Halloween 2013

We had our first Halloween experience in the new neighborhood this year. It was definitely different than years past and I think it can only get better. The kids were excited leading up to actually trick-or-treating but were not themselves once we actually got going.

I am pretty sure Hayes doesn’t feel 100%. But he was the cutest lion around for about ten minutes. Then the costume came off!

Reese was SO excited to wear green make-up as a witch but once it was all on she just didn’t seem as excited any more.

And Sam, who wears his costume every.single.day complained about being hot and wanted to change. After about eight houses he and Lance headed back to the house for him to change in to shorts and his Captain America shirt. He made it a five houses or so and then the boys and I headed back home.

This was the cutest picture we got of all three of them.  It is pretty sweet if you ask me! The big kids thought Hayes was precious.

Our first stop and no one was home. They left a table and a bowl of candy out.

Reese ran in to a couple of friends. One of these little girls rides the bus with her and they have made a sweet little friendship.

So Halloween 2013, in the new neighborhood, was a mild success. We definitely missed our old tradition of getting together with our neighbors from the old neighborhood but it was fun to spend the evening with new neighbors!

Our Lives Lately

Whew! This fall has been busy!! I think after this upcoming weekend we can finally take a breath.

This past weekend was a crazy one. Thursday night Lance and I had a “date night”. The Chamber of Commerce was having an event at Six Flags. Right after we moved in to our new house, we had some work done in the basement by a friend of Lance’s that had recently started his own company. They invited Lance to the event and I invited myself to come along. It ended up being kind of lame because there was only three rides open. We rode Goliath though.

Friday night we had friends over to eat pizza and to make s’mores. We really enjoyed our time visiting and the kids had so much fun together. It was so nice sitting outside next to the fire.

Saturday was one for the record books. We were so busy that day. I was up and going early. Reese’s school was having a race that morning. The 5K started at 8:00 so I ran in it. When I left the house at 7:30 it was 31 degrees!! Too cold for running if you ask me. At 9:00, they had a 1K for anyone who wanted to do that. Reese wanted to run in that race so Lance did it with her. We were so proud of how hard Reese ran.

Because it was so cold, Sam’s 9:00 soccer game was pushed back to 10:00.  Lance and I were hoping to be able to see both kids last games of the season but it didn’t work out that way because both games ended up being at the same time. Never once in my life did I think I would be coaching one of my kids teams but I had a blast this season! It was just so much fun!

From the kids games, we met up at Chick-fil-a to get in one car and head to Adrienne’s house for Emme’s first birthday. We had a nice time visiting with them and celebrating that sweet baby! After the party, we headed home. I was home long enough to shower and get ready to leave again. A friend of ours was celebrating her birthday on Saturday night and one of her friends put together a girls night out. The theme of the night was “The Sky’s the Limit” so we started our night off at the restaurant at our local airport. It was a beautiful night to watch airplanes comes and go as the sun was setting. After dinner we headed downtown to Skyview Atlanta…the new Ferris wheel near Centennial Park. It ended up being really neat. It was only $15 a ticket and you went around five times. The view was pretty nice.

Lance had the privilege of getting the kids ready that morning and putting them to bed that night. He also had to take Reese to a birthday party. 

Sunday morning we got going slowly. We visited a new church that is much closer than our church. It was a very emotional morning. After church we met my family for lunch to celebrate my mom’s birthday. We also did a little shopping and then headed home to end our weekend.

Hayes

Carving Pumpkins and S’mores

After church on Sunday we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. The kids each picked out what they wanted carved on their own pumpkin and we got to work. Lance helped them clean them out. 

And by help, I mean, Reese did most of hers and Lance did all of Sam’s. Once they were cleaned, I carved out Reese’s owl and Sam’s spider. They turned out pretty cute!

While we were carving the pumpkins, Lance started our first fire in the outdoor fireplace. It was awesome!

We finally got to make our first s’mores of the season…there will be many more!!

Apparently I didn’t get any pictures of the boys during any of this…they were there though! Hayes hung out in the stroller for a while so we could carve safely and Sam just ran around. Sam got the first s’more off the line and devoured it. Hayes got a chocolate graham cracker and was jealous of our s’mores.

Airshow

A couple of weekends ago, Lance took Sam to an airshow with a friend and his son. They were excited about going but I don’t think the little boys enjoyed it as much as the big boys.

I think both daddies were disappointed in the enthusiasm of the little ones.

Apparently the boys enjoyed playing in the dirt more than watching the airplanes zooming by.

Videos

Some of my (and the kids) favorite things to look back over on this blog are videos. They will watch the videos over and over.

Reese has really been enjoying cheerleading. Her coach was a high school cheerleader and tumbler. She recently made a connection with a new cheer gym and they let the girls come for a free lesson. Reese loved it! Here she is learning how to do a back handspring.

 

When I was in kindergarten, one of the things we had to learn how to do was dribble a basketball (my how things have changed…ha). Anyways, I could NOT figure out how to dribble. I remember coming home and my dad trying to practice with me in the driveway. Four year old Leah comes out, grabs the basketball and starts dribbling circles around me. I am pretty sure she was dribbling it between her legs at this point too. When we moved in to this house there was a basketball goal on the driveway so I bought Lance a basketball. We have gotten a lot of use out of that goal and Sam is a dribbling machine. I am so impressed…and a little embarrassed that at five I could not dribble the way my three year old can. Ha!

 

Hayes is such a boy! He thinks that poots are funny. If he poots, he laughs. If he hears something that sounds like a poot, he makes the noise with his mouth and laughs. One night at dinner he pooted and this was me asking him if he did that.

Fall Break

The kids had a fall break this past week. It was really a great few days. We stayed busy and enjoyed our time together. Leading up to the days off I had the kids clean up their rooms and help clean up around the house so that when the break came we could all enjoy it. By the first day we were ready for our adventure.

We met a bunch of friends for a hike our first day out. The kids were all such troopers. The weather was beautiful and the perfect day to be hiking outside.

Once we made it to the top of the mountain the kids took a break. They all played so well together. On the way down the mountain, I think my two were the only ones to take a spill running down. They both came home with scratched up knees but it didn’t slow them down any.

During the climb up the mountain, I told Reese and Sam that if they would not complain about being tired, etc that I would let them take a bubble bath in my tub. They think that is the best reward ever and it worked. No complaints at all.

The next day we decided to go have lunch with Lance. Reese also wrote her first letter to our Compassion child. I am the one who usually writes to her (and I wrote my own note this time too) but Reese wrote her very own letter. It was so sweet to see her get to do that. The child that we sponsor is only a week older than Reese. We chose her for this reason and hope that one day she and Reese can correspond with out the help of me.

Over the weekend we went to a local family owned farm that just started having fall activities. They have barrel slides, zip lines, a 23 minute hay ride and all kinds of fun kid activities.

They will also have a corn maze next year but due to all the rain this summer it flooded their crop. While on the hay ride the guide told us that at one point during the summer there was eight feet of water where their crop was planted and that they hadn’t had that kind of rain in 99 years. I think it was a fun little place to go and know that as the years go by they will continue to grow. It was great because it wasn’t too crowded while we were there because it is so new. The only problem we had was how hot it was…definitely not fall weather.

After leaving the farm we decided to head to Harry’s Farmers Market. All summer Lance has been trying to boil peanuts but every time we go to Harry’s they don’t have any green peanuts! We tried again to find some and a lady working there said that the batch that came in was so bad they couldn’t sell them. Apparently all the rain is hurting the peanut crops too. We did buy some pumpkins there for a great price!! The kids want to carve them now but we said we would wait for a little while so they didn’t go bad!

On the next day of fall break Reese had planned a craft day at home for us. So first thing in the morning we headed to Target to buy craft items. And they spent almost all day doing crafts!

The next day we had plans to go to the zoo. We had been planning this zoo day for a week and we were all so excited to go. We woke up that morning and Sam was being so whiny. I kept pushing us along though and getting everyone ready. At one point I stopped him and asked why he was so whiny and he said he didn’t know. Finally we were about to walk out of the door, I sent the kids upstairs to get socks on, and Reese comes back saying Sam is crying that his tummy hurts and he is going potty. He went potty and then was acting like a new kids. Not whining or anything. So we got in the car to head to the zoo. About three miles down the road he starts crying and bending over saying his stomach hurt so bad. It started making me nervous and I told the kids we couldn’t go to the zoo. I saw the disappointment in Reese’s eyes in the rearview mirror and I quickly called a friend we were supposed to meet. I knew she wasn’t too far away and I asked her if Reese could go with them to the zoo. She said absolutely and we made plans to meet her in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. When I parked I opened Sam’s door to go talk to him and check him out because he was still crying so hard. Luckily he had unbuckled because the second I got to him I saw that look on his face. I yanked him out of the car and he threw up. I got Reese set up with my sweet friend and off they went. They had a wonderful day at the zoo with all of our friends (I think there were six mommies and twice as many kids). I feel so blessed to have friends who took care of Reese that day and let her tag along with them. I pray Reese is as blessed with sweet girlfriends all her life! Another friend brought Reese back home and Reese was on cloud nine. She was so pleasant that afternoon and I think her love tank was overflowing. About 11:00 Sam was totally fine and asking if we could go to the zoo. I promised him we would go another day. I don’t know what was making him feel that way but we were both bummed to miss the zoo.

When it was finally time to go back to school, we all had a hard time getting up that morning. Now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break when we have a whole week together! I think a make-up zoo day will be in the plans.

11 Months and Counting

Hayes! You are eleven months old today! I remember this day last year thinking it was finally baby month but just knowing you were going to wait until November to make your appearance.

This little guy is all BOY! He loves being outside. If we open the door for any reason, he gets so mad if he doesn’t get to go out. If Reese and Sam are playing outside, he watches them through the window and squeals and giggles.

He is still not walking…which I am surprised by. He is so close though. He loves to stand and push things around the house. I find kitchen chairs in the most random places. Right now there is one in the laundry room.

 

He is mischievous! In the fifteen seconds it took me to wash and dry my hands, he had crawled in to the bathroom and unrolled all of the toilet paper. And I didn’t even know he was doing it.

He is brave! He climbs on everything. He has a radar that knows when the gate at the bottom of the stairs isn’t closed. The second he is on the ground he is racing towards the stairs. His favorite place to climb up on is the fireplace. He sits up on the hearth so proud of himself. I don’t even worry about him up there anymore because he is great at getting himself back down. He has even been trying to climb up on the couch lately.

He is stubborn! He hates having his diaper changed. He screams and cries and thrashes around the whole time. Lance and I have resorted to tag teaming him after baths just to get him ready for bed. Some days I put him in his bed to get him dressed. He wants out so bad that he will stand and cry. This makes it easier for me to get his clothes on him.

He just cut his seventh tooth and is working on number eight.

Today he weighed 21 lbs, 15 oz.

He is a sweet little lovey!