This is not a Pumpkin.....

It's a Jack-o-Lantern! Tonight for family night we carved our pumpkin. Weston supervised the face pattern, I got to dig out the guts, Kyle carved and Elijah played his xylophone while we worked. It is so much fun to do festive things as a family, we even roasted the pumpkin seeds which was a tradition in my family growing up. They are still roasting now and smell like home, delicious. Happy Halloween!

Weston is a Rock star

Kyle took these pictures between dinner and bath, Wes loves Kyle's bass and always wants to get it out to "play with it."

The Merry Old Land of OZ

Last night was our ward Halloween party. We had a lot of fun, we were in charge of decorating a class room in which to hand out candy and in keeping with our costumes we decorated it like OZ. We even had the "merry old land of oz" song playing in the background which Wes loved. We won prizes for silliest room and suprisest costumes. The boys got to eat donuts off a string and fish for prizes. We ended up with two buckets full of Candy and after the kids went to bed we dug into Elijah's, he won't mind as long as we save him a sucker:) We have one more trick-or-treat outing to the medical school next week and then Halloween is done. Happy Haunting!

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

We made another trip to Barthel farm today for playgroup to "pick" pumpkins. There really was no picking involved, I guess they pull them off the vine and let you walk around and carry some to your car, but the boys thought it was the best. I just love fall. I think we will carve them for family night next week, so you can look forward to pictures of the boys all covered in pumpkins guts, and some of my favorite roasted pumpkin seeds.

Primary Program

Our primary program was yesterday. It was a success, the children all did a great job and Wes watched from the audience with excitement because he knew all the songs. There was a boy who played the clarinet with a descant which Wes loved. I am happy to have it behind us though so we can go back to singing more variety of songs. I did get to wear a cute new jacket compliments of my mom so I had to put a picture in so she could see. Kyle has been sick with a yucky cold the past few days. Since he couldn't rest on Sunday, he actually got worse and stayed home today. He got to spend some quality time with the boys so that was nice. Elijah is becoming so he could sit and read books all day just like Wes, so Kyle sitting around worked out great for him, extra story time. I think I warded off the cold by boosting my zinc intake, we'll see. I hate to see cold and flu season approaching, but there is no way around it, prepare for battle.
Wes and I made apple pie today, my second ever. It turned out pretty good. I'm not really a huge fan of pie. I love the way it smells when it cooks, but I would just assume eat ice cream.:) Wes and I had a lot of fun though, making memories.

Fall is my favorite

There is something so wonderful about fall, it's more than the leaves and pumpkins and even Halloween Candy. I love how the last little bits of summer mix in with the cooler weather and winter still far enough away that you can pretend it isn't coming. We have enjoyed these last months so much especially since Elijah started walking and we spend hours outside storing up sunshine for the Wisconsin winter ahead. I love being a mom and have the three cutest boys in the world (including Kyle.)
I included a picture of the tree in our backyard because it has a story. Our first fall here, one of our neighbors in their last year of school said how much she loved looking at that tree every fall and now this was the last time she would see it. Now here we are at our last fall here.
The costume pictures are from a costume birthday party of our friend Tommy who turned 1 year this week. We didn't want to get our actual Halloween costumes dirty with cake so we came up with alternative costumes . I am Mrs. Wisconsin and Kyle is a democratic politician. Everyone at the party agreed to a write-in campaign Kyle for President, it's not too late!

Milwaukee Skyline

For those of you who haven't been to Milwaukee, here are a few pictures of the skyline with Lake Michigan in the background. It really is a great city, we have enjoyed out time here and who knows, maybe we have more to come.

To Chicago and back

Well not all the way to Chicago, Glenview actually is the city the temple is in. We made a day trip to the temple today and it was a lot of fun. The boys were fabulous and both Kyle and I got to attend a session and the timing worked out well so that we could eat lunch together in-between. Kyle took the boys to the park while I was gone, and I took the boys to the mall and got our Target shopping trip in and we played on the indoor play area which Eli just loved. Weston talked me into getting a pretzel at the mall, he has lately gotten very good and talking Kyle and I into things, here we go:) We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, and it is such a sweet experience to be able to teach Wes about the temple and impress upon his young mind how important it is to us. We are so very blessed! _