The Gracie Show

As I was looking through the pictures we've taken this past month, almost all of them (with the exception of two) are of Grace. Why? Maybe because she's the baby? Or because she's so darn cute? Anyway, welcome to "The Gracie Show" with very brief appearances made by Cayden and Laura.

Backyard BBQ at Grandma's and Grandpa's. Gracie was content to just sit and play away on the blankets.

Laura had fun playing with Aunt Carly at the BBQ. She might look like she's screaming, but really, she was having fun. (Laura's brief appearance #1.)

This is Grace's new spot. She has become a climber and climbs on everything! No joke. The fireplace, inside the kitchen cupboards, the stool in the bathroom, the big dump truck... I swear this girl is going to kill herself.

Gracie and Daddy selfie. :)

First time with pig tails! They just might be the cutest little pig tails ever.

We picked Cayden up from school and had a picnic lunch at the park. These cuties played for hours and didn't want to go home. (Laura's brief appearance #2 and Cayden's one and only sighting.)

Gracie hung out in the stroller with me while the big kids played. Love her goofy little face.

My little window washer. :)

Gracie's first time actually playing at the park! Check out that tongue! She had so much fun.

Gracie had a lot of fun playing with the pumpkin before we carved it.

She even tried to eat it. Grace bit several chunks out of the stem and I literally had to pry them from her mouth. Must have tasted pretty good. ;)

Pumpkin Painting and Carving

Last week the kids painted the white pumpkin they picked out from the pumpkin patch. I envisioned fun designs and lots of colors. We ended up with a lot of brown. But, the kids had fun and I guess that's what counts.

Cute kiddos having fun painting.

The final product and its resting place in our home.

After asking to carve their big pumpkin multiple times each day, we finally got around to it last night. Overall, I think they had a lot of fun, guts and everything.

We used spoons and ours hands. And yes, we carve our pumpkins in our underwear/diaper.

Even Gracie helped!

Before carving our pumpkin we got a little sidetracked. Gracie was somewhat unimpressed.

The kids decided to do a silly pumpkin. They originally wanted a scary pumpkin, but thankfully changed their minds.

The kids wanted to take a picture with their pumpkin. These pictures were the result. Grace is a riot in every single one. Top - blank expression, no emotion. Middle - cute and silly. Bottom - spider baby!

The Perfect Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we visited the pumpkin patch - one of my favorite fall activities! The kids talked about it all week and we had an excellent recommendation from a friend for the pumpkin patch. It just might be the perfect pumpkin patch.

Searching for the perfect pumpkin. There were tons of specialty pumpkins. Laura loved the weird green gourds and Cayden looked for the smallest one he could find. We ended up bring home one big orange pumpkin to carve and a smaller white one to paint.

Cute kids on the hay pyramid. This is the best one we got.

Climbing to the top of the hay pyramid. Laura almost got there all by herself, she just needed a little boost from Cayden at the end. Coming down was the easy part, they just slid right down! Both of them ended up with hay in their pants/diaper. It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I caught on that the weird wiggling and bum grabbing was from the itchy hay.

There were tractors (big and little) everywhere for the kids to play on. We temporarily lost Laura at one point and found her playing away on a tractor. 

Love this family of mine!

A little gem captured while taking a family picture. Love it!

Both Cayden and Laura loved the corn pit and would have spent HOURS in it playing. Grace wasn't a huge fan, mostly because of how many kids there were. Had it been just my three kids, she would have loved it too. I kind of wanted to jump in and play with them. It looked like fun. :)

Random Busyness

We've been pretty busy this past month. I think we've finally settled into a routine with Cayden being in Kindergarten and the girls like having some mommy time while Cayden is gone. I've found that I really enjoy running errands with just two kids; it's funny how that seems so easy now that I have three. I finally completed some of the projects I've had sitting around, but unfortunately, there are still more to do. Here are some of the random things we've done that have kept us pretty busy.

I've tried to take the kids to the park when it's warm enough. We won't have many of those days left until we'll be stuck inside all winter. Gracie is just a little too small to enjoy the park (unless there are swings, and then she'll happily sit in the swing the whole time) and so she gets to hang out with mom while the big kids play.

When we can't play at the park we go to a play place! And we eat ice cream too! I love all the kids in this picture. It seriously captures each of their personalities.

Cayden had Wig Day at school. We don't have any wigs, so we made a weird hat/beard thing which he absolutely loved! When I dropped him off at school one kid in his class pointed out that Cayden had a beard and he was just tickled.

One of my projects. This is our art wall. I got tired of not having anywhere to put the pictures and drawings the kids made, so I put this together. Yard sticks, clothes pins, and paint. Voila! I love it and it turned out even better than I expected! (Btw, this picture doesn't do it justice. The lighting is weird. It just looks way better in person.)

Another project. I had a bunch of tomatoes (way more than we could use before they went bad) so I decided to can them. I learned how and then made my own crushed tomatoes. It turned out that I had way more freezer room than space for cans, so I opted to freeze the tomatoes. Now I have them to use in my soups, sauces, etc.

The first thing I made using my crushed tomatoes! Holy amazing! I could not believe how much better it tasted using my own tomatoes versus canned. I'm going to be so sad when I run out of tomatoes. And yes, this is before it was actually cooked.

We went down to visit our old ward one Sunday and had dinner with our good friends. I seriously miss where we use to live. It has been almost a year and a half since we moved, but I think I will always miss the area and people we left. It was the first place that really felt like home since Chad and I got married and I think it will always hold a special place in my heart. 

The kids had a blast playing with their buddies, though sadly I only have pictures with my kids. I didn't get any with Sienna or Lucas in them.

The kids had a blast driving this little buggy. Laura was a riot when she was driving by herself. If it wouldn't have started raining I doubt we would have gotten them back inside. And if you look closely, you'll notice that Laura is wearing only a diaper and an apron.

Laura loved riding on this old tractor. It was loud and ugly looking, but this kids all loved it.

There was a lot of play dough playing. I love Laura's outfit here. And Cayden's face. :)

Fun Run

Cayden's school had a Fun Run today to help raise money for the school year. Cayden was so proud that he raised $30, asking for donations from family. After getting donations, the kids did a Fun Run through an obstacle course (well, they actually did it over and over for about 10 minutes) and then got treats afterwards. The girls and I went and cheered Cayden on. Laura actually got in on the fun and did the Fun Run too.

Cayden and Laura weaving through foam noodles. Laura got to the end and pulled the noodle out of the ground. Oops.

Hula hoops. Laura never actually got it around her waist. She just held it and rocked side to side for a bit before moving on to the next obstacle.

Ball pit. Laura completely missed the point of the ball pit; she spent all her time there picking up the balls that bounced out and fighting her way through a crowd of running kids to put them back.

Hay bales. I love Cayden's action shot here.

After the Fun Run was over the kids all lined up to get treats. Laura was quite distraught that she wasn't in line too. (Whether that was because she wanted to be with Cayden or because she wanted treats too, I don't know.) I love this picture of my kids. Laura talking to Cayden, Cayden smiling and not being bossy, they are holding hands... just melts my heart.

Cute boy eating treats with his class afterwards.