Fall

So I know it's been awhile but all is well. Fall seems to be a very busy season for us. For one thing, it's the best time for yard work and we're attempting to finish painting the fence before it snows some more.

One thing we love about fall/winter is that we can now have fires (and need them to warm up the room). We have one practically every night. We sit around the fire and play games and read stories.

Here is what we did around conference time. We only have a radio at our house so why not listen on the road. Plus, if we keep the kids entertained, we can listen better. So we went up to MillCreek Canyon and had bonfires and made dutch oven dinners and went on little hikes in between sessions. It really is a fun canyon. You should go up sometime. There are lots of perfect picnic sites. Although it's probably closed for the winter now.

Here is Jane under the picnic table.

During the middle of October, we took a family vacation down to southern CA. We rented a car which was a super good idea so we didn't have to worry about putting all those miles on our van and having it break down. So we spent the first three days at Adam's family and had lots of fun. Then we went to La Jolla and got a hotel right next to the beach. My mom came down and stayed for the day too. We went to the aquarium and some tide pools and Adam and I even got to go to the temple which was the first time to the San Diego temple since we got married there almost 5 years ago.

And, here is Halloween. Our pumpkins. Check out Luke's with the baseball. I think his is the coolest.

Jane just loves her ladybug costume.

Luke was a dragon and Jacob was a tiger.

Here is Luke giving Jacob a hug. It looks like he's eating him. :)And here in the act of trick or treating. We worked really hard with the kids to teach them how to say trick or treat but Luke was too shy and Jacob didn't talk very loud. However, Jacob would say, very loudly I might add, that he wanted two candies, not just one and try and grab the bowl. And if he only got one, come away crying. I think he must like candy. I wonder where he gets it.

As for individual updates,

Adam is working hard. And in his 'down time' he spends it with us or in church stuff.

I'm playing with the kids a lot and have recently been canning lots of apples. It's not too hard as I once suspected. And, I like my applesauce more than the storebought and my kids do too. I'm feeling pretty domestic lately.

Luke is talking a lot more now although he's also run into a really shy phase. If he's anything like I was when I was little, it's going to take about 10 years to snap out of it.

Jacob is super stubborn and cute at the same time. He's potty training and doing pretty well. Today is his first day in underwear.

Jane is really wiggly. She doesn't like to snuggle. She would rather unravel the toilet paper or dump out the box of crackers or something. She know hows to wave and blow kisses and likes to blow on her food if it's too hot. I think she might be able to blow out her candles in a couple months.

So that's all folks. I can hardly keep up with my kids lately. They are messier every passing day. But it's ok cause we're having fun. I keep reminding myself that my house is supposed to look like kids live there. So if you come over and the toilet is stuffed with toilet paper, just smile and go downstairs. (That one happened today when I sent Jacob potty.) Or of course, you can clean it up for me. :)