Lane Robert

Wow- what a cRaZy {great} DaY we had Wednesday!  It all started with my 39 week check-up yesterday afternoon at 1:30pm.  My blood pressure was elevated {the same way it was at my 39 week check-up with Kale} and my dr wanted to monitor me for a while.  After about an hour of being hooked up to a monitor at the dr office I was sent to the hospital for a couple more hours of monitoring because of my blood pressure and I had started having contractions.  At 7:30pm they told us my blood work came back fine, my blood pressure had gone down, and I hadn't progressed so I was free to go home.  We got discharged, gathered our things up and headed to the parking garage around 8:30pm.  We headed home, but didn't make it out of Springfield before turning around and heading back to the hospital because the contractions had gotten worse {terrible!} After getting readmitted and the longest elevator ride up to the 3rd floor we went right back into the room we had left.  The nurse told us we got into the room at 9:19 and at 9:38 Mr. Lane Robert Pollard was born!  It was fast- so fast I can brag I gave birth without an epidural- though I would never even try to give the impression that was by choice!!  He weighed 7 lbs 13 1/2 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long.  He has a head full of hair just like Kale, not quite as dark though.  We think he is perfect and are so blessed & excited to add a healthy son to our family!   Here are a few pictures from his first few hours in this world!

 



Fall Photos & Pumpkin Carving

A while back we got some of the baby things out of the attic, one of them was the bouncy chair.  Kale decided it was pretty cool and we found him {a number of times} hanging out in it.  It almost sunk all the way to the floor when he sat in it and I eventually had to put in up in the closet for now because he was getting a little crazy bouncing in it.

We found this scary mask in our Halloween decorations box and Jason decided to try and scare Kale.  It didn't really work though...Kale ran to him, making his own scary noise and then started kissing him.  We still have yet to actually scare him, yes we are such nice parents...we keep trying :)





 Some pictures of Kale with his pumpkins & gourds.

After our little photo shoot, we carved Kale's pumpkin.  He stuck his hand down inside at first, but then decided he would rather just watch so we let Jason do most of the work :)

drawing the face



helping clean the insides out



what's in there?!?!



all finished carving



Kale with the finished pumpkin



The whole family with our jack o'lantern

Rader Family Farms

We were super excited to find this family farm that has a pumpkin patch and tons of other fun things to do so close to home.  With the weather being so nice & Kale loving pumpkins I thought it would be a good time so after church we headed to Bloomington to check out Rader Family Farms.  Turns out tons of other people had the same idea and the place was packed!  We ate lunch with chickens & turkeys roaming around the yard with the picnic tables before  heading to check out the other barnyard animals.  

Jason & Kale at the entrance to the Farm

  Our next stop was to go on a hayrack ride in the pumpkin field, but the line was looong and there were tons of prepicked pumpkins at the store so we jumped out of line and headed to the cattle chute.  Kale loved running up the chute and jumping into the straw pile.  Jason actually caught him and then let him drop into the straw.

running up the chute

jumping to dad

landing in the straw



He thought he was pretty big stuff

 We skipped the giant dirt "mountain" with a huge pipe slide...it was a super long slide and we weren't sure if Kale would like it.  I was feeling bad until a little later we heard a kid screaming because he was halfway through the slide and scared.  I'm not sure how they got him out, but I don't think I could have went in after Kale if he freaked out in the middle!  So our next stop was the big tub of corn.  There were 2 huge tubs of corn filled with kids just playing.  Luckily we got in the "rowdy boys" tub where all the kids were getting a little crazy.  The other stock tank was filled with girls playing nice :)  Kale wouldn't have fit in {he is definitely getting better at holding his own- thanks Coop:) }

playing in the corn

Kale got to ride a bouncy horse during our playdate with Bennett a while back and now loves to bounce and see horses so he was excited to see the "horses" at the farm to ride.  They were set up in a circle around "steer heads" for older kids to try and rope so Jason tried roping while Kale rode the horse. 

loving the horse ride

I think Jason gave up on roping

Thank goodness there was a kiddie corn maze for us to try out.  The real maze was 5 acres!  Anyway, we wandered around the kiddie maze for a while, but we all were getting tired and knew there were caramel apples and kettle corn waiting for us so we didn't last long before turning around and going back out the entrance! 

running through the corn maze...in the beginning

We headed back to the store for our snacks and to pick out our pumpkins before heading home.  There was so much more to do and I think we could have spent all day there.  I think it will be even more fun when Kale gets bigger!  After so much fun it was naptime when we got home, but later we carved our pumpkin from Totten's and got our new pumpkins set out for decorations.  We are all ready for Halloween now!

One last picture with all the pumpkins and the pumpkin field in the background

Totten's Pumpkin Patch

Two weeks ago we headed back to Missouri for the Pollard's Annual trip to Totten's Pumpkin Patch. The weather was warm {not real fall like}, but still a beautiful day. We met up with Ed, Lola, Justin, Megan, Allison, & Rhett and had a great time. Kale loved the pumpkins and had a great time playing on them and even went through the little straw tunnel they had. The first time Jason took him, but he went through a second time just following some other kids- we were a little surprised he actually made it out the right end and was smiling! There was picture taking, deer feeding, and even some dancing with Frankenstein before picking out our pumpkins and headed back to Ed & Lola's house. After supper we spent a good part of the evening playing outside before heading home.

Kale - 15 1/2 months

Pollard Family - October 2010

Jason & Kale coming out the tunnel "slide" of the straw maze

surprise!

taking a break Kale loved climbing on the pumpkins and posed on this big one Allison giving the boys bunny ears...they {the boys} weren't super excited about pictures {imagine that}

Allison had been to the pumpkin patch on a field trip and showed Kale the singing & dancing Frankenstein

and he loved it!

the kids with their pumpkins

getting a ride back to the cars

Back at the house the boys getting a pep talk from "coach"...I don't know what sport they are playing with their frisbee rings or what he is teaching them!

Great weather days!

The last couple of weeks we have enjoyed the cool, dry weather. With a steady harvest we are lucky Jason still makes it home before dark most nights and only has to work until noon on Saturdays {so far anyway}. We finally put up some fall decorations around the house and one night we headed out to get some corn stalks. Kale played in the field while Jason cut the stalks down and I took some pictures :)

I found an ear :)

why can't I have the cob too?!?

fine, I'll just play with this

getting water for Daisy

this is what happens on the weekends with Jason dresses Kale :)

trying to keep up with daddy - going to take care of Daisy and burn some sticks

there must have been something across the street that was really cool

to Kale anyway

playing football {before the lawnmower got ahold of it}