A Fall Sunday

Yes, this vintage bishop was one of mine . . . I love it!

In case you were wondering, the white pumpkins were swiped from Lance and Heather's wedding . . .you can't tell from the road that's not our initials! :)

Halloween Party and Such. . .

Every day when I pick up Lawton from school and am talking to him about the day, and he gets to the part about playing on the playground, he says the same thing every day. He played Star "Worz" with Bennett and John. They pretended with "light savers" and pretended to be "Dark" Vader. This is so funny to me because he has never seen Star Wars, yet plays it every day and was even a Storm Trooper for Halloween. I guess someday we should borrow the movies . . . :) Here is Lawton and his big buddy Bennett at their school Halloween party.

On a "parade" around school. . .

Here is Miss Anna and his sweet class

Carolina had her own "party" at music class the same day. We love Miss Marie!!

She LOVES music class! Every Thursday when I ask her if she is ready to go to music, she says "Yesth" in her sweet little baby voice . . . :)

Carolina went up on "stage" at the library story time the other day with brother. How did she get so big already??

Lawton and I had a special "date" to see Eric Carle stories at TPAC. It was a fantastic puppetry performance!! And do you see these pants? At the beginning of fall I was hoping these pants would last at least until Christmas. Nope. He wanted me to measure him last week on our closet door where we measure him every so often. I had just measured him the month before and he had grown over half an inch in less than a month!! No wonder they are getting short . . .

We went to Panera afterwards (his choice) afterwards. After he had slurped down the entire tube of yogurt, I noticed that it was two weeks past the expiration date!! Yikes. I took it to the counter and they kindly "offered" a free cookie to make it all better (which I was at least going to suggest). As we were walking away, they asked, "Is he okay?" I kinda laughed and said we'll see . . . he was fine. It's a good thing it happened to me because I don't get too worked up about this stuff. ha!
He was fine. :)

Trunk or Treat

Lawton and his big buddy, Brown - right before we started . . . can you sense the excitement, much? ha!

Brown, Ellie, Carolina and Lawton

Ellie and Carolina wondering "WHAT in the WORLD is about to happen? WHY are all these people dressed up so crazy?"

Sadly, Chad missed it because they were doing a ribbon cutting for a new program at his school . . .

Kate "Princess Leah" and Lawton

Who are these masked Star Wars people???

Why, it's only Lawton, Houston and Hunter!

Izzie "Little Red Riding Hood" and Carolina

Annie "Bee" (we really do call her Annie B. a lot!) and Lawton

With Gran-D and Papa J

Frances and Lawton

It took about two cars for Sis to figure out what to do!
Yummy!

More candy . . .

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We had a fun Friday afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch a couple of weeks ago. When we took Lawton for the first time at 18 months, we captured the cutest pictures of him being dwarfed by these hay bales in the maze. Now look at him . . . taller than the maze. . . sniff. (and see this cute pumpkin shirt? His class made it for their field trip to the Pumpkin Patch - only it was canceled the day of because of mud. I think I was more sad about missing it than he was! :)
A bunch of friends met to celebrate sweet Drew's 2nd birthday there.

She loves her brother!

See the cake that Emily made? Happy Birthday Drew!

Some of the big boys . . . Jackson, tough Lawton, Will, Tyler and Brody.

Carolina admires Lawton's so much . . .

She is a little copycat these days with everything!

It was a fun afternoon!

And the winner is . . .

#32 - Mandy!

Min: Max: Result: 32 Powered by RANDOM.ORG (Here's my attempt to show you I used random.org)

Thanks everyone for all your interest in these great Christmas books - who knows, I might do another give away before Christmas so keep checking in! I forgot to mention this, but every year I add one or two Christmas books to our collection. When Christmas is over, I put all the Christmas books away with the decorations so that 1) I know where to find them the next year and 2) it is so exciting to have all these new books to read during the Christmas season!!)

Oh, and our computer is finally fixed so I could put some pictures on the blog . . . keep scrolling down! :)

Congratulations Mandy!

Our Staycation Fall Break

So . . . Fall Break was a few weeks ago, but since our computer is finally fixed as of today (where Carolina had dropped/pulled/pushed it off the couch) I am uploading and blogging a ton tonight and will over the next few days. :) (not that any of you probably care . . .)

One day of our Staycation we went trick-or-treating at our local zoo. We had so much fun - a bit chilly - but fun!
This is what Carolina did the entire night . . . stared at the crazy people around her. . . stared at the bucket in her lap and wondered why new things kept getting tossed in . . . and then chewing on all the things in her bucket! :)

I love this one. ha!

Our sweet Titans cheerleader and the fiercest Storm Trooper ever.

One day we went to see Toy Story I and II in the theater. A very special treat!

Then Chad, (with a little bit of my help), built this "camper house" to protect our camper from the weather and enormous pine trees in the back of our yard. We had some great assistance from little hands!

The helpers took a little snack break in the trailer . . .

One day we used a coupon and as a special treat went to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch. The last time we went, Carolina was tiny, so she really enjoyed herself this time! :)

More pictures are coming . . . :)

The Rehearsal Dinner

You would never be able to tell that these pictures occurred at Lance and Heather's wedding rehearsal, but I think they are so cute that I just had to document them. :)

While everyone was speaking and chatting, these little munchkins were SO absorbed in Houston's new DS he had just gotten for his birthday. If the background was clear of clutter and they were reading a book, this would be the perfect blow-up-hang-on-the-wall picture.

Have I ever mentioned how much Houston ADORES Carolina? (and she adores him . . . you should hear how she says his name. . . maybe I'll try to catch it on video sometime.)

I love how she has her hands on her knees here. :)

Lawton took over my dad's "fedora" as Lawton informed me and wore it around all night. My sweet blue eyed boy. . .

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . GIVEAWAY!

I gasped in the grocery store yesterday . . . and Lawton eagerly wondered what I was so excited about. Peppermint Mocha creamer is in the stores now!! :) (Isn't that something to be excited about?)

And lo and behold, as I walked into Target tonight (November 1), the Halloween decorations were down and Christmas decorations were up! They don't waste any time!

So, to celebrate the upcoming season, (and because I can't do any other picture-posting-blogging since my oh-so-sweet-and-innocent-seventeen-month-old tossed the computer off the couch last weekend) I decided to do a give away one of my Usborne Christmas books!!

Here's the deal - just leave me a comment of which book you think you would like - and what signals the beginning of the Christmas season for you. :)

I will let the winner choose one of these books . . . I decided to give you a range of books so that it will "fit" the age and needs of your child. If you don't have a child, then surely you have some child in your life that would love one of these as a Christmas present (FREE to you!) so go on a leave me a comment! :)

That's Not My Reindeer, for the youngest child, is oh-so-cute with it's bright pictures and patches of different textures to develop sensory and language awareness.

1001 Things to Spot at Christmas - a wonderful puzzle book stuffed full of Christmas things to Spot. Think Where's Waldo? . . . but SOO much better! A great church book/quiet book/car book/Mommy-needs-some-quiet-time-to-think book. :)

Christmas Sticker Storybook, a storybook, sticker book, and puzzle all in one! And what I really love? My favorite Farmyard Tale Characters are in it - Poppy, Sam, Mrs. Boot, and all the animals! :)

50 Christmas Things to Make and Do - for the crafty child - or not- who needs a little inspiration and ideas - love it!

If you aren't the winner, you can always shop at my website HERE.

If you are local and want to get earn some FREE books by hosting a show (and to help ol' Santa out) I have some openings still in November and December that will help all your friends and family do some easy Christmas shopping . . . as well as Santa. :) You can email me at chadandlaurabeth@yahoo.com

This giveaway will close on Wednesday night - hopefully by then our computer will be fixed and I can post some pictures (of the 4000 it seems like I have taken) of all the fall fun we have had lately.

Leave a comment - Good Luck!