Hey November!

Seeing the Jack-O'-Lanterns still sitting on my porch has me in denial that Halloween is over. Halloween is getting up there on the top of my favorite holiday list, but I don't think it'll ever top Christmas or even Thanksgiving. Slowly, but surely those fine carved pumpkins are slowly decomposing, and then it'll be time to throw them out for next week's garbage pick up. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year, and she's definitely starting to show herself off with beautiful fall foliage especially with the rain we had last Saturday. November has arrived with all things pumpkin, colorful leaves added with an extra hour of sleep for the next five months, and it truly is beautiful this time of year. I sure didn't get perfect fall weather like this in Texas, North Carolina, and believe it or not...not even Utah. Utah is beautiful, and all with miles, and miles of mountains, but there's something about the fall foliage here in the east that makes the hues so vibrant, and the leaves so, so huge. 

One thing I am jealous of about my sweet 75 year old neighbor Janet are her trees. She has tons of trees in her yard, and every year her house looks so "fallish" especially when all the leaves fall to the ground. These kids look forward to leaf wars, and like the picturesque mom that I am asked if they wanted to go across the street to our dear neighbors house to "borrow" her yard, and have a little bit of fun playing with the leaves. They obliged, and so I captured a few photos of them. 

These kids have way too much fun especially in times like this when you can tell they all needed to air out some kind of "stress" or "energy" that they have bottled up inside for too long, or maybe it's the sugar they had earlier that day that caused them to have so much energy. Little Noah loves anything that pertains to the outdoors, and when he plays, he plays hard (yep...it had to be the sugar!) 

Lexie is not one to take too many pictures as you can tell by her Instagram. She's too focused on other things besides her phone, and taking selfies (which she hardly ever does), but on this day she obliged in having me snap at least one photo of her, and I told her it's partially because I want everyone to see how beautiful the colored leaves are in our neck of the woods, (and how pretty she is!) hee!hee!

And a few more pics of the rest of my clan...you know, so they can show them off to their future posterity when that time comes. 

Evening fell really fast especially with the time change, and so these last few pictures had to be edited to a lighter filter. So....sorry if they look a little fuzzy. 

This time of year truly fills my heart with gratitude. No matter what each day brings I find myself thankful for waking up to a brand new day. What I look forward to the most is gathering with my family and sharing all the things we are thankful for including our health, God, and the love I have in my heart. No matter what challenges come my way knowing that I have those things in my life that are great helps me to get up & live each day. It's a testament to me to know that I am worth living, and having these kids in my life help me grow & teach me into being the best mother I can be. 

I look forward to the holidays and even though Sierra won't be here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us she will be missed, and thought of. We look forward to seeing her during the Christmas break though. 

And so I leave you with a picture of me and our soon to be birthday boy who will be turning five in just four days!! I can't believe it! I don't want to believe it, but it's inevitable! They gotta grow up just like us to learn, and live in this crazy, but beautiful world we live in! 

I love, love this season! 

Happy November!