It's pretty much one of life's greatest gifts - when the leaves turn glorious colors and the air gets crisp and cold. The stores begin to sell apple cider, sweaters get pulled out of sweater bags, jackets get tried on to see if they still fit, and I head to Yarn Mart to stock up on soft stuff for knitting. Where even the trees get to wear handmade goodies.

Seen while on a run...

Nothing like a glowing tree in the darkness.

Also seen while running...so lovely.

Seen in my front yard. 

Three happy kids:

Brooklyn, Dorien and August

Happy Fall to you!!!!

He occasionally cries. But not very often.

He does lots and lots of this with his precious smushy edible lips and cheeks.

See?

He's been known to stare into space and contemplate the universe.

He's still at it.

He spends lots of time in my arms or smiling at me, which is just about the sweetest thing ever.

He tries on hats and clothes.

He gets cozy-wozy.

He points at himself when I ask where is Wyeth! (just kidding)

Reading to siblings...

Looking at science books by the window...

Coloring in the sunlight...sleeping in the sunlight...

Reading in Boppy under a blanket on the couch...

We do lots of reading.

Is there anything better?

This whole bath thing is overrated.

Should I be doing something? Or just lie here?

One of the best things about being in a large family is that you are a world unto yourselves. 

I grew up as one of seven children, and seriously, one of the best things about my family is that we were essentially a good time looking for a place to happen!

When we went someplace, all eyes were on us. Not because we were misbehaved, but because most of the time, we seemed to be having such a great time that I think people wished they were with us! 

Now that I am a parent and have 4 kids of my own, while that is by no means a large family by my standards, it's a size at which we have become a world unto our own.  When we go places, we are our own good time. We laugh, we joke, we act silly...we're a good time looking for a place to happen!

And sometimes, that happens in Kroger!

For instance, yesterday evening as we made a late night Kroger run, we pretty much dominated. 

We had one regular cart, two children's carts, I was holding Wyeth, it was Kyle's birthday and we were all in a good mood. Laughter rang out from our little band of wheels and everyone we passed grinned.

And when August busted out this random walking maneuver, we had to take a video of it. It was too funny, partly because it just came from nowhere! 

Life with four kids is not without its challenges, but we are crazy about each other and we know how to have a good time.  That more than makes up for the other stuff.

We dress ourselves (sometimes only in robot pjs), preferably in winter hats, and we dance like crazy.

This is August.

August surprises me sometimes.

For instance, the picture above.  One weekend, August asked Kyle and I what we were gonna do for lunch. Kyle jokingly said, "Well, you're making it today, so we'd like the following....." and he listed a whole bunch of crazy foods that each of us would like to eat.

Fast forward about 20 minutes and we realized August was nowhere to be seen.

We found him in the kitchen, as pictured above.

He had decided to take us at our word and begin making lunch. He had set up a little PBJ assembly line. 

I could not have been more touched by this action of his! It was one of those precious moments that makes your heart ache with love. 

Let me share two other recent August funnies...

I'm currently reading a book called ChiRunning.

August asked me the other day if this book taught you how to run while eating cheese.

Does it get any better than that? Hang on.

A few days ago, the kids and I made chocolate chip cookies, and I put on a Greatest Hits from the 80's CD. I was singing at the top of my voice, dancing with the kids and generally alarming them. Brooklyn called me Loudy Pants several times. Dorien and I danced lots of jigs. It was fun times. 

So we're singing along to Every Time You Go Away...

You know the words?

"Every time you go away.....you take a piece of me with you..."

August and I were preparing the cookie dough and were about halfway through this song, when August cocked his head to the side and looked up at me, puzzled, and asked, 

"Every time you go, you take a piece of meat with you?"

I laughed so hard I had to run to the bathroom. 

Brooklyn is a natural. She is the most loving, attentive, gentle big sister. 

I could not be prouder of her.

She is helpful, thoughtful, loving and like I said, a natural. 

She is always eager to hold Wyeth in the "burping position" as she calls it. 

Slightly less happy when those burps emit spit-up. 

Her little brother seems pretty happy with her too.

It's a good system.

I love this hat. I really do. As I do so many of my knitting projects, I found this project on PurlBee. I bought their kit to make this hat while I was still pregnant with Wyeth. Since I didn't know what we were having, I thought the silver-grey and yellow was neutral enough. Now that I know it's a boy, I like it even better.

I love how it looks on him!

Mid-way through the project, I needed to test the size. It looks like I'm giving him a lobotomy!

This was some of the thinnest yarn I've ever knit with, and it took ages to knit this hat. Ages. And I'm a pretty fast knitter, I think. But it was worth the effort.

Here's my "sterile field." All ready for surgery.

Snug as a bug in a rug.

What a great hat. Thanks, PurlBee! 

How quickly time flies.

Wyeth is already one month old.

And plumping up quite nicely.

Which happens when you nurse every two hours.

And get very little physical exercise, apart from the occasional stretch.

But that's one of the perks of being an infant. You gain weight and people applaud you for it. 

I applaud this little guy for just being here. I love him I love him I love him.

Wyeth up close and precious.

His favorite sleeping position - on top of Mommy.

Snuggled up beside Daddy. Never a bad place to be.

Or in the Oeuf while Mommy makes lunches.

And then there's the unexpected sleeping spots that you find your children on.

With the slightly open eyes. Creepy.

Dorien and Wyeth sharing nap time.

My baby.

My other baby.

This Halloween, instead of carving a pumpkin, we opted to paint one instead! 

Our gym was hosting a pumpkin decorating contest, so we decided to participate.

Kyle came up with the design and drew it on the pumpkin and then we all painted.

I love Brooklyn's super concentration, as evidenced by her little tongue poking out!

Final product: an Exhausted Work-Out Man! We felt it was befitting a gym setting.

Even if we didn't win. We were very proud of ourselves.

And as for the cake referred to, a few days before Halloween, I got a whim to bake something. I pulled out my Bon Appetit Dessert cookbook and was looking for something involving bittersweet chocolate, as I'd recently purchased a few bags on sale. I just happened to open the book to the Halloween Candy Cake. As Halloween was the next day, it seemed meant to be! And my mom was hosting a little family get together, so it would mean others would help me eat this cake, instead of it sitting around and just tempting me.

Interestingly, this cake involved very little flour and no butter. Lots of eggs, though. Something like 6 eggs and a few yolks. What you see above are all those eggs whipping up together with some brown sugar and a little vanilla.

The dry ingredients consisted of a little flour and some roasted, unsalted peanuts which had been ground up in a food processor. The above mixture was dumped into the wet ingredients.

After baking the cakes in two 9 inch cake pans, I cut each cake in half, giving me four layers of cake.

Cake halves!

And then the fun part - the filling. 

It was peanut butter, powdered sugar, some butter and some whipping cream, all blended in a food processor. YUM!

The other part of the filling was this lovely mess of chopped up Reese's cups.

Mid-assembly.

Almost ready for the top layer of cake.

There it is....

And then some whipped cream icing, some chopped up nuts for the base, Butterfinger and Reeses Pieces for the top. Good to go.

Looking pretty edible!

The top view (plus part of my foot).

Our little trick or treaters (minus Wyeth who was supposed to be a pepper, but never quite made it into his costume). August was a knight - I had made him a leather coat of arms last Christmas and we'd planned for him to be a knight all year. He was everything a knight should be.

Brooklyn was a pirate girl - looking way pretty for a pirate.

Dorien was a pumpkin for about 5 minutes, after which he stripped off his costume and proceeded to be a Nuisance. He roared at other trick-or-treaters and generally made mischief the whole night.

Not that you'd get that from his grin, right? 

All in all, a lovely Halloween was had by all.