Bates Nut Farm Pumpkin Patch

I absolutely just adore autumn and everything about it. I am so grateful that this has been such a fun fall already with lots of rain and beautiful cool weather. I LOVE it!

Our fall would not be complete without a trip up to Bates to see the pumpkins and ride the hay ride. It has been a busy month so we didn't make it until just a couple days ago and even though it was pretty quick it was tons of fun and just got me even more in the mood for Halloween! Cal was so glad we got to go with the Carpenter girlies. He has the best time with them. Here are some pictures of the fun time.





This is the happiest little girl right now. What a little bug.
She would've been wearing her pumpkin onesie, but of course had a blow out just before we left. :)



Mr. Man in his cute little Halloween shirt.










All our kiddos

















Now Halloween costume pictures coming soon!!!

Little Pumpkin

We love Halloween around here and Scarlett fits in perfectly. She is our darling little pumpkin this year.

I even got all crafty and made her this little onesie and headband.
So glad she is party of our little family.

Three O

So Dan is officially three decades old.

I love my old man! :)

We had a great birthday weekend celebrating. It was conference weekend too which made it even more fun. On Saturday morning we went to the Original Pancake House for breakfast. It was delicious! 

Then in the afternoon Cal and Dan went to the Miramar Air Show. Cal was so excited for Daddy to take him to see big jets. It's all he could talk about for a weeks. The met up with cousins at McDonalds beforehand. This is Cal being a monkey....

Having so much fun with his cousins at the air show!

That evening after Priesthood session, we went with Steve and Rachael and Matt and Liz to a fabulous, kid-free dinner at PF Changs. It was so fun and yummy. One of our favorite places to eat. We had a great time chatting til way too late at night. I think the restaurant finally had to kick us out. :) We had lots of laughs and good times.

It's funny because when it was Matt's birthday back in the spring, I was almost exactly as pregnant as Liz was for Dan's birthday! So we had to get a belly shot.

Then on Sunday morning we woke up and Dan got to open presents and be king for the day. Cal was so excited to give him his gifts! (Scarlett wasn't awake yet or she'd be in the pics too! :) )

Best buddies. They decided to wear their matching shirts.

Dan's whole family came over after conference and we BBQed. 

Scarlett all ready for Halloween and Aunt Mel

Mimi had a fun little activity for all the kids to do. She had a nursery lesson all prepared about "Gospel Armor" and the kids loved it!

Here they are all decked out with their armor.

I hope Dan had a great birthday weekend. We love him so much and are so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and Dad. I know this year will be a great one! Love you Danny!

Playing Dress Up

Cal is getting so good at imaginative play and is really into dressing up right now. At friends' houses with little girls, we often find him decked out in princess garb and he thinks it is pretty amazing. For a long time he insisted that he was a princess but I think I've finally gotten him talked into the fact that he is a prince and I am the princess. :) When I saw a little knight/prince costume at Costco I decided we had to get it.

A few weeks ago after Scarlett went to bed, I was picking up the house with Dan and suddenly we heard Cal in the other room playing all by himself with his big stuffed Elmo toy that talks when you squeeze his tummy. We heard Elmo say, "You're Elmo's best friend!" followed by Cal "NO I'm not! I'm a bad prince!!". Then Elmo cheerfully said, "Let's go for a walk!" to which Cal replied "NO!" and then Elmo said "Give Elmo a BIG hug!" and Cal said "No, I can't do that!!" in a sassy pretend to be mean voice. We were rolling. It was so funny.

So we decided the poor kid needed some other characters in his little world of make believe and Dan and I got dressed up and played, Prince, Evil King, and Princess.

I've never seen a little boy so happy. He was beyond thrilled. He kept pausing and saying to us "Oh, thank you so much for playing with me! I love you playing this with me." It was the sweetest thing and the pure joy on his little face just made me want to squeeze him.

Life gets so busy but it really does feel good to just take a quick break from all the chores and "to do's" and just play with your kids. Even with all the challenges that a 3 year can bring, I really wish I could just freeze this time and this age and live in it forever. He is so special and sweet and I just love him to pieces.

Cal at 3

A few quick things about Cal right now:

- Cal really is my rambunctious little man.

His energy and fun never end.

- He is SOOOOO social and loves playing with other kids. I am trying to do better at actually getting on the floor and playing with him every day, because the poor kid is just DYING to have some attention and a playmate all day long.

- But for as social as he is, he also has a homebody side. He loves just being with Mom and Dad and can be super attached to us at times. He loves doing "family" things and wants to have "family hugs" and do things "all together".

- He comes out of his room lately about 5 times after we put him to bed just asking for more snuggles and songs and says, "I want to hold you." If it wasn't so annoying I might love it. :)

- He LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and asks to watch it all the time.

- He loves jumping, shooting, rolling, bouncing, wrestling, running, climbing, diving, flipping....you name it. The kid is just physical. 

- While is he so active and wild a lot of the time, he also has a super sweet soft side and begs for "Mommy Snuggles" and wants to be cuddled and loved lots, especially at bedtime.

- He loves to read with us and is so into books right now. For a kid with so much energy I am amazed how he will literally sit perfectly still and listen so attentively to book after book. He just loves it.

- He is doing really well at preschool and is learning quite a few Spanish words and can even count to 10. He loves asking how you say various words in Spanish.

- He is silly and fun-loving

-He loves water and the beach. He had so much fun swimming this summer and is obsessed with him swim toys--especially his goggles!

- He loves working out in the yard with Daddy and is a great helper.

- He is a great big brother and loves to help with Scarlett. He is almost always very sweet and gentle with her. I'm still amazed at how well he has done transitioning into having a sibling. 

Here are just some random pictures of him from the last couple months. Being his crazy self.

Oh and one picture of Cruiser...just because the poor dog puts up with so much and he barely even makes the blog. :)

When we found out we were having a boy, our friends Matt and Liz gave us the cutest superhero "Captain Heartbreaker" PJs and boots for him to wear someday. Well, they are Cal's favorite thing in the whole world to wear and he loves to pretend like he is a superhero whenever he is in them. Before he grows out of them I figured I'd better get a few pictures of him enjoying them.