I LOVE October

I love fall and the fun October activities we been doing so far this month.


Samuel went on his first official deer hunt with Chuck, Grandpa Paul and cousin Austin. The boys had such a fun time even though they didn't get a deer. They hiked, rode around in the jeep, shot the guns and spent the whole day wondering around the hills.

We spent a fun afternoon at the pumpkin patch. (I learned during Samuel's field trip to the farm that most of the pumpkins are actually brought in from Colorado because it doesn't get cold enough here to actually turn the pumpkins orange until much later than October. That's why all the pumpkins that are attached to the vines are still green and the orange ones they just place in the patch)

The kids and I carved one of the little pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch and used it for an oozing eye experiment. The kids thought this was so much fun and wanted to do it over and over again with a different color oozing out each time.

We spent another evening decorating our Halloween house. It always makes me laugh to look at the example picture on the box because I just don't think with kids helping it's possible to have it turn out so neat. Samuel was so excited about how spooky I made it look this year. It was only because the purple frosting was really runny since Chuck mixed it up while I was feeding the baby. But the runny frosting was great for making the best house ever according to Samuel. He just kept saying, "Thanks mom for making it so spooky!"

My sister-in-law has a wonderful from scratch brownie mix on her recipe blog. I've been making them entirely too much, but this was a little twist I tried for a fun Halloween treat. I melted the white chocolate I had left over from Bella's birthday cake and poured it into a cookie cutter to make the ghosts. Can I just say this was so yummy! Bella wanted me to make this again for actual birthday but we made pink chocolate ghosts. The only problem - I can seriously eat the whole pan of brownies in a day!

And what would October be without making carmel apples. I bought a package of carmels and thought the sticks were included, but they weren't. Again I was feeding the baby so Chuck improvised and stuck forks in the apples instead of sticks. Oh, I love carmel apples! And I'm hoping to make my mom's delicious carmel popcorn this week. We're having way too many treats and we haven't even collected the candy yet!

Samuel had his first school field trip. Thanks to Aunt Trina for coming to watch the kids so I could go with him to the farm. He was so excited to ride on the school bus. I think that was his favorite part of the trip.

Bella had 3 birthday celebrations this year. For her actual birthday she wanted to go to Pirate Island. Can't believe she's 4!

We love to hike this time of year and actually tried out a hike we haven't done yet. It went to a little slot canyon and overlook. Nice easy trail for a quick hike with the kids.

Some days I think it would be really great if I could just grow an extra arm. It always seems like everyone is needing something all at the same time. Well, I discovered my extra arm - Samuel! I was feeding Jenna and Isaac needed help with the potty so I turned the feeding over to Samuel. It was a messy affair with food all over Jenna and even some on the wall, but they were both having a great time. Soon all the kids were piled on the chair to watch the entertainment of Samuel feeding the baby. It was great and I didn't even care that I had a lot of cleaning to do once he was finished because everyone was having such a good time. He's asked to feed her a few more times so now he's my go to when I need an extra arm with the feeding.

Do you ever just feel like you need a change? I've been feeling pretty frumpy needing to do something with myself. So after talking about it for weeks I had Trina dye my hair dark this weekend and I love it! I actually really like my hair dark, but I have tons of gray hair and it shows a lot more when my hair is dark. Yes, thanks to my dad for that bad gene because it couldn't possibly be due to the fact that I'm getting old! But I'm circling around to being dark again. Trina and I also went shopping because I hate to clothes shop. Just don't have the patience for it and it's hard to find clothes that fit, look good, are modest and comfortable. She got me to buy some new pants and there's a funny story, but I'll save it for another post (maybe!)

And I finally finished Bella's room. I got the girls pictures edited, printed and hung. The wall is really busy, but it's fun. I loved seeing one of the pictures I took blown up to such a big size. My next project is to transform the laundry room. I'm going to move all the kids clothes from their closets into the laundry room. Our laundry room is a pretty good size and I'm tired of having Bella empty her closet on the floor everyday. We'll see how it turns out!