This was the first year since 2007 that Zach and I haven’t gone on a big Aflac trip during the month of October. A lot has been going on and we made the decision to not go on the trip this year. It was to Las Vegas and while Vegas isn’t my favorite place in the world (I saw enough of it when Katie and I went!) a free trip with my husband is something I ALWAYS love! It doesn’t matter where it is! Plus we found out President George W Bush spoke so it stinks we missed that too 🙁 I do think we totally made the right decision for our family though in not going…and it meant we had more of a leisurely month than we typically do.
We actually made THREE trips to the pumpkin patch this year. Not by choice…but we’ll get to that in a second 😉 Our first trip we went on an afternoon where Zach was done working early and could go with us. Kye had been commenting on the pumpkin patch every time we drove by it and was super excited to get to go. He raced off right away to start lifting up the pumpkins 🙂
He said “this one is TOO heavy mama!”
While Kye does an AWESOME job smiling for the camera…he often does the same thing Zach and I do which is where he makes this smile that isn’t as cute as his real smile. I have started telling him to make a silly face and then smile so it looks more natural 😉
Still the fake one though
Much better 😉
The pumpkin patch ended up being a BIG learning experience for us. Kye has always been what I call “quick to warm.” He is the type of child that adjusts easily to new environments and jumps in with both feet. When we do things with him we always hurry to get the pictures out of the way because he will lose patience with the pictures because he’s eager to go explore. He’s very much like Zach. Daring, confident in every situation, and gets antsy when he has to sit and wait. Brittlynn, we realized, is the opposite personality. She’s “slow to warm.” She likes to take everything in. See new things from a safe distance (my arms!) until she feels comfortable with the environment. She’s more cautious and takes a little time to feel comfortable. She’s more like me in that! For her, it’s better to let her explore her surroundings first and then take pictures. She needs to feel safe, needs to take her time to feel confident, and doesn’t like to try new things without knowing she has our support there with her.
We tried to take pictures right away and it simply wasn’t happening. Britt was SO upset when I tried to put her down. She didn’t know what the pumpkins were. Didn’t like feeling the grass on her feet. She pretty much bawled her head off. It’s tough because after raising Kye we naturally treat Brittlynn in very much the same way we have always treated him. But they are different and they have different needs. Zach got pretty annoyed (he and Kye need to hurry and get pictures over with fast!) with Brittlynn’s fussiness and wanted to just stop taking pictures and give up. We had a talk later about how she and Kye are different and how it’s not fair to her for us to expect them to be the same. Her being more cautious is a good thing. We just have to adjust to it! Maybe take Kye’s pictures first while she gets acclimated then take her pictures after she adjusts and let Kye go do his exploring.
Attempt at their picture together
Lots and lots of tears.
We gave up on her pretty quickly haha
Kye had so much fun getting to pick out the pumpkins!
Doing some exploring
And more crying
Happier when I held her 🙂
This is my view ALL DAY LONG 😉
We got a big pumpkin for the family and a small one for each kid’s room
Kye asked for a couple more pictures 🙂
I begged Zach to take ONE last one of Brittlynn and I before we left because she had warmed up some and was in a happier mood. She may not be smiling, but this was a win in my book 😉
Kye’s pumpkin!
Brittlynn’s First Pumkin
When I went through the pumpkin patch pictures I was super disappointed with them. I felt like Brittlynn was SO upset the entire time we were there (which was under 15 min) and that she didn’t really get to enjoy her first time at the pumpkin patch. So I decided to go back solo one afternoon 🙂 I knew if I was patient with her and gave her the chance to feel things out while safely in my arms that she’d have a much better time. And, I was right 😉 Trip #2 started off MUCH smoother!!!
Playing drums on the pumpkins 😉
My sweet babies!!!
I love her little dress! I got it from a random kids sale awhile back for only $3 😉
No tears on this face 🙂 Yay!
Kye had fun playing the pumpkin themed games while I took pics of Brittlynn
He CRACKS me up with his random posing he does now in pictures…
I’m not sure what this pose is supposed to be? haha
Trip #2 started off great!!! Kye was in such a model mood and just kept workin’ it for the camera. Unfortunately part of his move was to climb up on the pumpkins. Before I could stop him they came crashing down…of course on Brittlynn. I used my arm to block them the best I could but she did get a little bit bumped in the whole thing and…tears came. Big tears. Time-to-leave tears. At least she enjoyed it most of the time though!!!! I still consider the visit a win 😉
Bless his heart…after they fell he still really wanted his picture in his pose he had been trying to do haha
We had our big pumpkin out on our porch but were waiting to carve it until close to Halloween so it wouldn’t rot. We had it for 6 days when I found it like this!!!! Trip #3 to the pumpkin patch had to happen! This time Zach and Kye just stopped by there and showed them this picture. They let them pick a new one to replace it 🙂 And that one, thankfully, made it for the holiday!
You can look back at all our pumpkin patch fun through the years:
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What GREAT pictures!! I can appreciate them even more after seeing the cuties in person this weekend! 🙂
I LOVE Britt's dress!!!!!! Can I get one in my size?
I love how my comments are always so shallow but we talk every day so uhhhhh we do the good talking on there. 🙂