a visit from sweet friends

Several weeks ago, our dear friends, the Riches, came to visit. We loved our time together talking late into the night, watching our boys play, crafting, and playing games. We always treasure our time with them and look forward to the next time we can be together. This is basically a repeat of Tara's blog post a couple of weeks ago. She's a much more on-the-ball blogger than I am:)

Our sweet boys are really close in age and had fun playing together. This is the third time they've been together, and I have a feeling it's going to continue to be more and more fun each time.

hanging with their sweet daddies:)

crafting!

ticket to ride on the ipad!

This photo captures a good bit of our time together: Carson attempting to attack Jaxon with hugs and kisses:) He's a lot bigger than Jaxon and sometimes knocked him down with his aggressive affection!

We are so thankful for these sweet friends!

Thanks for coming to visit, Mark, Tara, and Jaxon!

wordless wednesday: a bowl or a hat?!

the best pumpkin bread recipe in the whole wide world

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

3 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. allspice

½ tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

¾ tsp. baking soda

2 cups (15 ounce can) pumpkin

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together oil, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Combine and add dry ingredients. Add pumpkins and nuts. Grease and flour two loaf pans. Bake one hour.

Enjoy!

PS: It freezes really well.

PPS: It's also really good as banana bread. Just substitute 2 cups mashed banana for the pumpkin.

pumpkins

I read somewhere the other day that pumpkins are canvases from God. Decorating pumpkins is a fall favorite for me. I carved pumpkins as a child and continued the tradition with college roommates and with my students when I taught first grade. When I found out my friend Kaye had never carved a pumpkin, I got even more excited to dig in with her, though she wasn't a huge fan of pumpkin inards:), and to my disappointment, neither was Carson. He wanted nothing to do with the slimy pulp and seeds. Silly boy wouldn't even give it a try. Maybe next year:)

This year, pinterest inspired me to try out a couple new techniques.

Instead of carving a face, I used a drill and made a polkadot-o-lantern.

I painted thumb tacks black to embellished this pumpkin.

I was able to do this in early October and it wasn't shrivled by Halloween.

I also LOVE baking, smelling, and eating anything with pumpkin, but I normally let Libby do the hard part for me. Maybe this year I'll attempt making pumpkin bread with an actual pumpkin. We'll see...

take me in to the ballgame

come on in, y'all. the rangers are in the world series again!

nope, you won't even need your sun screen or bug spray in our living room.

we'll have lots of fun cheering for ron washington,

michael young,

josh hamilton,

mike napoli, and more!

but beware, we might invite a cardinal fan

or two:)

thanks for another fun season, texas rangers! we had lots of fun cheering for you!

what a difference a year makes...

I'm on a blogging roll, which is fun, but very unlike me:) I just can't get enough of my adorable little pumpkin boy. Look how much he's changed in only one year!! Time flies when you're having fun. What will he look like this time next year?!

2010

2011

Thanks for two fabulous costumes, Granny!! I'm totally gonna steal this idea from Annalee. I need to find a book about a little lamb and another about a jack-o-lantern. Then, I'll glue a photo of the corresponding costume in the front of each book, and take them out to read each October. How fun!

pumpkin patch

We had the very best time at the pumpkin patch!

family pic with the pumpkins

Carson's favorite part was playing in the big tub of corn!

He also got to decorate his very own pumpkin with stickers,

climb all over lots and lots of pumpkins,

take the mini pumpkins in and out of the basket,

and have a costume dress rehearsal!

He was the very cutest pumpkin in the patch!

He got to play in the corn one more time before we headed home.

We saw so many gorgeous trees along the way. Fall in middle Tennessee is so beautiful it takes your breath away. I love love love seeing so many rich and vivid colors.

What a fun fall family day!