thought ahead this year!

i always think i will grab a pictures of the kids in their costumes, before they head out trick-or-treating. nope. never happens. so then we are left trying to get pictures in the dark, after they are exhausted. not this year! thanks to my good friend shooting her kids, i grabbed some of mine too. i actually took these the night of the trunk-or-treat, but hey, it works. they looked just like this, i swear! and this year the costumes were perfect. some year the kids just settle because they can't figure out just what they want to be. but this year was SO them.

star wars

a cowgirl

mini mouse

exactly what they would all love to be when they grow up. if only they really could.

Apples

One Saturday morning while I was out taking pictures, Matt took the kids to an apple orchards. And they picked apples. We had SO MANY apples! They were the yummiest apples we've had in a LONG time, and they lasted quite a while. When we were about to loose the last of them, we peeled them up and made an apple pie from scratch. Best apple pie too. Mmmm. Wish there was more time in the season to go back up and get some more. I would love one of those pies for the Holidays!

It's kind of PG-13 rated

don't you think? I mean, here we are. Stabbing, cutting open and gutting out these poor little pumpkins... and then lighting a candle inside their hollowed out shells. And I will tell you, it took me 10 years, but I finally figured it out. I am always the one to carve the pumpkins with the kids. It's such a fight to get Matt to help. He want's to, which is the funny thing. But then he doesn't at the same time. You'd think we were taking family pictures... which reminds me. We are still needing to take ours. (Ugh!) Turns out, he really finds the insides disgusting. He can't stand cleaning them out. I mean, he really can't. I could never figure it out, until this year. When he actually admitted to this problem of his. So now I will do it for him, as usual, with much less frustration, and just a little (okay, really a lot) more teasing. :)

Love this time of year

For so many reasons. It's fall, and that is enough right there. But I love the holidays that are right around the corner. By this time, I also feel like we've started to get our grove in school and all the accompanying activities. We've got our flow. But I also love the fact that one of my best friends ever gets to come and stay at our house for a week. She bring her brood of 4 kids with her, and we just do nothing but hang out. Love it! And of course we go to Burts pumpkin patch with her. I do think it's a little unfair that her kids get an entire week off of school for fall harvest. Really? It's fall here too. Right?

Well, I actually didn't take many pictures of anything important while she was here. I had just gotten a new lens however, so I just shot tons of... whatever was around. So here are a few of my kids. I will say, not much turned out since I was just goofing around and trying out what the lens could do, but I got a few worth keeping in the files anyhow. And don't mind that they are mostly of Nutmeg. She is never cooperative with the camera, and she was hogging it the entire day. So what can you do, but just go with it!

We've got 3 One year olds

running around. Or should I say, swimming around. See last year at our church's trunk or treat party, one of the game prizes was goldfish. Hehmmm. Not funny! So when this year rolled around, do you think my kids forgot this? NO WAY! So we had to have a birthday party for the fish. It was a mighty lame one, as parties go, I will say. But the kids, and most importantly.. the fish... were happy. The kids made cards, we had a complete tank make-over, with new decor (Ase picked it all out), sang to them of course, and had desert. All in all, it was pretty dang cute how excited the kids got. Even if it was just for the fish. Lucky fish. :)

We did

another year at Burts pumpking patch. Of course! The kids love it, so we couldn't change things even if we wanted to. It's funny though, because after 5 years straight of going there, it starts to look smaller and smaller, although it's not changing a bit. It's our kids that are getting bigger! So although these are the same pictures as every year, and every other family this time of year... here we are. :)

we had a picnic before heading into the crowds of people. And yes, this is what every group pictures I try to take ends up like. Nice guys.

Usually we have the rule that you can pick a pumpkin costing as much as you are old. For some reason this year, dad totally forgot. He told them as long as they could pick it up. That didn't fare so well for us. Luckily Ase was nice. She still liked the little cute ones.

Here is Bugs. Can I tell you how happy he was to have to hold that multiple times because I couldn't get the camera on the right settings. Heehee. Maybe next time he'll get a smaller one.

And oh yes. Really? She can lift that?

The selected victims, soon to be gutted. :)

Last year I picked one of these out to carve. Can I just say they are as hard as a rock. We COULD NOT get the knife to even cut it. And just ask my fingers, we have sharp knives. So this year I opted for a picture instead.

ever felt like this?

that's where I've been lately! I've had way too much of this (next year, I will not be booking as many shoots this time of year... that's for sure!)



and not near enough of this.



But in the mean time, two of ours are officially 2 wheelers now. I will tell you however, I can't watch my daughter on the bike yet. I mean.. really. I don't know how she's staying up. Let's just say it's a very good thing we have another 10 years before she can drive although we will need something closer to 20 I fear! I feel bad, but I don't really have any pictures of her learning to ride because when I tried, I was too paranoid to actually capture anything in the camera. Instead I was busy trying not to show how absolutely sure I was it was all going to end up with extremely skinned knees and elbows. I finally had to go back inside and study my homework. Let dad do the dirty work while I tried desperately to think of anything BUT what I had just seen outside.





Well, I've missed my bedtime goal, but even this snippet was therapeutic. I needed something for me. For us. My family. My sanity. Here's to another day. Another chance to snuggle these cute things called kids, dance to the music with them, run in the leaves, and to give my husband a much needed hug (well, when he's in town again). Night.