Bethany’s Baptism and Rachel’s Birthday

Mostly a picture post, I wanted to get the pictures from these events up because I know there are family wanting to see them. Bethany turned 8 recently and had her baptism on November 13th, the same day Rachel turned 3! Both events were lots of fun, and it was really nice to see Ben’s parents again. We hadn’t seen them since May when Matthew got home from his mission. Ben’s brother Dave lives in Portland, so that’s where we stayed the weekend of Bethany’s baptism. We had a really good time taking some time away from home just to hang with family and of course be there for Bethany’s special time.

Pretty Bethany!

The whole family – from left to right there’s Savannah (3), Nathan (6), Dave, Debbie, Charity (1.5) and Bethany.

Everyone who was able to come. It was great to be all together for the weekend.

The birthday girl!

Rachel opening presents. Lily enjoyed being the one to hand them to her.

Cute cake Andy made. It was yummy too.

The end. I didn’t take my camera out much, mostly because I was too busy doing other things with everybody!

Behind

Obviously I’m a little slow getting pictures of our corn maze/pumpkin picking adventure up, but it was such a fun day I wanted to share. So excuse my tardiness, and enjoy some pictures!

My cute sister came with us. She’s fun to hang out with, and she’s really good with my kids. Score.

Michael took awhile to decide that he liked walking around the corn maze. It might have had something to do with his needing a nap – it was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go to a Pumpkin Farm and not just Safeway to get our pumpkins, so we didn’t plan around naptime. We tried to carry Michael at first, but had to settle for chasing him around, herding him in the right direction, and playing lots of games of “jump out of the cornstalks roaring like a monster.”

After the corn maze, we were off to pick our pumpkins. I wish we had planned ahead a little more and done some of the other activities, like the petting zoo and some of the other kids’ activities, but there was no time. Next time!

It was a really big pumpkin farm. I think we explored all of 1 1/2 rows of pumpkins before grabbing ours. So many to choose from!

My mom’s cute boots on my sister. I really wish I had some cute rain boots! You know, my birthday is coming up…

Picking the perfect pumpkin. It’s apparently a complicated process including how they smell.

Our multicolored finds!

Driving home! Ok, not really. I was surprised that Lily was excited about the tractor and wanted to sit in it. She really liked it though.

I can’t seem to finish this post, so that must mean it’s getting too long. Part two to follow!

I hate coming up with titles for my posts

I finally was able to go through all my pictures from when we were at my parents house. And I know I’ve said this before, but I love Autumn! I love the falling leaves and the warm oranges and reds and golds – makes for fun photography. It helps that I have two of the cutest little models ever. I never get tired of taking pictures of my kids. Actually, I just really enjoy taking pictures of people in general. It’s exciting to me to try to capture their personalities and make them look their best.

My kids crack me up. The end.

We’re back!

Hi! You remember me, right? I mean, it’s only been a month and a half, that’s not that long…

Wait, that actually is a really long time – I guess I understand if you’re forgotten all about us. But I have a really good excuse for not blogging lately.

WE MOVED!!

We finally, finally, after almost two years of trying, sold our condo and were able to buy a house! We love it – it’s pretty much exactly what we’ve always been wanting, including a fantasticly large back yard. We sold our condo in the beginning of September, and it took about a month and a half to close - long story short, the closing date kept getting pushed back for one reason or another. We made an offer on our new house shortly after we got the offer on our condo and closed on the house just four days after we closed on the condo. But because the condo was supposed to close two weeks earlier than it did, we lived with my parents for 2 1/2 weeks. A long commute for Ben, but it was like a vacation for me. So nice to hang out with my family for that long and have minimal responsibilities (you know, not counting watching the kiddos ). Plus I got to see and spend some time with some of my high school friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Really nice.

Of course now we’re hip-deep in boxes as I try to unpack and organize and figure out where I want everything. I unpacked the kitchen first, cuz otherwise I would have gone crazy. So at least we’re having real meals. I’d put some pictures up, except it’s still way too messy, so you’re just going to have to wait until I finish up (you might be waiting awhile!).

However, I do have hundreds (yes, HUNDREDS!!) of pictures that I took while we were staying with my parents. We played outside almost every day, on the tramp, in leaves, and made it to a pumpkin patch too, which the kids just loved. The weather was, for the most part, super nice. Not too cold or rainy. Fall is really my favorite time of year – I love all the falling leaves and autumn colors, I love Halloween and Thanksgiving, and the cooler weather, perfect for boots and sweaters. I had lots of fun trying to capture “Fall” through my lens. :)

Since I do have so many pictures I want to share, and I’m not even done going through them all yet, I’ll just pick a couple of my favorites. Here goes!

Well, there you go – very random collection of pictures, but some of my very favorites from the last month or two. Hope you like.