Monster Evie

Keadryn was so excited when she found these googly eyes, she ran over to me and shouted at my belly "now you can see us Evie!" She made me lay down to put them on there so that baby Evie could see. So cute!

pumpkins!

The other night we had a wonderful time at our local arborretum's annual pumpkin walk! There were 1,500 pumpkins that people had carved and donated with which the volunteers lit and lined the path that runs through the arborretum:

 Kead said her favorite was "the spiders" (there were lots of spiders) and Sayla said her favorite was "PUNKINS" I guess that means all of them. :) My favorite were the little pumpkin lanterns hung in all the trees:

...and speaking of pumpkins- here's a funny one of my little pumpkins. Yes, Keadryn is licking Sayla. Such a big sister.

Easton is here!

My sweet sweet nephew arrived on October 21st! Pray for him as he tries to get over an infection and establish his breathing. And pray for my sister as she just wants to hold her little guy and get to take him home!

I can't wait to hold this little peanut! Isn't Easton such a little sweetie with his black hair? Love it!

sayla's "cheese" face

I don't know why all kids go through this, but the "cheese" smile is funny! It looks so painful.

 a couple things:
1) sorry this picture is so over-exposed...still figuring out the new camera's settings.
2) for keadryn's "cheese" face look at this post.
3) I am so thankful to have a blog for these things. I would never have printed these pictures and they would have gotten lost in the 10 million photos in my files. It is so fun to be reminded of the everyday things. Go look through your old blog posts- its so fun!

a fun night out

One of our dear friends, Andy Hedges, is a great musician and cowboy poet. Do you remember this link to him reciting a poem? He's awesome, you should buy his new CD! Well, you should buy all his CDs...and listen to the poem. He really is great.

Well, he plays fairly frequently at a local wine and tapas bar, but it's not really the kind of place where you bring sippy cups and goldfish, so we haven't heard him play in a long time. The other night he was playing and we decided to get a babysitter and finally go to a concert! It was a blast. He was playing with another musician, Mike Beck, and the night was filled with great music, great food, and great friends!

and they even had non-alcoholic sangria for the preggos!  (there were two of us in our group)

Can you tell I am LOVING my new lens and camera? These were all taken in a low lit indoor venue at night...with no flash. Yes, it is awesome having a camera with an ISO of 6400!

and then all of a sudden...

...there's a baby bump! We were at the park today when I realized, I actually look pregnant. Don't you feel like the awkward stage of not looking pregnant lasts a little too long? I much prefer looking pregnant to looking like I ate an extra 40 doughnuts for breakfast.

Drew was taking a couple pictures and I am sure he made a smart remark (hence the smirk)...but it ended up being my favorite. :)

an afternoon drive

My husband really really loves me. I am sure you know (because I have said it 9000 times on this blog) that this is my favorite season. So Drew, knowing I won't get a "fall" in the Middle East, took a couple days off work and we piggybacked a trip to Farmington (my hometown) onto our Balloon Fiesta trip so that I could get a taste of fall. We had a wonderful stay in Farmington with some long-time family friends and it was so great to catch up! We haven't been back there since we had kids and it was fun to see friends and show the girls a little bit of where I grew up! (And yes, we drove by the house I grew up in and I cried...)

Another bonus is that Farmington is only a short drive from Durango, my favorite little mountain town (besides B.V. of course). We went in search of some fall colors and the drive did not disappoint. The aspens were the brightest shades of yellow mixed with some oranges and the greens of the pines. SO pretty! We even got to get out on some little dirt road and hike around a bit with jackets on! Glorious.

balloon fiesta 2010

We loved the balloon fiesta so much last year that we decided to go again this year! It was a completely different experience this year because we decided not to go to the balloon glow (which meant an hour of extra sleep, but also much MUCH longer lines) and because it was already 67 degrees at 5:00, making it much less stressful for the girls (but, I'll be honest, a little sad for me).
We had a little hiccup where it looked like we weren't going to be able to get on a bus at the park-and- ride (due to way more people than they expected) but at the last minute a heroic bus driver decided to break the rules  and drive us to the park and we had a wonderful time!

My favorite, of course, was getting to play with my new camera! It is A.MAZ.ING. I just kept smiling and giggling and wandering off to find more balloons to photograph. Seriously, go to the balloon fiesta (or I am sure there are other festivals...I have only ever been to this one) it is such a fun thing to do! And now, enjoy copious amounts of balloon pictures. :)

and, like last year- the girls were exhausted from the early wake time. :)