Fall into Autumn

wow...it's been too long! a lot has been happening this fall and we've been busy:
adjusting to having a new baby
having houseguests
decorating for halloween
developing some bad habits
cooking yummy fall food
growing fatter (ruby)
exploring
not blogging

so, to kick of this official welcome to fall blog, i give you the first ever photos of our house (at least the outside) -- we realized there hadn't been one taken! i also realized it's kinda hard to get a good picture of the outside of the house.


picture from the driveway. look at all the fall lovelies.

front of the house. yeah, we know it needs a paint job...buttery yellow, perhaps? anyone have suggestions? we're open to ideas.

fall is when i start to love cooking again. here are a few of my favorite things in a cozy lil corner of my retro kitchen (left to right): baking supplies in canisters, tomatoes and tomatillos, acorn squash, red onions, butternut squash, kitchenaid, groovy old recipe box, red crockpot full of cafe rio barbacoa pork deliciousness, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in jar. (oh, and a toaster.)

you're all invited for dinner anytime.

in my intro, i mentioned bad habits...namely that the two older kids keep coming into mom and dad's room EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (at least they did...it's getting a bit better -- knock on wood). here they both "couldn't sleep" and "weren't tired" so we directed them to our bed -- hadley first and xan about 15 minutes later. 5 minutes after that, we found this. both were subsequently transferred to their own sleeping quarters.

one of the best parts of october is halloween! the kids always beg for me to get out the decorations and then lose interest in helping after about 10 minutes. here are the results when done properly by an adult.

mantle. i love the dead flower arrangement and the spooky guy carrying a candle. i need a spooky picture to hang up, though. this one's not cutting it. but i do like the pile o' skulls. everyone needs a pile o' skulls.

little haunted house vignette that gets rearranged by busy little hands all day long. hadley made the moon and xan gathered all those great twigs for me.

i'm so excited to do seasonal displays in my corner china hutch! shelley gave me the cute plates.

turquoise table with cute dancing skeletons and 5 little pumpkins sitting in a line. these were a fun project to make...cut up a cardboard egg carton and glue the halves together then paint and add little leaves.
this fall ruby's cheeks have been getting fatter and fatter like a lil chipmunk storing walnuts in there. you can see in this picture that they are actually so heavy, she can't remain upright.

uh, this picture somehow got separated from the other halloween decor pics:

my desk. i like the bat lamp. it might be my favorite little halloween touch.

alan had a project or twenty going on this fall too. here are our new nightstands, shown BEFORE and AFTER. tres' chic, no? now if we can get around to the dresser our room will look like a grownup room. :) these are our first matching nightstands. 12 years later. nice.

the kids got all geared up to go "exploring" at sayen gardens with grandma and grandpa.
hadley's pink hat doubles as a "safari" hat and a "tea party" hat. nice!

spot the difference in this photo. you know, you just can't go exploring without rainboots, a hat, binoculars, and a bug box.
close(r) up of fall lovelies on front porch. also separated from halloween decor pics, but i'm too lazy to fix it. :)

that sums up our fall report, stay tuned for ruby-o-rama!