A couple very exciting things happened on Monday. First was that we got Fay’s first school picture back and it looks flawlessly cute! (This was actually a huge relief, because when Fay came home from school on picture day her hair looked like she had gotten the little pony-tail stuck on a tree branch or something and had pulled it loose. ha ha! I have been very interested to see the results of this photo ever since then.)

The other exciting thing that happened was that Fay realized she had a loose tooth! It is her first one!  She had somehow earned the right to decide what we did for family party that night and after discovering the loose tooth, she changed the plans she had previously made and decided we needed to celebrate her loose tooth with decorations, balloons, and ice-cream.

I wonder what she will call for when the tooth actually comes out!

One of the days this week I was folding laundry and I opened the windows. This is the view from my bedroom window! I’m sad about how much I take this fabulous view of an oasis in the middle of suburbia for granted, so I thought I would share it. When I actually take the time to stop and think about it, it really makes my day better! I should, clearly, do it more.

Portia is starting to get interested in dressing up. The other day she went full-on Princess on me! So, naturally, I had to take pictures!

Also, here is Portia looking … conniving(?) at the table. ?

And for some reason I don’t have any pictures of Carter from this past week. So I’ll post this picture of him 3 years ago today and tell you that he is beyond excited for Halloween! On Saturday I went to the library costume swap and found a Lightning McQueen driver outfit. He LOVES it and wears it as often as he can! (Mom victory!) He is going to wear it along with his other costume which is rather bulky and may need to be removed for certain activities.

 

 

 

The autumn enjoyment continues around here! This past week we went to our kids’ favorite autumn destination: Cornbelly’s. There are a lot of places around that have similar fall festivities, but Cornbelly’s has the corn-maze which is what sells it for me. But also, there is just SO much to do there! We never get around to doing it all because the kids can only handle so much fun in one day, plus they could spend the entire day in the “corn box”–like unto a sandbox, but filled with corn instead of sand.

Here are some other pictures from the outing.

The other night we decorated pumpkins (we’re not grown up enough to carve them yet). The big kids decorated theirs with stickers and paint. Josh made the cool one. Mine is the one with only one sticker on it. Portia decorated hers, but when nobody was helping her actually decorate the pumpkin, she started decorating easier things like walls, so I opted to help her instead of further embellishing mine.

In non-autumn-related news: The other day, Carter got out his crown from Fay’s birthday and decorated it anew and then thoroughly enjoyed being a king for awhile.

Portia wanted in on the crown action too!

I love my little royalty!

Also, this is the kids brushing their teeth the other night. It is pretty much the cutest ever. I love that my cuties love each other!

 

Last, but not least, I HAD to share this! For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I guarantee it will make your day better.

We Monsons love Halloween! First of all, it is just fun to have spooky stuff around, like adorable ghosts, cutsie smiling jack-o-lanterns, and happy undead mummies! I don’t like scary or gruesome things, and Josh is very kind and tries to keep things to just the spooky level. I greatly appreciate that!

Anyway, we have all kinds of fun Halloween traditions! Here’s what we’ve got so far.

For the past few years we have done mummies (using our reject walmart toilet paper) for family party (aka: FHE). We like this activity because everybody can join in and it is just fun and silly. We listen to Halloweeny music and we all have a great time! Here is Carter as he was bursting out of his mummy-ness.

One tradition we are rather proud of is making a supercool Halloween experience for the trick-or-treaters! Josh has, for the third year now, created a completely original game with a Halloween theme, which, coupled with his amazing knack for creating spooky ambiance, always excites and entertains little kiddos like ours, their parents, and every age in between! I am honestly quite impressed with his ability to make a spook alley type thing that is so accessible to all who want to participate!

Other traditions we have include watching Halloween movies, visiting corn maze type places, pumpkin decorating/carving, and looking around Halloween stores just for fun. It’s a good time of year!

But right now isn’t just Halloween season. It is autumn! (In case you hadn’t heard. 🙂  )  So we have to do some autumny stuff too! Fay has been counting down the days ’til we had enough leaves on the ground to rake them up and jump into them! Yesterday was the day!

We didn’t get to spend as much time as we all could’ve enjoyed because we were all starving and went in for dinner. But never fear! We are just getting started! It is kind of fabulous that a chore that really ought to be done just happens to be super enjoyable if you but add a little bit of jumping to it!

Today, for some autumn enjoyment, we drove up the canyon to look at the changing leaves! It was so beautiful! I knew the pictures wouldn’t be able to do the experience justice; but I suppose that is why Heavenly Father sends autumn every year! Here is one picture from our drive.

At the mouth of the canyon the colors looked like this: lots of reds and oranges. As we drove higher up the canyon the only deciduous trees were quaking aspens and so there was just yellow mixed in with the coniferous deep green. That was actually my favorite part–the contrast was just so striking–but I wasn’t able to get a decent picture. But I also did love the sea of red and orange. Hmmm… maybe the whole canyon was my favorite part.  It was also rather exhilarating to see snow at the top of the canyon! We came home and drank apple cider and wassail-style herbal tea! Yay autumn!

Anyway, we like fall and stuff. 🙂

Here are some random things to make you happy.

The other day, Josh gave the kids lunch in the garage on a fancy “wood table” (Carter thought having a table made of wood was rather novel.) They were really cute. So here they are.

Happy autumn! And happy Halloween season!