Pumpkin Patch

Getting PUMPKINS! Our friends told us about this pumpkin patch out on Hwy 14 right before Ault and they had such high praise we thought we'd try it out! Last year we waited too late and just picked some up at Safeway and I really wanted to go to a patch this year. It worked out great because we were on our way to Grandma's house and it was on the way and it was a beautiful day. We didn't have a lot of time to go roaming around the patch, but we didn't need to - they had SO many stacked high on hay bails and such a great selection!The kids got right into it and picked out their favorites (even though of course Gracie fell asleep 2 minutes before we got there and had to wake her up)They had really cool colors and all different textures on the pumpkins - I don't think I've ever seen bumpy green and gray pumpkins before, I loved it!Bradley had a great time finding ALL that he could, we ended up with quite a stack! All in all we got about 20 pumpkins for $20!!! We will definitely be returning next year :)

Copy Cat

Gracie wants to do everything that Bradley does. Here she is pretending to sit on the potty, not actually doing anything, but it's a good start. Bradley's going to be such a big help since she just wants to be like him and do anything that he does :)Once again - she checks to see what face he's making and copies it - pretty good :)

Where's Gracie?

Lately Gracie will go upstairs and if we don't see or hear her for a couple minutes we know what she's doing... She will go upstairs, take off her clothes, sit in her chair and read books to herself. Love that adorable gap-toothed smile of hers! :)

Sept Favorites

Mom's birthday! We surprised her with balloons in her car to celebrate her birthday!!! And to top that off had a great night with chinese food and ice cream cake! I think she liked the food better than the balloons, but I was proud of her, she left them in there until they started shriveling up and popping :)Not sure what's so exciting about a laundry basket but both of them seemed to think they were just being hilarious! Notice Gracie's naked body - again! She will take off her clothes any chance she gets lately - it's getting hard to keep her dressed!!! Maybe she'll change her mind once the weather starts getting colder :) The nakedness I don't totally mind, I love seeing that cute little body - it's the taking off the diaper and peeing on the floor that makes things a little difficult! :)Then she found the boots! Grandma gave me this pair of cowboy boots for Bradley 2 Christmas' ago. They are adorable but still 2 sizes too big for him so they've been tucked away in the closet. Somehow Gracie found them and is just in love! This girl LOVES her shoes!!! She had never seen a pair of cowboy boots before and just thought they were great! Of course she can't try them on without taking her clothes off first - so this is her outfit of choice lately! :)I can't get over how adorable that devilish grin of hers is :)Not to be outdone, Bradley decides to show off :) Here he is sporting his new TMNT slippers :) Not sure why his pants are off as well, I promise I do have clothing for my children...Story time - no smiles, just silly faces so I decided to join in :)

Aug Favorites

It's almost impossible for me to take a smiling picture of my kids anymore - thanks in part to Tammy and her "silly face" pictures all the time :) Bradley caught on to that idea quick and much prefers it to the boring 'smile' pictures :) I'll do my best to get a smiling one, then do silly, but sometimes they just refuse and go straight to silly, which is adorable too, so who am I to complain? :) Gracie's so cute, now whenever I get the camera and say "smile" she looks to Bradley right away to see what face he's making and imitates it best she can!I don't know if there's anything in this world that makes me more happy than seeing my babies play together. At first they were taking turns on the 4-wheeler, then when it was Bradley's turn he told Gracie to get on the back - sweet big brother! She held on to him so tight and they rode around like that for a long time. It's just adorable how she looks up to him and equally adorable how he looks OUT for her.Gracie's famous scrunched-up face :)Once again - my cup runneth over! They go upstairs and sit in the same chair together and read books together. She is very interested in what he is saying and pays very close attention and he is such a sweetheart and letting her have a turn and trying to read to him.I am so unbelievably blessed!!!

Circus

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the circus when I heard they were 'coming to town'. Bradley was really excited, but once again got a little scared when it started because it was kind of loud, so he ended up plugging his ears the whole time.I know it's just a defensive mechanism and he just holds his fingers there just in case it gets too loud, he doesn't ACTUALLY plug his ears. He can still hear us talking and he would still laugh at the clowns and got excited when the animals came out. It was funny though, we've never seen any clowns or talked about clowns but I was telling him about them before we went and right away he said "I don't like clowns, I don't want to see them" - not sure what image he had in his head that made him afraid but to this day he says his favorite part was when the silly clown burped :) great - that's what we take away from this experience :) Gracie LOVED it at first, she was swaying to the music and clapping almost nonstop for the first half - then she was done! By that time it was bed time and there was a lot to take in, so it was a little difficult keeping her still and happy the second half (pacifier to the rescue!), but it was a lot of fun.One thing really bothered me though - when we arrived we saw PETA protestors and I knew right away they were there saying that the animals were being mistreated - which I hadn't even thought about before. It really bothered me because I am a big supporter of PETA. The day after I was reading up on circuses and why PETA was there, and I sure hope what I was reading wasn't the case! From what I saw, the animals seemed to be very happy, healthy, and love the people in the circus. There was no cowering, or being whipped to preform tricks - but who knows what goes on behind the curtains. I can say from what I read, not knowing for sure what's true, just to be on the safe side I will probably NOT be buying tickets to another circus with animals - which is too bad because that was my favorite part :(

County Fair

Kevin and I took the kids to the fair this year and Mom and Tammy joined us. I hadn't been to a fair since I was little so didn't quite know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. We spent a while looking around trying to decide what rides Bradley would like, but as soon as he saw the train he wanted to go on that one.He and Kevin went and I think he was pretty impressed. Then he got on a car ride which he just LOVED!Tammy and Kevin tried one, while Gracie, Mom and I happily watched.I used to like roller coasters and theme park rides but now I get motion sickness like crazy! And I couldn't go on any because of baby anyway - so it worked out :)On the way home Gracie was showing off her new speaking skills to Mammy and Tammy and said "uh-oh" the whole ride home!I think the kids had a lot of fun and Bradley still talks about it months later, so I guess it was a big hit! We'll have to go again next year.