The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of autumn

There is a celebration of all things autumn at our house: leaves, pumpkins, pies, and songs.


The Autumn Blaze Maple that Brian gave me for my birthday this past June has turned a glorious shade of red. When I chose that tree, I had read that it sometimes takes a couple of years after planting for it to give off the fiery-red color in autumn, so I was tremendously excited that our tree turned red in its very first year.

The view from our driveway

Check out all those beautiful colors!

Our pumpkin patch was causing me some worry, because it took longer than I thought it should to actually see some fruit. We kept getting these gorgeous yellow-orange blossoms but no pumpkins. Finally towards the end of September, the pumpkins began to grow.

This was the size of our pumpkins before we left for Illinois...

...and this was their size when we got back home. Such fun!

Yesterday during Jackson's afternoon nap, Caroline and I threw together an apple pie. The whole house smelled delish, and the pie was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

Brian and I were married 5 years ago last Saturday, (been the best 5 years of my life!) and to celebrate we decided to treat ourselves to a new digital video camera. I think we've already made around 10 videos. Here is Caroline singing "It's October." The words are, "The leaves are falling everywhere. The geese are flying over. Boo! It's October."

Too cute!

6 Months Old!

Jackson turned 6-months-old on September 29th! I know everyone says that time goes by so much faster with your second child, and it really, really, really is true. We can hardly believe we're already half-way through his first year. The pic below was taken on his actual 6-month birthday, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. Since Jackson turned 6-months, he's started taking water in a sippy cup and self-feeding teething crackers.



The day following Jackson's 6-month birthday, Caroline made a dog outfit at school (ears and a collar). When I came to pick her up, all of the kids were coming out of school dressed as doggies and yapping. We parents would ask them questions about their day, only to receive woofs in response. It was too cute. We were laughing so hard, we almost couldn't stop. Anyway, here's a pic of her in her outfit, complete with a dog bone treat with her name on it. Woof woof!

33rd Annual Family Reunion

The last Sunday in September we headed to Mansfield for our 33rd Annual Family Reunion. There was so much food, and it was all delicious. Every year we recognize a family member, and this year we honored Jack Smith. The reunion is a great way to make sure we see everyone at least once a year!

This was Jackson's first DuPriest family reunion.

Caroline is showing off the Sleeping Beauty necklace that Grandmama brought for her.

Here is Papa sharing memories about Jack Smith (seated).

Aunt Babe wrote and read a poem about Jack. Babe will celebrate her 90th birthday next month!!

Sittin' Like a Big Boy

Jackson is SO close to mastering sitting up all by himself. Here are a couple of pics of him working on it. I took these during Brian's trip.

Here he is balancing so well while playing with the alligator xylophone. It looks like his back is touching the chair, but really it isn't... he is holding himself steady all on his own.

Sitting up and smiling!

Brian brought Caroline back a set of stacking dolls from his trip, so now she has a set from Russia and a set from Ukraine. Here she is pretending to be a little Russian girl with her new doll. Too cute.

Butterfly Festival

The weekend before Brian left for Ukraine, we headed to Southlake for a small butterfly festival. The butterflies were housed inside a tent, and we were given sticks with watermelon chunks to attract the butterflies. It was lots of fun.

Granddad is helping Caroline catch butterflies... she has 3 on her stick right now!

Grandmama caught one with her finger.

I put a little watermelon juice on Jackson's head, and the butterfly was happy to stay put long enough to snap this picture.

Caroline wasn't so sure she wanted a butterfly on her head until she saw Jackson with one, and then she was happy to oblige.

Uncle Mike and Caroline playing "red light, green light" in the rain. We walked to Mi Cocina for lunch from the butterfly tent.

First Day of School

September 9th was Caroline's first day of preschool, and she has loved every moment of it. We chose a school that places an emphasis on fine arts, and so far we have not been disappointed. Caroline has brought home tons of artwork, and she loves the music class portion of her school days. Here are some pics!

Dressed and happy it's the first day of school!

Heading out the door with her backpack

Walking into school...her backpack is almost bigger than she is!

When Caroline got home from school, a card from Emily was waiting in the mailbox for her. Emily's timing was perfect, and Caroline was so excited to get the card celebrating her start of school.

And I just have to throw this one in from that day because Jackson is so handsome :o)

So much to catch up on!

We've been very busy at the Peacock household of late, so I'm a bit behind in my updates. Caroline started school the week of Labor Day, and Brian went to Ukraine for 10 days right after that. He had been back home with us for about a week when we took an unexpected trip to Illinois this past weekend to visit all the Peacocks there. So sit tight for a flurry of posts sharing highlights from this past month...

Let's start with our Labor Day trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. We spent the whole day walking through their rainforest exhibit and then looking at sharks, penguins, flamingos, and fish.

Here's Caroline lunching on a PB & honey sandwich at the entrance to the aquarium.

There is a huge waterfall in the rainforest exhibit.

Here's Jackson seeing the waterfall for the first time. He loved it.