Maize Maze

...but first a picture of our Punkin with a pumpkin.
So cute!


Anyways, on to the highly anticipated, begged for, everyone talks about it, Corn Maze.
The kids at school, the radio ads and the neighborhood teens make it sound like a definite "no miss".
Here are the 2 fastest kids racing around corners and then back in the first few minutes.
OK.
Fun enough.
Nothing is bad at least.



C.C.is having a great time picking up corn kernels.
Mom is wondering, at this pace, how many hours will this take?




About 15 minutes and full pockets later.
Maybe she wouldn't look so stressed out if mom wouldn't have said the word "lost".
Do 2 yr. olds know the word lost?
Apparently.




For sure her way out of the maze would have been the faster route, problem is the sign saying "Do not cut through stalks".
She may know the word lost but she still cant read.

30 minutes later the whining started, from all 4 of them.
This isn't fuuuun.
I'm boooored.
My feeeet hurrrt.

Poor T. is just too big for carrying very far but also too young for so much walking(around and around and around and around).
"I hate this!"


N. is the brains around here and could have had us out of there in a jiffy if it weren't for the impatient siblings running like wild turkeys.
He even had a map.
A map without any symbols like "you are here" or "start"/"finish".
You know, silly things like that.
Turns out it is very important to know where you are and where you want to end up, even if you have a map.
We could look at that map all day in the dirt and we would still be lost in a corn maze.



We made it!! (even if it was out the entrance)
T. really was happy about getting out of there but somehow ended up cutting his finger.
Once the whining started it took candy to stop it.
Sad Truth.

Will we be going to another Corn Maze again anytime soon?
Negative.(unless Daddy stays with us instead of leaving to do homework. Someone would need to carry 4 kids)

And just to remind me of the blessing of spending a saturday with the kids, I need to forget the whining , and remember their cute faces.(thats why I am posting the pumpkin 2x)

Hobgoblins

October means Hobgoblin cookies!

Candy corn, chocolate chips and sprinkles.

The sprinkles are a substitution for the traditional (tasty, I think!) raisins.

S. says hers is a Temple.

Cute, but wrong idea.

Well, maybe we all have the wrong idea about how Halloween cookies should be decorated.

Maybe she is the only right one.

She sure seems to think so most of the time!

I'm surprised that this is the only finger licking picture I ended up with.

There is more finger licking than frosting going on.

Exactly why mom decorated 30 cookies and the kids each got to do 2 or so.

Funny enough we all finished up at the same time.

Harvest time

So, the garden this year ended up being mostly pumpkins and tomatoes.
Pumpkins look cooler sitting on the front porch though, so we harvested them and left all the tomatoes to fend for themselves.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful and somedays ,like this one, its actually hot.
In October.
In Northern Utah.
Strange.
The kiddos were happy to be able to finally pick which one was "theirs".
I think the dog wasn't so happy about having to sit for a picture, she would rather be looking for a bathroom spot in the garden. Gross.
"When can we carve them? " is the new question.

Never say never

Not sure how well you can see D.'s tongue here.

As usual while doing any project it is totally unconsciously sticking out from between his teeth.

Now, for anyone who has known me for very long and has heard my "never" list you will know that this exact look is something I call the Duh face.

Many times before I got to know the real world I have said how I disliked it, and the open mouth staring at the TV face ,which has the same name.

Crazy enough, it turns out people who are Awesome and creative pull this face.

Even crazier is how much I have grown to Love the look.

Who ever could have guessed way back then, when I was making the never list, that I would end up with a house full of beautiful inherited Duh faces.
Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

I do know puppies aren't a replacement for babies

..but I was hoping that she would at least stay a puppy for a little while. Are we going to have to have a van full of puppies too, before that feeling of wanting a baby something goes away?

This is Harley the day we brought her home. Perfect size for Izzys old crate. A week later she was too big already!

The replacement crate is GInormous! Several of our kids and a neighbor kid or 2 fit inside. We hope she isn't really that big in the end, but just in case. Notice the little crate next to it, that is the old one, half its size.

Being a dog and all she still prefers to nap on the floor with her blankie or a willing lap.

They grow up so fast!

The porcupine

"Tomorrow there will probably be a skunk and the next day a wolf and then a Lion, I think", Z.

" But it doesn't have any pork in it, and it probably used up all its spikes", T.

It really was unexpected to find a porcupine at the gate that morning, we live quite a ways away from the canyon where it came from.
I can just imagine its little spiky body waddling down the sidewalk running into the neighbor kids riding their bikes to school on its way to our house.
That would have been a funny sight.
The Animal control lady didnt find it one bit funny, and although she looked as tough as they come, she was sure shaking in her boots, trying to get it out of our bush and into a cage .
I've never seen an adult in uniform jump so high just talking about quills going through bullet proof vests.
Glad the puppy is still curious and silently fearful, otherwise she may have ended up like the cousins dog and eaten a mouthful of quills. Ouch!

"It's a DIRT BIKE!"

Time flies whether we want it to or not (okay maybe not when you are doing a lousy sleep study or have chronic pain, that kind of thing) .
I could have sworn it was just a week ago I was about to post this blog.
In reality a whole year has gone flying by.
It's still worth the telling a year later (unlike sleep study and pain stories).

The kids enjoy riding their bikes to school.
Yes there is a reason I emphasize to and not the rest of it.
Mom makes the kids walk home from school most days weather depending.
If I drop them off in the morning in the van then they have to use the old fashion version of transportation and walk the whole mile+ to get home.
Whining starts here.

Last school year N. was blessed to win one of 2 prizes at his school for riding during a set week.
He won a sweet new bike of his choice from a giant retail chain(I guess they did give him a bike so I can show a little grattitude by using their name, Nah, I changed my mind, still despise the place)
Because he had already been given a great bike that year by cousins (Thank You!!!!!) he asked if he could give it to someone who didn't already have one.
Chin Drop.
Wow, what a kid.
He has always been like that, so giving!
We determined that T. could probably use a bike.
His was handed down thru 2 previous siblings, rusted, seat missing, girlie training wheels and a chain that just would not stay attached no matter how we begged and cried.



The great part for N. is that the bike payment came in the version of a gift card and that kids bikes are much less expensive than tween bikes.
Left over balance therefore went toward his most favorite thing ever invented, Legos!
Win-Win.
N. surprised T. with the bike on his birthday.
For a year he has let everyone know that it isnt just a cool bike, "its a DIRT BIKE!"
I'm wondering if Uncle T. had anything to do with that, unknowingly influencing him, of course.