Happy Halloween!

Saturday night we took a walk through Aunt Kari & Uncle Joe's "Forest of Lost Souls" haunted house (garage). Sutton was totally freaked out, so him & I only made it halfway through, but Sawyer managed to brave the entire thing (holding tightly to Daddy's legs with his eyes mostly closed!). Kari & Joe did an incredible job with the set up, as always, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for next year!


Sunday daytime was all about pumpkin carving and watching football


This year the boys carved their own pumpkin faces with very minimal help from Mitch and I. They did a great job and had so much fun doing it!

Baby's First Halloween! Check out his adorable bib - we were the lucky winners of a giveaway over at 2 Little Hooligans - thanks again, Christina! If you're super jealous of us, check out her Etsy store where you can pick up a non-holiday one of your own! :)

Time to get ready to trick or treat! No, I'm not dressing up as a ghost, I'm just naturally that pale! ;)

Simon in his Mommy-knit football costume! I wish I had been able to get a better picture of it, but he seemed to like kicking his legs around "froggy-style" in it so the shape looks a little funky...oh well! He was so warm and snuggly while we walked around the neighborhood collecting treats for the big boys.

Sutton, Jaden, Josh & Sawyer out gathering goodies. I can't even tell you how happy I was that the big boys wanted to wear costumes straight out of their dress-up bins. Nothing like a stress-free Halloween where I didn't have to buy a single thing to make them happy! Sutton wore the puppy costume that Sawyer had worn last year, and Sawyer wore an Iron Man costume passed down from his older cousins.

♥

Back home and ready to relax...look at how tall and skinny this little guy is! I wonder who he gets that from ;)

The look I got when I popped the pacifier out of his mouth to try to take a quick Soothie-free photo LOL. This munchkin was completely exhausted from all the fun!

These two guys didn't trick-or-treat for very long (despite Daddy's attempts to encourage them to keep going), but they still managed to come home with a TON of candy. When we got home they were thrilled beyond belief to answer the door and hand out candy to the other kids who were still coming around.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

This year we had planned on making our annual visit to the pumpkin farm this past Sunday, but the weather had other plans. Earlier in the week I noticed dreaded rainclouds posted to Sunday's forecast, and I was worried that the boys would be horribly disappointed if we had to cancel our outing. Luckily Gigi was more than willing to keep an eye on Simon so that I could take the big boys there on Wednesday. I was a little bummed that Mitch was working and couldn't go with us this year, but the boys seemed to really enjoy our "Mommy-Big-Boy Day" together. ♥


I let the boys take the lead, and they chose (naturally!) to ride the train as soon as we got there


Next, we visited the hay bounce trampoline

We made some new friends in the petting zoo. Sawyer found this teeny baby goat hiding under the feeding trough. He fed the goats and eventually even let one of them eat right out of his hand!

Sutton was a little leery of the goats at first, but he soon warmed up. "I just only want to pet the little baby ones."

We hitched a ride on the pretend wooden train

and posed for some silly pictures

Then it was time to load up into the tractor and take a hay ride out into the pumpkin field

We came home with three big pumpkins, two kid-sized pumpkins, three ears of brightly colored Indian corn, and two baby pumpkins for their baby brother.

We had a fun day at the farm, just the big boys and me!

Kari's Baby Shower

Last Sunday was my sister Kari's baby shower. She's due in late January, and she'll be adding yet another BOY to the family! I have three sisters (no brothers) and a ton of cousins (our family is huge!) where the number of girls outweighs the boys, yet once we all started having kids of our own the boys are now outnumbering the girls 5 to 1! I'm so excited to meet my new nephew...and I can't wait until they decide what to name him!


Cousins Kelley and Lesley and sisters Krista, Kari, Jessica and me :)

Apple Hill

Last weekend we took the boys up to Apple Hill and visited three of the apple farms - Abel's Acres, Boa Vista, and High Hill Ranch. It was SO crowded, which is expected on weekends this time of year, but it was even more crowded than I can ever remember. We still had a lot of fun despite the long lines and traffic, but we've decided that next year's trip will most definitely be on a weekday!



This was the first year that the boys were interested in the hay maze at Abel's, and they loved it so much that they went through it about four times!

Simon (worn in his carrier) and I went through the maze once with the big boys - it's harder than it looks, even being able to see over the hay bales!

We got lots and lots of pears and apples (caramel apples too!) to take home

Our last stop of the day was the orchard at High Hill where we picked our own apples

Brotherly Love

♥





Simon & Sutton baking breakfast cookies together

Weeks 3-4

(hey, at least all FIVE of us are in the shot, right?)


Simon meeting Papa Ron

The big boys and I made tie dyed shirts for all of us, and naturally they insisted we all wear them on the same day ;)

Week 2

It's been a busy week for the Tooth Fairy around here! Both of Sawyer's front teeth had been loose for quite awhile, but an accidental tangle with the neighbor's trampoline enclosure net resulted in him losing his first tooth. The second tooth was much more wiggly after the trampoline incident, and a few days later a wrestling match with Daddy ended with his second tooth coming out too. I think he looks adorable ♥


Sutton and I made homemade lemonade this week with the lemons that Grandma and Grandpa brought us. He was quite serious about doing his job well - he asked me to inspect every lemon after it had been squeezed, "Did I get all the juice out of this one, Mom?" He's such a great helper in the kitchen ♥


We harvested the pumpkins from our garden. They're all nicely shaped, and we thought it was perfect that we ended up with three of them. "Three like we have three boys" Sutton said.

And what did sweet little Simon do all week long? Why, the two things he does best:


Intently observing his new world...

...and sleeping (preferrably snuggled up with Mommy or Daddy) ♥