Fall Roundup

I think Fall would top my favorite time of the year list if I didn’t know what was right around the corner.  Cold and snow.  I love October, Halloween, costumes, candy, pumpkin patches, perfect temperatures, fall food, hot chocolate, fall pictures and little league football games.  We stayed extra busy enjoying everything FALL and now I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

It’s not always easy to find something that all of the kids can enjoy but Hee Haw Farms never disappoints.  We always seem to get there just in time to catch the last wagon ride of the day.  The kids love to ride on it and catch the candy as it is thrown into the wagon.

Seriously.  How tall this fall? is right!  This boy is growing like crazy.  We almost see eye to eye now which says a lot since I’m 5’9.  I grabbed a pair of his shoes the other day to put on as I had to run out the door and was shocked that they were too big.  But the biggest surprise was when I called home the other day while I was working and thought I was talking to Gavin, wondering why he was being so short with all of his answers.

“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning.”
“Oh. . . Cleaning what?”
“Everything!” (the irritated voice gave it away).
“Jack?”
“Yah?”
“Can I talk to Dad?”

I guess that’s what happens when you have a teenager in the home.

We attempted to do the corn maze and I know the older kids were disappointed that we didn’t finish it.   Morgan didn’t want to stay on the path and enjoyed walking right through the corn fields and hiding from us.  She also liked picking up random cobs of corn and eating them.

Some nice lady saw me taking a picture of the family and told me to go get in the picture so we could have a family picture of all of us.  She asked me after how it looked and of course I told her it was perfect.  Thinking about hanging it on our wall or using it for our Christmas cards this year.

Morgan enjoyed doing her own thing.  Hiding in the middle of the cornstalks.  Walking down the wrong path.  Eating random old corn off the stalks.  Running away from us.  We decided it was time to get out of the maze and go do some of the other activities.  Easier said than done.  I thought we’d never find our way back to the activities.  I was almost one of those crazies you hear about on the news who calls 911 for corn maze help.

This was our first time to pick our pumpkins from an actual pumpkin patch instead of the big cardboard box at the grocery store.  Unfortunately we carved our pumpkins kind of early this year and they were showing it when it was finally time to light the candle on Halloween night.

We enjoyed a warm fall night at the Salt Lake Real soccer game.  Our first time in the stadium.  I was nervous with Morgan.  She has a hard time with noise and didn’t enjoy going to the hockey game or basketball games.  I was nervous when I turned the corner to see where we would be sitting.  Our seats were right next to the Real band (or whatever it is.).  But she started dancing as soon as they started banging their drums and making all of their noise.  I think the outdoor stadium made a huge difference for her hearing sensory issues.  We had a fun family night out even if Real didn’t win.

We made caramel apples with the Activity Day girls at church.  Morgan loved the caramel and left the apple behind.

Morgan’s finished apple

October is also Red Ribbon Week at the school.  Crazy hair day is a favorite.  I let Morgan go all crazy by not combing her hair that morning and, not surprising, her communication note said she had the best day ever.  There’s nothing she hates more than having her hair combed.  Hadley did lots of braids in her hair.  And Griffin wanted to look like a spiky dinosaur.  He came home from school and asked to have his normal hair back.  A boy (who had no craziness to his hair) in his class made fun of his hair.

Pumpkin carving with the cousins.  We showed up in our costumes for a few minutes then took them off to carve.  Felt doesn’t wash and I wasn’t about to make new costumes.  Gavin’s brother, Trevor, hosted the party at his house this year.  We’ve kind of lost the tradition of pumpkin carving together every year since his parents moved away.  No one dares host with all of the pumpkin seeds that seem to fly all around the yard.  Trevor claims to still get pumpkins every year even though he’s never planted a pumpkin seed.

Ryan starts the serious process of putting the design on the pumpkin.  Angry Bird this year.  Keeping with the theme of his costume.

Jack’s pumpkin barely made it out of the pumpkin patch.  Half of his pumpkin was a big soggy mess before he even started carving his bat and gravestone.  (Hey Jeff!)

Hadley’s Skeleton and Cat design ended up breaking off mid carving.

Morgan anxiously waited her turn with the knife.  She was crazy this year!

Mia didn’t have a lot of demands.

"I just want a Princess Pumpkin, Dad!"

and Dad delivered. . . just check out that adorable Princess Pumpkin!

This pumpkin still makes me smile.  Griffin took his time drawing this face on his pumpkin and then asked Gavin to carve it.  Dimples and all.  Cute little pumpkin face!

Mia loves babies!  She had so much fun playing with Oliver.

Donut eating contest.  Object of the game -- eat donut off of the string with no arms or hands.  Uncle Scott added a new variable with swinging the pole up and down and back and forth.  I think Ryan ended up winning the game.

(L to R) Mia’s Princess Pumpkin, Griffin’s cute pumpkin face,  Morgan’s vomiting pumpkin, Ryan’s Angry Bird pumpkin, Jack’s crazy face.  (Hadley was still busy craving when this picture was taken.)

Griffin loves his cousins.  He has so much fun playing with Zach, Nixon and Kamen.  He and Zach took a minute to check out all of the pumpkins together.

Fall wouldn’t be complete without witchy nail makeovers.  We took the Activity Day girls to Gardner Village for manicures.  The girls had so much fun and had the best witchy nails for Halloween.

Morgan gave this girl a run for her money.  She would paint one nail and Morgan would quickly wipe it with her finger or on the paper towel.  Still not sure how she managed to get all of her nails painted and dry but they looked so cute and Morgan was in heaven.  She loved having her nails done.  Now she needs to learn how to overcome the incredible urge to touch and wipe off the new paint before it dries.  She was so excited and just like anything that she feels is a big accomplishment, she wanted to show Daddy.  So we texted a picture of her cute orange nails to Dad.

Griffin had his first performance in elementary school and sang lots of Halloween and Fall songs for us.

I’m not a football fan unless it’s my own flesh and blood on the field.  Ryan had a great season with some amazing catches.  His team did really well and were undefeated for awhile.  The best part was that we had good weather the entire season.  Not that I’m a fair weather fan but I kind of am.

Jenni and I make a good team.  She gives me the play by play updates and I make sure all of my fb friends are updated.

Ryan didn’t want to miss any games.  Not even Asthma would stop him.  He was on steroids and major nebulizing treatments for a viral induced asthma exacerbation and he still went out and gave his all.  We are probably the only parents on the sidelines with a pulse oximeter asking the coach to pull their son out of the game so they can make sure he is still getting enough oxygen.

Grandpa and Grandma decided to spend most of the Fall in Mexico this year  but made sure to come to Ryan’s game on the one Saturday that they were in town.  On my Mom’s 69th Birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Fall family pictures are a must but I have such a love hate relationship with them.  Love the pictures.  Hate getting them.  This year it took two attempts.  Our first time, Morgan was not going to cooperate no matter what we tried.  And most of the pictures were blurry.  So we went back a few days later for Take Two.  Morgan was cooperative and we got some keepers.