October and November

 We have had such a wonderful fall here in Maryland. Fall wouldn't be fall without LDS General Conference (see here if you're not familiar), cooler weather, falling leaves, and of course, a trip (or two) to the pumpkin farm. I took the kids to Butler's Orchard for Rachel's Joy School class field trip. It did not disappoint. There were tons of great activities to do and the weather was awesome. Can't beat that much fun for $6 a person, and that included a pumpkin and two awesomely fresh apples each.

Alden enjoying the many tractors to play on.

Their playground was the coolest I've ever seen, with a castle, huge wooden ship, a train, and lots of slides, fireman's poles, and things to climb on. Rachel looks so tiny up there!

Alden steering the ship.

Playing with a bin full of corn kernels and lots of construction trucks (the kids really loved this!).

This activity was Rachel and Alden's favorite! This barn was filled with tons of hay. The hay had been baled in some places to let you climb up and stand, and then you could jump into the loose hay. It felt like walking on clouds.

In flight action!

Picked our pumpkins.

Alden and I on the hayride.

Checking out the chickens. Several types of animals were there.

Chatting with the goats.

 We had so much fun we decided to take Daddy back to get even more pumpkins. We also bought some really amazing fresh Honey-crisp apples. We just did the pumpkin patch that day since it was really crowded, but we were happy with our pickings. Jase cooked them down to puree and bagged tons of pumpkin for the freezer. We've made some great pies and cookies already with them. Fresh pumpkin really is worth it.

 The next weekend (Columbus Day I think) it was just looking too deliciously beautiful outside not to go on a hike, so we set off for our favorite little 1 mile trail in Seneca Creek State Park. I love this little hike because it's not too hard and the kids will walk the whole way. The view is pretty and it follows a little stream to the side. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day with so many changing leaves.

The trail crosses these power lines twice. The kids call it "the meadow," and they run into it and say it like Bambi says it.

Daddy and his cute girl.

My big and little misters.

Miss Rachel and I

And this post wouldn't be complete without Oliver! He loves sitting in the sinks.

Rainy day fun pretending Alden's bed is a car and we're taking ALL the babies somewhere.

 Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast the weekend before Halloween. New York and New Jersey bore the major brunt of it and are still recovering now (and I imagine will be for some time). We were very lucky and did not even lose power, although we were preparing to lose it--perhaps for a week or two!

The only casualty we saw close to us. This tree fell right outside our front windows. We're really glad we didn't park there.

 Halloween was a blast. We got all dressed up and went over to the Elliott's house (my cousin Joani and her family). We watched Mark carve a pumpkin quite expertly, roasted pumpkin seeds, went trick-or-treating in their awesome neighborhood, and had dinner. We stayed up way too late singing songs with the kids, and Joani re-lit some candles for the kids to blow out about a hundred times because it was just so funny (we'd sing some song, and then the kids would blow out the candles...they thought this was hysterical). The day after Halloween, we went to Target to buy half price costumes for our dress-up bin. We ended up with a Buzz Lightyear costume, a cowboy/cowgirl getup complete with hat, coat, vest, and badge, several superhero vests with capes, a Cinderella costume, and a ninja costume. I think I'm going to do this every Halloween.

BYU cheerleader Grace and Miss Rachel with "Toto" (who obviously looks nothing like the real dog).

My beautiful Dorothy.

Little lion with a mouthful of dinner (he was so tough to get a picture of the whole night!).

With her loot.

Mark's witches "brew"

Roasted pumpkin seeds! Yum! Rachel hated them but Alden couldn't get enough.

Don't you think this boy could get away with anything in a bow tie?

Good. Because right now I'm making one for him for his Sunday Christmas outfit.

 In other important recordable news, Jason is doing really well at work. Before he accepted his current job at the FDA he interviewed with another office in HHS, where he was really impressed with the office in general, but particularly the boss there. When he got into his fellowship he had to pick a mentor, so he picked this gentleman since he wanted to keep in contact and learn from him. Jase has been part of an appropriations law reading group with him, and was asked to lead one of their discussions downtown mid October. Everything went well! Part of Jason's fellowship allows him to do a 4-6 month rotation with another government office, so he discussed this with the HHS office and they said they'd be happy to have him. So come March, Jase will be working in the HHS Budget Office for a few months. It's downtown, so it'll be a bit more of a commute for him, but he's happy to get even more experience.

Rachel finished her gymnastics class, but had to miss the second to last class due to getting her fingers caught in the elevator on the way in. Ouch! As the door was opening she put her hand on it and within a second her fingers were jammed between the wall and the opening elevator (maybe this is hard to picture? the elevator was NOT closing on her fingers...). Anyways, there was incredible commotion and Rachel crying. We iced things up and I watched her for a few hours. We went home to get lunch and to nap the kids, and then I took her to urgent care just to be sure things weren't broken. I didn't think they were since the swelling had gone almost all the way down and she said that nothing hurt anymore, but you never know with fingers. Got her checked out and she was perfectly fine. I loved that when the nurses asked her to pick the face that showed her pain level she picked the happiest looking one and said, "I'm the happiest!"

And that brings us to these wonderful holidays!!! I am slightly ashamed to admit that I began listening to Christmas music early this year, and the kids followed suit. We bought our tree and put it up (our first fake one) about a week and a half before Thanksgiving. I realize this is ridiculous, but it was fun. And our fun will be present for nearly 2 months this year. Thanksgiving was one of our best (sadly no pictures...). I can't remember enjoying turkey until this year. Jase carefully brined that bird in our refrigerator, and it was stellar. We had lots of fun teasing the kids about the dead bird in our fridge (it was in the bottom vegetable drawer, floating in a clear plastic bag full of brine and very visible). All the other food was awesome, and the company even better. We hosted the Elliott family and had fun eating, watching the old clay-mation "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and talking. Later that night Jason braved the black-Friday crowds and found a $38 blu-ray player, some new cheap movies, and a new coat he needed. I did the rest of my shopping the next day, and now everything is either bought or ordered. We're done! I think that brings us up to speed! Next post will probably be a recap of the Christmas season, but I feel accomplished just recording our lives even every month or two. I've never been a reliable journal-keeper, so hopefully this will suffice.

I'm so grateful for this season that reminds me to enjoy the little things and be grateful for all the things I have. We have our little family, loving and thoughtful extended families, good friends all across the country, our health, a solid job, a reliable car, a warm and happy home, and plenty of clothes and food. I have been feeling really blessed lately and have had some great experiences in young women's and because of General and Stake Conference and I've just been feeling continually reminded of how blessed I really am. Happy Holidays!