Leaves and nests

 We have a beautiful tree in our front yard.  In the past couple days it has started dumping it's leaves.  They are perfect and I love looking at them.  

The girls love to rake them all up and jump to their heart's content.  Last Sunday Sarah and Kathryn decided to make "nests" for everyone (little circles of leaves).  They thought it was awesome and wanted each of us to sit in ours.

 Then they decided to write in their journals in our nest--Sam and I got to share a heart shaped one--so nice!! :)  I was sitting on the steps reading a book and Sarah wanted to read to Kathryn what she wrote. This is what she said, "We made nests out of leaves from our tree.  Luke has a small-small nest, Kathryn has a small-medium nest, I have a medium-medium nest, Seth has a medium-large nest, Aunt Emily has a medium-large nest [she was coming over later in the day so they didn't want her to fill left out], and Mom and Dad have a large-large nest."  At this point both the girl dissolved into a huge fit of laughter.  It was so cute to watch.

 After that they decided they wanted to take pictures of Sam and I.  They told us where to sit and what to do and I am quite impressed with their handy work (I did edit them).  They thought it was a blast telling us what to do, especially the kissing one--lots of laughs on that one! :)

 Oh we are loving fall!

Circus

Several weeks ago we got some cheap tickets to the circus.  The kids had never been and I don't remember the time I went so we thought it would be fun to spend a couple hours watching animals.

 It was an "interesting" circus to say the least.  First of all we weren't allowed to take pictures (I snuck these--hence the weird shots).  And the second it was rather quite lame.

 The clowns were not that funny, they had 2 animals in the entire show (an elephant and a snake), and the rest was filled with acrobats that were so-so.

 The only good part was that the kids thought it was pretty awesome so I can't complain there and that the tickets were cheap!

 And we got to go with friends.

Columbus Day...no work?

 Since Sam works for the County we get to have all sorts of random holidays off.  It's kinda weird but hey I'm not complaining.

Last Monday was one such day.  Luke loved having him home and so did I.  We worked on all sorts of projects.  

 We cleaned out the garden and got it all ready for fall.  We moved an extra shed over to our back yard that our neighbor had (that was a huge process and took us 2 hours--but hey we have a shed now), edged the garden with cement, cleaned out the garage, organized the shed and garage, and unfortunately didn't get around to hauling off the pile of trash from cleaning everything up.

Boy were we tired but it sure felt good to get so much done.  And here's our bunny and this is what he did most of the day while we were in and out.

October 1st

Our Sarah turned nine last Saturday and she was so excited.  She wasn't very happy that we "had" to sit and watch General Conference two times that day but her excitement for her presents overruled everything else eventually.  That morning Sam made her her favorite breakfast: crepes with cream cheese filling and raspberries.

 Then for dinner she requested zucchini lasagna (seriously...where did this kids come from) with corn and homemade french bread.

 Here she is posing with her presents.  Our cute, little, old neighbors even brought her over a present.  So sweet!

 For treats she decided on cake pops (which worked out great for me since I needed to practice for the 100 I am making this Saturday)--chocolate with chocolate frosting and dipped in pink chocolate.  She had one candle to blow out because we couldn't figure out how to put 9 in a tiny little cake pop.

Here are 9 things we love about Sarah.

1.  She adores animals completely.

2.  She is our go to it girl and will willingly do what we ask of her.

3.  She loves to put earphones in her ears, crank up the ipod, and sing to her heart's content.  And I have to say she is quite good at it.

4.  She is very studious and always does her homework.

5.  She has a natural talent for writing stories.

6.  People think she is quiet and shy but she can talk your ear off at home.

7.  She works hard does so well practicing her piano.

8.  She loves to sit and read for hours.

9.  She is a great big sister and a great friend.

We love you Sarah!