Fall: Pumpkin, Patches, and Pathosis

Welcome, fall! We are so excited to have such lovely weather lately! I have been trying delicious new pumpkin recipes and enjoying every minute of it. We have loved these pumpkin muffins found via SouleMama and these pumpkin cookies found on DesignMom. And yes, I probably do follow too many random blogs. I'm excited to try some new soups this coming week.

Cooler weather has called for warmer clothing. I have been digging through boxes and storage bins for long pants and long sleeved shirts for the kids. Some of Caleb's jeans were pretty badly torn and since they fit him so well I decided to fix them for him.
And I do really like orange.

And I really like when Caleb poses like a movie star.

He's our own mini Russell Crowe.

Emily wanted in on the action. She's kind of a ham.

 Elinor wanted nothing to do with it.

Lovely fall weather has brought with it much sickness for Elinor.
One day we will have our happy little girl back!

PS - sorry about that title there. I just really needed a "p" word for sickness.

Happy Halloween!

More Trunk or Treat

I mentioned earlier that we went to the ward trunk or treat earlier this week. Here are some pictures taken by a member of the ward bishopric:

 Emily wasn't a fan of the wig. Caleb may have been too sick to protest.

 And here are some of our friends' great costumes.

It's probably obvious that I love group costumes. Wasn't this one perfect?

And of course, we have come to have great Halloween expectations of Mark and Jessie. They didn't disappoint this year!

I wish.

After a full week cooped up inside, I find myself missing days like these.

 

I love the carefree morning hours we so often spend out on the playground.

 Fortunately, the kids are on the mend and we should be back up and running by next week. We've gotta enjoy this nice weather while it lasts!

What to do with a Big Butt Baby

With Elinor in cloth diapers, a lot of Emily's old 12-month pants aren't fitting quite right. The cloth adds some bulk, plus Elinor is not yet walking so she needs a little more flexibility than what jeans have to offer.
I saw these on Made By Rae the other day and decided to copy-cat them. I didn't want to pay $10 for the PDF, but she definitely deserves credit for the inspiration.

This is my first attempt at sewing a homemade pattern, and it definitely still needs some tweaking. That booty definitely needed way more fabric than I thought! (Hence the added green panels at the top.)

 I will probably take in the front a bit next time too. I should go redraw the pattern while all this is fresh in my mind! I am pretty happy with them though and will probably make a couple more pairs for her.They are reversible and the bottoms are cuffed so they will fit her for a long time.

Trunk or Treat!

Our ward held their annual Trunk or Treat this evening. I have been working on and off on the family's Halloween costume for a while so it was fun for me to see everything come together.
Lately the kids have been a little bit obsessed with Dr. Seuss so I thought the Cat in the Hat would be a fun group costume.

I did run out of time to do my own costume, as usual. It's tradition by now.

Elinor was appropriately solemn for her character:
"Do I like this?
Oh, no! I do not.
This is not a good game...
No, I do not like it,
Not one little bit!"

And here are some pictures I took when we got home.

She's such a happy little girl. We love playing with her.

And here is our Cat's solo shot.

Plus Caleb.

Our own little bag lady

The most stylish baby on the block!
The too-small aviator hat does a great job keeping her ears warm.
The rockin' 90's flower print body suit was a hand me down from a neighbor.
The pulled up socks are acting as leg warmers for pant legs that just didn't quite go the distance.
The red jacket was the only girl jacket I could find in her size.

I assure you she will only get more bag-lady-like as the season progresses.

New Tricks

Porch Party

Yesterday Emily asked if she could go outside to sit on the back porch for a break.
10 minutes later...

three or four more kids joined the party within the next couple of minutes, but I didn't want to pull the camera out again.
What can I say? The girl loves to entertain!

Mastering the Y

Yesterday Emily didn't have school because of Columbus Day and parent-teacher conferences. We played hard in the morning, but did our "homework" as usual in the afternoon. It was such a nice day we did it outside with chalk.

It has taken Emily four days to master the lower-case y. Not sure why, but it sure was a lot of trouble.

Elinor had slept through lunch so she ate outside with us. It was one of those perfect moments when the kids were happy, the weather was nice, and I could relax and be content.

Joseph made a pie a week or two ago. I thought it was so pretty that I had to take a picture before we cut into it.

I am so artistically rustic!
Really, though, our camera doesn't work very well so I took the pie outside for better lighting.

Elinor was not happy about my stepping away from where she could get to me.

Things are going well now. I have recovered enough from my barefoot running injury that I can almost run a mile again. Sad, huh.

I have also discovered a favorite diaper - the Cloth-Eez Workhorse diaper. I really like it. It is basically a fitted diaper made from a basic prefold so it doesn't cost $20. It is a good in-between diaper for someone that doesn't want to deal with flat prefolds but doesn't want to pay $15/diaper for an all-in-one or fitted.