letters to Beth {my dryer smells like the GIRAFFE HOUSE & forget looking at the camera}

{i took this picture because i couldn't get anyone to sit and look at me at the same time, and chase was crying, and so sean came over and flew him around like an airplane, and then all of a sudden i realized, THIS is the picture. forget looking at the camera. i don't think october has EVER looked as beautiful in my yard as it has this year. i'm in heaven, and chase matches all of the colors!}

Dear Beth,
Good morning sunshine!!! How are you this fine October morning? I am well, and I hope you are also. It is finally really cold here in Utah in the mornings. So cold, that it requires a coat, but you can still wear your flip flops and jammies and be fine when getting kids off to school. Except Brennan left his sweatshirt at school yesterday, so i just sent him off with a long sleeve shirt and shorts, because remembering TWO sweatshirts to bring home {the one he left yesterday, and an extra one from today} would just be too much for him. so i gave him a kiss, and sent him off to his heated classroom school, hoping that being just a little cold walking in would remind him to make an effort to remember his sweatshirt. i am the nicest, don't you think? it is really warm by the end of the day, so we're not quite ready for pants, which is great because i still haven't had his pants hemmed yet. i think i can push it another two weeks, which means i will wait about three weeks before i desperately need to have his hemmed pants ready to go. sigh. this is me, take it or leave it.

so my dyer is stinky. did you know this is a thing? i didn't know it was a thing. i throw a cup of vinegar in my washing machine every other month or 6 months or so, whenever i remember, and the thing is going on 10 years strong and doesn't even stink, but the dryer, well, it smells like the giraffe house at hogle zoo. do you remember what that smells like? it's pretty much awful. so anyway, i looked on pinterest, and a stinky dryer IS actually a thing. you just clean out that silver astronaut vent thing, and vwallah it's not supposed to stink anymore. so i was explaining all of this to sean, and how it HAS been 10 years, so i should just probably run on down to home depot this morning and buy a new one, and all of a sudden he was all "THE SUNFLOWERS!!!" and that's when it hit me too. IT WAS THE SUNFLOWERS. see, sean worked so hard in the yard last weekend. he's amazing. i love him!!! he pulled out all of the tomato bushes, cucumbers, the strawberries i forgot to tell him to leave him {i just don't think i'm meant to grow strawberries, as this is the third year i've failed}, the peppers, the zucchini, the green beans, and the watermelon that never grew. it was amazing! he has our yard looking like a first class blue ribbon winner, all ready for winter, and since he's such an organized, neat and tidy guy, he lined up what wouldn't fit into the garbage cans along the side of the house in a neat and tidy stack so that after the next garbage day all of the excess can be neatly placed in the freshly emptied garbage can, conveniently RIGHT next to the dryer output vent. then it rained, and OH how i LOVE the rain!!! except, do you KNOW what wet, rotting broccoli and sunflowers and squash plant smells like? GIRAFFE HOUSE at the hogle zoo:) yep, it does. so last night at like 10:30pm sean was moving all of the rotting sunflowers for me, and squash plant, and broccoli, to the front of the house where the blue birds will come and feed off of them until our bulk waste removal next month, or until we get it dumped week by week into the garbage cans. this is the one time of year i wish i had 6 garbage cans. so this morning, i was all excited, and hoping my clothes were going to smell like kirkland dryer sheets and NOT giraffe house, and it still smells like the giraffe house, BUT, not to fret! i think it still needs some time. also, i'm thinking i might just replace that 10 yr old astronaut vent just because it feels like it's the least i could do for my dryer since it's run so well for me all this time, and it's probably been jealous of the washer and all of its vinegar treatments and stuff.

so that my friend is what i was thinking about as i was folding our underwear in the laundry room this morning. there are the most beautiful colors all around everywhere i look. "i'm so glad i live in a world where there are octobers!!!" i'm also really glad i live in a world with children.

i give you, my baby that looks like autumn:

{see what i mean, trying to get them looking at the camera is overrated. i have about 30 more of these with each child crying at one point or another. that was until daddy saved us all with the flying airplane trick. works like a charm every time. forget looking at the camera!}

happy october my sweet friend! is bryce home yet? how are the boys? what are you cooking to bring in fall? i'm making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies this morning and thinking of you! i love you!
love,
emiline