Autumn Pictures

We had such a fun day together today! Bryce has been gone a ton lately, but today for most of the day he was home with us! The kids had a primary program practice this morning, and Caleb had a soccer game. After that we took a pretty drive in our own backyard to a little family-owned pumpkin patch. Now, in years past we usually go to this amazing farm where they grow tons and tons of pumpkins all around you and its just amazing - but we tried something different this year and it really didn't compare. However, the views were breathtaking! The leaves are the perfect shades of reds, oranges, yellows, with a hint of green still hanging on. We took a hayride and took pictures with the pumpkins (that were picked somewhere and placed by hand in the "pumpkin patch") and had fun holding and petting some farm animals. Then we found a gorgeous driveway with yellow trees overhanging all the way down. We played in leaves and found caterpillars and mooed at some cows. It was so fun! Then we went to a friend's garden and picked out way cooler pumpkins for free! We came home and ate yummy pumpkin pie and just enjoyed being lazy together before Bryce went in to school. The kids just keep saying, "what a good day it was today!" and I would have to agree!

Butter, Snakes, Cheese, Ants, and Ghost Cookies

Despite the current stress that Bryce (and I) have undertaken the last couple of weeks as, we have still managed to recognize some happy goodness that has come of late!

James and I have been having a good time exploring a 3-year-old world while the other kids are at school. Last week, James and I were talking about COWS and we talked about what products come from cows, and it came up that butter comes from cows. We watched a video of a guy making butter in a glass jar and decided to try it out ourselves! It was really fun!
It tasted really really fresh and creamy and, well, buttery. We sampled it on some bread. Annabelle even liked it!



I think we've seen one snake by our house in the last 5 years that we've lived here. Our friends that just moved in were complaining about finding like 3 in the first month that they moved in! I guess we were making too much fun of them, because last week we found this snake right by our front steps! Bryce grabbed it with some tongs and put it in a jar so the kids could all see it after school. It was pretty creepy!




James loves cheese! I got him some cheese for lunch. He couldn't get it into his mouth fast enough! I looked over to see him bending down at table level shoveling the shredded-goodness into his salivating mouth! It didn't occur to him that he might be doing something "unmannerly." Good thing we weren't having company!



Caleb found an ant farm at a yard sale. I think it was free. First clue. It sat in his room for weeks and finally the day arrived that Mom or Mad were able to help him put it together. As it turns out, Mom went shopping, so Dad got to be the helper! To collect ants, they used cheese-its and peanut butter as bait. Within minutes, ants were chowing away at the salty snack. I have no idea how they got the ants in the ant farm because they were working on that task as I was heading out. Actually, I'm not even sure that the ants IN the farm ever really took place because when I got home all i could see were about 7 ants crawling around the OUTSIDE of the ant farm. On my kitchen counter. Maybe they'll try again . . .





On Sunday, we attempted to make a ghostly treat. Here is what they were supposed to look like:


Here is what ours looked like:




Here is the fun we had making them:

U2 Concert!

Bryce took me to a U2 concert last night to celebrate my birthday. We bought tickets from someone on Craigslist the day before - they were WAY up in the nosebleeds, but we were just excited to go! Then, last minute, a friend of Bryce's asked if we were interested in switching him tickets. They had tickets right down on the floor and didn't want to stand the whole time. Well, it was a no-brainer for us! We were right down close and it was so cool to see the band so close! Bono is such a performer and the 360 degree stage was AmAzIng! I've never seen anything like it.

This video is taken from Bryce's camera phone, so its not the greatest, but it shows a little of the craziness we enjoyed!