That Fall Feeling

I. LOVE. FALL. Seriously, Autumn is my most favorite season ever. It's finally been fall-ish around here. The temps are dropping and the leaves are turning yellow and orange. :) Bliss.

I turned on some Christmas music last night. Duke was cleaning up the back yard with Jake and we had the kitchen window open so that we could still talk. I was in the middle of making dinner and the cold air was coming in and the music was playing all jazzy. *sigh* Heaven.

I'm not one of those people that thinks that Christmas music can ONLY be played the two weeks before Christmas. I don't listen to it year round or anything, but once the temp drops I'll put on some instrumental stuff. So, fall = cold = sweaters = Christmas music = hot Tang/cocoa.

We're going to carve up some pumpkins this weekend! I'm so excited! If I can ever get my batteries recharged for the camera, I'll get some pics up, and a picture of the rockin' awesome Christmas cards I made for my friend Erin (to give to her clients this year). I stamped them, and came up with the idea/design all by myself. I'm totally proud of them.

And since it's fall, finally, and we're going to be carving pumpkins, I think I'll whip up this recipe for Easy Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Spice Cake Mix (or white/yellow cake mix plus cinnamon & pumpkin pie spice)

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 cup chocolate chips (or more if you like :)

Mix & bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes.

This recipe has been spreading like FIRE on the blogs of the women in my ward, and I had some at our ward's game night. They are so good, and, as if you couldn't tell from just LOOKING at the recipe, super easy.

Today is Jake's 9th Birthday!! I can't believe that my little guy is NINE! Time is flying too fast. I was folding laundry last night, and I've been washing up some baby things to send over to my friend Rachel and her brand new baby boy and I had Jake's big ol' size 10 jeans in the same basket with a cute little baby bunting. It was just one of those moments when you look at the different sizes and your heart does a little skip. He's such a strong, wonderful, loving child. Of course, part of me wants to keep him small forever and misses the baby days, but I'm so excited to see what a great man he will grow up to be. So here's to you, kid. Happy Birthday!!

Slacker

Oh my goodness, I am such a slacker. Okay- September was a little nutty. So please forgive me for not posting more. We had a lot going on, and I have no pictures to share! Still waiting on some from friends and family. So let's get updating!

My birthday was at the end of August and to celebrate we went to Lagoon on Labor Day! Some good friends of ours were able to get us tickets at a super low rate because they were having a company party that day. What a blast!! I had never been before. I rode ALL the coasters (except the Samurai, which was down for maintenance) and even rode Wicked TWICE! Yes. But I'm not that brave. I screamed the WHOLE TIME! :) And of course, we rode the rapids ride and the log ride (which, by the way, we figured we had about 1,000 pounds in that log and WHOO-BOY! talk about your HUGE splash! lol) so we went around the second half of the day soaking wet and shivering. The day had started out raining, so we weren't even sure if we were going to be able to get into the park, and even after it had cleared up the air was still cool. Good times. :)

Duke and I celebrated the anniversary of our sealing on the 9th. It's been a crazy 2 years since then! I'd post a picture of it, but I've recently reformatted the old lappy, and all of the pics are in storage. We got to go on a nice fun date to celebrate- Panda Express, a walk around the mall, and a movie. :) My favorite. Yes, I'm easy. Leave me alone about it. :)

After that, we had the State Fair to go to. Duke's mom and step-dad came up and rented us a really nice van so that we could go. It was so awesome to see them, since it's been almost a year! The kids had way too much fun at the fair. We saw ALL the animals and rode a bunch of rides and even had funnel cake! Then Nanna Vi and Papa Shane took us all to Chuck-A-Rama. I think that Spencer has found his new favorite place in the whole wide world. ALL of the kids ate mac and cheese and went back for Jello about 15 times. :) They'd never been to a buffet before, so it was fun to watch them get all excited. The next day we went to a baby blessing for Duke's step-brother's baby and then got to go to ANOTHER buffet- this time the Golden Corral. Duke had steak for dessert. LOL It's sure fun to get spoiled every now and then! I LOVE visiting with Vi and Shane and his family. They are SO much fun, and such wonderful people.

Next up was Duke's birthday! The only thing he wanted this year was books! So we decided to go to the midnight release of Brisingr- the newest book in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon). It was fun. Duke wanted to share the night with Jake and Aspen, so we took them to the dollar theatre to see KungFu Panda (which Jake hadn't seen yet), and then out to... you guessed it, Panda Express. LOL We are such Panda Express NUTS! :) Then we went down to our local Borders (the same place I went for the Breaking Dawn release) and hung out until midnight. They had a pretty fun set-up there. They were playing the movie in the kids' section, had a treasure hunt, a dragon ring toss, a trivia challenge and a drawing for a free book. We didn't win anything (other than Tootsie Rolls at the ring toss) but it was so much fun! It was a kick to have Jacob and Aspen there to participate in the silliness. I have to say, though, that Twilight Moms are a MUCH cooler and livlier bunch! :)

I think that's it for our September. I went to the General Women's Broadcast on the 27th with my mom and grandma. It was really great! Deiter Uchtdorf is so amazing. And while we were there we bumped into my neighbor-across-the-street, Trista, whose son plays with Spencer EVERY DAY, and HER mom and grandma, who it turns out is actually related to me! Her grandma's dad is my grandma's grandpa. What a small world, huh?

Well, I hope that you all are doing well! Thanks for reading!

Upcoming events:
*UEA/Fall Break
*Jacob's Birthday
*Halloween