Goodbye October

October is gone. Here's some snip bits of our life this month:

The enormous maple tree that we love so much for it's shade during the summer has become my nemesis this fall. It dumps piles this big in 2 days. I'm trying to get them up to keep the grass alive (I may have learned my lesson the hard way last year), but it's tough! The plus side, the kids (and puppy) have gotten to play in some killer leaf piles.

Ben has been great at helping me keep up with yard work this fall. He's planted 4 fruit trees for me, pushed a thatcher around all our lawns, and used his expert fire skills for a huge burn pile. Yes, that's a blower he's using to get the pile burning. Keepin' it classy out here in the country.

Joshy warming his hands on the pile.

We've spent a ton of time outside because of the mild weather. The twins brought back the hand-truck trailer, and this time Josh got to participate. He LOVED it and acted like a king being pulled around on a chariot. He definitely got the most turns.  

We fulfilled fall fun list item "carve our own pumpkins." I'm always thankful when it's nice enough to do it outside, keeping the mess away from my house!

Year 2 of using the drill for perfectly round eyes. The kids each got a turn drilling a polka-dotted pumpkin!

The boys and I with our jack-o-lanterns

I had a feeling that Josh was going to refuse to wear a costume. Unfortunately my intuition was correct. Like the stellar mom I am, I stuffed him in it anyways, thinking that maybe if he saw himself in the mirror, he would think that it was funny and wear it. Nope. He screamed and rolled the round trying to tear it off. Stubborn child. He wouldn't even wear a dress-up fireman jacket. 

Ben's hunting trip fell on Halloween this year, but thankfully Diane came and helped me all day. She even endured sideways rain during the boys soccer game. Here's everyone soaked afterwards.

We decided to forgo trick-or-treating this year in favor of our church Harvest Party. It was fun and I was so thankful for Diane's help there since all Josh wanted to do was hold an orange balloon and have me carry him around. Didn't Sam and Seth make cute cowboys?

One of the games was "pick the nose for a prize." Disgusting!

Sammy fishing (Seth in background)

Seth's turn

Notice Josh's balloon. That's all he wanted upon walking into the Harvest Party. A balloon. So we got one and he carried it around all night. 

So I survived Ben being gone two out of three weeks, including Halloween by myself. But the cool part was, I wasn't by myself. God has placed such amazing people around me. Not only were we busy both weeks visiting friends and family, but I also had neighbors who checked in on us and made sure we were doing okay. There wasn't a day that someone didn't come visit while we were outside, or that someone didn't call or text to check on us. The kids got to do lots of fun things like swimming with cousins, having friends over, hanging out with grandparents--not to mention some fun traditions we now have when daddy's gone: like breakfast for dinner, Chipotle for dinner, and a movie night. (But we definitely like life much better when daddy's home!)

Fall Fun

Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself as I marvel at the fact that Ben's parents live in the same city as me! Ben left for a trip to Germany, and instead of staying home and moping or going to church by myself, I headed to their church and then spent the afternoon at an apple festival with my mother-in-law. It was fabulous. 

The Portland Nursery apple festival had 50 different varieties to sample! 50! In the background of the picture below are all the plates with the different apples. I have to be honest, by about apple 30, Diane and I were a little tired of apple tasting. But the twins sampled each and every kind. The ironic part was that our favorite variety was one of the first we tried! The other fun aspect of the tasting was that I finally discovered what kind of apple tree is in our backyard! (It's a Jonathon.)

 The boys and I

 Such a fun day together!

 While I went to scope out a caramel apple purchase with Josh, the twins decorated mini pumpkins (notice how cute Sam's missing tooth is!)

 We headed home after the apple festival and I decided to tackle some leaves. We have a huge maple tree that dumps SO many leaves. It was our first leaf pile of the year and it kept the kids busy until it got dark...a perfect activity for when Ben's gone!

 Seth and Sam

 I don't remember Josh being into leaf piles last year. I think he was a bit too young. But he gets them this year! He had a blast! 

 He really does have a joy for life!

 Dahlia's are such an amazing flower. A friend of my sister's gave me a bunch of random dahlia bulbs this year, and I planted them late, so they are just now blooming. The fun part was that I had no idea what color and variety each bulb would be. This one is one of my favorites!

September Happenings

We love this time of year: the transition between summer and fall. And with it being unusually warm this year, sometimes it almost feels like we're still in August. September was a full month. This is some of what we've been up to:

We switched the big boys bedroom to what used to be our guest room and we bought them some new big boy bunk beds. They are loving their new digs:

 I made lots of roasted tomato sauce. It's super yummy and made our home smell spectacular.

 We had our first s'mores roast of the year. (that's my veggie garden in the background)

 We had our semi-annual trip to the dentist, which prompted the twins to play dentist for the rest of the day. Daddy is such a great patient.

 We were blessed by more amazing sunsets

 My parents came to visit for a couple of days. It was wonderful! Dad helped me catch up on yard work while mom did several special projects with the twins including teaching them to hand stitch a money pouch. 

 Josh gives the best night-night hugs

 Sewing project

 Making covered wagons

 Sam and Papa

 We watched Robin Hood at least 3 times. We laugh and laugh at it and spend our days quoting it. Whenever the TV is on, Josh request to watch "Prince John."

 We wrestled with daddy on slow Saturday mornings. Does his lap still fit three?

 The twins started their second year of soccer. They are doing excellent and have greatly improved from last year. It's really fun to watch them play!

In other news, Sam learned how to whistle recently and spends most his waking moments trying to improve on the sound. It drives me crazy. Between that and Seth's sniffing habit, there are moments while they work on their school work where I'm sure I'm loosing my marbles. Sounds have never been my strong point. 

We were also suckers are bought the boys an early Christmas present:

Yep, we're that silly family with matching Seahawks jerseys.  In our defense they were half price and don't my boys look adorable?!

Beach Day

I'm determined to get back to blogging this month! I have a lot of catching up to do.  

To start with: our beach adventure today! We've had the best luck with the Oregon Coast in the fall. It's our favorite time of year to go and we make it a point to get there in late September/early October. We usually spend a weekend, but with some traveling coming up for Ben, a day trip had to suit us this year. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day: 77 degrees and absolutely no wind. It was amazing and with a packed lunch in hand, we spent 5 straight hours in the sand!

 This picture describes Josh's opinion of the beach. He LOVED it.

The twins love the beach as well (Seth, Sam)

 Brothers!

 All the boys dug and dug and dug. So industrious! 

 The twins dug big holes to stand in. Josh basically threw sand the whole time.

Then we went and played at the creek and made lots of dams and lakes. Josh threw rocks. Everyone had so much fun. I cannot believe the amount of energy that kids have. 

 Seth

 Then we played in the water again. It was freezing, but the kids could care less. We love this particular beach (Arcadia beach 10 minutes south of Cannon Beach) because it's very flat and the kids can walk out pretty far without it getting deep. Seth and Sam really loved playing the waves and  Josh definitely would have drowned without Ben and I there. He loved splashing and running in circles and the sand disappearing under his feet. I love this picture of him!

 Ben would swoop him up and he'd kick his feet and laugh and laugh.  

 The boys were pretty brave playing in the waves.

 Ben had a photo shoot with Joshy and I.

 Another amazing great day at the beach!