Pumpkin Patch

I decided to skip over my Disneyland pictures for now in order to get caught up on the October happenings. Don't worry, I'm still planning to blog about our trip but I am feeling seriously overwhelmed with all my pictures from the trip. Since Halloween is over I'm ready to get the old blog caught up.

This year we decided to skip our annual trek to McCall's pumpkin patch. We could not find a good weekend with traveling and football games and other commitments to spend an entire day at the patch. And since it is expensive to get in ($10 per person) you really do need to be able to commit the entire day. So... we visited a closer pumpkin patch that is used as a fundraiser for a local horse ranch here in town. The weather was perfect, the kids had a great time and we were happy to support such a great organization!

A few fall favorites

In honor of getting ready to put my trees up this weekend, I thought I'd do a recap post of a few things I've been LOVING this fall.

1. Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars (Paula Deen)

I have mentioned before that I've been a cooking/baking maniac this fall. I've been particularly fond of trying new pumpkin and apple dessert recipes. So much so that a few weeks ago Allen kindly asked me to take a break as he was getting tired of fall desserts (WHAT?!?). However, when I saw this recipe a few weeks ago I knew I had to try them and they are the clear winner for fall. Not only did Al and the kids gobble them up but they also received rave reviews from friends that tried them. Seriously, you have to make these!

Go here for the recipe:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

2. Scentsy

I have been a huge Scentsy fan for a few years but my love is always renewed in the fall. A few of my favorite scents right now: Pumpkin Roll, Clove & Cinnamon, Sentimental Cider, Spiced Grapefruit, Snowberry

3. Fall Dining Room Centerpiece

Over the summer Al and I were strategizing our life (heh) and decided that since we are planning to be settled down and back into our own house in the next couple of years that we should acquire some new furniture before we become "house poor" again. You know, when you spend your money on paint, remodeling and landscaping instead of furniture. Anyway, we made a general plan, set a budget and I started shopping (you don't have to ask me twice to buy new furniture!)

I have had the urge to "grow up" my house over the past couple of years. My style has definitely evolved and I want some more formal, yet versatile spaces in our home. I had some pretty strong ideas about what I wanted in a formal dining room so we decided to make that our first purchase. There is still a lot of work to do in this space but here is what we ended up with:

The chairs are parsons chairs from Ballard designs. I've had my eye on these chairs for a few years. I LOVE that they are slipcovered so I can change things up any time I want to and wash them when they get dirty. I actually had a hard time choosing a color but went with something super neutral, which was not my original plan. It's a long story but I had a bit of a customer service issue with Ballard and was not able to get exactly what I wanted. My intention is to have a set of light colored slipcovers for spring/summer and a darker, richer set for fall/winter. Obviously this is my light set since I could not get my first color choice in velvet. There's always next year!

The table was a tiny bit more tricky and I spent forever shopping around for it. The shopping in ABQ is horrible and I just could not find what I had in mind. I was super leery of shopping online since colors can be skewed so much. In the end, we found this table in Utah while we were there for Mindy's wedding. It is from Pottery Barn (but I got it for a steal at DownEast Home) and Allen very grudgingly strapped it to the top of our car and we hauled it home (seriously). I love the style and the color of the table and that it easily seats 10-12 people with both leaves in. Dreamy.

I'm still shopping around for a couple of wicker chairs for either end of the table but have yet to find a pair I love. I have something like this in mind:

I have plenty of ideas about the rest of the space so hopefully I can pull it together soon with my limited shopping resources.

4. Candles

My favorite purchase in forever has got to be those creamy white pillar candles you see on my table above. I KNOW they look like your average, run- in- the- mill candle but they are not. They are flameless (electric), remote controlled candles!! I got the entire set at Costco and have seriously had to restrain myself from buying a second set. They are fabulous. One button click and the entire set turns on or off. They provide great ambiance and are SO versatile. I raved about them so much that my mom and sister had to buy a set. They did have a hard time tracking them down though so if you're interested you might want to pick them up soon. Trust me, your kids will be as enamored with them as you are and you might have to occasionally hide the remote from them!

5. Midnight Pomegranate Body Cream:

Yum, yum, yum. This is hands down my favorite winter-time lotion. It smells SO good and I use it every single day. I even put it on twice a day sometimes because I love it so much!

6. Third Trimester!

I can hardly believe I'm officially in my third trimester. Only 10ish more weeks until this baby girl joins our family. This pregnancy has FLOWN by in so many ways and we are all super excited to meet our new little gal. We have chosen a name, which is a HUGE relief, and which I will only share over the phone so if you're interested call me.

For the record, I can't believe Thanksgiving is NEXT week. That lull just hasn't been long enough for me!

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a very warm day so my well intentioned, cute PP outfits did not make a debut. I've already decided for next year to skip the cute outfits and stick my kids in grubby tshirts since this patch is SO dusty and dirty. As always, we had a great time with all the activities at McCall's.

We started out with the train ride:

The kids' favorite thing for the last two years has been the corn pit (spent an hour in it this year) and the bouncy bubble:

We did the corn maze, slid down their slides over and over, played on the hay pyramid, the bounce house (again) and then the kids decided to "pan for gems," which was a new attraction this year. We bought a bag of dirt/sand/gems and let the kids use their panning supplies to get the gems out. They thought it was a great activity. By the time we had finished all of this we had been at the patch for about 3 hours and Addison was melting down and ready to go home. We still had not been out to the actual patch to pick our pumpkins. When we went to get in line for the hay ride we were told it would be at least a 2 hour wait to get out to the patch. At that point we threw in the towel, got the kids a treat and stopped by Wal Mart to get pumpkins on the way home. Slightly anti climatic but it worked out great.

The next couple of weeks are jam packed with fun Halloween festivities! I LOVE this time of year!

Another One Bites the Dust

Another project that is. I love the metal hanging basket I have outside my front door. I love changing it out for the seasons and usually have mums in it for the fall. This year I decided to do something a little different. A few years ago I bought some of those fake pumpkins at Michael's. I think they were 90% off and for the last couple years I've had no idea what to do with them. The color was UGLY and I had no plan for them when I purchased them. They were also a pain in the rear to store so I almost got rid of them last year and now I'm so glad I didn't.

This year I got a wild hair and decided to paint the pumpkins a coppery orange color (gorgeous!) and added a little fun vinyl to them. I added a beaded garland and voila - easy, no maintenance entry-way decor.

Close up:

Full view:

This pic is a little funky because the metallic sheen catches the light (which is gorgy in real life). I'm so pleased with how it turned out especially because it was so inexpensive!

Speaking of vinyl - I added these cute labels to my baking jars this week too. LOVE how they turned out. My whole wheat flour jar is woefully empty but that is because whole wheat maintains more of it's nutritional value if ground fresh. But sometimes there is extra flour in there!

Signs of Life

I am so happy to report that I am finally feeling back to my normal self. Well as normal as you can feel at 19 weeks pregnant anyway! I knew things were starting to get back to normal when the following happened:

Laundry getting washed, folded and put away on the same day! This didn't happen around here for months. I could get it washed and dried on my normal day (Monday) but it usually sat in baskets until Allen folded it for me (on about Thursday).

Meal planning and cooking! Yay! It feels great to be back in my kitchen and feeding my family healthy meals again. I'm especially enjoying all of the fall baking this year. Last year I was on my crazy strict diet and did virtually no baking all fall so I'm totally living it up this year! {And next year I'll have to be good again while I lose baby weight}Scrapbooking! I'm so happy to have enough energy to be getting back into a few hobbies. I scrapped TWELVE pages this week and am happily completely caught up on my kids' school scrapbooks! Next up is getting my 365 blog updated this weekend.This fall is shaping up to be INSANELY busy. My bestie (Mindy) is getting married in two weeks so we are making a QUICK trip to Utah for her wedding. We are thrilled to pieces for her and love her fiance Erik.

The very next weekend Allen and I will be boarding this:

And heading to places like this:

(One of our ports - St. Maarten, Virgin Islands) as an early 10 year anniversary trip. We are so excited but I have A LOT to do to get ready for my parents to come and care for my kiddos that week.

We also have all of our traditional fall activities - apple picking, state fair, pumpkin patch, balloon fiesta - to squeeze in to the remaining weekends. Carter starts football this week and the girls have started their dance and gymnastics classes. I have some decorating and sewing projects up my sleeve (including DARLING Halloween costumes - yes, I am a glutton for punishment!!) and am pulling out my fall decor bins to start decorating around here this weekend!

Ok, that's about it from around here! I'll be back with more soon!

Pumkin Patch(es)

I am insanely behind on everything (what else is new?) due to a crazy couple of weeks. We have been busy traveling and working on a couple of big projects and I promise a big update soon. A couple Saturdays ago we headed off to the Pumpkin Patch. The one we went to was about an hour away and was VERY crowded but we had a wonderful time. We spent a total of 6 hours there and would you believe we didn't even get to do all the activities they had?! Here are a few pictures:

Train ride:

Kiddo picture:
They had this huge bouncy bubble that was a cross between a trampoline and a bounce house. It was really fun and I had never seen anything like it:

Picking our pumpkins:
There was also a petting zoo, a huge slide (the kids went down over and over), corn maze, go carts, a giant sandbox full of dried corn where we stayed for at least an hour, a corn pyramid, hay ride and even more that we didn't get to. We also enjoyed a huge bag of kettle corn and homemade fudge from the candy store. It was a great fall day and we came home dusty and tired!

The following Monday I was able to chaperone Makenna's preschool pumpkin patch trip. She had a great time with all her friends:

A Fair Weekend

We had a busy and fun weekend. Friday night was Carter's school fair and we had a really fun time. We had dinner and then cotton candy:
{I want to blow this pic up and frame it my house somewhere!}

Played games:

Played on the playground:

The kids also participated in some relays and bounced in the bouncer a few times. Carter spent a good portion of the night running around with his friends. It was super fun and we love being part of the school community this year.

On Saturday after our Primary Program practice and Carter's soccer game we headed to the NM State Fair for a few hours. The kids had a wonderful time. We rode a few rides:




Saw the baby animals:

Played at Old McDonald's Farm:{After redoing her hair about 10 times, I finally just let her pull it out. Sorry about the mohawk, oh, and the icecream covered baby. We fit right in at the fair LOL}



This kids area was so much fun. There were also tractor rides, cow roping, produce gathering, a corn maze and a few other fun things. We spent A LOT of our time here. We also ate lots of yummy fair food including about 5 lbs. of delicious curly fries (no joke) and a gooey, melty, delicious deep fried Snickers (among other things). It was a fun, exhausting and very dirty day at the fair.

We have LOTS of other fun fall activities planned so stay tuned. My friend Melissa inspired me to post twice a week so that is my new goal (plus catching up on all my friends' neglected blogs!)