Go and read this.

May your heart be light.

What gift of compassion will you give to yourself, those you live with, and the world at large this year?

Think about it and leave a comment.

I am still thinking- there is so much need for more compassion, more love, more charity, an endless pit of need. But every little drop to fill it is a gift of value- if given in love and hope the effects echo for eternity.

I have my usual post vacation blogging block- but must go now to keep wrapping and wrapping and wrapping. Hopefully I will get everything in the mail this weekend. I was planning on passing everything left this weekend on our trip to Aptos. Unfortunately that was canceled due to Alma's grandma's funeral. So I am trying to get last minute mailing done. I hate the post office in December.

And here are random pictures from one of our recent hikes- because Becky says that posts need pictures.

Have I mentioned that I love where I live? Heaven.

These kids aren't bad either.

We Carved Pumpkins Too!

Sorry for the pic quality. My poor camera is in the repair shop. sigh. The teddy bear pumpkin was Coen's. And yes I had to edit that picture because Beckett was nude- he is going through a nude phase. sigh.

The Ant Man Costume

So Coen has wanted to be Ant Man for halloween- no other costume could be discussed. If he couldn't be Ant Man he didn't want to dress up. Now for those of you who don't know Ant Man is one of the Avengers. He is such a popular Avenger he isn't even in the movie coming our next summer. But in the cartoons he is the older wiser leader Dr Pimm. Coen says he wanted to be ant man because he is a scientist and Coen wants so be a scientist. How do you argue with that reason! Now Ant Man has many powers he can be tiny and fly around on a flying ant, and he can speak to ants and they swarm at his command (to do useful things like go under doors and unlock them- but why would you need that with the Hulk who can just knock the door over). Ant Man can also become Giant Man and be super giant- I think this is really a hologram or mind power thing- Coen hasn't really explained it well and I don't care to watch the cartoon.

This is want he looks like as Ant Man:

And this is Giant Man:

Now here is the problem- you can buy any other Avenger costume. But when your kid is the only

one in America who wants to be Ant Man you can't just order a costume from Target. I love to

craft- but I don't do halloween costumes. I don't want to waste my time and creative energy o

something I am not excited to work on. But I broke my rule this year- because Coen wanted it s

desperately. I bought a Flash costume and used some duct tape to modify it. I kind of combined

Giant Man and Ant Man because Alma said I couldn't cover Coen's football helmet in silver duct

tape. He loved it. His joy made it all worth while for me. Here is the end product:

My favorite part was the underwear on top!

More of Fall Festivities

We made cousin packages and gifts for friends here in town. These were included with thousands of spiders and skeletons from the dollar store. Because kids love candy and plastic seasonal crap in an envelope with their name on it.

More Fall Festivities

This year Halloween weekend was a little crazy. Friday night we had a Fall Family Fun Night. This was just perfect for me. Lots of silly little games. You know- fishing for a prize, making a pumpkin face, bean bag tosses. This was my view the whole night:

I ran the lollipop game. You picked a lollipop and if you get one with a dot you get a prize and if you don't you get the lollipop. The little gamblers loved this game. It was great to visit with the other moms and enjoy the laid back atmosphere. I know that there was a lot of work put into it- but it was so simple and lovely. I grew up in a rural area so we didn't really trick or treat- we went to the school carnival. And this kind of reminded me of those childhood memories. A few side notes- Alma refused to go so I took my niece Jessica so she could take the boys to the booths while I manned my booth. Also there was a narrow window between getting home from work and having to get to the carnival- so I wouldn't let the boys dress up. But they wouldn't settle for that so Coen put on his supper C cape and Beckett wore his superman pajamas.

That Sat was the church party- also nice. Sunday We celebrated Alma's , Joseph and Grandma Conley's birthdays. It was grandma's 90th! And she gave me my favorite moment of the weekend. She was talking to my in-laws about getting older and as she was walking away she turned around and said "But I can still dance!" And then she shook her booty and did a hysterical little turn and kick. Best Moment Ever. Between Alma's and my family our house was very full. I let Alma pick the menu and he always picks on ease, or at least what he thinks is easy. Sometimes it would just be easier to let me make something on my own with out his help- because I have a handful of big crowd menus. But shh don't tell Alma he thinks he is making it easier for me. Then on Monday I got the boys dressed in their costumes and off to school- but more of that later because I think I even have some pictures.

Our Day at Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

The first of our fall festivities was a trip to the pumpkin patch. I think Bishops is one of the best. And we learned this year if you go the first weekend it is open there isn't the crippling crowds, the parking is free- but it is a little too hot. But that is a small price to pay for this mother who hates crowded places.

We started with the barn maze that ends in the slide. The boys were happy to do this over and over for 45 min. There was a shady tree near by so we were happy to let them. There was also a room full of corn in the maze.

Then were escorted onto the train by one of the pumpkin princesses. There were really teenage girls in orange satin dresses and tiaras helping to control the non crowds.

The typically awful only picture of the whole family.

Then we headed to the Mining mountain. On one side is a water fall with a pond where you get to pan for marbles- only 10 per kid and then you get to climb the other side and do these. The boys would have done this for 45 min too but there was no shady tree and I was getting sunburnt so mom called and end to it.

I tried to get a picture of the boys before the sunflowers. Also typically successful. We skipped the corn maze because it was flooded.

Then we found some shade and some tri tip sandwiches.

Tractor seat chairs!

Can you resist one of these? We can't.

Then we fed some goats. And Alma took pictures of my boobs- I will not share those.

This was a giant jumping thing- it was mattresses covered in hay. Strange but fun.

Strangest parade ever- it had the local jr high drum section, this lady and all the free pumpkin princesses. Very strange.

We had ice cream- I love ice cream faces.

What I like best about bishops is all the simple little things for the kids. There are tree houses, wood trains, these little rocking horses, and tire mazes. Just fun little things all over.

And of course there are thousands and thousands of pumpkins.

A word to the wise- if you want cute pictures of you kids don't wait until the end of day when every one wants to go home including your husband who refuses to help you coral the kids. Even if you want to wait until the light is good to take your pictures. Cranky tired family does not good pictures make.

And then I made the fatal flaw of trying to order some pies to take to Dads. The friendly but not very bright teen age girls working the pie stand made me want to bang my head against the wall. And someone told me the rest of the weekends the wait to buy your pies can take hours- but I didn't even wait in line and it took me way too long. And then we got to the car and realized I didn't have my camera. Thank goodness when I ran back to the park there was a nice family sitting with it waiting for its owner to come and claim it. Thank you strange family. And the pumpkin walnut pie and the apple carmel pie were well worth the frustration of trying to order from the dim cheerleaders.

Making Pumpkin Donuts!

Fall Festivities have started in the Clove household.

We made pumpkin donuts a couple of weeks ago- lots of fun. The boys were good at mixing the dough, and cutting and tossing in cinnamon sugar. But as much as they wanted to we had to make the hot oil an adult only activity.

The recipe made a ton of donuts and so we got to bag up the left overs and brought them to friends and family. They were wonderful.

Car Show

Are you ready for a ton of pictures? We headed down to Aptos earlier this fall- to meet cousins and go to a car show. I had a great time at the car show with my camera. I could take pictures of cars all day long- if only my kids would leave me alone with my camera. But they want to eat and jump in the jump house and go look at the planes. Sadly the air show was less stellar. There was a ton of fog off and on so that was a little disappointing. So settle in for the long long show. I hope you enjoy them.

I really wanted to drive the Thunderbird- but apparently car seats wouldn't fit in it.

This is the little lady I did get to spend the day with. And I fell in love with here. She is a 1960 Buick Le Sabre. I just loved cruising around in her- it was like being on a cloud. So fun! I can't wait to take her out to a drive in. Can't you see me running to the grocery store in her? Do you think Ray would notice if she went missing next time we go for a visit? What is one car if you have more than 50?

This is Ray's baby- down to his plate DFRL- I would tell you what it means, but this is a family blog.

The kids sat forever in this plane- they wanted to buckle up and then they just stayed there in the jump seats- forever.

I think she told me that it isn't too long and this young lady will be old enough to drive!

Can you see my reflection in the mirror- I thought that was pretty cool.

Alma said this was the most valuable of the cars- I guess it is pretty rare- but it didn't do too much for me.

The Insanity That Surrounds Me

We have been having some sleep issues in this house. For MONTHS. This weekend I think we have hit an all time low. Last night after 1 a.m. Beckett was standing naked in the middle of the family room, eating out of a bag of bar-b-que chips- wide awake until 1:20 a.m. when he flat out fell to the ground sound asleep. This was the end of our 6 hour bed time ordeal. I just gave up around midnight and hoped he would go outside and find a opossum family to hang with. They at least like to be up this late. So no nap today- I was a mean mom and I was sure he would be down by 7:30. Well a few minutes ago he was still making a lot of noise- so I went to go check on him and found this:

Beckett what are you doing?

Making music.

So True

Thanks to My Fascinating Life for this sadly too true graphic.

Beckett- Ad Man

Beckett is our observant kid. He always surprises me with his little observations. But last night both Alma and I were shocked by his knowledge of commercials. This was especially shocking since we are a DVR family and rarely watch anything live with commercials- like maybe 10% of the time and I don't allow the boys to watch TV with commercials. The exception to this is when we watch the news while I get dinner on the table. And maybe that was enough for Beckett.

Last night when he was watching the news with Alma he sang a jingle to the Nationwide Insurance commercial. A few hours later I was taking out the garbage and said "Oh shut when I noticed the bag had leaked and Beckett said "Mom you need Force Flex." It took me a little while to figure out what he was saying- how sad is that. My little TV junkie. Alma said he watched Beckett all night last night after his little song and he only watched the TV during the commercial breaks- and then would go back to his playing when the news came back on. Maybe a future ad executive? Hmmmmm.