Pumpkin patch through Hallow's Eve. 2011.

Lot's o' pictures comin' your way in this here post. I mean, this blog here is also our family history. So I have to talk about... our family history. I mean how would my posterity feel reading about great great grandma's bushy brow if that's all I wrote about here? Maybe they won't think it's that great. Maybe I'll have some great great grandkids who are real sticks in the mud. So I have to be versatile in my posts you see. Hey now, hey now, don't go gettin' all upset and panicky on me. I do indeed still plan to update you on the eyebrow situation. Just calm down! And sit back down while you're at it! I know just now you got up from your computer in outrage and started throwing things when you thought maybe I wouldn't talk about my eyebrows anymore. And I love you so much for it!

I LOVE Autumn. It is my favorite. I love the smells. I love being in scarves and sweaters and boots. I love the colors. I love being inside all day looking that the balmy skies without feeling guilty about it. (I always feel guilty about being inside all day folding laundry during the summer). I love butternut squash soup and bread bowls. I love hot chocolate more than just about anything, and I make a mean hot cocoa. I love the anticipation of the holidays. The anticipation of the holidays might even be better than the actual holidays themselves. But either way, I love it all.

First we'll start off with some pics from a couple weeks ago when we went down for an afternoon at the pumpkin patch.

Pretty sure something like this happens every time we tell Lucy to "give Scarlett a hug".

I love Utah. Indeed.

And then a few days later, when we got to carvin' these babies up. I haven't done this for some time; it's been longer than since last Halloween. And I don't know if it was the pregnancy or what but gutting these pumpkins was making me dry heave repeatedly. Pulling out all the seeds and muck and stringy wet goop. And then when we got into a pumpkin gut fight and started hucking it at each other's faces, lots more dry heaving ensued.

Another favorite part was when Jason finished off carving two pumpkins by the time I was half-way through with mine, he turned and gave me his little switchblade he'd been using and said, "Here, use this knife for the rest of yours, it cuts WAY easier and it's so much easier to maneuver." I felt like Harry when Lloyd revealed he had two pairs of gloves the entire time. I think I said something like, It makes sense that you didn't offer this to me earlier and that you've been watching me with my sweaty brow trying to carve this pumpkin with this butter knife, since I'm a lot physically stronger than you anyway.

And here's our happy pumpkin family! Minus Scarlett. Her little baby pumpkin never got carved. She never even asked about it either. I promise yours will make a showing next Halloween.

Halloween Day:

Need I say more? Okay, well we needed to say more to just about everyone we ran into, so if you can't tell, we are Alice and Jasper Cullen. No, we're not Twilight obsessors but it was just an easy thing to throw together. In fact, it may have been the easiest "costume" I've ever had; I just threw in some contacts and put on a little pale make-up. So we were sortof lazy this year. Jason got all ready and went to work all day as Jasper on Friday:

And I couldn't stop taking pictures of him. I just love him a lot. Because he's not too cool for school. I mean, he is too cool for some things, like being unfaithful to his wife and squandering our family savings, but the things that really matter, like looking silly for the sake of a holiday? Not too cool for school at all. Except someone in his office asked if he was Edward, and that threw him off his Jasper game a little. Now, we took no offense at this and don't feel any attachment to Edward or need to defend his perfectly messy bronzey-brown hair, but even Jason was like, What?! Edward? You gotta be kiddin' me?! and he brushed his golden locks right outta his face, turned around and strutted away. I think it happened just like that.

At the office partay:

Love our little pirate and moo cow more than anything on earth.

Look at these munchkins. Edible.

Lucy was set on being a princess actually, had been talking about it for months. But she has princess dresses and can dress up as Cinderella whenever she wants. So we tweaked it. And it turned out being a princess pirate really was what made all her dreams comes true. She was yelling, Aarrrrgg! Ahoy mateys!!! all day long. Scarlett was slightly less ambitious, but you tell me where would we be in this world without dairy cows? She knows she really matters and that a lot of people depend on her.

So there I was doing my motherly and wifely duty and taking lots of pictures of daddy and his girls in their Halloween costumes so I gave the camera to Jason and asked him to take a few of me and the girls. "Here Jason, take a pic of me and Scarlett together."

Photo 1:

And photo 2:

I was delighted to see that these two shots were the final product of my photoshoot with my little cow. He handed the camera back to me and said, Yeah I got some good ones of you two! Glad that daddy got some really good mommy/daughter shots. I'm being serious. I cropped this second picture NONE.

Scarlett kept getting really confused and hugging onto random men's legs thinking they were here dad's. This is the second time it happened actually. Hopefully not something that happens when she's 18. That little moo cow was stunned and shocked every time upon realization of her grave error.

And trick or treating. I have a feeling this is going to get more and more fun as we have more munchkins.

We ended the night heading over to our friends Dave and Allyson's for their annual Halloween bash. The kids were already pretty tuckered out but they were close and we knew we couldn't miss out on their homemade root beer, cream soda and ginger ale. Um let's not forget homemade donuts. I was already pretty full when we got there so I requested a donut hole instead of an entire donut, but I must have ended up eating me about 16 donut holes. All in all, I felt like they were less caloric. I want some more now, too. Yum. You Frankmans are amazing!

It was a fabulous day. One of the real highlights for me was a guy I met at the party wanting to analyze Alice's character with me every time I'd turn around. So you're the one who has the futuristic premonitions... I mean it's not like she sees for certain what exactly is going to happen... the premonitions are conditional on other factors, right? or, So it that your real skin complexion? What about your hair? Or So you're a vegetarian vampire, that why your eyes aren't red... I had to quickly clarify that I wasn't a Twilight crazy... but that didn't deter him much. Hubby and I had a good laugh about it on our way home.

Today is rainy and cold. So it's consisted of mostly rooting through Halloween candy and pilfering the good stuff. Have you had a blue raspberry ring-pop lately? It's simply delicious. No wonder Scarlett threw a fit when I took it out of her mouth and put it in mine. I mean, I thought she was just being stingy.

Whew. That was a long post. Loves to all and happy fall! Give me a call! Let's go to a ball! Okay I'm done... ya'll. I can't stop. at all.