Who wore it best?

Leave it to us to not carve pumpkins until Halloween night! 

The Barkers came over and we shared newspaper, carving tools, techniques and candles. 

Oh, and treats. I think we are determined to make each other fat! 

Holly and .... that dashing fellow with the mullet would be Eric. 

Carving pumpkins fills Burdette's heart with joy. Can't you tell? 

I'd never carved a warty pumpkin before. I learned they have very tough rinds.
Almost exhaustingly too tough. It was a good thing my pumpkin was just a little guy. 

Finished products. Holly, Burdette, Alexa & Eric. Are you spooked? 

It's hard to know what's happening here. 

Now, let's play a little game of "Who wore it best???" 

Party on!

And bring on the holidays! 

Pumpkin Patch Kids

Remember Cabbage Patch Kids? Anyway...

Yesterday, handsome husband and I trekked to Pasco, Washington for some pumpkin patch fun before partaking in some Endless Shrimp. 

Here are the results. 

*warning: you'll see my hair looking very strange. there were hurricane force winds.*

We went to a place called "Country Mercantile." They have a cool, not so little store & cafe. Lucky for us, (mainly lucky for Eric) they had free samples out of many of their sauces and dips. We stayed in there for a little bit, but it was pretty overwhelming. Apparently we picked a very popular time to visit.

We conquered this hay tower. 

Put in our Xmas wish list to Rudolph. Shortly after this, Eric had his hand bitten off by a miniature horse. Ok, not really, but almost. No wonder nobody else was petting this animal in the "petting barn." It probably didn't help that Eric slapped it's bum just prior to attempting a friendly pat on the neck.

They took us on a tractor ride past the corn maze and down to the "patch." Surprisingly, the tractor and trailer were NOT blown over by the wind.

In true male form, Eric picked a 40 pound pumpkin. See his grin? Such pride!

These are pumpkins.

Strange hair alert.

My warty pumpkin, along with the one Eric picked out for baby girl.

The three additional pumpkins we got were only 1/4th of The Great Pumpkin of 2011.

We'd patched up a hunger, so afterward we slipped over to Red Lobster to pretend we were ritzy and eat endless amounts of shrimp. Then we spent money on baby clothes. Our little girl NEEDED a dress, and we found one for 40% off. Plus, we found some clothes for our first nephew, Topper (Travis Otto Petersen). Stan & Elizabeth were in town briefly this weekend for a wedding, so we had to spoil their soon-to-arrive bundle, as well. 

(For reference, I'm including some of their wedding photos from March 2011)

Brothers. Are annoying.

Before the cousins were conceived.

Stanibeth.

And just for kicks, why don't we revisit our engagement shoot of September 2010.

Aww, fer cute!