rebecca's pigtails, but you can't really tell. Too bad. It was a battle keeping them in her hair all day!

We finally got around to carving our lovely pumpkin on Oct. 30 Rebecca looked like she wondered what in the world I was doing the whole time. She can say "pumpkin" really well now! We saw so many last month, it's no wonder! I dressed her up in her fairy pajamas and let her wear the fairy wings from Grandma K. She loved them, and the wand. What a cute little fairy I have. She's so funny, I tell her to smile lately, and she does this cheesy smile, every time.

Our ward did a Trunk-or-Treat. We did games and dinner first, and a lot of people came, and it was a good time! Here is Rebecca planting a big smooch on her little friend the skunk!

Here we are, the fireman and firewoman with our Dalmation. I like to dress up. What a fun day...we saw so many neat costumes!

Fabulous Fall

Here are a few pictures from the past month. Fall is officially here, and I am loving it! The weather has been just beautiful and Rebecca and I have been spending lots of time outside. Here is my new favorite picture of her. And these next two pics are just for my mom. Thanks for the cute outfit! Too bad it's too cold to wear anymore :(

Rebecca loves the swings. I take her to the park most day and it is so cute to hear her laugh and make "wheeeee" sounds.

Rebecca at 14 months old.

And, the messes continue. Seth and I are finally finishing Rebecca's room. We got the new window put in and are working on the sheetrock. Rebecca got into the mud and decided to see how it tastes. YUCK!! She sure looks happy though!

THANK YOU to my wonderful parents for coming up to watch Rebecca while I helped the kids do their parts in the Primary Program. I must say, I am really glad the program is over! The practices were a bit stressful, but the kids pulled through in the end and did a great job. I was really pleased with it. Children have the spirit with them so strongly and I always look forward to the primary program. I've just never been involved with it like this before. It sure is easier to just sit in the audience and enjoy! I really do appreciate my parents coming up to support me though. They are fabulous!!!

So, Rebecca will be 15 months old this coming Sunday. I practice with her many times a day, but she has NO confidence when it comes to walking. She does great as long as I'm holding her hands. She is a SMART baby though, I'm not worried. She's a late walker, I guess, but it will come! Here we are practicing in the back yard.

Here we are walking and playing at the park with Samuel, Rebecca's best buddy. They are SO cute together. They always get so excited to see each other.

I would like to join Clancy in acknowledging the fabulousness in my life this Friday!
1-Seth has been so sweet and helpful to me this week. I love him so much.
2-Rebecca had a fever this week of 104.5 Then she had a scary rash all over her face and body for 3 days. Who knows what it all meant, but it is gone now. She also ate next to nothing for 5 days. She is back to normal and I'm so grateful. Having a sick baby is so hard.
3-I've been thinking of how I could save some extra money each month because I really feel we need to have some food storage. I was sad because I didn't see how I could do it without it taking a year or more before I got a decent amout of food storage. But, I thought small steps are better than nothing. So I started. Then a few days ago, Seth's parents gave us A TON of food storage. We are set for a while. What a blessing and an answer to my prayers. THANK YOU Mom and Dad Wistisen, we appreciate this soooo much!!
4-It's going to snow this weekend and I have a nice warm cozy house to stay in.
5-We are finally working on Rebecca's room! I love a good project. Our entire house has been a project, let me tell you. But it's been a while since we did anything major. This weekend we plan to take down wallpaper, get the trim up, and get primer on the walls. I'm so excited to finally have my little girl's room look more girly! And Seth gets off at noon today so we can get going on it! HOORAY FOR THE WEEKEND!!!


Rebecca loves these toy necklaces, she's always wearing a few of them, it's funny.

Rebecca would love for us to read to her all day long. She is getting so smart. She points to everything, and knows what the moon is, the fence, spoon, bib, trees, ball, lots of others. I love to read with her and am glad she loves books so much.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, I know Rebecca will miss BUS RIDES!!! She loves her little bus and even buzzes her lips as she rides. I just laugh. She is so dang cute!!!

Hiking

Well, there probably won't be very many more days like this! A few days ago, we set out to find a hike up in Kelly Canyon that I've heard a few people mention. We had a great time, and it was such a beautiful day with beautiful views from the top.
Rebecca had a great time too! I only had the backpack on for a little while, thank goodness. She is getting heavy!

Wheat Harvest

Since I grew up in Utah, in the city, I basically knew NOTHING about farming until I married Seth. We've been married 4 years, and every fall he loves to go to Bancroft to help his dad drive the tractor and harvest the crops. I usually go with him (with the exception of last year, since I had a newborn) and the first time I rode on a combine, I was amazed and impressed. Those machines are AWESOME!! And I'm still amazed and impressed! Seth's dad explained to me how far they have come too...you used to get so dusty and dirty and have to do a whole lot more manual labor. Not anymore, you steer with one hand and control everything else with the other. And you can talk in normal voices, no yelling, even though the machine is loud. In the cab, it is nice! Radio and air conditioning too, and no dust flying around. Anyway, farming is a totally different lifestyle than what I grew up around, but I'm glad this city girl fell in love with a country boy. I appreciate farmers and the work they do. I'm glad to be related to farmers and have a chance to be around during this wonderful time of the year...the harvest.
We dressed Rebecca up in her cute little overalls for her first ride on the combine. She loved riding around with Grandpa!

Here she is driving...oh, boy!

Seth, Dad, and Rebecca went around a few times and I just wandered around and took pictures and had time to think. It was so nice to just be out in the middle of nowhere, all alone. I really like that sometimes, and in Idaho Falls, there is nowhere to be alone. It was nice though, I reflected on my life and all my blessings, set some goals, and prayed. I know Heavenly Father is aware of me and He blesses me every day of my life.

Rebecca loves to give kisses lately. It is so cute. Anytime we say goodbye to someone, Rebecca puckers up and leans forward to kiss them goodbye. At Seth's work party last weekend, she wanted to kiss the boss's 5 year old son over and over again. She grabbed his shirt and kept yanking him over for more kisses. He was so patient with her and just kept letting her kiss him. Here she is kissing baby Rylie. She is so gentle and sweet with other babies, I'm so proud of her. Also, when Seth and I pray on meals, we kiss afterwards. So we tell Rebecca, "fold your arms, it's time for prayer." She'll fold her arms and the minute the prayer starts, she puckers up and waits patiently for the prayer to be done, so she can kiss us both. I love it.

Summer's over...WHEW!!!

First of all, I must say THANK YOU to everyone who had advice for me about my milk dilemma. It's been a month and Rebecca is slowly doing better. I've tried a lot of your suggestions, and I'm thankful for friends who know more than I do on parenting topics and are willing to help me. Thanks!!!

What a fun summer we had. We were home this past weekend, and I think it was the first time in 7 weeks. Busy times! It's been really fun though. At the end of July, we had Seth's family reunion. Since it is so expensive to travel lately, his parents decided to have the reunion at their farm in Bancroft. Here is their beautiful home, where Seth grew up. I love to go to Bancroft, it is such a peaceful place to me, a real get-away whenever I go there. It's like life slows down when I'm there. It is such a beautiful valley too. So this was Rebecca's first camping trip. We slept in the tent together...the first night. Rebecca is so wiggly!! And she woke up 18..22...38 times, I don't know, I lost count. We slept inside the next few nights, and everyone was much happier!!
What a great place to camp, huh? Nice soft grass.

Here we are, all the Wistisens in our matching shirts ready for the big parade on the 24th of July. This day is really big in Bancroft, a lot of people are there, and you can not say that on any other day of the year! The parade is fun, they go down the street and then turn right around and come back so you can see the other side. And every one of my nieces and nephews got an entire bag full of candy. They throw an amazingly large amount of candy out.

Here we are at the Lava Hot Springs Pool! I haven't been here since I was about 12 or so, but I used to love coming here as a child. They've got new water slides, very fun! Rebecca wasn't too sure about the water. She slept on Grandma's lap most of the time.

This was pretty constant at the reunion...Rebecca's cousins LOVE her!! I'm glad we all live so close and are able to get together once a year. The cousins are all so cute together, and it's fun to relax and talk with all my in-laws. I am so blessed to have married into such a great family. We have fun together many times a year and I love and admire Seth's family so much and hope to have a strong and close family like them of my own.

The Ol' Fishin' Hole! Grandma gave out some pretty fun prizes every night at the fish pond.

At the races on the 24th. Rebecca raced all the one year olds. She didn't win, but she finished!! Daddy was so proud :)

This is the Wistisen Homestead, where Seth's ancestors came and settled in Bancroft from Denmark. Pretty cool!!

We went to Chesterfield to look at family history and take a tour. I love to look at old stuff and learn about our great heritage.

By the end of the reunion, this is how Rebecca felt. 10 cousins playing with her all day every day. Good thing she is such a happy, good-natured baby. She took it all really well, but sometimes, you could just tell she wanted some space!! It was a really fun reunion, THANK YOU Mom & Dad Wistisen for all you did, and the great memories!

Some other things we did this summer...

Sleepover with Rebecca's cousins
They couldn't understand why she wouldn't turn around, sit still, and watch Cinderella with them!

We went to the Snake River Roaring Youth Jam, which is a community art day by the river. I go every year, and man-it is sure more fun with a kid! And it will be better next year, because Rebecca will want to do the art projects!!

Rebecca is learning to walk...she does really well, runs even, as long as she's holding my hands. Without support, she's not too daring yet.

Rebecca and I went to Utah to visit Grandma and Grandpa Kulicke for a week. It was so nice and relaxing, and my dad had the whole week off too! It was fun to be there. It's so cute to see my parents with Rebecca, she is their only grandchild and they light up around her.

Rebecca had a great time in the back yard learning to climb up stairs.

Rebecca loves corn, but she'd never had it on the cob until this day at my parents' house. She was giving us the cheesiest smiles, she had us all laughing so hard, and I got some great "corn pictures" as I call them now. So cute!

Grandpa giving Rebecca a piano lesson!! Rebecca loves music, she dances to it all the time, whether it's in church, on the radio, me playing the piano for her, or singing to her. She is a good little dancer!!

Rebecca in the rocking chair that belonged to my great grandma Peck. And wearing her sweet birthday dress that I love! Pretty in Pink.

Rebecca's first trip to the ZOO here in Idaho Falls. She was so cute, she'd point and wave to the animals and tell them, "hi." She especially loved the chikens, she thought they were saying "booga booga" and she was so excited and joined right into the booga fest!! It cracked me up.

Here we are with our friends Ryan and Leslie and their baby Rylie. (Ryan is Seth's cousin too.)

And last but not least, our garden was a huge SUCCESS this year! Here is the flower Seth brought in to me last week. Very nice, and grown by us! We have lots of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, corn, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins and sunflowers!
I love eating from my own yard! Someday I will learn how to can, and hopefully someday we'll have our own little "farm" ---an acre or two that we can grow lots of stuff on and then eat it all year. Yummy!! I love harvest time! I will do another post soon about harvest...Rebecca got to ride on her first tractor!! It's fun to have farmers in the family. We are trying to be farmers in our city way too. It's been fun this year.