Happy Apple

Took a trip to Happy Apple Farm on Saturday with some new friends from our small group. It was fun to go on a tractor ride, "pick" a pumpkin (meaning we found one laying on the ground in the pumpkin field and bought it), eat an apple turnover and celebrate the beautiful season of Fall. I desperately wanted to capture a cute picture of Asher sitting in the field amongst all the pumpkins but my efforts failed miserably...getting a 10 month old to sit still, look at the camera and smile all the same time is just too much to ask for. But, here is the best of what I got:
On the tractor ride out to the field - doesn't he just look SO excited and happy to be there?

Our pumpkin(s) (I know...cheesy.:))

The best shot I could get of our bubba and the pumpkin together

The End.
Oh, and after it was all said and done I realized we didn't even get a family picture. I think it's time I resign as the family photographer...I stink.

Ok, ok, I'll participate....

My friend Raleigh chose me in the game of "Blog Tag." Because I don't want to be "the person" who decides not to participate, here are six random things about me:

1. My first name is Kristen but I have always gone by my middle name, Danielle (well, except for those few, select family members who have always and will always call me Kristen). I was born 7 weeks early and almost died - I have scars to prove it. My dad prayed/claimed the verse Psalm 20:6 over my life when I was first born which says, "Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand." Kristen means Anointed One. Thus, why my first name is Kristen.

2. Growing up...and until about the age of 12, I was a complete tomboy. Playing in the woods, walking around barefoot, collecting caterpillars, I did it all. Which I know is hard to believe now with my love for make-up, accessories, shoes, clothes, and all things girly.

3. I am a self-diagnosed hypochondriac...always think I have some disease or illness for which I never fully get checked out or go to the doctor for. The illness usually changes every couple of weeks and I've been known to have the same illness a number of times (blood clots, anurisms, some type of cancer, heart attack). You know the movie What About Bob?, Bob and I are very similar in our phobia of sickness. I know it's extremely weird, unhealthy, and messed up but hey, I'm just tellin' it like it is. This particular quirk drives my husband absolutely crazy.

4. I hate the heat. Literally, my body shuts down if I get too hot. While most people love Summer and the warm weather, I much prefer Fall and Winter. I overheat quickly, lose all sense of reason and become extremely grouchy when I'm too hot. True story: In college, I went on a mission trip to Honduras where it was approximately 100 degrees at 6:00am. In the middle of the trip one of my friends said to me, "Dan, I really think that heat hinders and negatively affects your ministry." She was right on.

5. I love my feet. It's completely vain, I know. But, I think I have cute feet and I am proud of them. Thanks for passing them on, mom!

6. My all time favorite candies are chocolate covered gummy bears. The first time I tried them I thought they were absolutely disgusting but I gave it time and grew to absolutely LOVE them. They are hard to come by (which is probably a good thing) but when I do find them I buy them by the pound and eat them until I'm sick. I have no self-control when it comes to chocolate covered gummy bears.

The End.

I tag Ashley Winger, Amy Stroup, Heather Ward, Shannon Moore, Tawni DeYoung & Mandy Houle. Post 6 random facts about yourself!

The Face Of A.....

10 month old!!

That's right, our Asher man is 10 months old today. And, he thinks he's as big as ever...on Tuesday he pulled himself up to standing for the first time. Believe me, he's pretty proud of that accomplishment.

Here he is "helping" dad get his bath ready last night:
And this morning we came in to find him standing up in his crib, bouncing up and down:

Belly Laughs

The other night we were at my parent's house for dinner and, out of nowhere, something struck Asher as ridiculously funny. From then on, whenever my dad would fake punch or slap my brother, Asher would just laugh and laugh and laugh. Mark was able to catch some of it from his phone....the quality isn't great but it still shows the adorableness of Asher's laugh. Oh, and sorry about all the adults laughing in the background - we just couldn't help it!

Fun at the Zoo

We met up with a group of friends at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Saturday morning. All have kids around the same age as Asher so it was fun to see the kids' faces and reactions at the animals. Asher definitely enjoyed the animals...especially the giraffes and the hens and goats at the petting zoo.

First stop - the giraffe exhibit:

Giraffe love -
Don't worry, nothing inappropriate was going on here (as far as we could tell :)).

What are you looking at Asher?

Oh, just the UGLIEST pigs you've ever seen!

Asher and daddy had so much fun discovering and learning about the animals!

Love this picture of him....so curious yet beautifully innocent!

Family picture overlooking the city

Avery and Asher loved the furry wolf almost as much as any real animals...even though Asher's face doesn't show that here.

"Petting" the goat...which actually meant he grabbed onto his horns and pulled really hard which freaked the goat out and made him run away. Yep, that's my boy.

Caiden Haag, Asher, Hunter Moffat

The best picture I could get with all the moms and babies...it's rough trying to capture a picture with 4 little kids!

For some reason Ash fell in love with this leaf and would not put it down...hey, whatever keeps him happy!

I love the zoo!

What a fun day!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

To get everyone in the spirit of Fall (my favorite season), thought I would post the recipe for my favorite pumpkin cookies. I plan to make them this weekend....and a few other times in the coming months!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Combine and set aside:
4 cups flour
2 cups quick oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Cream (in a LARGE bowl):
1 1/2 cups butter

Gradually add to the butter:
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar

then add to this....
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 16oz can of pumpkin

Mix in dry ingredients to all the wet ingredients until combined through. Add 1-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (if desired).

Drop by 1/4 cup onto lightly greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Makes approximately 32 large cookies.

Side note: This recipe makes a LARGE amount of cookies so be prepared to share them with friends or plan on eating them for a couple weeks...and gain a couple pounds in the process. :) Also, I would say these "cookies" are a mix between a pumpkin cookie and pumpkin bread - just so you aren't surprised by the consistency.

Enjoy!!

Where did September go?

It's been a while since I last updated the blog - the month of September has just flown by. I can't believe it is already October today! The past couple weeks have been fairly steady and uneventful for us but work, errands, friends, baby all somehow equal busyness.

Asher is doing great - continuing to grow and change every week. He started crawling a couple weeks ago and within the past few days has really begun to jet around the house. Yesterday I left him playing with toys in his room for no more than 2 minutes and all of the sudden I heard thud-thump-thud-bang....and then him screaming. Yep, he had his first experience of falling down the stairs. Needless to say, I will be watching him more closely from now on and we will be buying baby gates this weekend! Oh, by the way, he's ok and wasn't injured by the fall.

Tried to capture some pictures of him with his Pooh bear this morning but all he wanted to do was crawl towards the camera...you get the idea though.

Mark and I joined a small group through our church about a month ago and we can already tell it will be a great fit for us. Everyone is around the same age and in the same stage of life with small children - we are looking forward to getting to know everyone better. We are studying a book called The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath by Mark Buchanan. It is incredible so far. But, last night we took a break from our book and had a girls/guys night out. The guys went and did guy things (bowling, i think) and the girls went to pamper ourselves with pedicures! Now, I have not had a pedicure in 8 months so I was definitely excited and looking forward to this! Here is a picture of my beautiful toes after the pedicure (yes, I know it's weird to post a picture of my feet but I am just so excited to have them look good!):

After the pedicure we headed over to Starbucks for a warm beverage....ahh, I love Starbucks, esp. in the Fall. Starbucks has new "Signature" Hot Chocolates that are delightful. I had the Signature Hazelnut Hot Chocolate and I WILL be getting that again soon!

On Saturday we head to the zoo with some friends. We are looking forward to Asher's reaction to all of the animals....will post pictures of this next week.

We're enjoying this season of life - such blessing and sweetness for us right now. Thank you, Jesus.