I love Fall!

I think when it comes to fall, I live in the most beautiful place ever!! You may not agree and this picture does not do the colors justice, but this what I see everyday out my kitchen window! It is soooo pretty here. I wish I had a big professional camera (and knew how to use it) and could just take tons of pictures of my beautiful surroundings. I hope you are all enjoying your fall wherever it is. I'm sure it can't be as amazing as mine ;)

Apple Picking

Aaron's parents came out to Virginia to visit this past week. On Saturday we went to Ryan's soccer game (where ryan scored three of the five goals) then we went up to Carter mountain to the Apple festival and pick apples. It was so pretty up there and we had a great time. We ate lunch and apple doughnuts then picked and ate apples right off the tree. Aaron's dad bought an apple pie and apple cider that we had later that night. I also made an apple pie and froze it for Thanksgiving. The apples were great, but your stomach can only handle so many apples :)

Here is Grandma enjoying an apple doughnut and listening to the old country band playing in the background.

I wanted this picture to look like Samantha and Ryan were best pals, but they started bugging each other and this is what I got.

Carter would pick up apples from the ground and eat them...yum!

The forgotten post

In June Aaron and I went to NYC for our 10th anniversary. Our life was so crazy at the time that I never posted anything about the trip. Well, I'm not going to post a bunch of pictures, but I did want to show you just a few.

On the first day there, we went to time square and they had blocked off the road and put out lawn chairs for people to sit in. We decided to sit and take a breather and for me, to people watch (and you can really do a lot of that in NYC). So there I was taking in the gandeur of Time Square and I look over and see this...

Aaron is fast asleep in the middle of Time Square!! If you know Aaron it's almost believable, but come on! Time Suare!! So I took a few pictures of him to remember this moment and to prove that it really can happen. A nearby siren finally woke him up.

I think this sleepy gene comes from Aaron's dad! I swear some of those Stevenson's can fall asleep mid sentance! I always tell Aaron that the sound of my voice can put him to sleep, but he denies it. We were meant for each other. I can blah blah blah forever and he'll just sit and listen (or sleep). Don't you just love him!!

First day of school

The kids had a long summer! They were out of school in May and just started today. We had a fun summer, but we were all ready to get back into a school routine again. We were going to walk to school for the first day, but it was raining so I reluctantly put them on the bus and watched it drive away. It was sad for me :( Their school wants everyone to ride the bus and you can't walk your child to class on the first day. This was a change for me, but I survived. I've been to both of their classrooms with them before school started so at least it wasn't a mystery to me! The bus was late getting home, but it came and the kids were happy and had a great day. I told them to sit on the front of the bus because the back is where the big kids like to sit. I want my little kids to stay little as long as I can :). I'm not sure what they'd learn sitting back there with the older kids. By the way, I was right. Samantha said all the older kids sat back there.

Here are a few picture we took this morning.

I couldn't believe how quiet my house was and how much Carter wanted to play with me! It was nice to spend alone time with him and to finally have a kitchen that stayed clean until 4pm.

First lost tooth!

So more than likely this is not exciting news to any of you, but Ryan was just soooo excited. I believe it was for two reasons-1)he gets some money and he is always trying to find a way to get more money 2)he finally feels like he is in the same league as Samantha.

When he finally pulled his tooth out, he gave it to Samantha to hold and she wrapped it in a kleenex. I went to get the camera and by the time I returned they had lost the tooth. It was nowhere to be found, but I told Ryan that the tooth fairy still knows and he will still find something under his pillow in the morning.

With a lost tooth and starting Kindergarten next week, I'm realizing that my kids are growing up so fast!

Birthday girl

Yes, that birthday girl is me! I had a great birthday this year. The good thing about having your birthday over the weekend, is it actually lasts all weekend! Friday night we went to Cheesecake Factory and it was soooooo good and sooooo pricey for the entire family (but well worth it). Saturday I went shopping by myself to spend some money I got. It was so relaxing shopping by myself and being able to spend money that I didn't feel guilty about spending. Then we went to a soccer game (the Richmond Kickers). They are not MLS, but USL and still really fun to watch. I never really watched soccer until I married Aaron and now I quite enjoy it. Going to the soccer game wasn't really for my birthday, but they were having a great deal on the tickets and it was the last game of the season. Then on sunday we had Cake and it was deeee-lish! It was the same cake I made Aaron on his birthday, but our family just can't get enough of it! All in all it was a great birthday and I can't believe I've already turned 29 three times!

This was before the soccer game. I wanted to put it in because Ryan is actually smiling and not making a crazy face and Carter is smiling because he is riding a "Choo-Choo!"

Day trip to DC

Yesterday we took a trip up to Washington DC for the day. We parked and took the metro in to the Mall area. We went to the Air and Space museum where it was soooo crowded. It was a bit too crowded for my taste and it made it not quite as enjoyable as it has in the past. We saw the classic imax movie "To Fly". I've seen it three times, but I still enjoyed it. Then we went to the National Natural History museum. I think the kids liked that one more. They spent most of the time in the hands on Discovery Room. We ate at the Old Post Office then walked to the monuments. The kids were really troopers. We did a lot of walking and didn't get back to our house until almost midnight. I'm glad the kids got to see the national monuments because who knows when we'll ever go back

The kids were excited for their first ride on the subway (metro). It wasn't Aaron's first ride, but he was still excited!

Air and Space museum

Ryan getting to know a skeleton at the natural history museum

I love this picture of the kids dressed up in the Discovery room at the museum. Unfortunately the flash was reflecting off the mirror. My brother sucked all the photographic talent out of me.

The whitehouse (Obama wouldn't come out when we knocked on the door)

The boys being very respectful at the WW2 memorial.

Samantha giving her classic elementary school smile in from the Washington monument.

Lincoln memorial