Happy Halloween!

We took Caleb out trick-or-treating tonight for the first time ever! He was dressed as a little monkey and was the cutest kid in town! Minutes before leaving the house Mom & Dad decided to throw some costumes on as well. Here's the Bartlett Family - aka Albert Pujols, little Monkey, and Kitty Kat!

 

We turn our heads for one second and the little monkey was in the tree!

 

We ran into Caleb's best friend from daycare, Liam (aka- Mr. Elephant).

 

 

When we got home, we lit Caleb's pumpkin and had some candy!

 

Happy Halloween everyone!!!!

Day at the Farm

Today we went with Grandma Mary to our new property to hang out, ride the 4-wheeler, and have some lunch. It was a bit windy and a little cold, but we stayed & had fun for a couple hours.

Caleb turned the bed of the truck into his personal playpen!

 

 

Mommy did all of the gutting, Dad just jumped in to make it look like he helped!!!

 

Caleb managed to get loose from the truck and ran all over the place!

 

Of course Dad did a little Timber Stand Improvement while we were there too. What a man!

 

All in all, it was a nice Sunday. Thanks for coming to visit Grandma, we had a lot of fun!

13 Months

Caleb turned 13 months old today! He's getting so big too. His newest feats include walking & running like crazy, sleeping through the night every night, eating lots of big boy foods (baked potatoes are his favorite), and he now has 7 or 8 teeth in his mouth. Here's some pics of the big boy.

 

Caleb LOVES to be put on your shoulders. He just goes crazy.

 

When it gets chilly outside, he likes to wear his monster hat too.

 

The Dirty 30

For quite awhile we've been looking at properties and houses with the expectation that we'd have the option to move out of the park in 2015. We've gone to open houses, toured sections of land with our realtor, and looked a LOT at online real estate websites in Boone County. This summer we took a tour of a piece of land just northwest of Boone. It was 30.56 acres in size, 5 of which were planted in corn and the remaining balance is forest. There were spectacular views of the Des Moines River valley and the Kate Shelley High Bridge.

Well, just last Friday we finally closed the deal on this gorgeous piece of property! We've affectionately called it the "Dirty 30" since it encompasses 30 acres and we were both 30 years old when we bought it! Here's some pics of the place.

This first one is from the initial walk-through of the land. Caleb enjoyed the hike and scenery as well!


This is the view of the famous Kate Shelley High Bridge from one of the ridgetops.


Here are some other great scenery shots from some of the other ridges.





There's also plenty of wildlife as evidenced by Andy's trailcam pics he's collected over the last few days....



Now for the next few years, before we build our house I'm sure they'll be plenty of fun campouts, hunting trips, and hikes through our new playground!

Dozer vs. Bandit

Dozer got into it Saturday night around 8:00pm with a nasty raccoon near our driveway. The incident happened just before Andy came home from work for the night. Grandma Jean was here this weekend with Rudy and the story starts with Rudy & Dozer noticing the coon out the front window in the driveway. They then burst out the side door into the garage (the side door doesn't latch). Of course the garage door was open and the chase was on!

Rudy, being more swift of foot than Dozer, caught the bandit first and cornered him. Then the Bulldozer entered the fight and pinned the coon to the ground. Rudy was like lightning, darting in and out of the fight, taking calculated strikes at the intruder. Dozer, doing much of the "grunt" work, was subject to the raking claw & fang of the beast as he pinned it to the ground with his massive jaws. Just as soon as the fight broke out, it ended. Trish came to the aid of the dogs, running the raccoon off into the timber and up a tree. However, the damage had already been done.

Poor Dozer had scratches across the top of his head, puncture wounds inside his ear and jowels, and a gash on his front shoulder. Trish took great care of him by quickly cleaning his wounds and applying a salve. Here's some pics of the scratches (trust me, they look much worse in person).

 

And here's the gash on his shoulder.

 

Tonight, to send a message, Caleb decided to wear his raccoon PJ's. He repeatedly walked past the front window, pointing towards the driveway, daring any and all raccoons to come back and try their luck with him!

 

Luckily, for the raccoons, they did not show up tonight.

 

Caleb's 1st Birthday

Well, even though it was over 2 weeks ago that Caleb celebrated his 1st birthday, I promised I'd get some pictures on the blog of the party. There were lots of family and friends here to help him celebrate and we had a GREAT time!!! It was a Hawkeye themed party and the first picture shows Caleb in his Hawkeye birthday outfit, custom made by Grandma Mary!

 

Birthday kisses from Grandmas.

 

Excited to open presents with Mom and Dad.

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, these are all my toys!"

 

He sure wasn't shy about digging into his birthday cake!

 

 

Here's the big cake that everybody else got to eat. Go Hawks!

 

Andy & Peyton enjoying the party!

 

Joel Carson having a great time!

 

It was a great party. The Hawks won and we had a great time with all our family and friends that attended! Thanks to everyone who helped set up, brought food & gifts, or just came to help Caleb celebrate. It was an awesome party that we'll never forget!