Welcome back Fall!!

I love fall! I love when the weather starts to turn crisp and cool, which is such a welcome break after a hot and humid Texas summer. I love taking the boys to the park and having to wear sweatshirts, and I love watching for even the faintest change in colors in the trees (because in Texas you can't blink or you might miss it!) The one thing that I have not loved about the change in weather this year is the germs that seem to keep recycling their way through our community and subsequently, our home. Have you had it in your circle of family and friends? We have just been through our second round of a stomach virus. Steve is the lone survivor, as he was last time until he ended up with it about a week after the rest of us. So we are praying he is able to stay healthy this time!

Here are some of my pictures from the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, I didn't take our nice camera...I didn't trust myself with both the boys and an expensive camera, so I just brought my little pocket digital with me. I always want the nice camera with me just in case the boys cooperate and I can get a nice picture of the two of them together. Looking in the general direction of the camera. Semi-smiling. It doesn't happen often, so when it does, I want to be ready! Well, when I couldn't even get a picture of Caleb smiling by himself with the pumpkins, I knew it wasn't going to happen with both boys together!

So here it is...the best picture of the two boys together from our pumpkin patch day. This pumpkin patch was WAY out in the country, and they had an elderly gentleman that was driving a tractor for a hayride. The boys loved it, and since they had to be sitting down, we tried getting Seth and Caleb together to smile. This was the best result...not exactly a framer :-)


Here are Nana and Seth feeding some goats. These animals were obviously very used to being hand fed and were a little on the aggressive side. We had to make sure that no fingers were being nibbled along with the feed!

Caleb wanted nothing to do with the goats, but they were plenty interested in him!

Here is Seth with his cousin Austin.


Caleb was really into sitting still, posing, and smiling while lazily admiring the pumpkins. OK, what really happened is my Mom would plop him down and the minute her hands were off of him, he would pop back up. So we sort of wedged him in there to try to get a good picture...does that sound cruel? It wasn't, I promise, and we only tried 3 times before we gave up. This is as good as it gets.

And Seth was intently covering the tops of each pumpkin with little piles of dirt. He stopped long enough for a brief "Cheese!" before returning to his important work.


I told Steve that the pumpkin patch pictures suffered a bit this year with his absence. Well, in my next post I will show you what Caleb looks like with a large bloody cut across the bridge of his nose. His first major facial wound. I will try to dig up the picture of Seth's first major wound, which was on the bridge of his nose as well. Won't that be fun? Bet you can't wait... :)