It's that time of year!

We were lucky enough to have my brother Stu and his cute family stick around after Jeffy's wedding last weekend. They came and spent a day with us and we had a fabulous time! We hiked the Grotto and then hung out with Hiromi and Karen while stu golfed with some friends. Hiromi made us a delicious soup for dinner as well! I love when they visit because Hiromi does so much fabulous cooking! Her cabbage pancakes are the best! Here's my girls on the trail. I got better shots of the leaves on my phone but it's currently with Doug on the deer hunt. The mountain seriously looked like it was on fire! The leaves were so vibrant! I think they were even better because it had just rained and everything was reflecting off the road. It was amazing!

The wonderful Grotto. There was still quite a bit of water in it.

Say "cheese"! Karen always puts her fingers on her cheeks when you tell her to smile. It's so cute!

A few weeks ago we had a pretty good freeze and I was worried that I'd lost all my dahlias. They had just recently budded and they were right about ready to bloom. A few of them surprised me and I think they're gorgeous!

My cute friend gave me the idea to carve your name in a pumpkin while it's growing. Pretty much when it was green I took a screwdriver to it and wrote our name in the skin. When it scars over it looks like this. I thought it was pretty cute! I wrote "Fall" and "Boo" on some others. She on the other hand, drew stick figures of her whole family. They're so cute! You can see them here. She also did a ton of canning that I was impressed with. She grew her own artichokes this year and canned them! That's amazing! I had no idea artichokes grew here! Definitely something to try next year.

Here's a picture of Sophia and her pumpkin. Thanks again Grandma Wilkins for the fun pumpkin decorating kits!

In anticipation of the holidays to come I decided to make my own Christmas quilt. My awesome mom bought me some fat quarters from this "Figgy Pudding" line that I saw at our local quilt shop where we're doing our quilt class. I absolutely fell in love with the fabric the minute I saw it! I was debating what kind of quilt to do with it and she suggested that I wait to see what the shop owner decided to do with it. Good idea! I loved the pattern for this one. The trees were a little tricky to put together but the rest of it wasn't too bad. I thought it turned out pretty good! I love how non-traditional the colors are. These pictures aren't the greatest because they were taken in my basement. The link above has the pattern if you want to see more.

Finally, congrats to my awesome sis and her newest sweet baby James! Can't wait to meet you!