harvest 2012

harvest 2012 has come & gone. we finished up yesterday. i say "we" because it was a family effort this year. i don't remember the girls expressing as much interest last year or the year before. but this year, they were all about it. and that made for one very happy daddy. jarrett was absolutely thrilled that they were so interested & wanting to help. even rachel, our resident scaredy-cat & girly-girl was very gun-ho about riding in the combine.

when were pregnant with olivia, jarrett wanted a boy. he thought he needed a son to be able to pass on his love of farming & trucking to. i do need to state for the record, he has since changed his mind. probably like 1 minute after olivia was born his mind changed. i know he had visions of totten & sons farming/trucking operation. but, you know what, he was meant to be a daddy to girls. he's great at it. he picks out pink dresses & hair bows in the morning like no other man i know. i think the pictures below proved that he can pass on his love of farming to girls just as easily as he could boys.

 i may have took pictures paparazzi style yesterday. so bear with me, you are about to see my very favorites.

here are my farmers, my 3 very favorite people on the entire planet.

olivia was super excited to finally be able to drive something.



hands up - like it's a carnival ride



waiting when it's your sister's turn is hard to do.



checkin out the corn that she did as it was dumped into the trailer





rachel had a minor melt-down when some COCK-LA-BERRIES stuck to her pants.



leaves. they are a fallin

my least favorite part of fall has begun...falling leaves.

most of the time, it's a gradual process --> enjoy the pretty colors. a leaf falling here & there. eventually they all come down & we are settled into the stark naked trees & impending winter doom & dispair. woe is me & all that jazz.

but seriously this year, every tree in our yard lost all of their leaves on the same friggin day. {please note the extra green grass. the lawn bounced back after the drought this summer & this is the greenest it has been in months.}

jarrett is the official leaf raker in our household.

and the girls are the official leaf pile jumpers/destroyers/players. 

mama is the official photographer of said activities.

playing in leaves is excellent cardio. and exhausting, as you can see.

she might have taken a nap out there if it hadn't been 45 degrees & the wind gusting at 25 mph.

 this big boy is not to be outdone by the girls in this house. for my sweet sweet jersey-boy loves a good leaf pile jump too. i didn't get pictures of the actual leaps, but let me tell you, it was quite a sight to behold.

good fall family fun

we made our trip to the local pumpkin patch sunday. the weather was gorgeous! it was the nicest day we have had in a while.

the girls had a ton of fun. we came home with several pumpkins. and we didn't get lost in the corn maze. it wasn't in the best shape this year. i think the recent weather has done the corn maze in. all the tops were broken off so you could see right through the whole maze.

enjoy some pictures from our trip to the ol' wagon wheel pumpkin farm.

pumpkin decor is set up outside. and i snuck a little time with daddy before he went to work.

no joke, this harvest is dragging on & on & on. we couldn't buy a drop of rain in the summer. now it can't go more than a 4 day stretch without some rain. but i'm not complaining. bring on the rain. we need it to get everything back to what it is supposed to be.

this is a big week for the totten family. rachel turns 5 on friday. jarrett & i celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on friday. by some stroke of luck, i got friday off of work to spend with my girl. i assume jar will be working. rachel's birthday party is sunday. it will be a stone cold blast. i'm super pumped. it's a halloween party, i will be in costume - as what, i don't know yet. i'm still trying to talk jarrett into a couple of different options.

let's see...what else is going on in totten-land?

olivia is still doing wonderful in school. she was elected into student council and is beyond thrilled. jarrett has the yuck that rachel & i both had a couple of weeks ago. the bears won & the cardinals lost --> i see this as a win win. haha!

November Thankfulness - #1

During the month of November, I am going to blog every day about what I am thankful for. This is going to be beneficial for me. It is going to serve as a much needed reminder of how truly blessed I am. I've got a lot of great things going. It's just easier sometimes to focus on what is not going exactly the way I have planned.

On this day, November 1st, I am thankful for the happiness this harvest has brought to my husband. This has carried over from him to me to our girls. This has been a very nice snowball effect of happiness. He even let me run the combine. I was just a little nervous, but I did a ok job.

Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the local pumpkin patch today. As luck would have it, Jarrett was just switching fields & was able to go with us. The girls had a blast. We left with $13 worth of pumpkins. It was a beautiful day!


Olivia - feeling much better today!



Daddy & Livie on the seesaw

It looks like Olivia was having fun, but she was scared. Ha



My girl in the tube.



climbing on the straw bales



My 2 beautiful girls!



my love & I. 
{the new hair color is growing on me - makes my eyes look super blue}





corn angels