Pumpkin carving time!

Not gonna lie, Steve did most of the work, as you can see. Although I did go out and buy the pumpkin so that's worth something! When Cole wasn't helping scrape out the pumpkin guts, he was whining about having pumpkin seeds stuck to the bottom of his feet. I don't think he enjoyed it quite as much as we thought he would, but whatever. Maybe next year he'll enjoy it more. This lil' jack-o-lantern might have only been lit for one night, but in any case it was something to cross off from our list of things to do this fall season. And surprisingly, crossing things off lists is very satisfying :)

Oh, and today is my birthday! And fyi, having it be your birthday does not make you immune to getting sick. That's right, I full on had the flu today which, in my opinion, is the worst kind of sick there is. But it's ok, I'm feeling much better now, and luckily we celebrated on Friday by going to Costa Vida (looove that place) and the cutest little pumpkin patch which I'll be posting pictures of soon!

Texas state fair

Bigger and Better. That's what they say. 

I wouldn't really know because I'd never been to a state fair before this, but it definitely seemed huge. In two hours we were able to fit in a parade, the petting zoo for Cole, a funnel cake for me, and a foot-long corndog for Steve. And that's about it! There was so much more to see but we didn't get there til about 6:30 pm and we had to leave in time to catch the DART back home. Although riding the DART rail was just as much of an experience for us as the fair was so it wasn't so bad. Cole loved riding on the DART.

Let me just say that the Texas state fair is ridiculously overpriced. If we had paid full price for everything, we would have had to pay no less than $15 for parking, $16 each for a ticket to get in with the minimum purchase of $15 for those silly raffle tickets! (Somehow paying 8 tickets for a funnel cake doesn't sound as bad as paying $8 for one.) But since I did my research, we went on one of the days where if you brought 3 cans of food each, you got in for $2! And if you took the DART rail, you ended up paying a total of $6 for transportation instead of $15 for parking. So, we saved big time and were still able to go. Something we'd wanted to do before we leave next year. If we're able to go next year though, I want to go during the day so that we can stay longer and see more! And so Cole isn't an exhausted mess from getting back at 9:45 pm!

A new toy for me

Steve's sister Alyse is getting married the day after Thanksgiving and I am sooo excited! Not only because they're getting married (duh) but because she asked me to be her wedding photographer!Craziness! I'm really, really excited about this and a little bit nervous too, because well, I've never shot a wedding before but I've always wanted to and it's pretty much going to be an awesome experience. On top of the awesome opportunity of being a wedding photographer for a day, Steve's mom offered to buy me a new lens to shoot the wedding with, because let's be honest, shooting a wedding with a 50 mm wasn't going to realistically happen. After consulting with my sister Marie about which lens would be good for a wedding, I actually found it on Craigslist for $200 cheaper than what it goes for (I love Craigslist now). It was the cheapest price I've seen it go for and it's practically brand new. Technically it's used but since the owner never used it and he kept it in pristine condition, I just say that it's new. A new lens that I got for $200 off!!! I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it for so cheap :) Now I have a new lens to shoot the wedding with and I will have it for everything else too!! Win, win! Thank you so much to Steve's mom. Feeling so blessed and grateful for her :)

I'm also feeling grateful for my friend, Brittany, who agreed to make the drive with me to Fort Worth to buy the lens from the owner. You know how it is. Craigslist is cool and everything but it kind of creeps me out to just go to some stranger's house with a wad of cash in my pocket. I didn't even know if it was a girl or guy selling me the lens until I was about a mile from his house and I had to call him to get directions. His deep voice gave it away. Our only conversation before was over text, although I kind of had the feeling he was a guy since all of his texts were absent of exclamation points and smiley faces. Guys are so non-expressive in texts. Why is that?! Anyway, I would have just taken Steve with me but he was at school and this guy would only be home until 1 pm before he left for work and he didn't get back til 10:30 pm. So Brittany came with me instead to make sure I wasn't abducted or anything crazy like that. Turns out he was a cop, who does portrait photography on the side (?!) which explains why he works til 10:30. So I guess I didn't really need to be so cautious after all, and I guess I didn't really have to leave Cole with a babysitter. Either way, I'm glad she was with me. And I'm glad Cole didn't have to just sit in his carseat for a couple hours. As we left his house with my new lens, I was super giddy and Brittany said to me "It's fun to get new toys."

Yes, yes it is :)

So this past week I played around with it as much as I could; at the playground and out and about last night. Let me just say that I loooove it. It fits so much more into the viewfinder and it's also a zoom lens so I can fit as much or as little into the frame as I want without having to actually move myself. So awesome. And so perfect for wedding day craziness. I'm still getting used to it but I don't know that I'll ever be using my 50 mm anymore. That kind of makes me sad, but not really. It was a good lens while it lasted.

I'm excited to make this my go-to lens. I can say that now since I own more than one lens now ;)

Nice n cozy weekend

Conference. Cinnamon rolls. Hanging out all day in our pajamas. And more conference.

That's what our weekend looked like.

The seasons seemed to literally change over night. One day we were wearing shorts and flip flops and the next it was time to pull out Cole's fleece pajamas and make cinnamon rolls! And not it's October! Such a fun time of year :) 

Now, on to the list of things to do during this fall season:

Pumpkin patch. State fair. Pumpkin carving. Pumpkin pie. Cole's halloween costume (I got to get on that). Corn maze. Trick or treating. And whatever else. 

We'll see how many of these things we actually do, if any ;)