Land of Autumn-Fall

Caleb finally fits in the white shirt and vest we have, he looks like such a hunk. I really love the Fall in Virginia, the colors and the smell are just perfect. Lately, the afternoons have been so nice and warm. It is even better now that we have our own yard with awesome oak trees that are gorgeous in color.

But with trees, come leaves, that fall and need to be raked. That is fine, Tyson does most of the work, and Josh loves to help. Caleb doesn't so much though. But I love being outside together with my little clan.

Caleb has discovered suckers and as you can see, loves them. Josh likes to share his when he gets sick of them. :)

He is also old enough for time out now. It is so sad and so funny. He has grown up so fast.

Josh is still dealing with refusing to nap, which makes him fall asleep earlier, usually on the couch. So cute.

Here is Josh's "look like Daddy" outfit. I love it. I just want to hug him.

I love my family! I love the Fall!

Laymon Family Farms-the coolest corn maze place ever!

We went with the youth earlier this month to a place a little drive away. It was freezing, but SO much fun! Josh and Caleb had the time of their lives and I'm so glad we got to go. The workers there gave Caleb a little pumpkin, it was so cute and he LOVED it.

Isn't my husband so cute?

Not only was there a corn maze, there was a huge jumping pillow thing, little Josh is in this picture. The young women were so nice to hang out with him up there.

Coolest underground slide ever.

A sand box, without sand, but corn kernels.

The cow train. So much fun!

Josh LOVED chasing Daddy in the corn maze.

PS- I love cold weather because of the little boys in the way they look in hats, so cute.

Corn and pumpkin shooting.

I want a goat, they are adorable.

Some young men in the cow train. Each cow had its own name. Will loved "Orec," really Oreo, but it did look like Orec. :)

Huzza for the coolest (literally and figuratively) activity ever!

Halloween

Chanson's birthday too! So much fun to have him here. German chocolate cake for our German speaking boy.

Being a Chocolatier

About a month ago I went to a chocolate party at my friend, Emilie's house. It was really fun and I was really hyper, I mean who doesn't love to be around chocolate? And this chocolate is the best I have ever had in my whole life. So when I left I took a little packet that had some information on being a "chocolatier" for Dove Chocolate Discoveries.

I wasn't really interested, I have had lots of oppurtunities to be a direct sellsman and never really cared for it. I mean honestly, I am not good at getting people to spend money. I would point out all the flaws, then feel bad for the person buying it that they were spending money, and then probably pay them to take it. That is almost what happened when we sold our car. :) That is why Tyson is usually in charge of that stuff.

Well, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I lay up for several hours that night picturing selling chocolate, being around it, having parties. Things that I would never do. Usually my crazy ideas like this go away in a few days when I realize how ridiculous I am being, but this one didn't. And of course Tyson has been super supportive and willing to spend all the money in the world to do whatever I want.

I ordered some sea salted caramels from them, which were AMAZING! It was awesome eating something so fancy and I only ate like one a day because I wanted to savour them, and for anyone who knows me, that is a miracle. So I researched about the company and what it would take to sell this stuff. It sounded like so much fun and I would watch videos about it and be flipping through the catalog for hours. Maybe it is just the chocolate, but then when I would pray to have Heavenly Father tell me to get me to stop thinking about it, I would feel really good about doing this. So I did.

I am now a "Hot Chocolatier" :) and I am really excited about it. I can't wait to start partying and making this yummy food for other people to try. Basically, people can host a party in their house, I will bring the food to try and everyone there can eat and enjoy. If I make some money along the way, that is awesome, but if not, oh well. I just hope it will be as fun as I am imagining.

So that is the latest in our home, it was a really big decision for me, hence the long post. :) If you want to see for yourself, here you go! http://www.dovechocolatediscoveries.com

Hershey, PA...our fifth honeymoon

This was after the freakiest roller coaster, it went up to 60 mph I think. I was barefoot, with my feet dangling, ahh! So cool!

What a hunk of chocolate I get to have with me everday. :)

Our hotel room (with the one green door-haha) was pretty big for not much money. Huzza!

These are flowers from Tyson from a few weeks ago, I just thought I would add them here because Tyson is so wonderful. Everyone should know how lucky I am.

So every year Tyson and I try to get away at least once by ourselves.

Summer '06: actual honeymoon

Summer '07: camping for our anniversary

Fall '07: Jamestown

Summer '09: Staunton, VA for our anniversary

Fall '10: Hershey, PA

Tyson has been to Hershey before, otherwise I would have never heard of it. So we have both been dying to go since we got married. We finally just decided go we must and it would be way more fun, at least in most ways, without the kids. This past weekend we went. I was terrified to leave the kids, afraid of everything that could go wrong, afraid they would be hopeless without me. I'm not very good about leaving my kids with other people. I kind of micro-manage everything the kids do and I like to do it my way. So it is hard for me to trust that other people can watch my kids just fine and it won't kill them to not have me around 24-7, in fact, they probably need it every once in awhile. So we left. Thank you Jordan (and Jake and Conner), Becca (and Trent, Ethnie and Leo), Cassie (and Seth and Tori), Kenni and Chris (and Zuri and Kelso), and Chanson (and your apple cider)!

We had a GREAT time, I LOVED it. I became the old Cami, the one that is fun and happy and crazy. We cracked jokes the whole time and it was so nice to be free for a little while. It was weird feeling "adrift" with no responsiblities, but nice for a few days. We went to a really neat resturaunt called the Hershey Pantry, I loved the food.

Hershey Park was SOOOO cool. I started crying after the first roller coaster because I realized that I extremely dislike roller coasters. Once my brother KJ only got me to go on a roller coaster with him by promising to get one of his friends to kiss me. Haha, but anyways...so Tyson got me to go on one more and then I was hooked. I became an adrenaline junky. I wanted to go on all the roller coasters from then on. Lucky for Tyson time and exhaustion didn't allow it. But everyone should go to Hershey at least once, it was seriously a blast. It was nice to get home to the kids, but after a few hours of their crankiness, I was ready to go away again. :) Thanks Hunny Bunches for taking me to the sweetest place on Earth!

Ode to Caleb

A few weeks ago, Caleb had his first birthday. We had the whole Virginia family over for cake: Aunt Cassie, Uncle Chanson, Aunt Bunky and Uncle "Rich", Cousin Zuri, and then of course Daddy, Mama, and Joshua. I doubt Caleb understood what was going on, but he loved eating cake and getting toys. Although Josh quickly confiscated the toys and still thouroughly believes they are his. Both Zuri and Caleb stuffed themselves with cake, Zuri looks a little like she is in a cake zone. :)

Oma and Pop Hardy sent Halloween cups and plates and cute Duplo toys that the boys love.

More cake...

The cake was supposed to be a puppy, but that didn't work out, hehe, so I just called it a cake monster and they liked that just fine. I just don't think I will do any profession cakeness anytime soon. :)

Mom and Dad Cooper sent a fun pop-up toy and little books. He still hasn't figured out how to pop them up, but Josh has and Caleb laughs and laughs whenever they pop up. Simple pleasures. :)

Tyson was awesome and took all the pictures, so sadly, I am in most of them and he is in none. :(

But he got this one of Cassie, Chanson and me, I think our faces are all pretty funny. But I am also slightly sleep deprived right now, so everything is a little weird in my head.

Probably telling Josh to leave Caleb alone. Hehe

And...Caleb is walking! (most of the time-ish)

So happy birthday little Caleb! You are still so cute and tiny and squeezable. I am so glad you are feeling better because we sure missed the happy Caleb. :) Hooray for being one and thanks for giving us this wonderful year!