Life on the Farm

October is one of my favorite months around here. I am not exagerating when I say there is a Fall Festival going on weekly and towards the end of the month daily. Churches in the south are big business and that means great holiday gatherings that communities turn out for.

This year we have not had a free Saturday to make a trip to our favorite pumpkin patch, so instead we headed out last week to a farm festival that was held during the week.

Animals were there for the petting

And apparently Toby was there for the wiping

mmmm cow snot. But a little snot was not going to slow my boys down



They LOVED the horse rides.

Later a horse dance team (?) performed. And I have to say they were quite impressive. I even had the thought "I wonder if JK will want to do something like this when she gets older....
I think she might. I'll let you know. Of course you have to have a horse which brings us back to the animal snot you saw earlier. Good old fashioned ballet studio dancing is going to have to do.

So on to a week of Halloween fun. Our church is having their Fall Festival on Friday - all are welcome - I will be in charge of the photo area and a story room for the kids. My sister asked if it was going to be a scary story room. Not really, but now I can't get the thought out of my mind of the poor kids running from the "sweet" story room because Sister Longnecker scared them half to death. Why is it so fun to scare people - why?

OK I promise to you all coming to the party this friday - the story will be about a sweet pumpkin. No escapee prisoners on the lose, no men in the back of the cars and definetly no phone calls to babysitters will be mentioned in my story room. Although all of those are classics are they not.

Happy Halloween to you.

Grandma came to visit!

My mom came to visit last week. She makes everything better and more full of life. We started our weeks adventure with a trip to NYC. One of my best friends from high school was married there and we thought it was a great excuse to go to the Big City together. We had a blast - can you tell?

My mom's brother and his wife are serving as mission presidents for our church in the New York New York North mission - we loved visiting with them and seeing their world for the next few years. The missionaries in New York are lucky to have them, and we were lucky to stay with them. Here are a few pictures...They live in Scarsdale and it is FANTASTIC. A real escape from the city. Notice the license plates? You can take the man out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the man.... It really was a treat to be with them and hear about their adventures.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the wedding - it was beautiful.

After our adventure in NY - and it was an adventure filled with planes, trains, subways, taxis, getting lost, street vendors, and a transformation in the H&M mens bathroom, we came back to Alabama for my mom to spend a week with these guys.Oh how they love her! Trey told me just the other day that if he could sleep with anyone it would be grandma. Every night the kids would run into her room instead of ours. She took them to school, ate lunch at Trey's school with him and made sure to spoil them rotten any chance she got.

She also spoils me with energy. Seriously she is like the energizer bunny and I swear I do more in a week with her here than I do in a month without her. Here are a few of our projects:


Our kitchen began to look complete with her help. She whipped together the decor on top of our china hutch and helped me pick out the rug.
Flower bows anyone? She and I made these one night.

And now JK has her very own chair. My mom gives each grandchild a chair for them to enjoy as they grow.

All of these projects and treats taken to friends, boards painted for an upcoming trunk show as well as a fun day of shopping complete with a new scarf, plaid shirt and a halloween outfit for JK.... whew I need her around all the time!

Another thing that my mom did that I want to always remember; she planned a special night to honor Julia, Lars' mother. She made her favorite dinner of hamburger gravy and we decorated the table with Julia's favorites. Then we toasted (with Julia's favorite drink) to all of our wonderful memories of her. My mom told the kids how much she loved their other grandmother and how special she was and how much Julia loved each of them. Then we all went for a walk - the boys were told to look for things on the ground and wouldn't you know that my mom had 'planted' money along our route for them to find, another one of Julia's favorite past times. We talked all about how Julia would walk and walk collecting money as she went - the boys LOVED it.

We will keep this tradition alive.

We love you Grandma - we miss you more than you know. Thank you for spending this last week with us. We can't wait to see you again - LOVE YOU!