ten months {a few days late}

Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we headed up North to Anderson Farms for a fun day in the pumpkin patch. We went there last year with my sister, but it was super muddy and kind of chilly, so this year was a completely different experience. It was a gorgeous day and the weather was perfect! But, of course, while packing a million things for my millions of children, I forgot to bring my camera! Bummer! So all of these pictures were taken on my iphone. They turned out o.k. but it's not quite as quick and you really need a quick camera with these crazy kids. They don't stop to pose for very long! 

Brad, Jayne, Cohen, and Arie joined us for the day! 

Nolan was constantly in search of "the perfect pumpkin". He probably picked up 50 pumpkins over the course of the day in his quest for the best one. 

We checked out all of the animals. 

And fed the goats some food that we found on the ground.

Peek-a-boo!

They have so many fun things for the kids to do here. 

 Hay Bale Maze

 Tire Tower

 The boys had fun making their way through this little maze too. 

a wooden train

Mark took this picture too and posted it to Instagram and Facebook saying something like: "Bet my Mom would like one of these at her house sometimes!" So true! 

roping the steer

 Last year Heath wanted to ride the pony. He did and had SUCH a great time! Nolan was not interested in riding it. He loves animals, but thought it was a little too adventurous for his blood! This year was totally different. He told me before we left that he wanted to ride a pony. Whenever he wants to try something new we make a BIG deal out of it! We were thrilled that he wanted to try something a little out of his comfort zone. But I wasn't holding my breath that when we actually got there he would still want to ride it. But I was wrong! 

He came right over and chose his horse {butterball- "the horse with no color" according to Nolan} and hopped right on! He wasn't scared at all. He wanted Mark to stand by him at first, but then he settled in and Mark stepped away. He did great and had a lot of fun! 

Heath, of course, loved it as well. He always bops his head back and forth and makes this "I'm cool." face when he rides a pony. 

I took this video at the beginning of the ride. 

We were SO PROUD of Nolan for taking a risk. We really celebrated him and you could tell he was SO PROUD of himself as well. When he hopped off, he said, "This was the best thing I've done in my life!" Ha! What a sweet heart! 

After the pony rides we got on a wagon ride that would take us out to the pumpkin patch. The wagon stopped to let the kids feed the cows some "cow cookies". Their tongues were so long and huge! 

 When we got out to the patch it was super fun to just be able to wander around in the field for awhile, searching for "the perfect pumpkin". 

This was our first time being able to pick a pumpkin from a patch instead of a pile. Nolan wandered off by himself and had such a good time making such a hard choice! 

The views were amazing! 

We plopped Brooksie down to play with some pumpkins while we found our pumpkins. 

Heath didn't take long to choose his. He found this green pumpkin right away and knew it was the one! 

Nolan ended up choosing this "light" one! He held it on his lap on the wagon ride back to the farm and sang, "And I'm so happy, so very happy, I've got the love of Jesus in my heart!" over and over again. Love him! 

We also picked out this big one, perfect for carving! 

After the wagon ride we checked out the gourd tossing and played in the corn for a minute or two. 

It was such a fun day and some more fun memories for our boys! Next year we'll have 3 crazy boys running around through the pumpkins. 

Thanks Brad, Jayne, Cohen, and Arie for joining us! 

Fall Break

Today was my first day back at school. And boy did I just have to jump right back in. It will be a busy couple of weeks with assessments, report cards, and conferences. Today was just a track in day, I'll be back with my Kindies tomorrow. So before I'm totally back to the real world of being a teaching mommy, here are a bunch of pictures from our last week of my track off and Nolan's Fall Break! 

It was great having him home with us for the week! We just played a lot at home and found some fun things to do to keep us busy! 

We baked yummy cookies. Heath always has to do everything himself. The picture below captures what happens when a strong willed 2 year old bakes. 

Egg all over! Hope he learned his lesson. 

The kids were all happy taste testers! 

Nolan loved the "vanilla chips" as he called them. Really, they were white chocolate chip cookies. 

 Did you happen to notice their hair lately? It was SUPER long! So we decided it was time for some cuts. 

There was a lot of hair on the ground! 

And now they look just as handsome as ever, just with MUCH shorter hair! 

I think we just about played with every toy we own this week. But Star Wars seems to be their favorite lately. They LOVE all things Star Wars! 

The weather was absolutely perfect all week, so we spent a lot of time outside! 

And we did a lot of playing in the leaves! 

On Friday night we went to Cara's volleyball game at Arapahoe. 

The kids had such a good time running around the gym with their cousins. Brady showed Nolan the joy of the concession stand! Ha! 

After the game, we hung out with Wes & Cara at their house. The kids played and watched a Star Wars movie that our boys hadn't seen before. They had such a good time. 

But I think us adults may have actually had an even better time! We had some drinks and laughed and talked and talked and laughed some more! Thanks for such a fun night guys! It was long overdue. 

 Nolan spent the night and enjoyed playing with Brady the next morning and eating some of Uncle Wes' delicious pancakes. Thanks for having him! He had a fun time for sure! 

After the sleep over we hit up the outlet mall for a bit. This is a funny picture of Nolan, but I think that he looks soooo tall and soooo skinny in this picture. How in the world could this be my little butterball baby?!!! He is such a big cool dude now! 

The rest of the day was spent with more time outside. This shot is a little blurry, but Nolan just loves jumping into the leaf piles! He loves all things seasonal/holiday! He really gets into traditions and special events. Just something neat about my kid. 

And on a total side note...we FINALLY finished a {Pinterest}project that I had been working on for awhile. I bought frames on clearance at Michaels, spray painted them with a POP of color, distressed them, and hung them in our dining room to display our fine art...

I LOVE the way that they turned out and the boys love the fact that THEIR art is what is most precious to us! I made three of them so that one day each child can have a piece hanging at all times.

One more post to come to wrap up my track off...our trip to Anderson Pumpkin Farm!