Pumpkin Carving

 We had fun carving pumpkins.  For Deker and Bauer, we carved the main pumpkin face for them (per their instructions of what it should look like).  After that, they have fun adding more holes and stuff to their pumpkin while Andrew and I carve our pumpkins.  This is the first year that Keagan pretty much did his own.  He drew his face on, then carved it out.  Andrew cut off the top and helped him carve the nose because he wanted a star, but he did the rest all by himself. 

The boys hard at work.  

 Zora chilling in her swing. 

The finished products.  From left you have Bauer's, Deker's, Keagan's, mine and then Andrews.  I saw an idea on pinterest to carve pumpkins with a drill so that is what I did.  I had fun using Andrew's drill.

After Bauer was done, he was playing in the living room.  When I looked over, this is what i saw:

The Farmstead

We love going to "The Farmstead".  It is a Pumpkin Patch, Corn Maze with all kinds of activities to do like the cow train, the grain train (new this year), the corn box (like a sand box but with corn), The Creature, Jumping Pillow, etc.  We went two years ago, but last year we never got a chance to go and we heard about it all year.  So when I heard that they were selling their season tickets for half price before it opened, I bought one of each of us.  We have gone twice so far and have plans to go one more time this week.  Here are some pictures of our trips. 

First up, the cow train.  The boys love it. 

New this year was the grain train.  Much easier for adults to ride in. 

Another highlight for my boys is riding out to the pumpkin patch.  It is a wagon pulled by a tractor.  Our first time going, we did not pick pumpkins, but while the other people were getting pumpkins, we were talking to our driver and he let Keagan sit on the tractor.  He LOVED it. 

Of course the playing in the corn box must happen each time. 

Picture of us at the sign.

 My turn.

We each picked out a pumpkin to carve when we went last week.

There is this big chair which is always a fun photo op.

The Creature is a fun addition.  We all went through our first time at the Farmstead.  The second time we went to the farmstead, Andrew took the boys because they wanted to go again while I sat and fed Zora. 

Another proof and Zora was there.  Just hanging out in the baby Bjorn.

Deker Soccer

Deker played soccer again this fall.  He has enjoyed the 6 week soccer that he has done a few times now.  He absolutely loves it, but if you ask him what is favorite part is, he will say running around the field.

 This is after his last game when they had out trophey's to all the kids. 

Pictures of Zora

Andrew and I tried again to get a decent picture with the boys and Zora and the "Don't Mess with Her" sign.  At first I was kind of disappointed we couldn't get one with all the boys looking at the camera with decent expression on their faces, but looking at them now, I don't mind, it just shows their crazy personalities.

The first time I put Zora in this outfit was a fun day.  I loved how she looked, but it also brought back some good memories.  My sister, Marie, had twin girls 9 days after I had keagan.  When she was getting rid of those clothes because they were done having kids, she gave me some of those clothes.  I stored them for a long time hoping that I would one day have a girl.  The day I found out I was having a girl, I got the box out as soon as I could and went through them because I was so excited.  This is one of the outfits she gave me and I remember her girls wearing it 7 years ago.  What was even better is that as soon as I got the camera out, Zora started smiling and this is the first picture I got of Zora smiling. 

Here she is at 2 months old. 

Random Happenings

Here are some of the random pictures from the last month or two.

First off, all of the boys completely adore their sister.  Keagan loves talking to her and getting her to smile.  Deker loves to kiss, hug and hold her and Bauer does whatever the other two are doing.  Here is a fun picture I took of Keagan and Bauer talking to Zora in September. 

 Deker did another round of Kickn Kids Soccer this fall (I will hopefully post about that soon).  I have been very grateful and Andrew got back in time for almost all of the games.  One Saturday, it was a little windy and I was in the van feeding Zora.  This is one of the pictures I found on it when I looked through them later. 

Andrew's birthday was a few weeks ago.  This was his cake.  It is a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache type drizzle and chopped reeses peanut butter cups between the layers and on top.  It was delicious! I am excited for an occasion to make it again. 

I made another dress for Zora and when she wore it on Sunday I was taking a picture of her in it and the boys wanted to get in on the action.  So, here are my cute kids.