It's been a challenging week. Joel is out of town, Amelia and Ollie were sick and had ear infections, and today right as everyone was finally feeling better, Sam broke his hand!!

We went to enjoy the Fall colors with friends in Big Cottonwood Canyon and the kids had a blast. After being cooped up in the house, they were thrilled to be out in nature. At one point when climbing a rock fell on Sam's hand, and though it obviously hurt pretty bad, he seemed fine after a bit. Later in the afternoon, though, it was swollen and blue-ish and he couldn't grip anything. The twins were both over the moon excited that he might need to get a *cast*. In the end, he does. It's a small break and he's wearing a split now and a cast will happen next week. He couldn't stop smiling when the doctor told him- hehe. I was so proud of him at the office- he was so articulate and confident talking to the providers. Growing up, that little guy. 

Anyway, it's been a long day and a long week. It's 11:30pm and I have a toddler rolling around in my bed refusing to sleep - ay yay yay. It could be so much worse though, and tomorrow is a new day. Actually in about thirty minutes it will be a new day. 

What a gorgeous morning in the mountains though, it lifted my spirits and even now I can still feel the effects. I'm also so thankful for such caring friends. Bringing dinner, watching the girls  tonight, offering help of all sorts. So much to be thankful for.

  All for now, Jen

Sunday Drive

        Gorgeous, gorgeous fall. 

Creatures of the night...

Such good, old fashioned fun at the Ogden Nature Center tonight! Poor Amelia is pretty sick and couldn't go, so the boys and I headed out with the Cox crew. 

They climbed through a huge, string web inside a yurt, played fun fall festival games, watched an owl presentation, went on a flash light hunt, learned about all sorts of creepy crawlies...it was so great. So thankful the weather was nice and not too, too chilly until the very end. I must say, not having a toddler there meant we could stay the whole three hours with no problem, and that was nice:) Laid back Ollie just hung out in the Beco carrier the whole time, mellow little fellow! Anyway, lots of Fall fun, and though the boys both coughed a lot (none of the kids are feeling great), I don't think it was too, too much for them. Anyway, going to go fall into bed now!:) Jen

Signs of the season...

How fun was this fairy and elves birthday party that we went to on Halloween? So much fun! We are going to miss our friends the Hultgrens as they move to Argentina next month. They are a very kind, unique, earthy family that we all have loved getting to know (the couple pictured below is Kira's brother and his girlfriend who have beautiful voices and you can listen to here)!






The day before Halloween is when Utah celebrates, and so out we went trick-or-treating in the cold and rain! I didn't get any pictures because of the weather, etc. but Grandpa Jim got a couple. Sam dressed up as a pirate for their school party, but after that he wanted nothing else to do with dressing up. He just "wants to be Sambo", so that's who he was:) He was SUCH a trooper in the rain, not complaining once. He was so serious as he forged ahead of us all to the next house, but he did have fun saying "HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!" once he had gotten his loot. That boy loves salutations:) Sweet toothed Amelia was in dreamland, of course, and asked sweetly after every house, "Can I get some more candy please?" I don't think she could quite believe what was happening. I don't think I could quite believe I was letting this sugary bonanza happen either (half the candy went bye bye to other trick or treaters after the babes went to bed so they each had about ten pieces left when they arose:). It was a fun evening with friends and thankfully no creepy teens in masks were parading round like they were last year. In fact, we were pretty much the only group out in the rain and cold on our block--hahaha.

Here are Sam and Amelia dressed up on a random evening last month, Sammy was such a cute pirate and look at that expressive English equestrian!:)

We went to a little fall festivalish activity at Thanksgiving point farm. The ponies were a big hit:)


Lastly, here is a yummy,yummy, yummy recipe that you should all run and bake:) Last night I used pumpkin insead of squash and put dark chocolate crumbles on top! It's from Simply in Season cookbook.

Winter Squash Bars:
2 cups winter squash or pumpkin (cooked, pureed)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups oil
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Beat together in mixing bowl

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix in. Pour into lightly greased 11x17 inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 min. Makes 24 bars.

Off to enjoy this beautiful weather! Jen