Visitors

The second week of October, we had some visitors at our house.  Rod, Dixie, Nathaniel, Cara and Kinsley came to stay with us for a few days.  Since Cara was still on maternity leave, they were able to get here really late on Thursday night and stay until Sunday afternoon.  We had a great time, as always.  Landon and Keegan LOVE their cousin, Kinsley and couldn't get enough of her while she was here.  They usually argued over who got to feed her, play with her or hold her.  We went to dinner on Friday night and then came home and watched the baseball playoffs.  On Saturday, we went to a pumpkin patch and then hung out at home for the rest of the night.  On Sunday, we went to church (where the boys sang in the children's choir), then went to Landon's soccer game, then ate downtown and explored a little before they had to leave. It was a busy but fun weekend!

Hanging out in the basement with Biggie (the huge puppy) on Friday night.

Kinsley and the boys wore their matching "Bones" pajamas

 Playing on Saturday morning...

Keegan & Kinsley

 Landon & Kinsley

It was a gorgeous day to be at the pumpkin patch.

The boys playing in the tractor.

Sweet Kinsley

 Measuring Landon

 Kinsley and I

 Our sweet, crazy boys

Daddy and Keegan

 Landon

This was a new play area for the kids this year and the boys loved it.  Kinsley will have to join them next year :)

Keegan

 Landon

 The boys climbing up the tire wall

 Keegan walking across the swinging tires

The boys sure do love their Aunt Cara!

 Fun on the hay ride

 Silly faces

Oh no...Landon is stuck!  Just kidding, but his face is priceless!

 Keegan on the spider ropes

Keegan playing with Kinsley 

 Such a sweet, happy little girl

Love this pic of Keegan copying his Papa Rod

Kinsley looking so cute in her dress for church

Nathaniel and Keegan at the soccer game

A couple fun "Cleveland" pics

Uncle Matt and Kinsley playing at lunch 

 Love that smile

A picture of the kiddos before everyone left

 Thanks for coming to visit us, everyone!  We appreciate you making the drive out and loved having you here :)

Apple Picking/Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite fall activities to do as a family is go apple picking.  The boys love picking out (and sampling) all the different apples.  When we get home, we make applesauce using my grandma's cookware.  We make enough applesauce to last the whole year.  The boys can just get another bag out of the freezer anytime they want it.  Sometimes I also make apple brownies or apple pie, but we just made applesauce this year. 

The apple orchard that we like to go to is also connected to a pumpkin patch with a play area for the kids, animals to see, and a store.  There is a lot to do, and we had another great experience.  Here are our fun pictures from the day...

Our sweet apples

 Family selfie

Landon picking apples

 Keegan picking apples

 Mommy and the boys

 Love these two

 Sampling the apples

 So sweet

Off to play with the pumpkins

Can't believe how big my boys are getting...

Landon...won't be long until he is 5 feet tall

 Keegan...almost 4 feet tall

Fun with the pumpkins

 The Hungry Caterpillar

 Playing in the straw maze...

 Such handsome boys (even with some scrapes!)

Another successful trip to the Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch and another fun day!!

Sunflower Field

There is an organization in town called, "Prayers from Maria" that raises money for a specific childhood cancer.  Maria's family started it when she passed away from the rare disease.  Each year, they plant sunflowers in a huge field in her memory.  People come to the field to learn the stories of children that have passed away from cancer, to take pictures, to buy shirts and merchandise to advertise and raise awareness, and to make donations to this wonderful organization.  

We usually visit the field multiple times in the fall and it is always bittersweet.  It is incredibly sad to walk through and read about all the children who lost their battle to cancer.  It makes us count our blessings each and every day for our sweet boys and our health.  At the same time, the field is so gorgeous that it automatically makes you happy as well.  It really is an incredible thing to see, with an even more incredible purpose.  

This year, we gave a donation for a professional photographer to take our pictures for 10 minutes one morning.  We also went back another time and took a few more pictures again.  Here are all our pictures...hope you enjoy!

From the photographer...

From our camera...

After we visited the Sunflower Field the morning we took our pictures, Landon and Keegan decided to have a lemonade stand that afternoon in our development to raise money for childhood cancer.  The neighbors jumped in to help halfway through and the kids ended up raising $70 in an hour and a half.  We went back to the field to take them the money and the workers were so impressed with the boys!  The fact that we have two healthy boys that are able to do things like that is really special.  I'm sure any one of the families who have lost a child would give anything to have just a few more moments with their child.  Hopefully the small amount of money that we were able to contribute can go towards the research to help cure this awful disease.

A couple more pics from this fall...