Fallishness!

I take after my mother...in many ways, but one in particular is I get on kicks...food obsessions!

The Spring and Summer of pregnancy with Cade I was obsessed with trying to perfect Smore Brownies.  I concluded that it was a yummy obsession but that it doesn't really turn out how I want every time...the marshmellow and chocolate and graham combo made for difficult cooking through...and I wanted the graham to be crunchy...which would happen if they were stored in the fridge...anyhow, I digress.  When school started this summer, I became obsessed with muffins ~ healthy muffins...whole wheat/oat banana muffins, bran/wheat muffins, chocolate zuccini muffins, wheat/oat blueberry etc.  I plan on continuing that obsession as they freeze awesome and are a good fast breakfast or snack and the kids love them! 

now that Fall has arrived...it's these!  And we finally had a week that really felt like Fall!  Wahoo!

These puppies are divine!

Apple Pie Caramel Apples

Starring White Chocolate, Caramel and Cinamon Sugar!

My mom ordered one of these in Park City at Rocky Mountain Chocolate FactoryYEARS ago!

I was skeptical, but hooked after one bite!  Then last week I crashed my old ward's RS Meeting when they were making caramel apples  ~  only to show up and they were making these!  So after we fell in love so many years ago, I've now decided this is our new Fall tradition!

And a pretty new crafty wreath for the door!

Saturday and Sunday we had buckets and buckets of rain!  Funny enough, they didn't cancel our two soccer games...so Kyle wore his snow boots and we kept Cade dry in this arrangement! He slept through it all!

Then Saturday evening Scott and I went to a Halloween Party as Mary Poppins and Bert!

(Thanks Jules...we totally copied you from last year!)

It was INSANE!

There were SO MANY PEOPLE!

And the costumes....were AMAZING!

My picture of these two full length was blurry!  I am so bummed because this Mad Hatter was amazing!  And though he rented the hat, he put everything else together himself!!!  Even sewing some things! 

Apparently he did Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka a few years ago that was also crazy good!

Scott's old friend and his wife ~ they dressed up as eachother!

Ghostbusters!

The host and Hostess...Phantom of the Opera and Queen of the Night.

A tail gater and her football.

Background information...some crazy guy started a fire in the Game Stop store in our local mall!  A HUGE portion caught on fire...from one department store to another!  They didn't fight the fire from inside because there was a suspicious backpack the guy left ~ so they thought the sprinklers would take care of the fire...however the fire got into the walls and took over!  So the couple on the left were Game Stop Shoppers!  So creative!  They burned their clothes and messed up their hair!  Genious!

And then on the right, you have the boy scout and grandpa from UP!

 Two face and Poison Ivy from Batman!  and one of the Ghostbusters switched to a rescued Chilean miner!

The costume winners!  Best female, best couple and best male.

Other non-pictured but noteworthy costume sets inlcude Wayne and Garth of Wayne's World, Jack and Jill (who were all banged up!), Little Red Riding Hood and a wolf, cowboy/cowgirl, Nacho Libre and a nun, The guy and three sister wives from the new reality show, professional wrestlers, Harry Potter and ?, Snookie and "the situation," The Nightmare before Christmas couple, and Dog the Bounty hunter and wife!

What a crack up!

Then Sunday after church as we were enjoying our Apple Pie Caramel Apples...Ryan surprisingly asks...why is there blood on my apple?  So after checking his mouth, I informed him he ATE his loose tooth!  Oops!

We have been having fun!

Baby Scott look alike!

CHECK THIS OUT!

We have been going between Ryan and Sean a lot for who Cade looks most like...

But over the last few weeks I started thinking he looked like Scott as a baby...and funny enough, so was Karen!  So yesterday we looked at Scott's baby photos and found some near matches! 

Look at these two babies! 

And another one of  these two cute baby boys!  I can really see the resemblance!  How fun!  It'll be interesting to see how much he'll look like Scott at what stages of life!

Here's a cute one I found...just for the heck of it!

Check out the difference in their hands and heads!

Pictures like this make me marvel that what once was small grows

and what once was small came from inside me!

What a miracle life is!

p.s.  Erica and Camryn's visit chronicled below!

Pumpkins with Erica, Camryn and Grandma and Grandpa Motley!

This cutie little pumpkin came to visit with her mama!

   After they got to see Sean play in his soccer game (and attempted to see Ryan's game ~ timing on games doesn't always work out!...they were at the same time that day) we headed out to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm! 

It really worked out pretty fun that we got to go two weeks in a row!  The kids love it so much and with a second shot, I ended up getting great pictures of it all!

Thanks Erica for these!  They are so funny!

This was Ryan's favorite part of this day...on the horsey with Camryn!

This is what the horse looks like that those three are on!

And Sean returned to the hay jump and did more flips ~ this time escaped without hay in his underpants!

And he took Camryn in show her the fun.

And a hay ride...I love this farm...and I love where I live...but someday I hope to go to a Pumpkin Patch in October and not get sweaty.  Maybe I get too anxious and should go closer to actual Halloween!

Camryn loves the older cousins!  Especially Seanny - which she says "Heany!"

Apparently she'll call any blonde boy about that size Heany. 

More train rides!

I made the kids sit with us this time instead of the cargo car...and Ryan obliged as long as he didn't have to smile for the camera.  I still tried...he kept to his side of the bargain!

And since Camryn loves horses so much but is nervous to actually ride a horse, we thought that maybe she'd go for a ride after seeing her cousins on the ponies...but not so much!  My kids however enjoyed the ride...the best part of the day for them except for Ryan loving the pretend horse ride with Camryn.

And I got better pictures this time too!

Here is Kyle with Princess!

Don't let Ryan's tough guy/old boy/ too cool look fool you!  He loved it!

And one of my favorite things...the Pig Race!

They always choose audience members to help cheer the pigs...I sorta thought the lady in the pink cowboy hat would choose Bob...but it was pretty funny when she picked Karen!

She was a great sport though may never return to the pumpkin farm again!

Ryan and Sean loved trying on her trophy pig nose!

After a fun day at the farm we were ready to head home!

It was a great day and we were so glad we got to go with the Motley/Smart crew!

We need a little girl cousin to move closer so my kids can feel like they sorta have a little sister!

Come on guys!

Healthy Smoothie!

I have a new obsession!  And it's so healthy and so tasty!

My friend told me about how she puts spinach in her smoothies and I'd never heard of such a thing!
What a good way to get extra fruits and vegetables!

So we tried it...I stuff into our blender this combo...

water or crystal light or apple juice, etc.
spinach (handfulls - probably 2 cups packed in)
ice
3 bananas (frozen or fresh)
frozen blackberries
frozen raspberries

(I've even added a whole apple)

You could add other things like yogurt or milk or other fruits...

The point is ~ everything in it is healthy and it tastes great!!!

So refreshing and I feel like I'm cheating ...
JUST wanted to share in case someone else out there is looking for an awesome way to add some greens into their or their kids diets in a discreet way!
The kids know it's in there...my blender isn't amazing so you can still see small green flakes ~ and they still love it!  Not surprising for Sean since he'll eat anything...but Ryan hasn't been in love with vegetables lately...especially has never been one to eat salad. 

Try it!  You'll like it!

Grandma came to visit and help!

My mom came to help a few days after Cade was born!  It was so awesome to have her visit and help!

We found that with number baby number four, it was awesome to have help giving the other kids attention and help during the all important homework hour!  Kyle loved the grandma attention ~ especially to do his Dora jigsaw puzzle...his newfound OBSESSION...too bad he wasn't fond of the elmo or clifford and I forgot about the Cars puzzle that was shoved to the rear of the kid cabinet...so they did the Dora and Diego playing soccer puzzle about a bajillion times a day!  He wants to do it again and again and again!  Anyhow, it was just a wonderful visit!  And she remembered going to this great Pumpkin Patch when she came to help during Scott's radioiodine treatment and wanted to go back! 

A fun first outing for Cade ~  To Bishop's Pumpkin Patch!

He was so tiny in here...one week later and his head was bigger and higher...

he couldn't curl up all tiny in there! 

These kids took the cargo train car!

Ryan and Sean doing a double flip into the hay bounce!  On our way home...Sean asked to take a shower when we got home so he could get hay out of his pants!

Tree house scope.

Our family tradition has been to go to Apple Hill every fall together.  I've taken the boys here several times, but we haven't ever gone with Scott!  So he was excited to join in on the other fall family tradition!

Apparently, it's the country's largest you-pick pumpkin patch! 

They hay ride from the Pumpkin Patch.

Fascinated by an old tractor!

A silo filled with dried corn kernels to play in!  There are so many fun things to do at this pumpkin patch and we did most of them!  Horse rides, train rides, slides and forts to play in, etc.

Grandma even spoilied the kids with a horse ride!

The older two had riden horses before and they love it...but it was Kyle's first ride.  He was so cute.  He chose to ride Princess the white horse.  We told him to say, "Giddyup, Princess!" 

Which he said over and over in the cutest voice! 

Grandma with the Motley boys just before bedtime!

Thanks mom for coming to help!  We love you!

We also got to enjoy General Conference while Grandma was here.

General Conference with our new sleepy baby was so great!