Trick or Treat!

A bunch of scallywags!

Renee and her ducklings!

Kevin and Jessica with their "bun"!

Carter, Dane, and Bryanna.

Wagon ride.

Bryanna and Dane went for their first trick-or-treating outing together.

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, we made a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Jeff and Renee and boys. This was an attempt at a photo shoot with our energetic toddlers. As you can see, we weren't very successful! Dane is watching the activity elsewhere, and Carter has had enough sitting, thank you very much!

Little Camden, on the other hand, is quite easy to photograph! This little guy will sleep anywhere!
Dane decided to show us just how strong he really is!

Seeing spots!

Today, Mike helped with an after-school carnival at one of the local elementary schools. Dane and I stopped by to take in a great magic show and to meet their reading/literacy dalmation. So cute and very well-behaved (the dog, that is)!

Another quick trip

Dane and I made another quick trip back to Minnesota last weekend for Benny's CD release concert. While we were back, we took a day trip with my parents over to Wisconsin to visit Dad's parents. Dane hadn't ever met this set of great-grandparents, so it was well overdue! On the way, we had to stop in Abbotsford, WI at the Hawkeye Dairy for ice cream, string cheese, and squeaky cheese curds. Mmmmm!

As a native Minnesotan and Vikings fan, Mike must have already had that all-important talk with Dane because he would not wear the cheesehead!!
Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day with temps around 70 and gorgeous fall colors. I didn't get any pictures that do the trees justice.
Riding along with his Wisconsin cow!
Riding the lawn tractor with Uncle Freddy.

A picture with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Dane just wasn't in a picture-taking mood!

Dane eats Doritos with Uncle Benny.

Hamming it up over Sunday lunch.

Playing with cousins Joel and Clayton on Monday.

Thanks to my parents for watching the kiddos while Jenny and I went out for some girl time on Monday. So fun to go shopping and out to lunch together! Later that evening, we took in Benny's amazing concert. What a fun night! I apologize for not getting any pictures- for some reason I pretty much quit taking pictures after Saturday. I know that Benny has some more pictures on his Flickr account, and hopefully my parents will share some of theirs soon on their blog.

(Mostly) Finished Product

Our new tile and countertops are done, and we are loving them. We still have some finishing touches to complete such as painting all the new baseboards and some other painting that needs to be redone or touched up. However, these are small projects in comparison. Here are some pictures of the kitchen- it feels completely new to me!!

Always busy...

Camden Brown Shepherd

Jeff and Renee welcomed another beautiful boy to their family Thursday, Camden Brown.

Mike and Dane meet little Camden for the first time.

Renee and Camden.
Renee, Camden, and big brother Carter. She's got her hands full, but she's doing amazing!

18 month photos

Our travels

We made a very quick trip back to the midwest last weekend to visit the Grandpas and Grandmas. We spent a couple days first with Mike's parents on their beautiful farm.

Dane was so thrilled to be able to run all around outside and play with Grandpa and Grandma's new puppy, Cubby. He also loved his 4-wheeler rides...
...and tractor rides.

Daddy and Grandpa took him out to meet the "cow cows" up close.

Daddy and Dane helped Grandpa with a couple of projects around the farm.

Cubby up close in all his cuteness!

Jay, Madeline, Stephanie (Mike's cousin), and Adriana Eckel.

Then we headed over to Milnor for a quick visit to Grampy and Grammy. They have more pictures on their blog, too. Here are a few of ours. Dane's favorite game was jumping off this little ledge to Grampy.

Afternoon nap with Grammy.

Mikey and I went for a walk out into the country. Here is a picture of Milnor from a couple miles out. All you can see over the tall corn fields is the grain elevator.

We walked the rails back into town.

Looking forward to seeing both sets of grandparents again in November when they visit us!!