falling leaves & candy corn...

Oh, they are so beautiful! This is absolutely my favorite time of year!!! I feel like I've taken a million pictures in the last couples months (and I very well might have), but it's FALL and I have a beautiful BABY to photograph!

You might remember from my Anniversary post that the guests at our wedding threw real fall leaves at us as we left the church. They were the most gorgeous bright red, leathery leaves! They came from a tree just down the street from my sister-in-law's house. They happened to be changing and falling just days before our wedding, so Kim went down and gathered up a big 'ol bag of them for us. We had them out in a big basket so guests could grab a handful as they went out the courtyard to wait for the new Mr & Mrs!

Just a few days ago, Kim told me the leaves were falling from the tree! So, after the girls got home from school one afternoon, Barrett and I drove over and we had a little photo shoot! It was so fun. All of these pictures are from my dinky camera...Kim's all turned out a little better.

I know his head is cut off in this picture, but I love the expression!
Can't you just feel his excitement!

There's also another tree (the opposite way down the street) that is bright yellow, so we went down there too! Barrett was a trooper, as always. I think he's getting used to having Kim and I in his face snapping away, while Kylie and Emily dance around trying to make him smile!

This is when Emily decided to bury him in leaves...

He was okay with it for a bit, then started to get a worried look on his face,
so I dug him out!

I just put Barrett down for a nap and made a *fall treat* to take with us to the football game tonight! I have never liked candy corn...or at least, I thought I didn't! But one of my best friends, Megan, makes this yummy snack every fall. She makes some of the best things!! Just ask my husband...he's always raving about something she makes, or saying "why don't you make that thing Megan makes"? This year, I decided to give it a try and I couldn't stop eating it! I'm sure you've all had it! I don't know if it has a name, but I call it Payday mix!

Nothing but peanuts and candy corn. I like to eat two peanuts and one piece of candy corn at a time...yummo! Tastes just like a bite of Payday! Mmm...are you all craving it yet?!?!

Get your motor runnin'

Barrett was in the community Spooks Parade tonight,
dressed up as a little Biker Baby!

Thanks to my talented siblings for his costume: My little brother, Brandon, designed his Outlaw Baby shirt. And my sister-in-law, Kim, made his leather wrist cuff. I ordered some black, white & red baby legs off of Etsy for him to wear on Oct 2nd, but they never made it!! The costume is simple. All things he can wear again. And it made getting in and out of the carseat pretty painless. I'll get a little more creative next year, when he can walk! My husband already has plans for him to be Aaron Rodgers, but we'll see!

There were hundreds of kids at the parade, and the weather was perfect for it. We met up with Barrett's cousins Kylie (Dr. Kylie) and Emily (Vampire Emily), and Norah Kate (Strawberry) and Lydia (K-State Cheerleader).

We all walked in the parade together, then had a little picture session afterwards. They served hot chocolate, annouced the winners and handed out goodies bags. Justin and I were really looking forward to the goodie bag {te,he}. It was pretty good--can of coke, lots of candy, chips, frosty coupon, Sonic drink coupon and more.Lydia, Barrett & Norah

Lydia & Barrett waiting for the parade to start

Dr. Kylie and Norah Kate

Barrett with Gigi & Papa

Friday, we get dressed up again, and head out trick-or-treating!
To get candy for Mommy and Daddy, of course :)

family vacation

We just got home from our first official family vacation last Wednesday.
You might remember my excitement about our trip to the Ozarks in October from this post!

We spent three nights at The Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, Missouri and it was so beautiful. The PERFECT place to spend quality family time this time of year. If you've never been and are looking for relaxing, scenic, five-star place...I would highly recommend Big Cedar! It's about 10 miles outside of Branson, tucked back in the Ozarks. The resort has tons of stuff to do...mini golf, horse and carriage rides, horseback riding, miles and miles of trails, paddle boats, sand volleyball, basketball, tennis, heated pools, restaurants, a coffee house, adorable shop, and much more! You don't need to leave! Barrett was too little for lots of the activities, but we still had a great time and did a LOT of walking. The trails are all blacktop, so we just took the stroller and walked all over the property. Probably close to 5 miles in the three days we were there :)

I could talk about it forever...it's *AMAZING*
but you just want to see the pictures, so here you go!
As always, a few of my favorites!

This is the lodge we stayed in...Spring View Lodge

You drive over lots of beautiful spring crossings as you enter the resort

One of my favorite places... The Truman Coffee House

This house is original to the property! Isn't it adorable, like a little cottage. Perfect for a coffee shop that serves cinnamon rolls, coffee, tea, ice cream and cookies. We ate biscuits and gravy out on the front patio the first morning we were there. The weather was perfect.

Our first attempt at a family photo. Mr. B didn't want to cooperate.
Barrett's first time down a slide!

This was the last hole on the mini-golf course

The picture above has a bit of a story! The highway leading to the entrance of Big Cedar is winding and has all sorts of adorable little log cabin homes. Every time we'd come and go, we'd see these cool dirt roads, that were big steep hills leading down from the highway. There seemed to be one of them every few hundred feet. Justin kept saying "come on, let's take one and see where it goes." If you know me, I'm a bit of a worry wart..."what if it's someone's private drive, or we get lost, or someone kidnaps us"? Well, On our way back from a shopping trip into Branson one afternoon, Barrett was asleep in the back seat and I was driving. We came to one of these little roads off the highway. The street sign on the corner had an old tattered wooden sign hanging from it. It was sloppily painted with the words RuSTic FuRnituRe. You know the kind where random letters are capitalized. I decided to go check it out. Well, it started out as a steep dirt road and then turned into nothing but grassy ruts. We had been on it for quite a while, and still no sign of "rustic furniture." Not even any houses yet. That's when I started to get a little nervous. If it hadn't been for our Garmin, I would have been panicking. The Garmin actually recognized this grassy path as a road, and I could see on the map it did curve around and back to the highway we turned off from. So, I decided to take a deep breath and enjoy the little detour. It was so beautiful. Very STEEP hills though. That's when Justin decided to take over the wheel. I guess my driving made him nervous. So, we made it back to the highway, but still never found the "rustic furniture"! I told Justin it was like something out of a scary movie. Someone had just planted that sign there to get people to turn down the road so they could abduct them! I took this picture into the trees while on our little detour! I was fully expecting to look at it when we got home and see a Sasquatch! If you see one I missed...let me know!

Some of the waterfalls right outside our lodge
This is the Devil's Pool Restaurant and Buzzard Bar.
We at here, outside on the deck the first night we were there.
Just having some fun at the outlet mall! We thought these hats were adorable!He's laughing at us...laughing at him!

Hope my pictures made you feel like you just took a mini-vacation yourself! I hope to go back soon!