Jack's visit to the pumpkin patch!

Today, we headed out to Sam Mazza's farm to get a pumpkin!  I wanted to go last weekend, but Saturday was really cold and rainy, so we had to wait.  But it ended up being a beautiful day, so that was great!  Today was really warm, and tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny as well.

I had really wanted to take some pictures of Jack with the pumpkins, but he fell asleep on the hay ride out to the patch.  So there were very few pictures taken.  His wake time window is so short that its hard to get somewhere with him still awake to take cute pictures!  But my mom and I plan on trying again next week while we're in Brookhaven.

Here we are in the pumpkin patch.  Not the best picture, but I wanted one to remember the day.

These are our friends Lea and Doug.  They actually went to Belhaven College.  Lea is from Vermont, so they moved back up here so Doug could get his masters in English from UVM.  They went for a BIG pumpkin!

Sam Mazza's is great.  They have a corn maze which we (sadly) didn't do.  They also have a fun little country store-esque shop with pastries and tons of fresh vegetables!  We got a butternut squash and a pie pumpkin to cook with this week.

Going to the pumpkin patch and picking apples were both on my list of must do fall activities, so I'm glad to have done both!  I really wanted to do a corn maze, but that may just have to wait.  Anymore suggestions?

Prayers for my Jack

I got into a conversation with a Classics friend the other night.  He is currently applying to graduate school and wants more than anything to be at an Ivy league school.  He made it clear through the conversation that he thought that everyone wanted to go to an Ivy League school.  As I (along with the others there) tried to explain that not every one wants that, I mentioned that I wouldn't really encourage Jack to aim for Harvard (because of the stress and the costs).  He couldn't believe this--why wouldn't I want my child to go to Harvard!?!

But my statement really made me think about what I do want for Jack, what I will encourage him to do and be, what my prayers are for this little baby I get the joy and honor of raising.  And academic honors and cultural accolades are not at the top of my list.

First and foremost, I pray that Jack to love Jesus.  If Jack works at McDonalds when he is 50, I honestly don't care as long as he loves Jesus.

I pray that Jack will be kind.  I want him to have a tender heart.  I want his heart to break for what Jesus' heart breaks for.

I pray that Jack will notice and love the outcasts.  I want him to immediately gravitate toward those in the room that look lost or scared or left out.

I pray that he will be respectful toward women.  I want him to be a gentleman, to always open doors, pull out chairs, walk dates to the door.

I pray that he will love family.  I absolutely love any time I get to spend with my family.  I know he will go through a stage in his teens where he would rather live in his room than spend time with us, but I want him to quickly grow out of that stage!

I pray that he will be loyal.  I want him to cling to family and friends, to believe them, and to stand by them.

I pray that he will be honest.  I want him to tell the truth, no matter the consequences.

I pray that he will be a leader, or at least march to the beat of his own drums.  I want him to go against the crowd, even if that means being uncool.

And, speaking of that, I don't really want him to be cool.  I hope his peers like and respect him, but I don't want him to be cool.  It is too hard to be kind and sweet when he is cool.

I pray that Jack will be wise.  I hope that he is smart, but that is a wordly hope.  I want Jack to have wisdom, the kind of wisdom that comes through prayer, through time reading the Bible, through listening to his elders.

I pray that he will be assured of his identity, as our child and as God's child.  There are few things more attractive and beautiful than a person who is so completely assured of their worth--not an over estimation, but just a person who knows that he is loved far more than he could ever imagine.

I pray that he will love creation, in whatever way that love manifests itself.  Perhaps he will make pottery like his dad or fall in love with God in the form of Aslan like his mom.  Perhaps he will take a completely different path and amaze us all.

I love this little baby so much, and, while I am not excited to think about him not being a tiny baby anymore, I also can't wait to see who he grows up to be!  And I pray that both Bech and I can love him and teach him, even when we are tired or he has disobeyed for the millionth time.  I am so thankful that I have my Jack!

To end, I love what Paul writes to the Phillipians:

"And this is my prayer for you:  that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God."

Sunday night randoms...

Well it has been another crazy week around here!  This is going to be an insane semester.  So in no particular order, here are some thoughts/happenings...

1.  This week we successfully dropped the swaddle!  I was pretty apprehensive about this.  Some babies sleep swaddled until 8 or 9 months, but most drop it around 3 or 4 months.  I had two reasons for wanting to drop the swaddle.  

(1) Last week Jack woke up twice in one night simply because he had broken out of the swaddle.  We wrapped him back up and he went straight back to bed, but it was a sign that he might be better without the swaddle.  

(2)  We are kind of a slave to the swaddle.  He is so strong, so nobody but Bech (and kind of me, although Bech is better) can swaddle him tightly enough.  Even at daycare, they can't do it tightly enough.  And 

Bech's mom is going to be spending a week with us in late October, and will be watching Jack during the day.  She has never swaddled, and I really wanted Jack to not be dependent on it by the time she got here.

We tried two days with one arm unswaddled, and Jack did amazing!  So we completely stopped wrapping him and he has slept so well. 

2.  Fall is officially here!  It is cold!  This weekend it was high 40's/low 50's.  It's beautiful, but I know that Winter is right around the corner!

3.  My little chunk went in for an appointment and he weights...16 lbs 14.5 oz!!!  OhMyLanta!  He is so huge!  He is in the 95th% for weight and the 90th% for height (25.5 inches).  But he is a really cute little chunk, so it's okay.

4.  I think I know where all of his weight is coming from--I am 1 or 2 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight...yay!  But I feel like my whole body has rearranged itself...ugh.

5.  I am going home to Mississippi in a week and a half.  I am flying home to see Ansley be the mascot at Brookhaven High's homecoming.  Then I am going to the Ole Miss/Alabama game that Saturday.  I am so excited to get to go to Oxford!  The last time I was there was my 24th birthday.

6.  We went to our first meeting today for the Burlington PCA church plant.  We are really excited!

7.  I would really like to have some free time to read a book for fun.  I am kind of reading a book about Narnia for fun as well as Keller's "Kings Cross," but it is slow goings.  What I really need to be doing is reading Homer to get ready for my comps!

Well I think that's all I got!  I am tired, but life is good.

Apple Picking!

Sunday was a beautiful and warm fall day here in Vermont.  So after church and lunch, we packed up in the car and headed to Shelburne Orchards to pick apples.

We went to Shelburne Orchards last year when my parents and sister came.  It is a great orchard, that also has fresh apple cider, cider doughnuts, and homemade apple pie, straight from a wood burning oven!  This year, we just got apples and cider doughnuts.

After we hit up the orchard, we headed back into Shelburne, a small town just south of Burlington.  It looks so cute, and I have always wanted to walk around and explore.  They had some really cute shops, including the cutest toy store ever and a country store (I am a sucker for country stores!  And this one had homemade fudge for sale--which of course we bought!).

I am trying to get better about actually being in pictures with Jack.  I know I will want them later on, even if I don't enjoy taking the pictures now!  So since my hair was already straightened from church, I thought Sunday would be a good day for some pictures.  Here we are next to some honeycrisp trees.

 Bech had so much fun getting Jack to hold the apple.  I don't think Jack had much fun, though.  (And thanks, Sarah, for the cute smocked outfit!  We got it this week!  You'll be getting an actual thank you note, too!)

The view in the orchards.  The leaves are just beginning to change.  And the mountains in the distance are the Adirondacks in New York.

A family picture

Possible Christmas card?  Except Jack is not smiling :(

We had a wonderful day!  We plan on picking apples at least one more day this fall.  And I also want to head out to Danville, VT, for one of the world's largest corn mazes. 

I've got to enjoy all of the fall I can before winter comes!!!

Jack laughing...

If you're friends with me on facebook, you may have already seen this.  

But if not...enjoy!