Fall Frenzy

Between our birthday marathon, canning, school starting, yard work, and a million other things, I've decided that fall is my busiest time of year.  All of our birthdays have come and gone though, I'm all done canning, Maggie's into the swing of things with kindergarten, so I've finally found the time to blog. Now I just need to rake the yard and finish Halloween costumes.  Maggie keeps reminding me everyday that "it's only x amount of days until Halloween and you haven't finished my costume yet."

I caught this picture on my way up our driveway one afternoon.  I thought it was cute that the doe and fawn were kissing. I'm "fawn"ed of such tender en"deer"ment.

We had real family pictures taken for the first time ever. I much prefer to be the one behind the camera, not in front of it, but I thought these turned out pretty cute. My friend does photography, but she doesn't sew.  So I did some sewing for her in exchange for family pictures. Win win.

I love how you can almost hear Lane's giggles in this picture. The kids thought it was hilarious when we kissed.

 Lane loves to make a personal booth out of cereal boxes in the morning before he eats.

We were able to pick huckleberries with Grandma and Aunt Jill.  Maggie was a bit of a grouch that day because she had gone to bed late the night before and then I had to wake her up early to get on the road. We got a pretty good harvest this year (yum). This picture was before Lane's face was purple.  

Maggie saw a snake in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway and really wanted to touch it.  She's much braver than I am.

 Maggie playing catch in the yard.  She does really well.

We were able to go to the Ogden Temple open house which was incredible.  It's such a beautiful and peaceful building.

 Maggie's first day of school.  See the bus coming down the road?

After much stress and weighing all the options, I decided the best thing to do on Maggie's first day of Kindergarten would be get her on the bus and then meet her at the school when she got off the bus so that I could walk her to her classroom. I promised her I'd be there when she got off the bus. The school gave me a schedule of when the bus would arrive at the school, so I planned accordingly to show up 5-10 minutes before the bus, which was 10-15 minutes before school started.  I left plenty early and was almost to the school when I passed Maggie's bus going the other direction, and guess what?  It was empty.  My stomach dropped. I parked at the school and rushed to find Maggie. I expected some tears (on her part. Trust me, there were already plenty of tears on my part), but this is how I found her.  Happily playing at her desk with some Play-Doh that her teacher had given her.  I apologized and told her that the bus got to the school really early.  She just said, "silly Mom for letting the bus beat you here." Man, I love that girl.    

The Mia Maids in our ward threw a princess party for the primary aged girls. The got them all gussied up and did princess activities. Maggie has incredible eye lashes, but I was blown away with how they looked after they put some mascara on her.  They reach all the way to her eyebrows!!!

This cat simply adores Maggie. I got rid of him though because he was a he, and the others are females and I'm tired of having kittens around.  Plus he didn't seem to mouse much. Maybe he actually did mouse though because with three cats we hadn't seen any evidence of mice in the house for two years. Now he's gone and the weather's chilly and unfortunately some mice have made their way inside.  Nothing irks me more than mice inside. I absolutely loathe the creatures.  I'm not scared of them, I just hate them.

FYI: Last time we had mice in the house two years ago, I bought something called Fresh Cab, which was recommended to us by the hunting guides. It was created to keep mice out of cabins, vehicles in storage, etc. It's pouches of pine shavings and oil that repels mice.  It makes your house smell piney fresh like a Christmas tree, but it really works.  As soon as I put them out where I had seen evidence of mice, all signs of them disappeared.  Unfortunately I don't have any more pouches on hand, but I plan to pick some more up pronto.  The only thing I hate as much as mice is setting mouse traps.  Those things give me the willies!  

My sister-in-law Heather had her baby.  There is nothing better than snuggling a newborn!

 We did giant bubbles with Lane's preschool group.  They were a hit!

Lane requested a birthday cake with a "train on top that goes by itself." I couldn't find a motorized train that small, so he ended up with a train that went through a tunnel in his cake :)  It was a hit.

Maggie on the other hand just requested a chocolate cake with a toy horse on top.  Easy peasy.

One of the hunting guides has access to some orchards.  He brings us boxes of delicious fruit every year, including divine honey crisp apples.  This is the biggest apple I have ever seen in my life! It was nearly four inches across and barely fit in my hand.

Maggie had a school assignment to decorate the bear the same way she'll look on Halloween. I tried to talk her out of being Elsa because I knew there would be hundreds of others this year, but I didn't succeed.  I know of at least five Elsas in her class alone.  Maybe she'll have to be something else if I don't finish sewing her costume MWAHAHAHA.

Poor Lane was sick the other day.  He was so miserable, but he just wanted to play.  He ended up falling asleep in the toy box, cuddled up with all of his stuffed animals.

Another first day of school picture.

This boy has the cutest little face I've ever seen!  These are his birthday pictures....

Most of them turned out with a facial expression similar to this.  He is impossible to get a smiley picture of.

 There were a few keepers though.

 These are Maggie's birthday pictures.  She, on the other hand, is a joy to photograph :)

During the Sunday sessions of conference we drove to Flaming Gorge because neither of us have ever been there.  It is really pretty in that area.

We had to drive through the badlands of Wyoming to get there.  They look other-worldy.  Talk about a weird landscape!

I'm officially caught up.  Stay tuned for Halloween adventures (or at my blogging pace lately it will be Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas adventures ;) )