Christmas Lights

A couple weekends ago, when the weather was still nice and warm, Joe pulled all the Christmas lights out and started to organize them to get ready for hanging. Joseph was really excited to have time to spend with Daddy, and was quickly intrigued by the piles upon piles of light bundles. I was working inside, so I don't know how it came about, but Joe let Joseph help test the lights by "blowing" them out when they confirmed a strand was good.

 It was seriously the cutest thing to see how into the lights Joseph was getting. He loves being a little helper these days, and this was right up his alley! Here's Joe showing him how to blow on the lights...

And letting Joseph try. What Joseph didn't realize was that Joe made sure to hang onto the end of the cord and unplug it just as Joseph bent over and blew on it. This went on for quite a while!

He had so much fun pulling the bundles and boxes out of the storage bins and taking them to Joe - I don't think Joe had to move at all with how much Joseph kept bringing him lights to test!

Isn't that the sweetest little face? He took his job very seriously!

Pudding

This all happened a few weeks back, but I forgot to add them to the blog. One night, I was trying to convince Joseph to eat his dinner. He was going to town on his green beans, but didn't want anything else. Since he likes to dip, I thought I'd try giving him chocolate pudding.  I knew it could turn messy, but I hadn't honestly expected that he'd wear so much more than he'd eat!

 At the point in which he discovered that putting the spoon on his head got a reaction out of me, it was all over.

He also really wanted me to try the chocolate pudding hairstyle as well, but wasn't too phased when I refused. :) He got me later while I was putting him in the bathtub and happened to touch his head with my cheek.



Trunk or Treating

Wednesday night, before heading to St. Louis, Joseph, Tricia and I headed out to my mom's group's annual Trunk or Treat. My camera has a really hard time (or, maybe I'm just bad at using the camera!) capturing images at dusk, especially when the subject of said photos is in perpetual motion.

We enjoyed a few slices of pizza, and Joseph actually ate a piece! Usually he likes to pick the toppings off of ours and just eat those, but it seems he's graduated to eating pizza the way it was designed.

He then played on the playground for a while, until it was time to head over to the parking lot. My parents were going to borrow the travel platform, so I had Joe install it on the RAV before he left for Wilmington. Joseph saw that I'd placed our bowl of candy on it, and realized right away that not only could he easily hop up on it, but it made a great perch for eating candy and watching the kids come over!

He didn't really understand the concept of trick or treating; rather, as each kid took a piece or two of candy out of the bowl, he seemed confused about why they were taking his treats! It took a little convincing, but eventually Tricia and I got him off the platform and showed him how to go car to car, picking candy and dropping it into his bag.

It didn't take too long before he definitely got the hang of it, and ran between the cars to gather his candy. I don't think he still really understood what was going on, but he liked being able to eat candy freely! It was definitely a good warm-up to the weekend of Halloween activities at Grammy and Granpa's house while Joe and I were in NC for the half-ironman.

Fall Fun

I am reviewing a few pics on my phone while taking a break at work and thought some of you might enjoying some of 7's good times from this weekend.

Trick or Treating at Stephanie's house.

Playing in the front yard with Molly.

Getting ready to "help" mommy rake leaves.

Helping.

Pumpkin Patch

This past Saturday we took our now annual trip to Johnson Farms, aka the pumpkin patch. Joseph was really excited to see all the animals on the farm. He watched the ponies waiting to give rides, and stamped his foot along with them. 

 The have a few really neat playground pieces that Joe wants to try and replicate some day - particularly this pirate ship.

Joseph acted like he really wanted to play on it, but I think with so many things to do, he quickly got distracted and headed off. And by that I mean he ran. Especially when he saw the train!

There wasn't really a choice on whether or not he'd get to go for a ride, and Joe decided to hop in with him. The train ride is actually a relatively long one, going around a big portion of the family events/areas.

 Pretending they're on a bigger, faster, more roller coaster like ride...

After the train ride, he headed over to this old fire truck they have parked nearby. He had fun playing in the cab, and checking things out. I think it's time for a trip on Grandpa's fire truck!

We made sure to snap a few pictures at the "look how I've grown this year sign." Sniff, sniff. It's amazing how he's grown and changed this year!

Finally we convinced Joseph to head out to the fields by showing him the tractor-pulled hayride. He really didn't want to pick a pumpkin - he'd had much more fun on the ride there and back!

But then he realized there was lots of wide open space to run, which is definitely one of his favorite things to do now.

And a few paces in, I helped him pick a great pumpkin. We had a groupon for the patch that included $10 worth of pumpkins, so we picked 3 small ones... that only ended up retailing for a little under $4. Oh well! It was nice to not need a big cart this year. We figured since we aren't going to be in town for Halloween, it was a little silly to spend a lot on the decorations. Especially when Joseph doesn't quite understand things yet.

And so we took the return hayride back to the farm, checked out and headed home before Joseph got too tired. It was such a fun trip to the pumpkin patch - watching Joseph get into all of the play areas and farm animals was really cute and a great preview to what the coming years will be like!

Homecoming 2011

When I realized that Mizzou's 100th anniversary of Homecoming was going to happen in 2011, I really wanted to be able to attend and take Joseph for his first college Homecoming. Mizzou does such a great job of making Homecoming a family friendly event, although when I was in college and law school I didn't actually go to many of the planned events.

This year, however, was all about making sure Joseph had a fun experience! We made it to Columbia Friday night in time to catch a couple of house dec shows with Ashley and Mikael before we needed to get Joseph back to the hotel. We lucked out and found a room in town the night before leaving for Columbia, after watching Expedia for months to no avail. I had hoped to stay in town so we could let Joseph get as much regular sleep as possible, especially when we discovered that kickoff for the football game was 1pm - right when he normally naps!

Saturday, October 15th, we got up on time and headed for downtown to watch the parade. Ashley and Mikael met up with us a bit later, and we all enjoyed the floats, marching bands and various parade entries. Joseph loved that many groups tossed candy to the kids, in between dancing to the music from the bands.

 Although the forecast was for highs around 70 degrees, it was still rather chilly at 8:30, so we made sure to put Joseph in his Truman the Tiger suit. He was quite the hit!

After an hour or so of watching the parade, Joseph started to get bored and wanted to explore. He kept trying to run away from me, but in his little tiger suit he just looked so cute. :)

We did a bit of tailgating near Ashley & Mikael's hotel and waited for Mom, Dad, Jennifer and her boyfriend to arrive. The weather was absolutely perfect for a fall football game! We enjoyed some yummy snacks, Joseph had fun telling just about everyone "hi!" and waving and Molly even got to hang out with us for a bit. A little before kickoff, we headed over to the stadium.

Joseph wanted to sit with Grammy and Granpa more than anyone else, but when he got a little tired of sitting still, he would wander up and down our aisle, bouncing from lap to lap.

He does seem to enjoy watching football, especially on TV at home, so we knew he'd be entertained for at least a little while. We apparently had tickets near the Iowa State "section", so their cheerleaders and mascot were stationed in front of us. I think Joseph spent more time watching the mascot than the game - oh well!

Jennifer's boyfriend Elliot came in town from Florida for the weekend. It was fun getting to spend some time getting to know him, as Joe and I hadn't met him yet.

As the game neared halftime, Joseph started to visibly wear down. I think he made Mom's day, though, when he decided he only wanted her to hold him. Luckily for him, she didn't mind that at all.

We had hoped to make it through more of the game, but at the half Mizzou had a sizeable lead, so we opted to leave while Joseph was still in a good mood.

I thought Joseph was going to fall asleep in the baby carrier on the way back to the car, but he decided since he was leaving, he needed to wave and say "bye!" to just about everyone we passed. He's really enjoying talking now!

We got back to the car, loaded everything up, and headed for the highway. Within 5 minutes, Joseph was sound asleep. Molly made sure to snuggle up with him as best she could too!

I had a lot of fun, and can't wait to make this a Jeppson family tradition, since I have lots of great memories going to Mizzou homecoming with my family as a kid. And maybe it'll keep Joseph a true Tiger, instead of deciding to be a Jayhawk! :)

Ta Da!

I know it's hard to see much of anything in this picture, but that's the point - this afternoon Joe and I finished clearing the back third of the yard! All of the scraggly bushes, vines and small trees are finally gone from ... from that corner, at least. The section of the yard just to the left of the big tree in the left of the picture still needs work, but at least we're getting closer. I'm excited to work on the plans for this newly cleared area, which will be Joseph's play space. We have some fun ideas, just need to figure out how and when to execute everything.