Fall Fun

It doesn't look like it, but he very much enjoyed helping me roll out the sugar cookies while everyone else was at school.



Pretty much no matter what I am baking, Grant asks for (and sometimes just takes) "a snitch." He had a lot of "snitches" of this dough!

decorating their own cookies after school

We carved pumpkins after we got back from the harvest party. It was not ideal timing, but we ran out of time to do it before Halloween, so Greg made it happen. He totally gets the credit. I was tired and done with the day, but he persevered and made our kids very happy.

I had to be sure and get a jack-o-lantern photo of Joel since his mouth strongly resembles one this year, and then Kari decided she wanted an "individual shot," too, so we got 'em all.

 

Sunday School Harvest Party

Good thing I got a photo of the kids BEFORE we left for the harvest party because, boy, were they a mess afterward! It was a wet, soggy day, but the kids had fun in spite of the pouring rain.  (We had just woken Grant up from his nap, so he wasn't quite with it yet.)

Grant stood there, hands folded, next to Grandma and Grandpa and the fishing game for a very long time. He was content and staying out of trouble--great place for him. He did manage to trip and fall in the mud on his way there, but he got back up, seeminly unfazed.  

Kimberly and Mark were great game hosts--so enthusiastic and such good sports with the rain and all.



Sure glad for that tent!



Getting ready to read The Pumpkin Patch Parable.



It was another successful harvest party, thanks to the help of many, many servant-hearted people. Our kids look forward to it each year, so thank you, Strandbergs, Christine, and all those who helped!

 

Yet another sleeping photo

This kid can seriously fall asleep anywhere and prefers any place other than his own bed--the stairs, the floor in Kari's bedroom, the car, the church nursery, our bed, on us on the couch. Oh, Grant. You sure are the baby of the family. We're enjoying our evening snuggle times with you.

Liepolds

I really do love the rain and have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of fall's cozy, rainy days. However, seeing as how it's been dry for months, I was hoping that it would hold off for just one more day, since today was the day we set aside to go to Liepolds, the day the kids had off school and Greg took vacation. The forecast called for rain starting mid-morning, so we went first thing this morning and narrowly escaped the downpour. We felt a few raindrops on the way back to our car, but that was it--perfect timing. So, now that we've had our outing, it can rain all it wants! Soccer games should be fun tomorrow. :)

All four kids enjoyed the corn maze (animal theme this year), taking turns choosing direction at each fork. Grant is one of the big kids now and only asked to be carried for the last few minutes. Where did my baby go?

Greg succeeded in hitting the target in the apple slingshot/pull this year and won us a free pumpkin. Four for the price of three! The kids already picked out pumpkins from Grandpa A's pumpkin "patch," so we have plenty of pumpkins on our front porch--some for carving and some for fall/Thanksgiving decoration, too. They say we can never have too many pumpkins.

I love this one of all four.
 

I had to think for a bit and go through pictures to figure out how many years we've been doing this. Can you believe this was year SEVEN?? It's such a fun family tradition. We'll see how many more years they'll all think it's fun. :)

 

PJ Practice

These kids are great! They came up with the idea to have soccer practice in their pajamas, and Greg, being the super cool coach that he is, said, "Sure, why not?" Monday night they all came in their pjs, ready and excited to practice their soccer skills. It actually was one of their better practice, so pj practice was deemed a success!


looking happy

looking fierce

looking sad

Love my job

We had such a nice at-home day today--worked on laundry, did some cleaning, made banana bread. I was fun mom today, too, and made "flubber" with the kids. Sometimes I forget to do things like this with them. I did a lot more crafty kid stuff with Kari and Joel, it seems. I need to step it up with the younger two and make sure they have some of the same experiences and memories.  (We've had colds and allergies at our house the last couple weeks, which made for tired, cranky kids, and I'm not such a fun mom when I'm fighting a sinus infection and allergies are bad--stupid sinuses!) I found myself feeling thankful this morning that I get to be home with my kids. I truly love my job as wife/mom/homemaker.  The longer I am a mom, the more I appreciate this time at home with the little ones. I'm realizing more and more just how fleeting it really is. (Now, after all this talk of thankfulness, we'll see how my attitude is this evening when Greg gets home. Things often seem to go downhill after 4pm. :) Not always so thankful in those moments. It's all a part of this season, though!)

Keeper Kari

Kari played goalie for the first time, and kind of liked it. She liked it when the ball came her way, didn't like it so much when it was on the other end of the field--too boring, she said.



The other kids entertained themselves with our coats behind us while we watched the game.



I like this one of Kari and her good friend, Ellie. They're having fun.



Doing some funky dancing/spinning while she waited for the ball to come her way again. Her team happened to be a little better than the other team this time, so she had to wait a while.

This was pretty funny. We watched from afar as Grant pushed Grandma on the swing. She told us later he asked,"Want underdog, Grandma?" He gave lots of underdogs.



silly Aubs took the hood off my coat