Playing in the leaves

Are you singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year" with me? Wait, no? It's fall y'all! That means it is the most wonderful time of the year. Or maybe to my tree-huggin' self it is.

You see, I grew up in New Mexico - which could also be named "land devoid of trees or greenish anything". At least in my part of Eastern New Mexico. Now, don't get me wrong. You simply cannot beat a New Mexico sunset! Or the beauty of the desert. But, we did not have many trees. We had one tree in the backyard and I remember my dad raking all 15 leaves up in a pile (ok, it was more than that). Then, my sister and I would run and jump in them! I love that I could do that with my kids now. But, here in North Carolina we have about 15,000 leaves to rake up and play in. (Poor Mike usually has to do them all.) We have fun in them until they get mulched!

Enjoy fall, y'all! And go play in some leaves!

"Ready, set, go!"

Is there anything more freeing than this picture!

We don't believe in the entitlement mentality for out kiddos. Hence, we all chip in and work around here.

I had to get in on the soccer fun! This little gal is good!

Happy fall y'all!

Happy fall y'all!

It's the most wonderful time of the year - you know you're singing the song now! Wait, that's for Christmas? Oops, my favorite time of year is the fall. And there is nothing better than a beautiful North Carolina fall. I wish I had a nickel for every time I said, "I could hug that tree!". It's just beautiful here!

We are enjoying our little courtyard these days after school. Bella insisted on wearing this sweet dress while coloring outside. Looks like the secret garden, right?

She is working on her addition outside. She doesn't have homework yet but her Granddad the teacher gave her this workbook. And, what else would you want to do outside after school. =)

We also collected acorns - and believe me - there are a lot of them!

Y'all, they were proud of this! And let me know when they found every single one of them. Loudly!

Bella wanted to take this picture to show the acorns to Granddad.

Notice the different outfits? This was another day - told y'all we come our here alot!

We painted pumpkins one night with some friends and Bella wanted to show hers off.

Now, y'all go take a walk and enjoy your neighborhood in the fall!

October update

Y'all, I only blogged 1 time in October. Oh my goodness! Sorry about that! We sure have had a fun, busy time. Let me walk through the random parts of the last month - seen through the iphone camera.

1. JT is hilarious. Most times he does something like this and will say, "Look at me mommmyyy!" or "Watch me mommmyyyy!".

2. Y'all, he does this face all the time - usually when he gets excited. He made this face after he noticed himself in the picture.

3. I LOVE this picture. The quality is not very good. But, it was taken with memories. When Mike has meetings at night, I read to the kiddos at the same time (usually we divide and conquer). So this is my view while we read 3 or 58 books at night time - imagine this scene with their little voices telling the story along with you - and, if we're being honest, you also have to imagine intermittent fights and screams for apple juice. But, the cuddling is so precious!

5. The little ones are now staying in church for the first part of the service. So, sometimes we have to take pictures on the phone to keep him from jumping on the stage or throwing Daddy's bible (yeppers, he totally did that - during children's church - at the front of the church - in front of everyone). That was a keeper!

6. I just love this one!

7. Sweet naptime after church.

8. Maybe he'll be an engineer? Look at that perfect line.

9. This was before his haircut. I just can't take the curls off. So, he didn't get much of a haircut - sorry y'all!

10. This little gal dances all the time. And sings. And dances while singing. She is such a treasure!

10. I'm not sure what she was dressing up as but she got so tickled when she showed me her costume.

11. I never get tired of seeing this scene.