Halloween!

We attended a carnival at Dan's parents church on Saturday night. I was a bit overwhelmed but I am not big on crowds! We got Evan dressed up and we played all kinds of games and had rootbeer floats.  On Halloween Dan and I had small group so Grandma and Grandpa Freudenburg came over to pass out candy with Evan to the neighborhood kiddos. Evan loved to hand out the candy and see all the costumes.  Earlier that day I helped out at preschool. They walked across the street to a few businesses to trick or treat, Evan really had no clue what was going on but I was proud at how good he got at saying "thank you"

Preschool

preschool

Lightening McQueen's Pit Crew Boss

Pumpkin Mocha

Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch

Dan and I took Evan to the Northwoods Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch on cold blistery day! we nearly froze to death but Evan had a super good time!

While our families were in town for the church dedication we also ventured out to the Sekapp Apple Orchard, and we realized how much Evan loves apples, maybe a little too much! I turned around to find he had eaten an entire apple, core and all.

Cousin Rachel

Cousins Ryan and Nathan

Church Dedication

We had the privilege of having our families here this weekend to help celebrate our church dedication.  Usually referred to a 'baby dedication' but Evan isn't exactly a baby.  We take this responsibility to raise him in a God - honoring home very seriously. We made vows to teach Evan about Jesus and God's love and mercy. To honor and respect each other in our relationship so that Evan will know what a God-honoring marriage looks like.
 
We were doubly blessed because we were able to do this as a small group.  Each of our four couples became parents within a 2 month period (March-May). So we wanted to make this vow together at the same time since we were in the unique situation to start our parenthood journey together!

Freudenburgs, Hicks, Pedersons, Andersons and Pastor Steer

Cousins: Ryan Rachel and Nathan

loving on the cupcakes afterwards

Evan's New adventure at preschool!

After much searching and interviewing Dan and I settled on Endless Journey Childcare for Evan's preschool experience. So far we really like it. He is in a small class (9-11 kids), mostly boys but I think he does have a few girlfriends. He attends 3 days a week and seems to really enjoying it more and more each day. His teachers say he loves music time! We also think he is a bit of a favorite of his teachers but we could be a bit biased!

While I don't have any photos of preschool I do have some photos of Evan with his grandma and grandpa Freudenburg on the days he gets to enjoy their company - and undivided attention!

baking cookies with Grandma

Evan loves story time with Grandma

Getting first class treatment at the campground with Grandpa

Even Mocha gets in on story time!

Weekend Away!

We spent the Labor Day weekend with our small group from church.  Our church has a beautiful retreat lodge out in a wooded area about 30 minutes from Rochester. We were thrilled get away and spend time with our group of four couples. We were blessed by Kelly who took some great photos to commemorate the family weekend trip.

Family Reunion

The reason why the whole family descended upon Monett on this particular weekend, the big Hemphill Family Reunion!  We got to catch up with family members we hadn't seen in years!

Smith Family

L-R: Smiths (Jonathan, Valarie, Hudson, Whitlee) Pop Pop & GG, Freudenburgs (Laurie, Dan, and Evan) Below: Meachums (Rachael, Chris, Charlotte, and Presley)

This is right before Evan stood behind Presley and got smacked pretty good

Everyone was exhausted by this point, Everyone needed a nap!!

Right before he got in trouble for playing in the water!

Evan stole Whitlee's Pretty Princess shoes, he cried when we finally took them off!

Evan thought if he sat on his toy car no one else could use it

Happy Birthday Hudson and Whitlee

After our long day at the safari zoo we enjoyed an evening celebrating Hudson and Whitlee's birthday at a Bounce Party!  For a kid that hated slides just a few days prior Evan decided he loved them and couldn't get enough!

Whitlee loving the bounce house

Birthday Pizza

Birthday Cupcakes!

I burned way too many calories helping Evan up each slide multiple times!