Happy 9th Birthday, Teresa!

October 31 is always a busy day for our family, and a day to celebrate Teresa!

She chose a basketball cake this year.

She has been asking for a horse, so she received the next best thing--a horse for her American Girl doll!

 After school, it was time for trick or treating and a birthday supper at Grandpa & Grandma's house!  Teresa was a gumball machine and Nathan was a chicken.  Rachel decided to be a bumble bee for trick or treating later that night . . . Landen was an FFA fundraiser salesman. :)

Happy Birthday, Teresa!

Happy 84th Birthday, Grandma!

My beautiful and amazing Grandma Kallas turned 84 on October 27. My grandpa, who turned 90 in August, planned a party for her and did a great job of it!

We had lots of grandchildren and great-grandchildren in attendance.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

NW Junior High Football

Landen's 2016 football season came to a close tonight in Ipswich with winning 2 of their 3 games.

Another season of his favorite sport . . . next year his brother will join him on the same team.

We're all looking forward to that. . . and no one more than Landen! :)

Opening Weekend

We just celebrated our annual Opening Weekend for pheasant hunting!

It was a relaxing weekend with lots of beautiful birds (for the guys and a few girls), beautiful crafts (for the rest of the girls), too much delicious food (for all) and even the traditional bouncy house to celebrate all of our birthdays!

More photos to come as I collect them.

Corn harvest is still in progress, so it was back to work today!

Corn Harvest

It's corn harvest time!

Well, it has been for quite awhile, actually. All in all, it's been a good one. As always, I am thankful that my job at harvest time fits my time and talents well. I like being able to keep the harvesters fed, although it will be nice to have dinner in our house again sometime in the near future!

I found this inflatable ghost at the Eureka Thift Store, and Rachel loves it. Our little fall display hasn't blown over too much with our typical windy fall days. I love my new Wildcat sign made by my friend Tamara. It's been a good fall for our teams--our Cross Country Girls team won the Region and the Boys came in as Runners Up yesterday. Way to go, Wildcats!

Back to harvest, Rachel even gets to drive the tractor once in awhile. :)

Happy Harvest!

NW Middle School Music Festival

Landen represented Northwestern at the Middle School Music Festival again this year. This year, there were tubas from other schools as well, so he made some new musical friends throughout the day of rehearsal and concert in the evening.

 Papa Butter and Grandma Shirley were able to attend the joint Choral and Band Concert, too!

All of the musicians did a spectacular job, ending with both the chorus and band together for "God Bless America," which is a tradition for the festival.

Happy Birthday to David!

Today David turns 39! One more year in the 30's.

Craziness.

We realized just how old we are getting at a wedding last weekend. We were watching these "kids" dance and, well, even the bride and groom were "kids," when I realized that David and I had been married for three years and had two kids at that point.

Craziness.

And here we are, (well, he is, anyway!) at the end of our 30's with a teenager and our baby getting close to Kindergarten.

Craziness.

Wonderful craziness.

David celebrated his birthday with the traditional Melius Birthday Coffee with the area aunts, uncles and neighbors who were able to attend. You might recognize some of these faces. :)

Gypsy Day

The day after Homecoming was the Gypsy Day Parade and marching band competition.

Our band received their first Gold Rating in several years!

Homecoming 2016

Last week was Homecoming Week! With harvest happening, I was thankful that my kids handled their own costumes for each day.

Here is Nathan on Wacky Wednesday . . .

Friday was the day of the big parade, of course, and the kids were all excited for it. The band looked and sounded great playing "Centuries" this year. I thought Landen may have been promoted to the "W" sousaphone this year, but he said that's just because they had four tubas this year. Last year they just had enough for NHS. :)

The theme was Superheroes! Can you spot the Melius kids in these photos??

The band was back again for Pep Band for the Homecoming game. It was a beautiful night for Homecoming and brought a huge win for the Wildcats. It was the first win for our high school football team in 27 games. Wohoo! It was all the better winning for Homecoming.