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I absolutely love Fall in Utah. Every season here is so beautiful but fall seems like such a special time because before you know it snow is falling. Fall seems so fleeting so it makes you feel like you need to enjoy it and soak it all up. The leaves changing colors are beautiful and we have had the most amazing weather. It's been a great month. 

the 10th: Caitlin had her first field trip. They went to "Hee Haw Farms" and got to see baby pigs, pumpkins, other animals and go down a big slide. She was so excited about her field trip and when I told her maybe Mommy and her brothers would come too she told be she rather go with her preschool friends (yup, slap in the face). Then when she heard some other mommies were coming she said she would like for me to come. But, I ended up giving her some space and keeping the pesky brothers home. She didn't see to mind too much and had a great time with her class and had lots of stories to tell when she got home.

That evening we went to Thanksgiving Point Farm with the Meads and had a picnic dinner and rode ponies. It is decorated with a Wizard of Oz theme for the month. 

That night Paul wanted to have a sleepover on the tramp with the older kids. I love how Paul gets these fun ideas and wants to do special things with our kids. They got all their warm things and went out to the tramp and watch a movie on the ipad and had snacks and treats. Nolan was done after that when he realized he would have to settle down and sleep, so he came inside to his bed. Caitlin fell asleep but then it got really cold so around midnight Paul came in with her and they slept in the extra bed downstairs. Caitlin woke up in the morning and thought they were still out on the tramp! Although when we looked outside there were frozen dew drops on the lawn so it's definitely a good thing they weren't!

 -the 11th: We spent a fun Saturday with the Meads and went to a pumpkin patch in Sandy where they had blow up slides and bumper boats and then we went to Gardner Village for more activities for the kids and walking through the village. Caitlin's favorite thing was getting her face painted and the little witches hat really brought out her serious poses. 

-the12th: Our first Sunday back to church as a family with Maverick and also our ward Primary Program. It was Caitlin's first Primary Program and she was a little nervous so we had been building it up a lot the previous week, and also called it her "Primary Performance." When the time came, she did great! Sang the songs, said her part all by herself and looked cute as could be up there. And yes, I totally cried. Maverick did great too! Up until the last 30 minutes when I was giving my lesson.

-the 14th: We saw the "Meet the Mormons" movie at the movie theater with our Young Women as our midweek activity. It was SO good. I thought I would come away thinking "oh non-members should really see that" but I came away feeling so inspired and feeling like I needed to be a better person. It was very uplifting and thought provoking and I thought it was incredibly well done. 

-the 16th: We went back to Hee Haw Farms as a family and Caitlin showed us all the fun things she had done on her field trip. Mostly the kids liked going down the huge slide. And it really was huge. We went a few times with them but then they just kept hiking back up the hill to go down again. We had several people comment on how amazed they were that Nolan wanted to and was able to go down all by himself. Funny thing is I hadn't even thought twice about it.. that's our Nolan Man. Two year old on the move. Even when a bunch of teenagers came up our kids kept making their way and taking their turns! 

 -I've been able to do a lot of canning the last couple months, mostly thanks to help from my mom and also our amazing garden. I tried a few new recipes this year and I'm excited to use them over the winter and Spring. We did: blackberry jam, salsa, spaghetti sauce and sliced peaches. 

-the 16-25th: Stewart and Lorraine came in town. Stewart was hunting most the time and Lorraine was here visiting and helping me. She watched the kids, ran errands, and even took Maverick at nights so I could sleep. It was awesome. Fun for all of us to have them here.

-the 17th: Caitlin and I went to the BYU Homecoming Spectacular at the Marriott Center with some of my family. We got to see Cassie perform with the Young Ambassadors and also many of the other performance groups. It was a great show, Caitlin was noticing the cutest things and of course making comments and asking questions about absolutely everything. 

-The boys went hunting over the long Fall Break weekend to Wyoming for Antelope and Kamas for deer. Paul filled both his antelope tags, as well as a porcupine and a jackrabbit but no deer yet. It's always fun to hear their stories, Paul always comes home with all kids of scrapes and bruises from hiking around so much, plus this time they rolled the RZR (thankfully everyone was ok). I still think hunting sounds miserable but I'm glad they have fun! 

-the 20th: We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity with Merrilee and her kids and Grandma Gottfredson. The museum was fairly crowded but we had a good time. My kids love playing with the Gottfredson kids! That night we had dinner with Christine and her kids and made a "craft" for Family Home Evening-- pumpkin luminaries. The kids colored pumpkin faces onto paper sacks and then put candles in. They turned out so cute!

-the 24th: We went to Cornbelly's, as per our yearly tradition. The kids rode the cow train, went in the bounce houses, jumped on the jumping pillow, played games and went on the big slide. They had a lot of fun, and the weather was hot that day! We didn't even get to do everything they had there before everyone was ready for naps.

That night the adults went on a date night to dinner at a Mexican place in Midway and then to Sundance for the "Haunted chair lift" where you get to ride the lift to the top and back and there are costumed people working and scary scenes set up below. It was a beautiful night, not too cold, and fun to ride the lift and try something new! Paul and I practiced our scariest noises on the way and we were pretty good at them. I liked that it wasn't too scary, although our neighbor was there dressed as a gorilla scaring people and definitely got me a couple times!

-the 25-27th: the Taylor's came in town! Morgan had a recruiting thing for E&Y so Whitney and Brox came with. We hung out with them Saturday afternoon and evening and then they spent the night then we got to see them once more on Monday before they left. Whitney just found out they are having a girl for their second and it was so much fun chatting and having the kids play together. We miss them!

-the 28th: for the week of Halloween Caitlin got to wear a costume to dance class. She chose to be a Spanish Flamenco Dancer, although she called it a "flamingo" dancer. And what she really cared about more than the costume was getting to wear bright red lipstick. She also specifically requested her hair be in a bun with the flower AND the crown. She was very proud of her costume and said "I think all the girls at dance class will really like it and they will want one just like it."


-The World Series ended on the 29th. The SF Giants played the KC Royals and I'm usually not super into baseball or the World Series but this series was fun to watch because our good friend Jeremy Guthrie pitches for the Royals! It was so much fun to see him pitch in game 3 and game 7 and to see all the hype and fun experiences for their family. Unfortunately Giants won game 7 but it was a fun series and exciting to see Jeremy do so well.

-the 30th: I told the kids we could go back to Cornbelly's and got them all excited and in their cute festive Halloween outfits... then we got there and I remembered Cornbelly's didn't open until 4... it was 11:30. Oops. Luckily the farm is right there so it was a quick fix. We went to the farm and saw all the animals and rode the wagon ride and the kids got to ride the ponies three times in a row. Nolan has been a little unpredictable when it comes to the pony rides but he was all about it. He kept saying "Yeehaw I'm a cowboy I'm a cowboy. I'm so brave!" I was really proud of him and also really relieved since I didn't know how I was going to juggle the two kids on horses and the baby! A girl was there with her little boy and she approached me and asked how old my kids were and what the spacing was. She said "I just feel like this spacing looks really fun and they are so cute with each other." I told her the two year spacing is quick and it's not easy when they are little.. but yes it's fun. I was glad that she had caught my kids in a good mood and behaving well and it was a good reminder to me that yah its hard sometimes but it is fun!  

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween and let me just say: carving pumpkins with a 2 year old and a 4 year old is an adrenaline rush. Children with knives...  but they turned out cute and the kids had fun. Although they don't really love all the slimy stuff. PS don't you always carve your pumpkin in a princess dress?