Autumn in Indiana

Fall is hands-down my favorite time of the year. The weather is generally mild, the leaves are changing, the world is rallying with a burst of color before its winter slumber. There's just something magical in the cool, crisp air. As much as I like pulling out my sundresses and flip flops in the summer, I savor tugging on my trusty brown boots and sweaters in the fall. I absolutely adore autumn decorations, and love the rich warm colors that call the season their own. I'm even beginning to enjoy football season... *SIGH*.

I think that Indiana holds a particular brand of magic in the fall. I don't know what it is, but as I've gotten older, I've become more and more proud to call this place my home. Last weekend, we went to a local pumpkin patch with the Walroths. Our Todderazzi did his thing with his amazing new camera, and the resulting photos were innnn-credible. As I looked through the photos, it was so easy to see the Autumn Magic. (sounds like a Yankee Candle scent).

So without further ado, prepare yourself for some spectacular displays of cuteness, and some fabulous photography by Dr. Todd. :)

Eli really wasn't in the best of moods the night that we went to the patch, but even with his
'tude, he couldn't mask the joy of finding the perfect pumpkin.

"Pumpkin Bliss!"

I spy with my little eye, a tiny, little, adorable, curly-headed noggin sticking out of that oh-so-fabulous baby carrier!

Walroths :) (We pried Todd out from behind his Nikon to capture this)

Now, if you've been around my sons lately, you'll know that we have a total "Monkey see, Monkey do" situation going on. The pumpkin patch outing was no exception- and Todd managed to catch the phenomenon on camera...

Monkey See

Monkey Do

Big brother is not too happy with you!

Oh well... If you can't beat him (without getting a timeout), join him!

Finally, I'd like to talk about the anatomy of a family photo. Most of you that read my blog either had kids, have kids, or are proud owners of freshly baked little nuggets (Which totally don't count as "kids" in this particular situation seeing as they just lay there oh-so-sweetly while everyone around them just snaps away." For those of you that don't have kids, you may or may not be suprised to learn that it ain't easy to get a nice photo of your entire family. For example- this is what a "family photo" looks like without kids...

See how everyone is looking at the camera? See how no one has their tongue out, and no one's rear end is facing the camera? It's lovely, no?

Oh but wait, what's that?? We're missing some key members of the family? Oh, well let's just snap one with everyone. No big deal (*Snort* famous last words!)

ummm- not quite. Let's try again.

Uhhh, yeah. Probably not.

Not so much.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!

Chaos!

Not too bad

SUCCESS! (Never mind that it was actually DARK before we finally captured this shot!)

I promise you that this was only a fraction of the photos that were taken to acheive the final product!

Thanks to Todd for being our ever-patient family photographer.