Cousins and Costumes

Bauman Farms

This year we made it to Bauman Farms a little later in the season that usual. We packed up and headed to the crazy farm a week before Halloween and met my sister, Toran (sister-in-law), Aiden (nephew), and Gracie (neice) for the afternoon. We all had a great time and enjoyed the animals, bouncing "pillow", swings, pedal carts, apple cider slushies, and lunch.

Fun family picture. It is quite a bit harder to get a picture these days.

Stopping to smell the flowers...I promise this isn't staged (Dan has taught her to smell...not touch flowers).

Aiden and Marissa getting ready to experience some fall fun.

Standing on pumpkins.

Looking at the animals.

Dan and Marissa having fun bouncing on the pillow.

Halloween-Butterfly and Pea in a Pod

Again this year, we didn't manage to do much on Halloween. I had Dan grab some candy from Wal-mart in the afternoon (check out picture below to see how that went) and then we geared up to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters that might come by our house. Unfortuantely, we had very few of them (I guess our street looks pretty dark). After feeding the kids and dressing them, we decided to head to downtown Silverton. Marissa had fun dancing in the streets with the group of "Thriller" dancers and we chatted with some Silverton friends. After realizing how late it became, we ran over to my parents to show off costumes then headed to bed. It was a pretty uneventful night.

My two kids :).

Marissa is a butterfly (she was a caterpillar last year).

My pea in a pod.

My dancing girl. Never misses an opportunity to dance...even with the best of them.

Dan stocked us up on candy. I had to give most of it away after Halloween or I would have eaten it (don't worry it went to a worthy cause...high school kids :).

Curious, Crawling (Sick) Caterpillar

Cosy

What a week! The week started with Dan working on a job in Hillsboro. Annie and Marissa were so excited to have him home each evening and to make him dinner...most of the nights. He works so hard to provide for the family and to make sure his company is a success. The girls are are so proud of him...and they were excited to cuddle with him in the evenings.

Creeping

Marissa decide she wanted to hit many developmental milestones this week. She started cruising around the house, getting into everything she has been able to look at and not touch...now she can touch it and does. Her favorite place to crawl is behind the couch to play with the cords. Good-bye days of setting our little girl in one place and stepping into the other room for a minute. She quickly went from the army crawl to moving from one room to another. Dan and Annie cannot believe how fast that went.

Courage

Once she started moving, Marissa got the courage to pull herself into a standing position on some of her shorter toys. Dan and Annie decided this week might be a good time to lower her crib mattress to the lowest setting. As soon as that was done she began pulling herself up and standing in her crib. We definitely did that in time! Now she pulls herself up on the couch, chairs, and anything else she can find. What a little courageous girl.

Conclusions at the Doctors Office

Going to the doctor on Thursday concluded what Annie had been suspecting since Monday...Marissa had an ear infection. They were able to get in within a hour of calling, which is pretty abnormal. Marissa's stuffy nose has slowly been getting better and as of tonight she has not been pulling on her ear as much. Annie is glad she did not put it off any longer, even though her and Marissa had to miss soup and salad at a friends house in Salem (maybe next week :).

Curious

Marissa has not been sleeping well the last week and that is partly due to the conclusions reached at the doctors office on Thursday. She has been waking up after 30 minutes from going down for her nap. When Dan or Annie look into her room to check up, she is caught with her bumper down and peaking through the crib to see if they are coming. What a goof-ball (like her dad).

Charging

On Friday, Marissa and Annie were able to go shopping at Washington Town Square with Grandma and Aunt Michelle. They all had a lot of fun except for the fact that Marissa kicked her new hat out of her stroller...you will probably be seeing it again (not because it was found...but because Annie will buy another). Marissa got a few new outfits and is going to look super cute around Christmas time. Once they got home, Annie got out all of Marissa's winter hats and had a "hat try-on session". Marissa sure enjoyed that.

Caterpillar

On Halloween night, it was Dan's dream to sit at home and answer the door to all the trick-or-treaters around town. After getting home from work (and stopping for candy) at around 7:45pm, there were'nt too many trick-or-treaters left. Needless to say the Schacher household has bags of candy leftover from Friday night...I am sure the Senior girls will eat it on Wednesday night when Annie hosts another "Senior Night at the Schacher's". Marissa got to crawl around in her costume for about 20 minutes before she got grumpy and too warm. Her costume would have been great for trick or treating outside :).

Comforted in Christ's Care

Dan and Annie cannot even begin to explain the amount of comfort they feel by Christ keeping them safe this weel. On Thursday Dan was supposed to leave at 2am to go back to Spokane. Well, the Lord was watching over Dan and for some reason he did not end up waking up until 6am. Dan and Annie talked at that time and decided it was best that he and his employees fly over in order to get to the job in time. As Dan was pulling into a parking space at the airport the drive-line on his pick up went out (which means he had NO ability to steer his pick up at ALL). Had Dan been driving to Spokane on the freeway at 2am, going the speed limit (or faster)...we don't even want to imagine what could have happened. We are both comforted in the fact that God was watching over Dan. It was an eye opener to both of them how quickly something can happen...but how much Christ is looking out for them. Dan was able to stay home for the rest of the week and finish up work around the area...they relished every minute together as a family.