Just the right one...

Let me begin by explaining why there are a million pictures on this post. Last year when we went to the pumpkin patch, I got a ton of good pics. Seriously. So I was a little paranoid that I wouldn't get any excellent ones this year.

And so I might have over-compensated a bit. Like 112 pics on my memory in 2 hours kind of over-compensating.

Anywho, so we went to back to Wheeler Farm today. I found out that for $30 you can get a family pass to do the mini-corn maze (my kind of maze), pick 6 pumpkins, and everyone gets a hayride. Awesome deal, right? We spent more than that just on pumpkins last year!



And the moment I pulled out my camera, my camera-loving daughter began her posing.



The kiddos (most especially Piper and Porter) enjoyed climbing all over the old farm machinery they had displayed all over.



Here is my family being forced to pose for me in the corn maze...



And here are the kiddos in one of the dead ends. They didn't have the height advantage that OP and I did in there.






Porter was amazed that there was corn in the corn maze.



Once you made it through the maze (probably took us about 7-10 minutes, and that's with OP and I giving the kiddos wrong directions to stretch it out), you ended up in their pumpkin patch.

And my kids took the choosing of their pumpkins serious.



All except Porter, that is. He kept dropping whatever pumpkin he was holding for the next smaller one he found. We were happy we got out of there without him making one explode when he flung it carelessly to the ground.



Orrin also searched long and hard. For the ugliest pumpkin available. And I think he succeeded.




Adi was looking for a "Cinderella" pumpkin. Our rule was that they had to carry them out themselves. Momma couldn't carry anything heavy, so Daddy set that rule.






He still ended up carrying a few.



We then moseyed around and looked at the cows and horses. Porter wanted to feed them. Then he wanted to ride them. Then he wanted to bring them home.

He was told no a lot.



He did get to touch some goats. Piper loved petting them too, but Adi just climbed up the fence and watched them from afar. So very much like her mama, that one. Except I wouldn't climb a fence (slivers!).



Here is Daddy explaining to the boy why we can't just push our way to the front of the line.



And beautiful little Adi.



I told OP that we need to get one of these for the backyard instead of a swing set. I think they would have stayed on it for hours if we hadn't forced them off.



And here is the hay ride. Not very exciting...



The kiddos got to peek in on a good-old-fashioned two-seater outhouse. Adi was disgusted even though she was told that it was never actually used as a bathroom.

I think.



So, I still have about a hundred pictures left, but I thought that I'd narrow it down for you. Even though I am now thinking of all the pics that I wish I could have put on.

Freaky Friday

Our amiga Vanessa or Anessa, as Porter calls her, invited us out to her dance group's performance at Wheeler Farm tonight. It was called Freaky Friday for a rather obvious reason: there were zombies dancing around to Halloween music.

Can you say Awesome?

Adi was excited before we got there, since she is rather obsessed with zombies, vampires and the like lately. Yet, as soon as we got to the farm and she came close to the dancers that were wandering around in costume in a very zombie-like way, Adi suddenly turned her head into me and tried not to look at them.

Porter clung to my mom and wouldn't let her put him down.

And Piper was rather unaffected by the whole thing. Not surprising at all, actually.

Once the music began, Piper began doing her little head shake and singing along to all the Halloween music. Porter liked everything but the Phantom of the Opera (which really scared him for some reason). And Adi was a bit on edge, but she sat through it all by herself while only flinching a couple of times.

The point to this post? Go and see Freaky Friday if you are in Utah. It was, once again, Awesome!

Oh, and you might be wondering why Porter is not in the above picture... well, he wouldn't get close enough to our undead-friends for me to take a shot.

Fall Clothes

So, we finally cracked out the fall clothes... and the kiddos look dang cute (if I do say so myself).

I originally took these pics so I could show off the total cute-ness of the skirts and scarfs I made the girls. I got the pattern for these "circle skirts" from my favorite blog ever, MADE.

Seriously, peeps, you've got to make these skirts. I whipped up both of them in about 30 minutes. And they cost about $7 for both of them! I was lucky enough to find this cute material at Walmart in their "$5 for an entire bolt of fabric" bin. Awesome.

Poor little Adi has such an itsy-bitsy waste, her skirt just won't stay up right. I measured her waste and everything, but, alas, it still slides down.



And here is Miss Pipes showing of her twirling skills. Have I mentioned how stinkin' much I love these skirts?



After attempting to get some decent shots of the girls, I figured Porter-Pot looked sweet enough to eat, so I snapped a few of him...



And then I tried to get some group shots (thank goodness for Photoshop of I would never have a decent shot off all three kiddos together).



And then Pipes looks just so glamorous.



And Porter looks likes he might be getting into some trouble...



Adi was in one of her "I can't look at the camera to save my life right now" moods, so I didn't get a good candid one of her.

I'll try again tomorrow, I suppose.

*Sigh*

Candy Apples

Fall is slowly setting in here in Utah, which means changing leaves, cooler weather and lots and lots of fruit.

Like shiny, mouth-watering apples.

And where ever they sell apples, there are always caramels close by.

So for F.H.E. treats last night, we decided to venture into the making some caramel apples.


We used caramels, melted chocolate, pecans, toffee bits and sprinkles.

Doesn't it just sound like a toothache?

The kiddos were counting down the minutes until they could bite into them...



Yup, even Porter ate one... well, he ate the toppings off while being extremely careful not to to actually bite the apple.






Adi had a bit of a hard time since she has a loose tooth right in the bottom front. But she managed.



Piper, being ever the odd-one, soon threw hers out and settled on a plain old apple.



Doesn't Porter wear his goodies well?



I also captured a few compromising pictures of Orrin eating his apple, but he threatened to hide my camera from me if I posted them.

So I won't... yet.

The funny thing about Adi

This little lady is reading.

Really well, in fact.

And because I see this as common ground between the two of us (I am an absolute reading addict. But, if you know me at all, you already knew that), I have been buying her all of these fun books that I've had my eyes on now for 7 years.

Unfortunately, mine and Adi's taste are a bit different. I bought her this new American Girl book, which has been gathering dust on her shelf except for when I become a tyrant and demand she reads it.

Adi goes to the library and gets books like this Scooby Doo treasure.

But, like her mother, she has these books done in about 3 days. So I am not complaining. At least she is enjoying reading, right? And besides, she often reads her Scooby Doo books to her little brother.

For now, I am still hoping Piper will get into the girly-girl books that I enjoy looking at...

For F.H.E tonight

we watched this:





and this:



Thank you Mormon Messages for making Family Home Evening so easy.

Then we played "The Stare Game" (OP is the reining champ) and ate pudding cake.

We're Having a....

So I already posted about this on Facebook on Thursday, but I know a few of my readers on here aren't on Facebook.

Sorry that it has taken me so long... I am a bit lazy these days when it comes to computer stuff.

Anywho, I was like 98% sure that this baby was a girl.

I even had a rather large pile of girl stuff that I had already bought. Because I was that sure.

OP couldn't get off work for the ultrasound, so my mommy came and we brought all three kiddos so they could watch their baby move around... I was regretting this decision after sitting in the waiting room for ten minutes.

I was then questioning my own sanity after sitting in the waiting room after 20 minutes (full bladdder + antsy kids + pregnant woman= Angry Woman).

Finally we got to go back, and right away the technician said, "Oh, do you guys want to know if it's a brother or sister?"

"It's a baby brother!"

Ummm... "Wait, what?" That was from me. I admit I was on the shocked side here.

So she showed me. And the proof is definitely in the pudding.

So now we are going to have the perfecto family: 2boys, two girls. I never thought that I would be so lucky! Porter is so stinking excited, he has already decided that they are going to have bunk beds (PG gets top bunk, of course).

So after we dropped the girlies off at school, PG and I had to run around to a few different stores and exchange the pink and ruffly stuff I had bought for blue and masculine stuff.

And now OP and I are arguing over names.

Wish us luck!



P.S. I already bought the boys matching army-looking "Big Brother" and "Little Brother" (and the girls get zebra print, sprakly "Big Sister") jammies for Christmas. I am so excited!

Just thought I'd share

two of Porter-Pot's favorite things:



his Lightning McQueen jammies and his trampoline.



He is so easy to please!

A Mermaid's Party

Piper wanted a Mermaid party for her birthday.

Cool beans. I thought. I'll buy a pool, fill up a few water balloons. Easy, peasy.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find a pool after July. And by difficult, I mean impossible. So we settled on a water slide and a sprinkler under the tramp. Plus, we had a whole mini-pool filled with water balloons.


Here's Adi and Pipes waiting for the guests to get there...



I made (with help from my Momma) mermaid tales for all of the girls. Some of the girlies wouldn't wear them however. And as soon as we started the water games they all took them off.



But then, on the day of her party, a freak wind storm came up, and we could barely do anything outside. You can see me on the edge of the photo trying to hold down the top of the water slide. The wind kept blowing the top of the slide upside down.



Then the girls attempted a relay race involving water balloons, the slip-n-slide, a wet kiddie slide and then jumping on the tramp...



It turned into Whitney and I just throwing all the balloons onto the tramp while the girls jumped.



The girls tried to make seashell necklaces, but by this point the wind was so bad that their bags of beads wouldn't even stay on the table.



Not to mention that the table decorations wouldn't stay on the table.



So I had to quickly move everything inside and set it up for the 11 girls to eat in here.



The cake. Oh the cake.

Originally, Piper wanted a cake made of Jello. Easy, right? Put some blue Jello into a bundt pan, add some sweedish fish and whip cream, and Wahla! Jello cake.

Except that the Jello kind of fell apart when I dumped it out of the pan. And the sweedish fish turned pink and looked really quite nasty.

So OP made a quick run to Costco and just got a white cake with some huge and ugly red and blue flowers in the middle. Whitney removed said flowers and we added this Mermaid bracelt thingy in the middle.



Not too bad, eh?

Piper really enjoyed everyone singing to her.



After we loaded the girls up on sugar, we had Pipes open her presents.

Whit and I taught them the fine art of "Heavy, heavy hangover".



We then turned on some Camp Rock 2, Selena Gomez and the like and the girls got to dance (inside) and act as crazy as they wanted to.

It turned out pretty well, considering all the obstacles that sprung up, so I'm going to chalk this party up as a success.

But I will probably never count on the weather for an outside party again :)

She's SIX!!

So, okay, I may be a little late with this post... seeing that her birthday was August 9th. But, it's been hard to get myself to get on the computer to do this. The meaning is still the same.

Anyway, since before this little princess-cowgirl was born, she has had a mind of her own. She kept trying to come out early (thus bedrest for Momma). I then had to go in every couple of days to have stress tests done on her, she would literally run away from the monitors so the nurse had to stand by me and constantly shift the them around so they could try to keep up with her vitals.

She was born four weeks early, and she came out at 7lbs 11 oz (HUGE for a preemie) and screaming red.

Since then, Piper has done exactly what she wants to do. She has created more "artwork" on my walls than her brother and sister combined, goes through more clothes in one day than normal children go through in a week, and redoes her hair how she wants it right after I finish it.

Pipes also makes Orrin and I the sweetest, most wonderful notes and pictures, she loves her little brother with all her heart (even though he has a tendency of using her as a chew toy), and is always the first one to help me when it's cleaning time.

She is the crowned queen of hide-and-seek in our family, the first one to love someone better when they are hurt or upset, and always wakes up with a grin.

She throws her heart and soul into everything she does, whether it is making her artwork, cleaning her room, giving a hug, learning how to use the Skip-It just as good as Adi, or simply throwing a ginormous fit.

Piper is just plain Piper.

Her name fits her to a tee.

We call Pippy our own little sunshine because when this little girl is happy, she can make everyone around her smile and laugh. Her smile is infectious and she just radiates bliss.

And I love this little girl more than I could possibly ever explain, and am so eager to watch her transform into the great woman I know she will be someday.

I just hope she doesn't grow-up too quickly!