Usually I don't like it when Mondays come around. Mondays mean less time with papa as we loose him to long days of work and school. Yuck. But this Monday is a little sweeter because it's October! And General Conference is just around the corner! Talk about my favorite month of the year...well maybe tied with November. Lets just say I love the Fall season.


Say goodbye to Summer little e. I'm so excited for you to experience your first Fall season. It's the best!

The days are getting darker a whole lot faster. Which means Fall is on its way. My favorite season in the whole entire world. The colors. The wardrobe. The foods. The hikes. I love all of it. Every time Fall comes around I get this huge craving for pumpkin. No this is not a pregnancy craving...just a normal Heather craving. I have gotten a couple of new pumpkin recipes that I am dying to try. One that involves pumpkin and cream cheese. Heaven right? Jake and I have been busy making lots and lots of salsa. Fresh and canned (thanks mom!). I'm glad I get to take a break from that to make this. And this. And this!

So today I decided it was a good day to kick my dislike of running in the butt. Well I take that back....I don't dislike running, I am just not very good at it yet. Usually I hate running outside because it's so dang hot and I don't last very long, but last night I ran with my roommate around Provo which was perfect because it was just a tad chilly. Perfect running weather. Today I needed a break from homework so I went for a run outside. I ended up running 4.68 miles and it felt great. I loved running through all the leaves that were on the ground. Hearing a "crunch" each time I took another step. It was hard not to jump into the many piles of leaves that the BYU work crew had piled together as I passed them. There was one huge long hill that just about killed me but I made it. Unfortunately it's now back to homework. I have been so bad at procrastinating lately. It's not good.

Finally got the pictures from Witches Night Out! Now remember...this was kind of a last minute thing for some of us. I had no witch costume. I pretty much grabbed a black dress, threw on some fish net tights....which I will say I am not a huge fan of wearing, and had my cousin grab me a hat. I thought I would be okay. I was totally under dressed. Everyone there when ALL out. It was crazy. Lucy was a huge hit. Lucy is the cute dog that my cousin's friend brought with her. She even had a little witch outfit on!

For FHE we all did some pumpkin carving! I was so dang excited. I have been wanting to carve pumpkins for a couple of weeks now. My family and I go all out when we carve pumpkins so I was ready to show them my skills. So I find a cool stencil as usual and bring all my sweet carving tools. I get there and with my perfect pumpkin and start cutting out the bottom....which is what I have always done. People were looking at me as if I were crazy and all pointed out that I was doing it weird. I kindly explained to them that it was easier just to cut out the bottom so you could place the pumpkin over the candle. Ta-da! Most said they have never heard of doing it that way. As if I didn't feel way out of place already, almost everyone was doing a free hand. Here I was with my Darth Vader stencil ready to go.

Geesh do these people not know what real pumpkin carving is?!?

Thanks dad for teaching me when I was young how to really carve a pumpkin!

Dear fall, please make your self at home and stay a while.

My new favorite thing to do is drive through a pile of leaves really fast and to see them flutter behind me. I might like it even more than driving through big puddles on a rainy day!

Soon to come....pictures of all the witches at Gardner Village. Yes I went with a group of girls during witches night out where everyone dresses up as a witch and they do a bunch of fun things. It was fantastic. I don't know why I haven't heard of this place before. They had some of the cutest little shops and one where I wanted to buy every single piece of furniture and home decor thing in that shop.

Now THIS is what Autumn should feel like. Still a little chilly, but the beautiful sun is out and shining.

Not thirty four degrees and snowing.

This weekend was grand for many reasons.

1. My dad took me four wheeling up in the mountains. Oh how I have missed that. Our family would go four wheeling all the time! The scenery was beautiful. I can't believe how fast Autumn comes and goes. I tried to take as much in as I could while driving around.
2. My car is finally clean. Oh boy was it dirty.
3. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
4. A dear roommate, her mom, her grandma, my mom and I, all went out to the Blue Iguana, (yum...) and then went to Women's Conference at the Conference Center. Some very good talks were shared there.
5. BYU won their game!
6. Visit from a cousin that I haven't seen in a while.
7. A call from my roommate who is in Germany.
8. Started and finished a paper that was due Friday!
   
9. Time with the family.

There is nothing better than a fun weekend with your family and dear friends.

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love all the colors and smells that it brings. Plus it means more pumpkin pie being made which is my favorite as well! On Monday the family and I celebrated my brothers' 17th birthday. So weird. I can't believe he is 17. One of my favorite presents he got, and this is only because I can play it too, is the new Halo ODST. I know I'm a nerd....but it's so fun! Very much enjoyed it. After all the cake and everything, my dad decided it was time to harvest all our pumpkins. Most of them were ready anyways. So we took the family down and all took dibs on "our" pumpkin. I took 5 home with me, Grandma and Grandpa Crosland took 4 home with them...and the other 33 were placed in our yard.

That's right you heard correctly. 42 pumpkins!!! Lets just say our plot was extra blessed or something. We are going to have a pumpkin carving-pumpkin pie eating festival!

I can't wait.

I always leave a thing of lotion in my car because dry hands are a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Well this morning when I left for work, I went to put on some lotion.....and it was frozen. Okay maybe not frozen frozen...but I had to shake it up quite a bit and it was cold to the touch. Very different from the last time I opened it up and the lotion exploded on me because it was so hot.

Fall is on it's way!