fall porch

Its only a couple of days into fall, and today I had to dig out my wool coat.  I was freezing!  Today also marked the first time turning on the gas fireplace and cranking up the heater in the car.

Okay, so this isn't the whole picture, but the front porch is getting festive.







I'm sure I'll have to get a few more pumpkins, and I haven't decided if I'm going to clip some of the cornstalks and bundle them up by the front door.   One thing for sure, I've gotten some grief from the cashiers at the grocery store for getting pumpkins before Oct. 1st.  As far as I'm concerned, the fall holidays start reallly soon after school starts.  Gotta stretch it out as long as you can!

fall mantel

I just couldn't have the patience and wait until the real first day of fall, I had to drag out my pumpkins and start tucking them here and there around the house.  For the "before" picture of the mantel, just imagine absolutely nothing on it at all.  Blank.  It took me all of two minutes to put these up there.  I don't know why some things I can just throw together and I'm happy, and other things I tweak and tweak for weeks on end.  Hmm, now that I'm looking at it, I can already see a few things that need tweaking.  And definitely I will be adding more as we get closer to Halloween. (i already tweaked it since posting, on the left side grouping, i filled in that one blank spot near the center.  too lazy busy to update the photo.  just take my word for it).







I snapped this of the harvest moon this morning at about 6-something AM.  Yes, the official harvest moon . . . the full moon before fall begins.  Its not blurry, just some haze surrounding it.  If you look in the upper right hand corner, you will see the morning star (is that Venus?)



It seems its very easy to find ways to procrastinate the jobs on my to-do list.  Like getting out the pumpkins instead of the vacuum cleaner.

For about the last three weeks, anytime I post something on my blog, I've been noticing on any of my friends blogs who have a link to mine in their sidebars, it takes two to three days to show that I posted anything.  By then its lost down in the lineup.  Verrrry weird.  Watch, this one will show up on their blog rolls in a few minutes, now that I've said something about it!

Anyway . . . I can't wait for fall.  I'm so ready for summer to end and for the cool and crisp weather to begin.  Oh, and the leaves.  My favorite part.  Hope you're all getting out your decorations too.

celebrating abby

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Abby on the day after her birthday.  She is at the most fun age!  I think I say that about every age.  But I am certainly in love with this 5 year old!



My one and only picture of Claire.  Yesterday she turned 13 months old.  And she was camera shy.  Oh, Abby . . . she was saying "a cardboard box??" Funny girl.  (note the pink streaks in her hair . . . that was from one of her other birthday presents . . . they'll wash right out).





What is it . . . a Furby!  (another Furby!)  She got one for Christmas, but it met with an untimely death of sorts.  She still has it, but it doesn't work.  Furby's are one of those toys that are definitely very trying to be around.  But after seeing how much she loved the one she got for Christmas, my heart softened up a bit.  She was telling me all along that she wanted a purple one, but a couple of weeks ago she changed her mind and said she really wanted a white one.  Argh . . . I had already bought the purple one.  And I wasn't going to return it.  Thank goodness she fell in love with this new purple one and named it Violet (appropriate).



Some dance moves with Furby Violet.  See that My Little Pony shirt she's wearing?  Kind of?  Its her birthday present from Luke (picked out by me, of course).  Turns out that Summer already has the exact same shirt.  Remember last month I gave Claire the same shirt she already had, too?  That's two for two, I'm getting a track record.  If I give Summer the same clothes somebody else already has for her birthday next month, I'll think I'm jinxed.





And my other gift to her, an Alice in Wonderland costume.  This girl has lovvvved Alice since she was one!



Note the "Alice-loving" evidence: her cat, Dinah (which really is Marie from the Aristocats, but don't tell Abby that.  Marie will always and forevermore be Dinah, Alice's cat).  I love a well-loved stuffed animal like Dinah . . . Abby zeroed in on her on her first trip to Disneyland when she was 18 months old and all these years later is still loving her the most.







After lunch, we headed over to Redmond Town Center to have a fun date at Paint Away (thanks Calley for suggesting it!)  It was my first time going to a ceramics painting place too.  There were so many things to choose from, but after so much deliberating, Abby chose a little dog to paint.  Brown fur, blue eyes, and pink nose.  It won't be ready to pick up till next week.









Summer had early release so she was already home from school when we got back.  The whole fam got new BYU t-shirts, and here she's trying on her dad's.



And here's a little cougar spirit!





Happy 5th birthday Abby!!  I had the best day ever with you!

happy birthday abby!

Five years, how can you be that old now Abby?  We wish you the happiest birthday ever!  Love you so much!

sundance

Before I even start . . . last night I was watching the BYU channel, and Russell M. Nelson was speaking.  I was trying to figure out where he was speaking from . . . my first thought was BYU-Hawaii, but he wasn't wearing a lei (first clue if it was in Hawaii---actually it was there).  It was towards the end of his talk, but I turned it on to record anyway.  And that was INSPIRED because at the end of the broadcast, they were showing scenes from around the campus and students involved in different activities, and THERE WAS TOBY!!!  THREE TIMES!!!!  And one was a close-up!  Oh my goodness, what a gift to see him, and to have it forever on my dvr!! (it was the CES devotional for Sept. 2013, and when viewing it online, I saw Toby again (that would make 4 times he popped up on there), it was during the opening moments, but I knew exactly where to look). 

Okay, excuse my excited mom moment, I can't help myself.  Now back to our Utah trip:

Number one on my to-do list in Utah was to go to Sundance.  I spent sooooo much time there during my BYU days, but I hadn't been back since then.  Kelsey, Luke, and I drove up there on Saturday morning.  It was jaw-dropping gorgeous, of course, but so different than the Sundance of my college days.  I am dating myself, but back in my day, Sundance consisted of the restaurant, the horse stables, and the ski lift.  Besides that, it was sweeping views of Mt. Timpanogos, wandering streams, and nature, nature, nature.  Now---today---I was kind of lost there, to be honest!  So many new buildings!  More trails!  Where was my sweeping view of Timp?  I'm sure it was there somewhere, we just didn't take the right trail to get there.  BUT . . . oh my, it still has that same special place in my heart, and is still drop dead gorgeous.  Here you go for a little looksy . . . no sweeping views, but a ton of details:



















My one and only sweeping view . . . of sorts.



















Desperately looking for signs of the aspens turning golden.  I found two:





I think the Sundance catalog has a lot more merchandise than the actual store, but what we saw was pretty cool.















See those leaves changing higher up on the mountain?































































One last parting shot of Timp, which looks wrong with no snow on it.



But still so majestic.  Wish I could be there for the fall colors!