tulips

I love tulips! I know I say that every spring. =)

Spring!!

Lagniappe

Tonight we attended a Christmas festival called Lagniappe (pronounced lan-yap) in a nearby town with a few other families. There was a tree-lighting and carolers:









Then we all went on a hayride:















And a visit with Santa:




Although some of the kids were not as happy to see him:







Alot of the stores were giving out treats such as cider, cookies, popcorn or even pizza. It was a fun evening. And the weather was even pretty mild.

BRRRR

Our changing Colorado weather: yesterday it was in the high 70s and the kids played outside in shorts. Today it was 35 degrees and the kids played outside in coats and huddled in their "fort" drinking mugs of cocoa.

Tomorrow is to be colder still and there's talk of white stuff falling from the sky. I may actually have snow pictures to share soon.

Winter is upon us.

Happy Fall Y'all!

autumn splendor

We are all healthy again at the moment. I'm hoping it stays that way. =)

Sunday we took a drive to the mountains with friends. We were about 1-2 weeks past prime-viewing for the aspens changing. But there was still pretty color around.

We went with two other families to take each other's Christmas pictures. I won't post any here and ruin the surprise, but here are some of the "outtakes".

Hiking deeper into the woods to find a good spot

"Carefully" climbing onto the rocks in the river (hey--anything for a good shot, right?)

We ended up with a lot of potential pictures. Of course, it was the most difficult for our family, trying to get 7 people all smiling and looking the same way at the same time. Especially Zane. We have several shots of him looking down or trying to reach out and grab the hair of the person closest to him. LOL But I think we got one we like for our Christmas cards.

We stopped for a picnic lunch amidst the trees.

Then we took some more pictures in a copse of aspens. The background was just gorgeous. When we were done, the kids spent some time playing and climbing on rocks.

These two don't look like they miss many meals, do they? =)

It was a wonderful day spent surrounded by God's amazing beauty and with good friends.

First day of fall

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~Stanley Horowitz

It's now officially my favorite time of the year! I love fall. Here in Colorado, it can bring any weather you can imagine. I always have to have two wardrobes in the kids' drawers. We may wake up one day to hot, summery weather made for shorts and swimming. The next day we may need to don our long pants and a cozy sweater as the skies are gray and angry-looking. We've had snow as early as the first week in September, although that's rare.

Fall to me is milder weather, beginning a new homeschool year, the calendar filling up more and more and more. It's going through each child's clothing, determining what to pass on, what to give away, how much to buy. It's digging out coats, boots, hats, gloves. Putting away bathing suits swim shoes and sandals.

It's also snuggling with my toddler on the couch on a gray, cool morning. Visiting a corn maze or pumpkin patch. Making hot cocoa after the kids have gone out into the first snowfall of the year. Checking out this year's sweaters in stores. Looking ahead to the joyous Christmas season.

We also try to take at least one mountain drive this time of year to see the colorful show the aspens put on. We hope to do that next weekend. In the meantime, I'll post some pictures from past autumns.

And my favorite: