New England Fall

I think Fall has always been my favorite time of year. But now that we live in the northeast?  Oh. My. Goodness. I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous it is every year!  All of these trees and all of the colors across the mountains... Just breathtaking. And there's a couple week span each year where the colors really hit their peak and the state is at its most beautiful. It's one of the areas biggest tourist times too.  (Here they call those folks the "leaf peepers." He he!). But alas I'm not a tourist. I see this out of my own window every day, but I also have responsibilities.  Kids, full time job, you know. Life. It seemed like any day it was gorgeous & perfect for photos I was working, and when I was off I either had entirely too much to do, it was way too overcast for pictures (because it's mountains & the clouds actually cover up the landscape! Lol), or I didn't have my friggin camera with me!  Grr. Well then it rained a lot, the leaves fell, and I missed my chance. Bummer. :/. Next Fall I promise I will make it a point to take some better pics of the trees. I promise!

The view from my son's soccer practice.  Doesn't even do it justice...

But we definitely did take some time to enjoy this time of year. One afternoon, I was sick of looking at all of the leaves covering the driveway, & Mark wanted to earn some cash, so we went out to rake. Poor Mark ended up with a nosebleed about ten minutes into it (darn allergies!) but Natalie was loving being my big helper, so we kept going. Gavin didn't realize what fun it would be, so he chose to stay inside. Anyway, once we got the big pile all raked, Natalie couldn't wait to jump in & throw all of the leaves around again!  LoL

Then daddy came home & helped... Helped her play I mean! ;).

Mark finally felt better, & decided he wanted to be buried in the leaves.

Then Gavin came to his senses & finally decided to join us.

It was so fun!  I've never had so many leaves from one tree to work with!


And last week we headed out to the pumpkin patch. We ended up a little late to do the hay rides & all of that, but that's okay. We'll catch it next year. But we did have fun picking our pumpkins. All organic of course. Because Vermont's cool like that. ;)

Picking out their pumpkins

Always with the coffee in his hands!

My three cuties (who desperately needed haircuts but they're cute anyway! lol)

Our big helper! lol

So about this time last year, it had already snowed once, and it was certainly cold enough to stick. But even though they are calling for a super snowy winter this year, somehow the cold weather has held off. In fact this October has been just beautiful!  I happen to think that God is doing it just for us so we can get some more work done. ;). And Matt is taking full advantage. He's been getting so much done these past few weeks!  Lets see... Back room is all framed in, floor is rebuilt in our bathroom, all of the concrete work is complete, mud room walls are rebuilt, all of the windows are placed, back roof is almost done, trench is dug for electricity, fireplace is being built, basement stairs are being built, boiler & tank placed in the basement, driveway is clear of all of the tear out... And probably a lot more that I haven't listed!  So much progress!!

Our mudroom is back up!

Other side of the house, roof almost done on the back, ready for siding!

What will be our kitchen... yeah we've got a little work to do! lol

He's had countless people approach him asking if he needed help (lots of unemployment here unfortunately) and just recently he's agreed to give a couple of guys a try. I figure for the amount of pay they're asking for & the amount of time they're saving him by doing some of the tedious tasks, we're saving at least that much rent so it evens out!  For the most part it's been working out great. These guys work hard & don't complain & I think that's all Matt could ever ask for.  Now, fingers crossed that everything gets done enough outside & the electricity can get wired before the first snow so we can keep things rolling! :)