September Recap

In a Nutshell...

We were busy the month of September! We began the month with a flurry of visitors to meet Baby Kendrick, followed by two days (and our first overnight away from home) in Humboldt to celebrate a couple birthdays for Reign and Kaleigh. We also made it down to Worthington a number of times, to cheer on our Turkey Trotters at the 10K race. We celebrated seven years of marriage together on the 23rd as well, but the best part of September was finally finishing up our downstairs renovation project. It was SUCH a relief to finally be finished having our downstairs torn apart and being able to "move in".

Lots of Visitors

We spent a lot of time introducing Kendrick to a lot of friends and family, as you can imagine :)

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Weekend in Humboldt (September 7-8)

We spent our first overnight away from home down in Humboldt celebrating two of my favorite 3 year olds: Reign and Kaleigh. The trip was a smashing success and we had a great time!

Reign's Party (September 7)

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Kaleigh's Party (September 7)

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Nursery Progress

It's complete!!

King Turkey Day (September 14)

We enjoyed cheering on our Turkey Trotters this year from the sidelines. Post-race, we joined family for lunch at Pizza Ranch, then some down time at Mark's Dad's home before joining friends for supper at the Breuker Farm.

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Seven Year Wedding Anniversary (September 22-23)

We celebrated our anniversary with dinner together at Ground Round while Mark's Dad and Pam watched the boys for a couple hours. It was a great celebration :)

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Looking Ahead

October is likely to be a complete shot in the dark, as we have no idea when harvest will begin, although we're anticipating that with such a late spring, we'll likely have a later harvest as well. Time will tell! We'll be hopefully doing some fun harvest activities, like the apple orchard and pumpkin patch, as well as celebrating my 33rd birthday at the end of the month. We were hopeful to be able to make it to Mark's cousin's wedding in Wisconsin, but harvest (and a time table that doesn't work with a toddler and newborn and sleep schedules) have dictated otherwise, unfortunately. Of course, the month ends with Halloween, which will be fun with 2 little ones as well.

That's about it for now!

Visitors for Baby Kendrick (August 31-September 30)

We had a flurry of visitors that first month for baby Kendrick. As we were in the hospital such a short time (just 24 hours), we had the majority of visitors in our own home. Granted, a lot of our co-workers met Kendrick when I took him in to work twice as well :)

In the Hospital

The first visitors beyond Mark and Cashel were Grandpa Kent, Grandma Pam, Great Grandma Vi, Aunt Jess and Uncle Tyler.

Later that evening (once Kendrick and myself got a good nap in), Grandma Diane came for a visit, followed shortly by our friends, the Breukers.

At Home

The first visitors at home were Grandma Ruth, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Jason and Cousin Kaleigh. They came for a few hours that day and brought with them lots of fun gifts for the boys as well as a fridge full of food (thank you, Amanda!)

The next day, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Johannes came for the afternoon and early evening as well as our friends the Grabers and later that evening the Larsens.

On The Road

We got to see some of our Ropte family in Humboldt the second weekend "home", and then Kendrick met more of the Johnson family at King Turkey Day in Worthington. We also got to introduce him to Uncle Roger and Aunt Cathy over supper in Mankato one evening, and had a few uninterrupted cuddles with Great Grandma Vi in Worthington as well.

Back At Home

Toward the end of September, we had a few more visitors, including Great Aunt Chris and Great Uncle Dave as well as the Stude family.

At Work

Of course, we had a slew of co-workers who couldn't wait to hold and meet Kendrick when I went in to work to do Kendrick's insurance paperwork :)

It's crazy how many people you get to see who you don't normally see when you have a baby. It has been so fun to introduce Kendrick to so many of our friends and family, and we're looking forward to the holidays to be able to introduce him to even more :) This has, remember, been only the month of September!

Farmstead (September 28)

At this time of year, Mark tends to be overly busy with the harvest underway. This particular year is not really any different, although the harvest is certainly spread out and later than usual. Last year we didn't get a chance to make it out to visit him at the farm since he was only out there during the week (all the weekends were dreary and rainy), but this year we made it out the last weekend in September, even if just to clean up the dead trees and branches.

Cashel ate it right up, and was fascinated by every square inch of the place. It gave me a small glimpse of what it must have been like for Mark as a young boy growing up here with SO much to explore. It was magical in Cashel's eyes, and he had the same dead stare most of the day that he had at the fair: That look where you can tell he's just taking it all in and trying to even just process all the wonder that he was seeing. Of course, to the average person, you might think the look is more like, "I'm tired and bored", but with the way this little guy just jabbers up a storm the second we leave a place like this, it's obvious that he's just enamored. It's adorable :)

We hope to have another afternoon before harvest is finished to get back out there, as Cashel was just so in love with it all. It's fun to see this new generation grow up with the farmstead still going strong, and to see Grandpa Kent and Mark expose Cashel to it as well. I know Mark has a passion for farming, and I can't help but see the wonder in Cashel's eyes as well. :)