1 store, dinner break, 4 stores, Auntie Tammy's house, and 4 hours later...

It was time to relax, and go to sleep. For tomorrow, we would officially have the coolest costumes ever!

Stay tuned. Full pictures coming soon!

Have a wonderful Friday and HAPPY Halloween!!!

Silly Kassi. We'll give you a Pumpkin 101.

Posting about our Pumpkin Carving Party reminded me of a conversation between Kassi and my Aunt Kristine.

AK: Hey, keep your eye out at the stores for pumpkins. The cheapest I can find is 0.11.
Kassi: Okay.

Jessica: Pumpkins are only 2.50 each here.
Kassi: Well AK found them for 11 cents. We have to beat that. 2.50 is way too much.
Jessica: Right, Kass..11 cents means 11 cents per *pound* not 11 cents per pumpkin!
Kassi: Ohh!! I was wondering why she wanted to find them for cheaper than 11 cents, I thought that was a really good deal!!

"Whatever it is"

I'm (mostly) from Idaho.
My entire family listens to Country.
My sister and cousins know (and openly, loudly) sing every possible Country song known to man. I think it's to spite me.
I've always secretly found something really cute about cowboys.
I'll admit, I've cried at a fair share of Country Songs.
While I'm admitting stuff, I'll get this out of the way too--When I was younger (a lot younger) I would sit at the boom box with my grandpa. We'd listen to the Country station and press "Record" as soon as a song that we both really liked would come on. This happened on a daily basis for quite some time. We were tape making pros. My favorite song was Ex's and Oh's.

If you know me pretty well, you know that somehow all of these things have taken a quick turn in the opposite direction. I'm not a fan of Country music. Or at least mainstream country music.

I am however, a really big fan of music. Country is pretty much the only genre I'm not a super huge fan of.

A portion of my dislike for Country music was quickly changed when Travis came home from work one day...excited to tell me about a song that we just "HAD" to get. He proceeds to download this song, and play it for me.

"Whatever it is--Zach Brown Band" is playing on our home stereo and I look at him, give a little chuckle and say ... "Country?! Are you serious??" (He's about as not for country music as I am, so it was surprising!).

"Yeah, just this song. It's a good one." he says back in a shy voice.

"Uh huh! Suuure"

(Background: Trav's boss at work is a HUGE Country Music fan, the other guy in the shop likes rap/hip-hop, and the rest like rock so their day consists of 1/3 listening to Country, 1/3 listening to rap/hip-hop, and the last part rock. Due to this, Trav is becoming quite familiar with Country, and I always give him crap for it. Deep down though..I think it's adorable.)

Listening to the lyrics was enough (and is every time) to tear me up! Something about Trav coming home to show me a Country song that he liked was pretty cute. :)

Of course I couldn't tell him that.

So, hopefully out of all the songs on my new playlist, "Whatever it is" doesn't play when he reads the blog. Oh yeah, and I hope he doesn't read this post..that would make this girl a little red-cheeked.

Third Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

Three years ago, we decided to dedicate one day near Halloween and get together as a family to carve pumpkins.
Turns out, it was a really, really good idea. Everyone looks forward to this day, and it's so fun to get together as a family and carve pumpkins!
This year, we decided to change it up a little bit.

For a few weeks now, we've been keeping an eye on the pumpkins at local grocery stores to find the lowest price. (Big family!)
I got to thinking about it, and realized that I've never ever been to a pumpkin patch, and I've always wanted to experience that. I brought up the idea, and we took it and ran with it.
Ran all the way to this cute little field of pumpkins, next to someone's cute little house.

We piled out of the three cars, and scattered throughout the field to pick our very own pumpkin (or two).
Everyone was on a mission to find the best pumpkin!

We learned a few things along the way:
Pumpkin patches are awesome, and we'll most likely add this to the tradition.
Pumpkins are not actually still on the vines, so there is no picking.
Pumpkins are pretty pokey, and it starts to hurt after you grab stems over and over.
Pumpkins come in ALL different shapes and sizes and colors, and they are definitely not all as round and good as the ones at the stores. (Which makes it sort of fun.)

After piling the pumpkins in the wheelbarrow, Katie man-armed the thing up to the front! Total success! (And, there was even still tons of pumpkins left after our 25..or something like that. I thought we'd quite possibly clean them out!)

Oh yeah, another thing we learned is that next year we should dress for the occasion.
This lil' gal done showed us up! (One day I will have a pony purse just like hers. Promise.)

We piled all of the pumpkins into AK's truck, and we were on our way! It was good times Maybe's Pumpkins Patch! We'll see you next year.

After piling the pumpkins, we saw the perfect picture opportunity, and took advantage!! (Wish you could have been there Grandpa! ...And Grandma--I know you were there. Right next to Harley, behind the girls. I wish you were physically there, though. You would have had such a wonderful time. (I miss you!)

Auntie Tammy took on the official job of pumpkin washing and pumpkin seed cooking! (Sweet!!)

Then it was time to carve!! The living room turned into a pumpkin carving, mess making, tools passing, Halloween music playing, food sharing, story telling, picture taking wonderland.
One of the topics that came up this year was how we love to have friends over to share this tradition with us! The first year Megan brought a friend, next year it was Katie's friend, this year Kassi brought someone, and Mariah's friend came! Love it! Maybe next year we'll be able to leave the pumpkin patch with 50 pumpkins!!

Now, for the pumpkins!!
Camille picked the coolest looking pumpkin! I've never seen anything like it!

My pumpkin (left) (that I wasn't able to finish! Apparently I'm a slower than average pumpkin carver) and Megan's freestyle pumpkin (right) for Grandma.

Kassi's pumpkin (left) (She carved two. This is the one to remember. Trust.) Alexis's second pumpkin (middle), and my first pumpkin (right)

Alexis's second pumpkin (left) (took second place in our pumpkin carving contest), and Carly's (Baby Blake's) mini pumpkin (right)

Harley's pumpkin (left) (I love his pumpkin because it had a face on every side! Good job Harley!! It turned out cute) Katie's pumpkin (freestyle--middle), and Kassi's second pumpkin (right) (told you.)

Carly's first pumpkin (left) (took third place in the pumpkin carving contest!), Carly's second pumpkin (right)

Aubrey's pumpkin (left), David (middle--freestyle--wicked tongue), and Megan's second pumpkin (right--freestyle)

Mariah's pumpkin (left), and Harley's second pumpkin (right)

We had a carving contest this year, and these are your three winners!! (1st place Jessica, 2nd place Alexis, 3rd place Carly) --Although all of the pumpkins turned out adorable!!

Good times at the pumpkin carving party this year. AK made some Taco Soup, and the house is definitely the most festive house on the block now.

The countdown is on to next years fourth (holy cow) annual pumpkin carving contest!!

PS: I'm still not a fan of chainsaws. Hopefully one day I grow out of that fear.

This time of the year is the greatest. In fact, the other day I was just telling Travis how excited I was for all of the Corn Maze's, Pumpkin Carving, and Haunted Houses when I realized there was one slight problem.

October is already half over!

*AND* I will be in Idaho next weekend, *and* Halloween is the weekend after that!!

Where September and October have gone..I'm not quite sure.

I decided we better jump on these fall/halloween festivities before we miss the boat!

So, Friday we (Trav, Me, AK, Devan, Kelly, and Nirvana) ventured to the first (and hopefully not last) Corn Maze of the year!

The Crazy Corn Maze in Sandy was so much fun last year that we decided to go there this time, too!

As always, we had fun navigating through the Corn Maze. We took AK's Corn Maze virginity. That was awesome! Everyone was one hundred percent sure (thought they knew) of the way we were going to find our way out of the maze, so it was interesting having 6 leaders. Thanks to "G" (GPS) (Love you Grandma :)), Devan's killer navigational skills, and my patience explaining to everyone that "Yes, we are headed back to the beginning. Yes, we are on the right track. Again, the entrance is 5 feet away from the exit." we found our way out!
We even scored a few shortcut paths.
So, that was nice.
Except for it felt like you were walking on two parts of where the earth has split itself. Very awkward walking.
But they worked, and we're officially pros.
Oh yeah...and thanks to an app (of course). The flashlight outshined (?) Trav's treasured flashlight, so that was sweet!

Stopped for a couple of cute pictures!

And then it (unfortunately...but fortunately) was time for the Haunted Portion! Advertised this year as "3x bigger, and better!"

I'm not quite sure if I agree with the better part, but the bigger part was definitely true. They included a short walk through another corn maze, which was kind of nice. I wish there would have been more *"Boogey Woogey Woogey" men though. The chainsaw was stinky toward the end, which sent my heart to the floor and gave me enough butterflies to basically lift me off of the ground. I was really fortunate this year, actually. Instinct told me to trade Travis spots just at the right time, and it just so happened as we switched sides, chainsaw dude was on his side! Score!! ..I still had to remind myself to breathe after we'd passed him though. I really, really, really don't like chainsaws or the men/women who run them. I think that's a horrible addition to the Haunted House, but then again, the adrenaline rush is sort of fun.
I'm a big baby when it comes to Haunted Houses, but they are still a must!! Speaking of being a big baby, I almost peed my pants! We were walking through the non-scary maze part, when I decided to look to my left into the corn thinking about how much cooler it would be if people jumped out from the corn, but no such luck yet. Anyways, so I look to the left and notice something. Something that doesn't look like corn, or a stalk, but doesn't really look scary. Just sort of curiosity provoking. So, I say "Hey guys, what do you think this.." at which point a very mean, scary man jumped out from the corn, and scared the bejebus out of me. I hope he did not pee his pants from laughing too hard. Wait...actually, I hope he did pee his pants. That's what he gets!

*Nirvana came with us and she calls the monsters the Bogey Wogey Wogey man. It's adorable. Another thing that's adorable is how she is 3 and we both screamed about the same amount throughout the Haunted House (which was a lot). Okay. That's not really adorable. I'm a baby.

Before the Corn Maze adventure, Devan, Kelly, and Nirvana came over to our house for some dinner. It had been a few months since I've seen Nirvana and one of the first questions she asked me was "Where's your sister?" we had a short conversation about my sister, which ended in me telling her that she didn't have any toys for her to play with, and yes she can watch Scooby Doo in her room. I thought it was fascinating though, that she knew, and remembered my sister after only meeting her once or twice.

And then my Aunt came over and this was their conversation:
AK: Hi, I'm Kristine! What's your name?
Nirvana: Nirvana, but where's your sister?
AK: My sister? Well, she's at home. Do you have a sister?
Nirvana: Um..well..no, but I got friends.

What a cutie!! Although, I still don't get the sister thing.

After the Maze/Haunted Maze we enjoyed (finished off the) fresh hot donuts, and (took the last) carmel apple. The people in line behind us totally loved us.

Plus...I don't see anything wrong with a mini horse.

I didn't listen to myself.

In fact, I think I made things harder on myself.

Actually, I know for a fact that I did.

I went back to my Dad's.

Not just to see her,

But to bring her back to our house to play and sleep and eat and cuddle.

She mainly slept,

but I'm okay with that. She's a really good girl.
I'm okay with that, too.

Taking her home was hard.

She seems like she didn't want to go home either.

Which didn't make things any easier.

My brilliant idea to hang out for a few hours was actually a bad idea.
A really bad idea.
I kinda wish I didn't bring her back to my house, and let her work her way up to my shoulder for a little nap. And I kind of wish that I didn't give her a bath, or make her a little bow. I shouldn't have held her the entire time, and let her meet Trey.

Because all of those things...
they are making it *really* hard for me right now.

I'm attached to this little girl, and it sucks.

Fall: Voted best in..

colors...

decoration...

picture opportunities...

smells...

and everything else.

I know I have the same request every year but...

fall,

will you please, please, please just stay forever?