Neighborhood Pumpkin Patch

We hit up the pumpkin patch with Mimi a few weeks ago.  It was not our first, nor our last visit this year :)  We love that place.  It's fun to ride our bikes there and play for as much or as little time as we have.  It'll be open for the rest of October.  But it might not be there next year because they're building a recreation center and pool right where the pumpkin patch is (well, if the bond gets passed - which we really are hoping for).

hay ride:

view from the tractor:

Lane and Kim live just past those brown homes:

Happy Harvest!

this is the pumpkin she chose!

 
We love Mimi!!!!!
And here are some photos I took out our back door of the mountains.  They take my breath away.  They look like gold when the sun is hitting just right.
The snow is gone now, but before we left for Texas it snowed.

Skippy 3

Our girl is really good at entertaining herself (usually).  She was cracking me up while playing with Skippy 3. (My parents have a poodle named Skippy 2, and the original Skippy is in heaven.)  She was dressing him up in doll clothes and styling his fur for almost two hours.  Love her!

Cousins at the "Patch"

Natalie, Rebecca, Addie

found a "dinosaur egg" (really a mushroom).

we ate a quick lunch and headed to Jakers.

clockwise:  Addie, Marianne and Weston, Weston, Em and William

and the hugest, ugliest pig award goes to...

burying Natalie in the corn!

William's cuteness is unreal!!  LOVE that boy!

The sweetest, most sincere goodbye hug.  I love their love!

WithFest - Gardner Village

We {heart} outings!  We got to eat lunch with my mom, dad, and Steph (they slipped away from the office for a bit) before heading to Gardner Village for WitchFest.

she didn't want to get too close!

I love my momma!  Plus she's pretty.

I'm so lucky to have her living nearby.  And that she loves to "play" as much as we do!
I like the look on Rebecca's face in the second photo, and that she's holding on to my earring.  She's my little buddy :)

Can't get enough...

of those Braithwaite's!!

and that pumpkin patch! (can u tell)

They are so fun and the bestest backyard neighbor friends we could ask for!  I love how Kim has a magic wand attached to her pants!  That is a TRUE mom, right there.  heheheh

Primary Program

Last week was Rebecca's first primary program.  We put her hair in curlers the night before.  She told me she wanted to twirl and boing her hair while she sang.  She did just that! 

For her part she had to finish the sentence, "I know Jesus loves me because..." and she chose to say,
"He gave us this earth and horses."

I'm the primary chorister (have been for almost 2 yrs now) and I REALLY enjoy my calling. It was so touching to see those sweet kids up there last week. I can really say I love them all. Yes, all 151 of them!  And I was proud of my Becca. Mimi got to come and watch her too, and that was pretty special.  We like it!

Princess Tea Party

Little cuties!  (Thanks for the pictures, Em.  I stole them from your blog!)  We met one afternoon at Jon and Em's house and ate cafe rio and "tea"!  The girls loved it.
And the charming princes did too:

Texas

We had the opportunity to visit Jim and Birgit on their mission! We stayed Thurs night - Tuesday afternoon, from October 6-11th. We flew into Houston. And stayed in Cleveland, where those two are living.

Rebecca has really missed her Omi and Grandpa and was more than excited to see them!

These photos are out of order, but it's taking too long to try and move them.  But anyway, on Sunday we visited a couple of families from Jim and Birgit's ward.  This guy is a taxidermist, and his house is chuck FULL of his animals.  It was quite an experience to visit him and his wife - true Texans. 

Here Rebecca is loading up on the deer sausage that was offered to us.  It was cured and smoked out back!  Also, they have goats, which they milk twice a day. We were there at milking time, but Rebecca didn't want to try it.  Well, none of us dared try it.  But it was still cool to see!

Here we were in Galveston, visiting the beach.

and eating ice cream!

Rebecca (our little photographer) took these photos in our hotel room:

Here is one of the mariachi singers!  We were at a YUMMY mexican restaurant, and Jim and Birgit knew a couple of the singers in the band.  So our table got serenaded for about four numbers.  Rebecca fell asleep on the way there, so was a little out of it, but I think she still enjoyed it.  That was a really fun evening.

We stopped at the grocery store.  Jorg couldn't resist hopping on one of the wheel chair shopping carts with Rebecca.  LOVE this picture!  heheheh

Here we are at the Houston Zoo!

Rebecca and I were looking at a wolf (which I didn't get a good photo of).  Right when she saw him, she exclaimed, "OH!  That's a Maned Wolf!"  I was like, ummmm....sure....oooookay....whatever.  Then we got to the sign.  Sure enough!  It was a Maned Wolf!  Apparently she had seen an episode of Diego that was about these wolves and she recognized his markings.  She's a genius for sure.

She LOVED climbing that elephant over and over.  It did not look easy.

It was an awesome zoo.  We were really impressed!
Here we are back on Sunday when we visited another member's house.  They had two baby goats, whose mother had died.  They are a couple of months old.  They are bottle fed and treat their owner like their mama.  Cute, cute.  Rebecca just giggled and giggled about them.  So fun

Here are the two buddies at the airport, saying goodbye.  Omi made that crocodile for Rebecca and she LOVEs it.

Thanks, Jim and Birgit, for a great trip! We are so proud of you for all your service and hard work, deep in the heart of Texas! Those folks are so luck to have ya, and everyone we met told us so, too.