A boy and his Aunt Courtney's dog

You met my sister's dog Wilbur a few months ago in Caleb's birthday post, but recently she's added a new member to the family - Ruby Mae. This sweet red bone hound dog looks similar to Ginger, our fifteen year old dachshund that we recently had to put down towards the end of August. Courtney, of course, fell in love with Ruby very quickly.

 

 

Caleb loves Courtney's other dog so much that he is constantly talking about him and pretending his toy dogs are Wilbur (or Wilbur and Ginger if there is more than one toy pup present). He often pretends to be Wilbur himself, asking me to tie him up using a set of Hadley's baby links. He hooks one end to a chair and slides his hand through the other. Then, he pretends to get loose and jump on me or make me chase him through the house. He hollers, "Tie me up in the basement, Mommy!" - a phrase I am bit worried he will say in public where it could stir up some concerns. :)

 Chaining up his toy "Wilbur"

 Putting himself on the "leash"

While Wilbur is a favorite, he is also a good size dog and can be somewhat intimidating to a small boy. When Courtney introduced Ruby to Caleb though, it was a perfect match. They were just the right size to play together. He loved that she was small enough for him to pick up. We taught him that she is a baby so we have to be very careful, and he did a good job.

Disclaimer: Please excuse the "bed head" in these pics. He had just woken up from his nap and ran outside immediately to see the new puppy.

 

Ruby seemed just as fond of Caleb as he was of her. She followed him all over the yard and porch.

 

The expressions on his face in these pictures from their wagon ride together says it all - love at first sight! :)

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Aunt Courtney, for getting Caleb a pet to keep at your house!

Page County Heritage Festival

All year long I look forward to the Page County Heritage Festival. This past weekend it was finally here!

From tractors to cloggers to fried pork rinds, this festival focuses on everything country. Beautiful primitive and antique decorations are for sale everywhere. There are homemade baked goods and jellies, fall wreaths, quilts, and so much more. I love finding special treasures to decorate my house!

I was assuming Caleb would want to just look at the tractors 
with his daddy but he was very interested in the crafts too.

  
Hadley loves blankies so I bought her a 
large homemade receiving blanket.

Mums, hay bales, and pumpkins were scattered throughout. At one stand in particular, Caleb stood admiring the little pumpkins and gourds with the excitement of a toddler finding something new. After listening to him talk and talk about all he found and hearing him giggle with glee, the lady who worked there decided to give him a small pumpkin of his own which he kept safely in the cup holder of Hadley's stroller.

 

Hadley couldn't run about and check out everything like her brother, but she enjoyed looking at everything too. 

 

 

Dave let Hadley ride on his shoulders 

a bit...until she decided to pull his hair.

    "I'll be good, Daddy. I promise."

 

For me, seeing people I haven't seen in awhile is another wonderful part of the festival. Usually, we see a lot of my Grandma Nora Ann's family around since Page County is their stomping grounds; in a way, it is a bit like a reunion. This year, we ran into some of Granddaddy's family too and one of the ladies who worked with the kids at the church I grew up in when I was little named Mildred.

This is Mildred, who is very excited to be holding Hadley. 

For Caleb, just about every part of the festival was something interesting to check out. Whether it was admiring crafts, getting a giant spider balloon and jingle bell to wear around his neck from Nana, or climbing on tractors with Daddy, everything around was fantastic to this two-year-old.

Caleb picked out the black spider.

Note that the boys are matching. After getting Caleb 

dressed in his Hokie shirt for the day, I asked Dave if 

he was going to wear his Hokie shirt too. Then, Caleb said 

something like "wear jeans like me?" He was proud to look

like his daddy.

After checking out some horses and carriages, Caleb decided that he wanted to take a ride on a pony. While debating if this was a good option for a toddler (especially since he was timid of the horses a few minutes prior), the pony started spazzing out, hitting his food container with his foot over and over. That made the decision pretty quick for us, and we turned our boy's attention to a hayride.

 

I can't quite put into words how the Heritage Festival makes me feel, but I love it. I don't know if it is the nostalgia from my childhood of the whole event, the beautiful decor, the country feel, or the "down home" food that allures me the most.  In a strange way, it all seems to have a little bit of something that reflects who I am.

A Sleepover with Lily

A couple years ago, I posted about two of Caleb's first friends. Since then, we've gained a new playmate - Lily Anne Becker. Lily's momma, Jen, was my college roommate and still is one of my very best friends. Lily's daddy, Matt, is also a wonderful friend from our days at Mary Wash together.

Lily was born back in August of 2011 but, since they now live near Virgina Tech, we didn't get to meet her until this past April right after Hadley's arrival. At that point, Lily and Caleb did pretty good together but Hadley was too small to interact much. We made several attempts to get photos of them all together. This, of course, was pretty much a flop since Caleb had no interest in holding his sister and all three babies were wiggly.

 

 

 

 

A week ago, the Becker's came to the Shenandoah Valley to vacation with some family. Matt had some work related activities on Monday in Front Royal, so they decided to stop by for a visit and stay the night. This time around Hadley was very interested and happy to have a little girlfriend around. Those two sweethearts just watched and smiled at each other just like they knew they were both little girls.

  

While Caleb was a bit protective of his toys, he was also happy Lily, Matt, and Jen came for visit. He ran around acting a bit silly with excitement. He kept calling Matt "Daddy" for most of the visit. We weren't sure if he thought that was Matt's name since he was Lily's daddy, if he said it by accident, or if he was just teasing as he sometimes likes to do - probably a mix. Needless to say he really liked Matt!

 

 

 

We are hoping we can head down to visit them soon and maybe even catch a Hokie football game. We miss the Beckers!

Virgina Farm Market

I remember making trips to the Virginia Farm Market when I was a kid to pick out our pumpkins with my parents and some of our close family friends - Todd, Heidi, and Sarah. I can't remember going to an actual pumpkin patch as a kid, but this was always what my mind pictured when I heard someone talk about one. They had pumpkins everywhere and all kinds of activities like pumpkin carving and a mini corn maze. One of my favorite aspects though was tasting the apples and cider samples!

Last year, I thought about taking Caleb there to get his pumpkin but we never made it. Instead, we tried a couple other new places. Recently though, I thought about it again and called my dad to ask where the place was located. My enthusiasm to do some type of pumpkin activity this fall started early, so we all decided to take a trip over the Saturday before last. Mom, Dave, the kids, and I met up with Dad, Courtney, and Courtney's boyfriend Brandon for an autumn outing.

 

We have pictures of my sister, Sarah, and I sticking our heads through these same holes and hanging out on the pumpkin queen bench.

 

 

 

This was Hadley's first real pumpkin experience and she was taking it all in.

Pop bought Hadley one of these cute pumpkins she was eying. 

Caleb got one too with Mickey painted on his. (This week 

Caleb decided his pumpkin was the one with the face though 

and the Mickey one was Hadley's.Good thing she's too little 

to know the difference.) :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Somebody loves Aunt Courtney!

 

 Pop took Hadley in the store to get away from the wind.

Caleb was much harder to snap pictures of this year because he was so busy moving from one thing to the next. He seemed to enjoy climbing through the wooden train as much as anything else. 

Not sure I trust that driver!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey! I think that kid in the green shirt is too big! He'll cheat!

Mom and Dave tried the maze with Caleb but kept 

 having to duck under the poles.

We grabbed some apples, a few late season tomatoes, a dozen apple cider donuts, and our pumpkins and called it a day!