Family Night: Ice Skating

For family night, we took the kids ice skating. It was Ellie's first time! We all had such a fun time! We love living in an area with so many fun things to do - and the cool weather that allows us to ice skate outdoors in the winter. We will definitely go back again next month.

 Even Hunter had fun in the cold! And we all enjoyed the Gelato we had afterward...Happy Family Night!

He's a Walker!

This little guy has been walking for the last week or so. Finally tonight I caught him on video...

I don't think he's allowed to walk yet. I vividly remember his birth. It wasn't that long ago!

Just Can't Get Enough

Gosh I love the fall so much! I just can't get enough of the cooler weather...the beautiful, brightly-colored trees and the falling leaves...pumpkins...playing outside...and photo ops with the kids.

In this picture, I can finally see the resemblance between these two kiddos - people have been mentioning lately how much Hunter is starting to look like Ellie as he gets bigger, but I rarely see it.

Hunter likes leaf piles now (probably since we're always putting him in then....poor kid).

He sure loves crawling around in the leaves and grass

Ellie & Daddy playing in a leaf pile

 Okay, this just looks like a whole lot of fun!

And with fall comes college football. We enjoy that a lot at our house as well.

 Future cheerleader??

Enough said - Go Huskers :)

Halloween Festivities + Fall Fun

This year our ward's trunk or treat was on the Saturday night prior to Halloween. I do believe we had the cutest Snow White and lion I've ever seen :)

Even though we got to the carnival a bit late for Ellie to play most of the games, she and Hunter got to walk around in the costume parade.

 Hunter didn't even keep trying to pull his lion mane off; not after I finally got it tied under his chin :)

And because we just can't get enough of the gorgeousness that is fall...

Playing in a big leaf pile with cousins

 Even mommy got in on the action :)

 Mmmm...someone wasn't a fan of his leaf pile...

And, the last fall festival activity we went to as a family:

  Picnic by the lake

And then it was Halloween...

 At first, Ellie was excited to dig in and pull the guts out of the pumpkin...

 Then she tried it. And she was disgusted. And she wouldn't go near the guts :)

 Ta-da! Ellie and her "silly face" pumpkin.

 All ready for a Halloween party and trick-or-treating

The happiest lion I've ever seen :)

Ellie loved trick or treating! We started at our neighbor's house...and we couldn't just stop with one neighbor...so we visited a few other neighbors on our street. Ellie talked non-stop between houses: about the dark, about our neighbors, about her heavy pumpkin bucket, and about trick-or-treat. When we got to a house, she would skip up the steps and knock on the door; then she would stand right up  against the door until it was answered. She got the hang of it very quickly. It was a fun experience for her first time trick-or-treating!

We have had such a blast this month with fall and Halloween activities.

More Pumpkin Patch Fun

We visited the Schaake's pumpkin patch twice last week. The first time was on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. The place was packed and we parked a mile away. The second time was earlier in the day and it was about 40 degrees and overcast. It even started raining as we left. We ended up parking directly in front of the entrance that time. It was fun getting to experience it in both conditions.

 Checking out the chickens and pheasants

 This girl waits for no one...

Us with the Headless Horseman

 

Picking pumpkins from the patch

 Posing

Happy to be at the pumpkin patch!

Out little sweeties

 On the wagon ride to the far boundaries of the pumpkin patch

Ellie & Daddy finding their way out of the hay bale maze

 We sure do love this time of year!