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I love fall. Especially the falling leaves. But I’ve been spoiled by living places where we aren’t the ones who have to pick up the leaves. This year we’ve been hit with the fact that all our gorgeous trees have lovely leaves that have now fallen to the ground. We spend most weekends gathering these leaves only to watch more leaves fall. Thankfully we probably only have to do this a few more times and then we’ll be done for this season.
This was taken almost a month ago and now all the trees have lost their leaves.
Before…
After…
It definitely has a stark feeling to it but now I’m itching for some snow! But I guess that will mean shoveling…
-Shannon
Yesterday we celebrated Owen’s first Halloween! We didn’t have anywhere special to go so we didn’t buy a costume but we did get him this cute sleeper that says, “My 1st Halloween!”
He thought he’d celebrate the day by hanging out on the front porch with his little pumpkin.
“Look Dad! This is mine!”
I was ready for the trick-or-treaters last night and bought 10+ lbs of candy! I was getting a little nervous when I still hadn’t had one at 6:00. But soon enough we had several kids stop by and I gave them handfuls of candy! Unfortunately I had to turn off our porch light at 7:00 and get Owen off to bed. But I had a great time handing out candy and little Os even helped out as well. Here’s to a 1st Halloween!
-Shannon
I love walking through our neighborhood. Just a few blocks away there is a really nice street of old houses like ours. I love looking at how they decorate and then copying it for our lovely place. With the changing of seasons I didn’t want to simply decorate for Halloween but for fall. After inspiration from my neighbors I came up with this…
Our clump of pumpkins to represent us…Back row: Lucas and me Front Row: Owen and Paca
I was this on another house and just loved it! Although since I took this picture Lucas has now painted all the chipped wood so it looks so crisp and bright.
And another idea to use an urn to hold fall pumpkins and gourds. I actually stuffed the urn full with black reusable shopping bags and then laid the decorations on top.
I already loved our front porch but now I especially love it! And I’ve begun thinking of ideas for Christmas…
-Shannon
Last night as we were winding down the day we decided to go for a quick walk on the Katy Trail. This trail is an old railroad line that is now used as a bike trail across most of Missouri. It passes through Boonville so we are able to take advantage of it rather easily. But in our few months of living here, I had never stepped foot on it. Last night that changed.
It is surrounded by trees and growth.
But every once in awhile you get glimpses out into the fields and far away.
Throughout our walk I kept stopping to take pictures of the sunset happening around us.
We will definitely have to make this a regular occurrence…especially now that we can enjoy the cool of the evening.
-Shannon
It seems like fall is just around the corner. We’ve had our windows open through the days and we even wake up in the morning with crisp morning air all around us. Fall is here! Or at least it is coming.
In honor of the new season Owen and I had a little photoshoot to welcome fall. It was his first day with fall clothes on…meaning he wore pants. :)
“Did someone say fall is coming?”
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness”
“Fall is coming! I don’t really know what that means but I’m very excited!”
And just to give some perspective on the photoshoot…here’s the little man sitting on his chair.
We are ready for fall!
-Shannon
Last year in our Christmas cards we included a letter that looked at the highlights from the previous year. Granted 2008 was filled with lots of changes with Vancouver to Missouri to Princeton and this year hasn’t been quite as exciting but still there are lots of things to remember. So I thought I would continue the tradition by looking back at 2009.
January
After having spent the holidays with family in Missouri we settled back into our normal schedules and enjoyed the winter weather.
February
In February I ended a 2+ year journey and cut my hair.
March
We enjoyed some local Philadelphia flavor when we headed down to Philly with some friends from church.
April
Lots of traveling happened in April. First to Ithaca, NY to visit some college friends, Matt & Tracy, along with their new baby Nadya…
And later in April we headed off to Vancouver…
May
May began our summer in the city with the visit of Lucas’ parents, Bonnie & Larry. We headed into NYC to show them around and explore some new things for ourselves.
At the end of May we headed back into NYC to meet up with my Aunt Dodo and Uncle Mike and to stay the night on Times Square.
June
Easily the most exciting thing of the year…
We found out we’re expecting! Granted the real event happened in May but the excitement began in June. :)
Also my Aunt Shirley and Cousin Carrie came for a visit…
July
More visitors in the form of my sister, Megan; my friend, Allie; my parents, Craig & Pat…
August
In August Lucas and I celebrated 6 years of marriage by taking a little vacation up to Vermont to get away from New Jersey for awhile.
September
Besides celebrating my birthday we also enjoyed a visit from Mandi & Jesse.
October
In October I headed home to Missouri to enjoy a wonderful Baby Shower with family and friends.
November
We bought a house!
December
The belly continued to grow as we await the arrival of our little one in February. We celebrated Lucas’ birthday and then enjoyed the holidays by ourselves in New Jersey by heading into NYC on Christmas Day.
-Shannon
I’m just thinking back to last week when we celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Vivek and Jeanie. They hosted the lovely meal but Lucas and I brought several items to add to the feast. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with them even though we all ate too much. :)
We brought along some green bean casserole…
Salad with artichoke hearts and parmesan cheese…
Deviled eggs…
And Lucas made a homemade apple pie…
Well now I’m thoroughly hungry and I wish I still had some of this yummy food to eat. :)
-Shannon
Last Saturday we woke up to a nice fall day and headed out to enjoy some football. We went with a group of friends to the Princeton vs. Yale game (the 132nd annual meeting) and enjoyed the afternoon watching the Tigers kick butt.
As you may be able to tell from the pictures, we were actually sitting on the Yale side but there were more Princeton people around so we didn’t feel too out of place. Lucas and I both had on our Princeton sweatshirts so we fit right in with the fur coats and fancy clothes all around. :)
Overall we had a great time enjoying some football…Ivy League style.
-Shannon
This past Sunday Lucas I decided to head into the city after church. Earlier in the week Lucas looked at the forecast and saw that the rain was going to go away and a bright fall day would be surrounding us by Sunday. Turns out the forecast was right and with perfect 60 degree weather we headed into the city.
We didn’t have much on the agenda besides enjoying the day together. First we headed over to the library so Lucas could take some pictures of the woodwork in the study areas. He already has dreams for his study in the new house although his dreams might have to be a little less intricate than the NYC library.
From there we headed up 5th Ave and I snapped a few shots of St. Patrick’s Cathedral…
Our destination was Serendipity on 60th & 3rd and as we headed that way we passed the Friar’s Club. Lucas got really excited when we saw this place although I had no idea why he was so excited.
*10 bonus points to the person who can guess why Lucas was excited about it :)
As we were walking along we also stumbled upon a movie being filmed! We were coming up to Park Avenue and as we tried to cross the street they asked us to stay back because they were getting ready to shoot a stunt. After a few minutes of waiting we finally heard “Action!” and a black SUV started driving the wrong way down the street with a man laying on top of the car. It was pretty exciting for the 10 seconds that it lasted. :)
Finally we made our way to Serendipity where we were going to enjoy some frozen hot chocolate. I had never been there before but Lucas thought I would like it. We had decided that we would put up with a wait of 30 minutes but no more. When we got there Lucas stepped inside and found out the wait was an hour to an hour and a half…on a Sunday afternoon around 3:00! Ugh! So no frozen hot chocolate. But thankfully just down the street was another place I’ve been wanting to go to…Dylan’s Candy Bar!
With some candy in tow, we headed to the park to enjoy the fall colors. We sat on a bench and enjoyed our candy.
After the park we headed down to Little Italy for dinner. Lucas picked the restaurant which once we stepped inside was set up kind of like cafeteria style seating. We were hoping for something a little more private. After a quick attitude check for me we settled in to enjoy some fine Italian. We were enjoying our meal when one of the staff turned on a karaoke machine and started singing along! Granted she was singing Little Italy type songs…”When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s amore”…but it was ridiculously loud and she wasn’t that great. We ended up just laughing about it and chalking it up to another experience in NYC.
Some after dinner strolling finished out the evening. We hopped on the train and were home by 8:30. It was a great day in NYC and I can’t wait until Christmas when we head back to enjoy the holidays with just the two of us. Until then…bye, bye NYC.
-Shannon
I’ll admit it…I rarely bake. It just isn’t something that I ever think to do. Plus Lucas actually enjoys making pies, crisps, breads, etc. so I figure I should just leave the baking to him. However, with Nacho’s continued need for sweets I decided to make some cookies last week.
I knew I had some Halloween sprinkles that were just begging to be used and we had some cookie dough in the fridge. Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Shannon, you didn’t really make anything if you just put them in the oven”. And you would be right except for the fact that I made homemade frosting! Not icing but frosting. Meaning boil together flour and milk and then add it to a mixture of butter, sugar and vanilla and…voila…frosting! It was the best thing I’ve made in a long time and thankfully there was plenty of frosting left over for me to nibble on. So feast your eyes on some yummy halloween cookies…
P.S. – I don’t really think these are that amazing or anything…I was just excited about cookies. :)
-Shannon
