Halloween

Eliya was a pop star for Halloween (aka Hannah Montanna)
I was pretty proud of her hair
and she could even sing all of her songs
Gabie was a ballerina angel
cute little wings
Rachie was Raggety Ann

We were amazed at teh number of trick-or-treaters we had tonight! We had at least a hundred in less then an hour and therefore ran out of candy! (and I had two buckets full to start with!) So we drove around a bit for some trick-or-treating ourselves and picked up some more candy at the grocery store. Then we had another 20-30 kids stop by after we got home. What fun. We also had some people from the church stop by, which wound up the kids to show off for their guests :) All in all a fun evening!

The Little Farmer

Gabie and Nate checking out the bees

How do we measure up?
It was gorgeous weather and a beautiful place!

Corn Maze
The playground had a bunch of bales stacked together
Made it through the corn maze!
The petting zoo - Mina feeding the goats
Nana passing out food for the animals
Sarah and I climbed on the big chair
Carmel apples with sprinkles on them!

We went to the apple orchard on Monday. It was a beautiful day and Nate, Sarah and Wilhelmina were able to meet us there to spend the day. There was apple picking, carmel apples, hay rides, a corn maze, trails, bees, a gift shop and all kinds of other things. It was a delicious fun day!

Our Adventure

We knew moving would be quite the adventure with three little ones and a dog in tow, but I don't know that either of us anticipated the week we would have! Monday 10-12: Moving truck came to load up and soon after we got a phone call that a dear friend had dropped over of a heart attack that morning. He and his wife were preparing to come to church that morning to help set up for the funeral that was going to be Tuesday morning (the vacancy pastor sure got thrown in right from the start!). So I ran Mark over to the house to be with the family and came back to direct the movers. Once Mark returned I avoided the house the rest of the day. We stayed at the Lakes that night and said a lot of last goodbyes. Monday was also Eliya's last day of school so I went a little early and got a picture of her with her class (minus a few who were sick that day).

Tuesday 10-13: We took turns between the car with the dog and the van with the kids for the long drive to WI - we left G-burg around 9:30am and arrived in Appleton at Nate & Sarah's house late that evening.

Wednesday 10-14: Truck unloaded in Amherst. Mark went on ahead to be there, and the girls and I hung out in Appleton for the morning. Mom, grandma and grandpa Haase arrived as well. In Appleton we went to a place called Snips and Giggles and the girls got some much needed hair cuts. Wilhelmina even donated her hair it was so long! Then it was off to help with the unpacking - we did stay in Appleton again that night - Gabie wasn't herself, and we soon discovered why - she had gone up to bed early on her own and when I went to check on her I found her lying in a pile of puke - yuck! Little did we know this was only the beginning...

Rachel wasn't thrilled with the cutting

But Gabie loved it!

Wilhelmina's locks of love!

The finished products.

Thurday 10-15: More unpacking. Gabie was running a fever and spent the entire day camped out on the couch. Although she threw up a couple more times during the night on Wednesday that seemed to be the end of it. Thursday night symbolized our first night in our new house!

Friday 10-16: As soon as I got all the beds made with the new bedding Rachel decided to initiate by throwing up on the top bunk. This is when we discovered that the washing machine wasn't working....oh dear. Rachel's puking caused Gabie to puke again - we had a long night! Eliya went home with Sarah and Mina for a sleepover, which turned out to be a sick-over ~ both Elie and Sarah got the bug during the night! Meanwhile mom and I were lysoling everything constantly - I think we went through 2 entire cans of lysol not to mention clorox wipes....I guess it didn't go much good....

Saturday 10-17: Mark's parents arrived and at this point we really did have a lot of the basics unpacked. Everyone seemed to be running a fever. By the middle of the night Mark started puking - uh-oh! We did take some time to 'carve' our pumpkins this day (which consisted of sticking stuff into them to give them character :)




Sunday 10-18: We had good intention of making it to the first service, but with all the germs at our house, we had to skip. Mark was going to do a baptism that morning, but didn't want to *share the love* ha! So we all slept in a took it easy that morning. By that afternoon everyone seemed to be feeling better. We finally made it out of the house and went to the installation (yes, everyone showered and washed hands thoroughly!). The church had a huge table of goodies for our pantry - what a blessing! The service was wonderful - many good friends came from the surrounding area including from Mark's vicariage church, his two uncles, my aunt and uncle, grandparents, his parents, my mom, etc. My great uncle from Eau Claire gave a wonderful sermon - so appreciated!




All in all it was a good week - nothing was broken in the move, we did get the washing machine working - whew! - and were able to make it to the installation. I can't find my little thing that lets my camera talk to my computer yet, but as soon as I do I will add some pictures from our stories. Thanks for checking in on us and thanks for all the prayers!

Last Sunday

Mark's last Sunday

Shaking everyone's hands after the service

The gathering for the farewell dinner

The family pose with the cake.

A friend in the church took these pictures yesterday and e-mailed them to me.

Although our blog name won't be the most fitting anymore I'm not planning on changing it since it's the actual web-site. As I sit here the movers are finishing up the last few things putting them into the truck. Yesterday was a very emotional day, Gabie and I both took a long nap after we got home from church. Mark and I were up pretty late finishing the packing and the movers were here at 9am. Whew! I've been avoiding the house today as I did when they loaded the truck from St. Louis. Tonight we are staying with the Lakes and will leave tomorrow morning for WI. Then we'll have a night with the Reichles and then we begin the un-packing....it's amazing how you can pack up your whole house into boxes and fit it on a truck.

60th Wedding Anniversary!

The same weekend as our goodbye in Gettysburg we celebrated my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary in Lincoln, NE. We left on Thursday and came home late Saturday night, although we did leave a little early since it was SNOWING in Nebraska so much - yuck! It was very fun, and a great opportunity for us to see both sets of my grandparents in one weekend!

The Packing Continues

I went to pack my crock-pot which had been sitting on the floor in the dining room and when I looked down this is what I found....

The moving van comes on Monday the 12th to load and will unload Wednesday the 14th - here we go!

Baptism

We had the joy of seeing Madison baptized Tuesday evening. She is one of rachel's best friends. This last picture was Rachel coming up asking daddy to "do me too daddy!" :)

It's Official!

Rachel has been 'day' potty trained for about 4 months, but now she is going all night too! We made it a whole week. We learned that as long as we don't put a pull-up on her she stays dry, so we are offically in underwear 24/7 now - woohoo! Good job Rachie - her special prize she picked out was a Dora toy (of course!).

Yum!

Rachel loves tomatoes!