We went to the pumpkin patch last week.  Walk through it with us!

Agritourism at its finest:

Ok, now for the real deal!

The Hayride

This picture perfectly captures the current attitudes in our household.  In all things, not just pumpkin picking.

So does this one.

The Patch

Liberty, Cade and Reagan found their pumpkins pretty quickly.

While Levi searched…


the others tried to keep from dropping their pumpkins. These were by far the heaviest pumpkins we’ve ever gotten. 

Still Searching…..
 
He still had not found the perfect by this point.  Levi takes pumpkin picking very seriously.

I’m sure this guy was looking for a pumpkin too.

Success!  Finally!

Love Fall, love the pumpkin patch!


Love how it looks on my doorstep!

I find myself today in a strange situation.  It is something your typical ‘stay at home mom’ experiences, but as I am not a typical ‘stay at home mom’ because I homeschool, it is not something I experience…ever.   I am home with a sick Liberty instead of at our weekly homeschool co-op.  Reagan left for school at 12:15 and the younger boys got a ride to co-op.  So here I sit with one kid all afternoon and that one kid is upstairs sleeping.  My house is quiet. My mind is quiet and not super frenzied with to do’s.  This must be how the other half lives!!! 

But, being the person that I am, I can’t just sit and do nothing, so, you are going to get a blog post! 

This week was the primary program.  It was the first and last time all our kids will be in the program at one time. 

It was the last time because Reagan turned twelve this week!  I can’t believe he’s that old, but there is no denying the prepubescent-ness happening at our house lately. 

He got a bed for his birthday!  That does sound pretty boring, I admit, but he has been sleeping on a mattress and box spring for a while so this was a step up!  He’s been wanting a captain’s bed, so it really was exciting for him.

We also got him a book on Ronald Reagan.  He loves Ronald Reagan, understandably, and has quotes by him up all over his room.

Liberty and Levi had a head on collision this week and though Levi walked away from the crash unscathed, Liberty did not.

Sorry for the up-the-nose shot.

My favorite thing about Halloween time is making sugar cookies with the beautiful fall colors outside my window.

My good friend, Linette, from New Jersey (now CT) came all the way out here to Boise to visit and go to Time Out for Women with me last weekend.  We had a fabulous time and it was so good to talk with her again.  Some people you just fall right back into it with even when it’s been a long time between visits and busy lives keep us from staying in touch well.  We both had three boys when we moved to NJ and then both had a girl for our 4th.  There are some things only a mother of three consecutive boys understands.

Thanks for coming, Linette!   I’ll come to CT next time!

Here are just a few things we’ve done the past few weeks.

I took Liberty to the library and she, as always, walked up and down the aisles selecting only the pink books. 

We went on a field trip to a local nature center and the kids had a run in with a bear.

We’ve been studying chemistry this year and we just finished up learning about the Periodic Table of Elements.  I offered a treat to anyone who wanted to color in and label the entire periodic table.  Cade did it, which was no surprise.  What surprised me is that Levi did one.  It took him an hour, but he did the whole thing!  This kid is pretty amazing.  He reads anything he can get his hands on lately.   

At the risk of offending any liberal readers, I’m going to share this bumper sticker I saw the other day and the dream bumper sticker I thought up as soon as I saw it.

My bumper sticker would say, “GET YOUR LIBERAL PAWS OUT OF MY WALLET! Sincerely, American Women.

This is Not related in ANY way to the bumper sticker, but the other day as we were driving along, Liberty suddenly asked, “Mom, is left wrong?”  I laughed good and hard and said, “No,” and then explained to her what Left and Right meant.(See? Not related in ANY way.) 

I’ve told you before that Liberty dances anywhere, anytime. All she needs is music.  Well that includes the department store.

We’ve been doing a little decorating and we now have a bat cave.

This is looking down into the basement.

And this is coming up out of the basement.

They are trying to get out the front door.

We enjoyed conference weekend in style.

Forts in the basement.

Please ignore the pink explosion on the floor.

Reagan can play four or five songs now on the cello.  Every day I’m grateful he chose the cello instead of a squeaky violin.  This is much easier on the ears.

That’s October so far!

We spent the first weekend in September in beautiful Ogden Valley just on the other side of the Ogden mountains.  The occasion was the 2014 Hymas Family Reunion.  I would love to say we all had a great time the whole time, but that would be stretching things a bit.  Taking our kids anywhere these days is just hard.  They fought pretty much non-stop and I was in tears half the time, I was so embarrassed.  Oh, and we single handedly ruined the once in a life time family picture.  Ok, so the first two are exaggerations, but the picture?  Yeah, we pretty much did ruin that.  I apologize once again to all of Rock’s family for my lack of grace and well, the kid’s lack too.  But there were lots of good moments and here are the picture highlights.

This was the amazing view off the balcony.  Kudos to M & D for picking such a fabulous place!  Who knew just over the mountains in Ogden was this gem!  It is even appropriately named Eden.  We will definitely come back here. 

Seven Little Hymas people!!  The kids LOVED getting to know and play with their cousins.

The boys traded Pokémon all weekend. 

The biggest thrill of all was the game room downstairs.  Ping Pong, Shuffle board, Pool and Air hockey. 

The hot tub was a pretty close second. 

No one drowned during this activity.

It was fun to see Rock catching up with his siblings.  In this picture they are laughing about how Sam and Rock used to have hair.

We roasted marshmallows,

Played with bubbles,

And sparklers too!

We also went to the Pineview Reservoir for a very chilly swim and some jet skiing!

The best part of the weekend really was watching the kids play with their cousins from across the country.  Wish they were closer!

Thanks for making it happen G & G!!!