Fall fun

I'm not a fan of the cold, but there are some fun things that happen this time of year.

Papa's birthday is just one week after Jane's. I made the cake in honor of our recent trip. We're still on our Disney high. Conference weekend at my folks was nice and relaxed. LOVE conference weekend, love birthdays.

Luckily, this doesn't only come at this time of year, but if you would have asked me two months ago if I would have been spending an afternoon with my Grandma Ottley in October, I would have said no. We were losing her a while back, and I never thought I'd have another normal visit with her again.

I took the kids up for a visit, and hearing her greet us with "come in, dears!" when we walked in the door made me almost burst into tears. I've adored this woman my entire life, and it's such a blessing to have each day with her. I count her as one of my reasons to love this season. She's here, and I love her.

Jack's finishing up his second season of soccer, and he's still loving it! He's off and on with how much he focuses on the game, but I can already see improvement in his game, and so as long as he's having fun, I'm all for it! I LOVE watching, laughing, and cheering. He loved playing goalie, and believe it or not, he would jump into action as soon as they got close.

After his game yesterday, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch next door to Jack's school. My kids aren't used to these fall activities, and I have to admit, I've found an excitement for it I didn't remember from a few years ago. I LOVE the colors of fall. Thank you, Mother Nature.

The kids loved picking out their own pumpkin, and it was a gorgeous day for it.

Check out those beautiful blue skies! Even Alice seemed to get into the fall fun.

I can't decide if Alice looks like a boy in this sweater, but honestly, I LOVE blue on my girls, and don't have nearly enough of it. If she looks like a boy, she sure is a cute one.

A few other fun things we've been up to... guess who is just DYING to learn violin? She begged and begged until I started officially giving her a lesson just like Jack. So, here's our little violinist. She's just now starting to put the bow on the strings and is extremely excited about it. She reminds me when it's practice time, which is a change from her brother, so I'm loving it.

Last weekend, my family all got together for a jam session with another musical family we admired while we were growing up, the Miners. They are amazing musicians, and actually still perform and PRACTICE even while they're busy parents, business men, soccer moms, etc. I am so impressed. Even though we are all a little rusty on my side of the family (sorry ya'll, but you know it's true), it was still fun to see what we could remember, and see what we could will our fingers to do. Plus, we got to bask in the unmatched talent of none other than the Craig Miner from Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. We've loved Craig's music since I was about nine when he helped us record our family album with his brother, Curtis. It was a fun night of friends, food, and lots of music!

This is Craig serenading the kids with his Rainbow Connection in his famous Kermit the Frog voice. The kids even got their fiddles out and played with all of us. (Notice Jeff's beautiful new bass on its side in the middle. This is the newest addition to our family. He's waited for that bass for years, and we are all loving it!)

I hope you're all making the best of this cold weather. Like I said, I don't love it. But, there are too many other great things about the season to not love Autumn all together. Anything in particular you love to do this time of year?