October has been a GREAT month!

This weekend has been fantastic! Tyler and I had two days off of work and we spent Thursday getting things done. That included some of our school work, house work, and earning our right to say "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!" Twenty-eight months ago, Tyler and I made a commitment to get rid of all of our debt based on the teachings and guidance of Dave Ramsey. I have to admit when Tyler first brought it up, I thought we would be joining a cult, but that was not the case.

It turns out that when you are purposeful with every dollar and live on less than you make, knocking out debt is pretty easy! Not to say that we didn't have rough bumps and things come up, but over all it has been a great experience. Tyler and I looked forward to each budget meeting as we watched our 100K of debt (cars, 2nd mortgage, student loans) dwindle.

Last Thursday night we decided to make it official. We sat the kids down with us in front of the computer with us and explained the momentous occasion. The kids have been subjected to many hours of listening to Dave Ramsey, so they knew that this was a big deal. Both Zander and Zoey know that borrowing money is bad. We all pressed the mouse button to pay off our student loans.

To celebrate we had Family Fun Day on Friday. This consisted of running errands, painting pumpkins, a family bowling trip, and dinner out! A fun day!

Zoey enjoyed a blue drink at the restaurant.

Today we went over to the annual Pumpkin Carving party at our friends' Randy's and Sharon's house. The kids had a blast jumping on the trampoline and eating, while the adults all carved the pumpkins. (That doesn't seem right to me. . .)

Zoey and Zoe!

In other news. . .here is a picture of one of Zoey's latest writings. I absolutely love watching the development of her writing and reading. You really get to know what your child is thinking when you watch her write. She did all this writing on her own. Here is the translation. The title is at the top: I Know a Fruit That Grows on Trees. The song starts at the bottom left and goes up. I know a fruit that grows on trees and apple is its name-o. A-P-P-L-E. A-P-P-L-E. A-P-P-L-E and apple is its name-o.

Zoey is very envious of our neighbor's Halloween decorations. They really do go all out--a graveyard, lights, pumpkins, webs, ghosts, and bats, etc. Zoey has been trying to duplicate those decorations in our yard. Below is a picture of the trash bag ghosts and the scarecrow that we made.

Another cute picture from the pumpkin patch.
This is an oldie--but worth mentioning. This is a picture of Zoey on the morning of school picture day. I am looking forward to seeing if the pig tails stayed in long enough for them to get the shot.

Some Artsy Shots from Uncle Eric

Thanks Eric for the pictures! You always manage to get some pretty cool shots!

Beautiful Day at the Pumpkin Patch

No trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard is complete with out a bag of mini-apple donuts! And that was the last thing we did today before coming home to our chores. These pictures are out of order, but I am too lazy to put them in order. They do, however, paint a good picture of how we spent our day. It was GORGEOUS! Almost too hot, but we won't complain!

We headed out to McDougall's Apple Orchard in Hastings, MN again this year. It is our 3rd consecutive year and they really do put on a good time for the family. Nana, Auntie Tammy, and Uncle Eric came with us--which the kids were super excited about!

Here are the 3 pumpkins we picked out for our family. They are such jokesters! Oh, the glasses? It was the prize that the kids picked out for successfully completing the corn maze.

Zander thoughtfully roaming through the pumpkin patch.

Tyler found himself a pumpkin!

Tammy took it personally that the kids kept sticking their tongues out when she tried to take a picture of them.

What a cute bunch!

One lap around the race course.

How tall this fall? Taller than last year! I am pretty sure that Zoey is at least a half a foot taller than this time last year.

A Little Detail

Zoey came home from school about a week ago very happy because her teacher gave her a compliment. Zoey said that each day the teacher picks about 5 people to give a compliment at the end of the day and they each get a pretzel. The compliment was that Zoey always puts so much detail into her drawings. Zoey didn't think that I knew what "detail" was--so she worked on the picture above during her quiet time that weekend. The picture shows everything that we can see outside our windows at our house. How is that for details?

Time flies. . .

. . . when you are really busy! I can't believe that it is already October! There has been so much going on. It is always interesting getting back into the routine of school. So far Zoey is LOVING kindergarten. She adores her teacher and comes home everyday with millions of stories to tell about what happened and who said what, etc.

From the brief conversations that I have had with her teacher, it seems that Zoey is doing quite well. Mrs. Kostuch told me that she is amazed at Zoey's ability to make connections to stories. The example she gave me was that in class they have read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (which is one of Zoey's favorites and she has heard it many times in the past few years.) Her teacher started to read the book That's Good. No That's Bad to the class and on the very first page there is a little boy floating away with a balloon. His parents are at the bottom of the page trying to get him back. Zoey raises her hand and says, "This story is just like Knuffle Bunny!" Mrs. Kostuch asks her to say more about that--not really sure what she was talking about. Zoey explained, "In Knuffle Bunny, Trixie really really wanted to find Knuffle Bunny when he was lost. In this book, the parents really really want to find their son!" Mrs. Kostuch said that she has never had a kid who made such interesting connections to stories. That's our girl!

In other news, Zoey started Karate class last week and also signed up for Girl Scouts--she is a Daisy. So watch out. . .we'll be selling cookies on your doorsteps before you know it!

Yesterday, our daycare was closed for the day. I stayed home with the kids, got Zoey on the bus and then was SO excited to spend the day with Zander--all by himself! Zoey has gotten to do so many new and exciting things, that I really felt like Zander needed some extra attention. So we took advantage of the beautiful day and went to Como Zoo. It was perfect! Not crowded at all. Zander is such a neat kid!

Here are some pictures from our September!

Zander in front of the polar bear window.

Raking leaves in our yard is an endless job. . .but the kids love jumping in them!

On Sunday, Sept. 26th, we participated in Light the Night with Tyler's friend JJ and his family. It was our second year doing the walk. This year it was at the new Target Field--which was amazing! I had never been there and as part of the walk, we were able to be right on the field.