Fall is in the air!

As soon as October hits Kate insists on wearing her Halloween shirt. Actually she insists much earlier but I insist on her waiting until October. So here's her most favorite shirt of the year.  I tried to get some "Halloween shirt" pictures  of the 2 rugrats I'm home with all day. It started out like this.....

 Quickly turned into this......

 Getting closer.....

 Finally a smile....

 Now we're done....

 Also, Josh had to do a book report and make one of the characters out of a pumpkin. I thought his Fly Guy turned out great. 

 There was crazy hair day at school. I thought we had green hairspray but all I could find was black and silver. It still turned out pretty good.

 We have been busily making applesauce! Kate has been my #1 helper and now we're all set!

 Here's some preparations for the Haunted Forest....

 And someone put this sweat band on Will. He walked around all night saying "Cool." He thinks he's such a stud and he's totally right.

 Rach had a school project to make a diorama of the forest and forest animals. Man, she's lucky she has an architect dad. It turned out SO COOL!

 Soccer is officially over which is a total bummer, but I guess it's a good thing because Josh lost his arms.

 Someone had leftover creamies at one of Rachel's games and shared with us. Will really got into it.

 Since this fall has been so absolutely gorgeous we've been trying to take advantage of it. We took a little hike up Baer creek which is just above our house.

 Someone didn't want to be there. I won't tell you who.

 But the leaves couldn't have been prettier! I guess the kids are pretty cute too.

 This is Trav's "fahionista" pose....

 Then another night Trav couldn't stand being in the office any longer with it looking like this so we drove up to Snow Basin. Trav went on a long bike ride while I took the kids up to the practice trail and a little bike trail.

 This is how Kate and William went over the jumps....

 Josh did awesome and really liked it. Thank goodness Trav will have a biking buddy in a few years. Rachel...not so much. We can start a book club or something.

 It doesn't get any cuter than this!

 Here's officially the last soccer games. The fan section...

 Josh was very persistent...even if he just got shins and no ball.

 The goalie and the goalie helper.

 And Rach FINALLY is back to being Rach again on the field! She hasn't been playing too tough this year which stinks because she was very tough last year. Too bad we only saw it the very last game.

 The trillions of leaves have started to fall. It's always exciting at first and everyone want to help rake. But when it really gets down to it and most of the leaves are down, for some reason I'm always raking alone.

 Strider ever didn't mind being buried with leaves.

 Mommy needs some pictures!!

 Will was more interested in raiding the raspberry bush than he was playing in the leaves. At least he's got his priorities.

 But it was back to work once the berries were gone.

 I know this is getting ridiculous....but for fall break we went up to my parents cabin near Heber. SO gorgeous! We had a great time.

 We went on lots of hikes...

 Spotted animals....

 Played in the leaves.....

 Sometimes all three at the same time....

 Will wasn't a very fast hiker.

 This is more like it!

 Busted!

 We saw a family of 4 moose! Mommy, daddy and twins. It was so cool. Then we saw another moose later on. We saw a total of 5 moose and 54 deer! (The kids kept track.)

 The leaves were just gorgeous!

 This is what Rach and I spent a lot of time doing.

 A herd of 10 deer of mommies and babies came right next to the cabin. It was so cool! Trav tried to sneak out and get a few pictures.

 And don't forget the popcorn flinging contest.

 Lots of rides on the Rhino.

 And one last little hike before we had to head home.

I love fall!

Wake me up when September ends.....

I couldn't think of a good title name and that song has just been in my head since it's the end of September. It was actually a really good September so I didn't necessarily want it to end, but you get the point, right?

Okay, moving on... So for Rachel's birthday this past summer she got one of those butterfly habitats. It was actually really cool to see these little caterpillars turn in to butterflies. (Strider really liked it too...we had to let them go into the wild for their own safety). So this was the big day of kicking them out of the house and sending them off to college....

 It was very fun that they got to hold them before they flew away.

 Only one of them didn't make it. We "found him" the morning that we were going to let them go. Total bummer!

 I just love bubble bath pictures....especially very bubbly bubble baths.

 And here's some more soccer pictures. How I love being a soccer mom! The games are getting so good and so intense! They both were SO close to scoring a goal at their last games. You could tell Josh was thinking about a giant ice cream cone the whole time he was playing so hard. They get the giant ice cream cones if they score.  Maybe next time....

 And for a couple weeks they got on this kick of where they were all superheros and the game would continue for days and days picking up right where they left off the day before.

 For family night a couple weeks ago we went up to Silver Lake for a picnic dinner and walk around the lake. As always, it was gorgeous up there!

 Everyone had to have a turn balancing on the log......

 By this point William still wasn't walking. I know, 17 months....sheesh. But he walked around pretty much the whole lake just holding onto one hand. And sure enough...the next morning he was walking all over the place by himself! Yep, we have an official toddler on our hands! More rightfully known as the "tornado."

 As we were strolling around the lake all the sudden we could hear a ton of people coming. What in the world?!? Apparently a young single adult STAKE had the same idea we had. There were young single adults everywhere!!!! Luckily we got some pictures before the trail was crowded. Not just a ward, a stake. There were like 150ish of them. Holy cow.It was nuts. But it was totally funny to listen to their conversations. Was I ever like that when I was dating? I sure hope not.

 And then this past weekend we got Rach a new bike! She had totally outgrown her old one and we were going to get her a new one for Christmas. Since they ride bikes to school every day we decided we'd get it for her now so she can ride it a little longer before the weather turns bad. She fell in love with this one at Target then we found the exact same bike on KSL for half the price. Ba-da-bing Ba-da-boom. She has been all smiles ever since.

 The Maughan bike brigade...

 And don't forget the leader of the pack.....

 Kate inherited Rachel's old bike and daddy put the training wheels on. She's been zipping all over town now too!

 Oh, William has discovered some new "toys." He raids my bathroom drawer and carries them all over the house. Please don't be grossed out if you come to my house and there are tampons all over the place. That's just what we do here. Educate them early!

 My sister was in town a couple weeks ago so we got to have all the Schick's that were around over for dinner one night. It was so good to see her and 2 of her kiddos. What a bunch of crazy kids....

 For some reason Kate is always a blur in the pictures. that girl cannot hold still!!!

 I never got a good shot of all the adults, so here's the best one I could find.

 Another bit of news. Last week they had a "Freedom Run" at the school. Each grade had 30 minutes to run as many laps around the track as they could. Josh ran 7! Rachel ran 9! That is equivalant to 3 miles for Rachel (and over 2 for Josh)! Holy schmoley! Not only that...Rach got the most laps of all the 4th grade girls so she won a $5 gift card to Sports Authority. Woot woot! She already spent it on some new shinguards which were greatly needed. I was so proud of both of them. Future in track?  We shall see.....

And here's one last picture for the road.... my sweet baby boy. Why are they so precious when they sleep? Is it because they are so naughty when they are awake? I certainly think so.