Fall Festivities!!

So far October has been such a fun month! We kicked it off with a fabulous Conference Weekend spent with good food, great talks, and the best company in the world! LOVE my family!! :)

We've been taking lots of walks lately. I love the cooler weather! And we've attempted to document the pretty colors we've been enjoying. Unfortunately we just haven't splurged for a nice camera yet, so these pictures don't do any of those leaves justice.

This is my favorite mountain anywhere. I love seeing it's snow dusted peaks. I can't describe the nostalgia I feel in words. My family lives right there in those colorful foothills. I have memories of high school, dates, family reunions, girls camps, and all sorts of things in those mountains. And now I'm getting to create more wonderful memories there with my little family. Love it!!

Here are my happy boys on one of our recent walks. Poor Payson is always in school and rarely gets to join us. :(

Some of the pretty fall colors down the street from our home.

We've also enjoyed the indoors this month! Cuddling up in mom's bed every morning or snuggling on the couch for family movie nights. So far we've watched Nightmare Before Christmas, Scared Shrekless, and Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outerspace! Up next, my personal favorite, Hocus Pocus!!

We've baked yummy treats! (I may have eaten 3 on Monday night after Family Home Evening. Oops!)

We've shopped for warmer clothes!! Including cute matching church clothes for my boys. I love having twinners now. :)

We carved pumpkins the other night for Family Home Evening! We always let the kiddos choose what they want to carve and then Jason and I end up doing all the work. :) But that's okay! We have fun!

Payson chose Rapunzel from Tangled and Jack chose Phinaes from Phinaes and Ferb (which he is obsessed with lately!)

Here they are all lit up!!

Lucas was there too. I promise. He just chilled in his bouncer and stared at us while we carved. :)

Here are Jason and I, posing with our works of art. Please pardon all the cleavage. I'm already a busty lady, but add nursing to the mix and there are always runaway boobies!! Very scary! Completely appropriate for Halloween, no?

And just for fun, that dining room doesn't look the same at all anymore!! We've had that crappy little less-than-$100-Walmart dining set for way too long! The cheap upholstered seats were stained and disgusting and the table was falling apart. Jason frequently had to drill new holes in the bottom of the table to keep the top on! Sad. And super embarrassing when we had company. And SMALL! This family of 5 was starting to feel cramped! So we got a lovely new set that was delivered this morning.

Ahh! Much better! Plenty of room to sit four, even 6 comfortably. And a leaf to add two more. And prettier, don't you think?

And last, we headed to Hee Haw Farms for some family fun! The kids have been dying to go for a while. We even had plans to go with friends one evening and we ended up not being able to make it. They've been begging to go ever since. So we finally made the trip last night.

First we made friends with a cute floppy eared bunny.

Then we posed with some ginormous pumpkins. The older two were definitely in the mood to ham it up for the camera yesterday.

Jack made friends with a chicken. Rooster? I don't know. Either way, they had some pretty intense conversations. :)

The admission cost of Hee Haws is totally worth their petting zoo alone. They just let you go right in with the animals and hang out for as long as you want. There were goats, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens and roosters, ducks, and bunnies. There were horses too, but they were in a much muckier coral. Lots of poop. We decided not to venture there.

This little goat was SUPER friendly! First, he escaped when we were entering the pen. Jason had to chase him down. He was finally cornered in a corn box (like a sand box, but with corn). He followed us around the pen while we pet the animals. He even jumped up on Payson at one point! Harmless as could be, but it startled Payson and she screamed and then laughed. :)

This chicken/rooster/hen/bird dude would follow us around as well. But wouldn't let us catch him! I tried but I was too chicken (get it?) of getting pecked. Ha ha! Jason made fun of me, but then he couldn't grab it either.

Jack had a good stare down with this big, old ram.

Then Jack crashed Payson's photo to continue his stare down.

They had grain sack slides. I know I cut the kids off at the bottom, but their faces coming down cracked me up!

Lucas was great for the first little bit. Then he got fussy and cold. So I fed him and he went right to sleep. He enjoyed the rest of the afternoon/evening tucked cosily into his stroller. :)

There were too many of these for the kids to pose in. I have so many pictures of them making ridiculous faces behind some big painted board.

We found the giant pigs later. They were pretty big! There were too large mamas who were very friendly...and noisy!

And back behind them were the sweetest little piglets! They were sleeping in a pile, trying to stay warm. It was the cutest!!

We also checked out the tractors.

And took a ride on Lacy the pony.

We finished up the night buying some Indian corn and tiny gourds to bring home. The kids are so proud of their little bitty pumpkins in their rooms. Or as Jack calls them, "punkins". :)

Fall has been fun so far for us! We can't wait to finish it up with Halloween parties, costume parades, chili cook offs, and of course, trick-or-treating! I'm sure there will be plenty more photos to come! I love this time of year!!!!