September Come & Gone

I swear it was just yesterday that I wrote my summer post and couldn't believe it was September. Now September is over and October is here! School has kept me extremely busy and I am finding less and less time to not only keep up on my own blog, but everyone else's as well. Nonetheless, September was a very fun and very busy month and definitely worth mentioning. So here it goes:

We took the kids to the state fair. They loved it. Me? Well, lets just say I'm not dying to go back next year. I usually love a good fair, but there were just too many people this year and we could barely maneuver the stroller . It didn't help that we happened to go on Fiesta night - oops.

We caved and spent an extra $4.00 so Ashlyn could ride a pony. It made her day, so yes it was worth it.

We went to the zoo to see all the babies - tigers, giraffe, and elephant oh my! This little guy made me want to change my major and become a zoo keeper...until I realized that although it would be fun to play with the baby elephant, I would also have to clean up the ginormous baby elephant poop, not to mention the even larger mama elephant poop. No thanks.

Ashlyn discovered a new pair of shoes - Wii remote covers. Love this girl. The other night I asked her if she wanted to go to the store with me, just the two of us. She usually loves one-on-one time with mommy, but she surprised me when she responded, "Um, no thanks." "What?!" "No thank you mommy." "Oh." She could sense my disappointment and so she came over and wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss on my nose. Then she smiled, looked me right in the eye and said, "I still won't go with you."

I was lucky enough to go on a weekend getaway to Las Vegas with my girlfriends whom I have known for almost 20 years! Thanks so much to Brian, who did a great job playing solo. We had a blast!! I can't even say enough about it. We ate lots of great food, watched a couple chick flicks, talked, laughed, soaked in a hot tub, shopped, and even shed a few tears. My SIL Stacey met us for dinner and a movie on Friday night. She surprised us all by paying for our meals - she is the best. The highlight of the weekend was going to see Lion King at Mandalay Bay - AMAZING!!! The acting was amazing, the costumes were amazing, the stage and props were amazing, and the music was amazing. I would go again in a heartbeat. The only bad part of the show was that I wanted my kids to be there. They would have loved it. Don't worry, I made up for it by bringing them back a little bit of Vegas...

Even though was a busy month, I managed to do a little canning. Mmmm, homemade spaghetti sauce made from fresh garden tomatoes! I can't wait to try it, but it might be awhile. After all that work, I am hesitant to use them!

And just like that, September is gone. On the bright side, we welcomed in fall which is the most wonderful time of the year - in my humble opinion. And now that October is here, I get to pull out all my favorite pumpkin recipes. To kick things off, Ashlyn and I made pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing today. Delicious! And of course, it is Conference weekend which means that we will be having pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon syrup. I can't wait!