pumpkin carving

guts!

the kids drew the faces for me to cut out. eli did an awesome job and drew the eyes and mouth on his. lyla drew one eye...i added the nose and mouth. note how she holds her pen. she saw me trying to teach eli how to correctly hold a pen and this is her attempt. i've tried to teach her the correct way...apparently, this IS the correct way. who knew?

the finished product...

samurai soldiers...

i asked lyla for a mean face:) i think eli needs to give her a "mean face" lesson...

Jesus on the cross - by eli

crazy

not having a house is getting to me. i've been having an urge to go to home improvement stores to buy home improvement stuff. this is a problem if you don't have a house. i was telling adam this today while driving to staples, which just happens to share a parking lot with home depot. i turned left into home depot instead of right into staples. totally on accident. we laughed.

eli asked, "where are we going?"
i said, "crazy. do you want to come?"
eli said, "yeah." pause. "no, i want to go with dad."
more laughing. tears from laughing. happy car.

anything vicious, please

we went to an event today that had a balloon twister. she made all sorts of things...swards, animals, hats ect.. not being satisfied with the laundry list of items, eli asked,
"can you make any carnivorous birds?" (i know, seriously!?!)
"nope, but i do make a very cool spider," she said.
"can you make it with it's fangs out?"
"nope."
not coming close to being detoured, eli asked, "can you make a dinosaur?"
"yes!" she answered.
"okay, can you make a meat eating dinosaur?"
"no, it's a plant eater."
"oh. i'll just take the spider."
huge sigh of relief from the balloon lady and slightly embarrassed mama.

good intentions

lyla asked me a few times today to not say "butt." the problem here is that not saying "butt," but "but." how do you explain that!?!

on another note - our computer crashed, so posting is going to be sparse until we get a new one.

sayings

lyla is drinking her "sour-gator," aka - gatorade.

big brother much?

lyla was singing to her baby...
hush little baby for the bible tells me so and i'm gunna cut your head off....

more fall fun stuff

i love traditions, and this is becoming one. the farmstead throws a fun fall celebration. i must say that the pillow bounce is still my favorite... i think eli would say it's his too:)

some of the gang...

sweetie pies...

trever getting his cool on...

going into the corn maze...lyla just can't contain her excitement.

and then my camera batteries died...but we made it through the maze and played in the cornbox until the chill sent us home. first freeze tonight...sigh.

october fest

the annual far west pumpkin fest was last weekend. eli's first visit to the fest was when he was only one year old. this was his fourth visit...time flies.

the kids sportin' their tats...

gourd gulf...lyla found that the club just got in the way. it was MUCH easier to just pick up the gourd and put it in the hole.

the face painting lady was good. she made eli's day by giving him a bat...with teeth...and blood. he was stoked.

lyla declined the face painting. instead, she colored her little heart out...

and the pumpkin coloring...such fun.

eli - and his first time pumpkin painting in 2006

lyla- and her first time pumping painting last year

the finished product...i love the teeth on eli's pumpkin.

so polite, so violent

lyla, can you please move so i can smash my dad's head off? - eli, using his very best manners.

our one night in the "wilderness"

wilderness is in quotations because we had a water faucet in our camp...which i must admit was super handy. yeah, i'm not a real "rough it" type.

our impromptu camping trip last weekend was the only camping we did all year. our camping stuff has been in storage, so we've postponed camping all summer. but last weekend looked like the last good weather before winter set in, so we went to our storage and dug out the gear.

lyla on our hike to the lake...

me and the kiddos...

bear tracks on the beach

lyla sharing my coffee

such a pretty dock

adam and lyla making crazy eyes

the REASON eli loves camping is this...his fire. adam buys him a big box of matches and builds him his own fire. it sounds dangerous...but he does really well. only one slightly burned finger.

eli all snuggled in his new sleeping bag

lyla hitching a ride...

she loves her daddy

i'm sure deep conversation was taking place here...

my two favorite quotes from the weekend:
"it's a good thing a bear didn't dash through our tent last night." -eli right after waking up.
"mom, did you bring the cheez-its into the tent?" -lyla 2:40am

and that was our one night in the "wilderness."