Pumpkin Patchin'

One of the life groups from church was having a family night at the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago and our friend Carma invited us to tag along!  Olive was super pumped to get to go to the pumpkin patch with Emma and Evan!  As soon as we walked up, she spotted this giant pumpkin.  "This is a good one for me, Mom" 

 We headed out to visit the animals first and she was so happy to see the sheeeeeeep!

 Our little farmer checking out the baby cows!

 And the goats...I love how her face is sticking through the fence!

 The "silly piggies"

 and the horsie!

 

After saying hi to all of the animals, she spotted the giant slide and went climbing to the top of the haystack!  

 

It looked like so much fun even Daddy wanted in on the action!  

 Next we loaded up for a hayride.  Someone thought it was great fun to throw the hay in the air over and over and over...

 Evan and Olive checking out the crops.

 The whole crew!

 We headed into the corn maze and these girls were lightening fast!

 I love this pic where you can see Carma chasing them!

 After the maze FINALLY ended, they spotted the giant sand pile and they spent the next little bit completely covering themselves and each other with sand.  COVERING.

 It was time to head out to pick our pumpkin.  This was very a serious decision and took a lot of picking up, checking out and continuing to look!

 Olive and Emma wanted to help push the wagon of pumpkins to the cars.

 Then Emma joined in on the fun!

 PUSH!

 

 The cutest pumpkin in the patch jumped in the wagon and Daddy pulled her to the car. 

We had a great time with fun friends!  Thanks Rogers family for the invite!

All Aboard!

Over Fall Break, our sweet friends Audrey and Lil invited us to go on a train ride aboard the Amtrak Heartland Flyer!  They weren't able to make it to Olive's birthday, so this was how we got to celebrate!  The girls were SO excited when the train pulled up.  We could see it coming down the track and Olive kept yelling "Stop train! Stop here!  We want to get on!"

 The conductor came over to check our tickets.  I love how Olive is checking him out and Lil backed away. 

 All Aboard!  We were greeted by a friendly conductor who told us where our seats were. 

 Here we go!  They were so funny when it started moving because it goes FAST!  It was really wobbly which they thought was hysterical. 

 Sweet passengers!

 When he came by to punch their tickets, he even took a picture with the girls! 

 Tickets!

At one point on the ride, Audrey and I were chatting and looked across the aisle and the girls were just sitting and having their own little conversation.  It brought tears to my eyes!  I couldn't believe our sweet little girls who started at Miss Terri's when they were so tiny were old enough to sit in seats by themselves and carry on a conversation!! Where has the time gone?  After the 17 minute ride to Purcell we loaded up in Audrey's car and headed back for some play time at the park and lunch.  We had such a great time!  Thanks Audrey and Lil for the fun adventure! We are so thankful for sweet friends like you!

Olive Has BIG News!

Olive has big news to share...

 

We are so excited to welcome Baby Link #2 in April!  We shared the news with Olive the night before we told our families because we were afraid she wouldn't be able to keep the secret for long.  Her reaction was so priceless and I got in on video, but the video won't upload.  Let's just say there was a lot of squealing, jumping up and down and covering her mouth with her hands!

We told our families the next day and they were equally excited!  We took Olive with us to the 12 week ultrasound and I so wish someone could have been there to video it.  She was really apprehensive about going into the room and very concerned about what they were doing to Mommy.  But when she saw the baby on the screen, she got the most precious look on her face!  The baby was waving it's little arms around and she said "She's waving to me!" and started waving back.  It was one of the most incredible moments.  She was so excited.  She kept squeezing Stephen and just staring at the screen completely mesmerized.  
Olive has it in her mind that she is having a baby sister.  In fact, that is the only option she is willing to discuss.  We have tried to talk about baby brothers, but she cries and says "I want her to be a girl."  She has recently decided that if she did get a baby brother, she wants two babies, a girl and a boy.  Pretty sure that's not going to happen!  I told her that God may have chosen to give us a boy baby and that we would love it just the same as a girl baby.  Her reply, "nope, God went to the baby store and chose a girl baby for us."  About another month and we will be able to find out if she is right or not! 
As I type this, I am 15 weeks along.  I want to be better about documenting things about this pregnancy here, but I am not making any promises!  When I was pregnant with Olive, I was nauseated ALL the time but I didn't get sick much.  This time around I have been really sick.  I know this is a blessing and that I should be grateful because it means everything is okay but it is hard to have that attitude all the time when you feel crummy.  It is getting a little better and I think I can see the light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel, at least I hope I do!  Everyone had told me that with the second, you were so much more tired because you chased the first one around all day.  I have been tired, but our schedule is SO much better than when I had Olive that it hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected. We are beyond thrilled to bring another Link into the world and all of the adventures that will come with having 2!

A Day Out With Thomas

 Several weeks ago, we took Olive to the "Day Out With Thomas".  Both weekends that he was here were rainy and cold which was a bummer!  But it didn't stop our #1 Thomas fan! She was so excited to get to ride Thomas! 

Here she is with Rosie (her favorite engine!)

 

Looking for Thomas with Daddy.

 All Aboard!  She was so excited! Can you tell? 

 

Choo! Choo!  Proudly displaying her Jr. Engineer Certificate!  

They had fun activities set up for the kids to play with and this little lady spent her fair share of time at the fancy train tables. 

Despite the chilly weather we had a lot of fun on our "Day Out With Thomas"!

Disney Princesses On Ice

I have been a super blog slacker and have a lot of catching up to do!  Several weeks ago, we took Olive to see "Princesses on Ice".  She was so excited! 

 She got a special "Dolly Rapunzel" who she carried around for weeks and is totally in love with! 

 She didn't really know what to expect and it was so fun to watch how excited she was about seeing the characters on the ice!

 I am not sure what was so shocking, but this picture cracks me up!

 Our sweet Rapunzel with Rapunzel. 

We had such a great time!  Watching the joy on her face the whole show was such a gift.  I love being able to experience things through her eyes.  It truly is magical!  

Cleveland County Fair

Last weekend, The Cleveland County Fair was in town! I am not a fan of the fair.  In fact, I haven't been to the Oklahoma State Fair since I was in high school.  I hate it.  But I knew Olive would love seeing all of the animals and since the county fair is a little different, we decided to go!  Auntie Mica and Isaac came down and the girls headed to the fair and the boys hung out and watched football! 

 The first ride of the day was the carousel!

 Then we got to go on a hay ride!

 Olive wasn't interested in riding Cletus the camel, but she was very excited to pet him!

 Then she rode a pony!  I couldn't believe it!  I said "babe, do you want to ride the pony?" and she said "SURE!"  So she hopped right on and loved it!

 Then we went to see all of the animals.  These baby pigs were so adorable! 

 She even got to pet a little piglet who was only 2 weeks old.  She loved him!  I had to ask her to back up to stop her from kissing him!

 She kept saying "Hi baby cow!  Please say Moo!  Say Moo, please!"  He didn't moo. 

 Then it was funnel cake time! YUM!

 And the last adventure of the day was a ride on the "tilt-a-strawberries".  Auntie Mica and Mommy were a little queasy, but Olive thought it was so fun!

We had a great time at the County fair!  It is much more my speed...small, less people, way less carnies and little rides.  I think the county fair will be our go to from here on out!  Thanks Auntie Mica for the day of fun!