Spooky spooky

We started our week of Halloween festivities at the kids' fundraiser at their elementary school.

I got off pretty easy this year. You'll notice from the picture below from 2 years ago, the girls wanted to be a ladybug and clown once again. Clown costume still fit. The only costume I had to purchase was the ladybug. Austin's transformer outfit was from last year. Yeah for me! Maybe we should be giving them more milk!

Emily won the cupcake walk. Last year it was a 4,500 calorie cake walk. We're a-okay with cupcakes this year.

She gladly shared her good fortune with her sister.

Kinder costume contest. Looks a bit like the bar scene in Star Wars.


I left after the face painting and headed to my volunteer station - Chick-fil-A. I was in heaven. James was off with the 4 kiddos by himself and surprisingly stayed for a while. The kids still had tickets to spend.

I helped both girls in their classes last week carve pumpkins. This is not my specialty - but the kids were good sports. None of them knew that they drew the short straw with me at the carving station.

You know how dogs sometimes look like their owners? Well, I'm just sayin... :)

Time for our own pumpkin carving... that doesn't sound so good, looking at Cole's bib... I mean "real" pumpkin carving.

The girls' job was to put the seeds in a bowl for us to cook later. They had a blast. Unfortunately James sort of burned the seeds this year. He convinced them that they were supposed to look like that.

Mmm... pumpkin guts!

There's Emily and her alter-pumpkin. Aaargh!

Aaargh!

Roasted pumpkin seeds - yummy!

Halloween day...

Chubby little pumpkin.

It reminds me of my twin pumpkins 5 years ago. Gosh, all my kids are obviously related.

Oh, how they've grown!

Scoring tons of candy...

Late night for our little pumpkin.

I think we have even more sugar than we did from last year. I once again confiscated all the Reeses for my special hidden stash and now we need to figure out what to do with the rest...

Happy Halloween!

Sunday Pictures

Last week we had a mini photo shoot with a photographer for our annual Christmas pictures... haven't gotten them back yet, but I'm not quite sure she got any good ones. Emily was sort of off that day. So today we headed out to the same place and I tried to get a few of my own. Plus I borrowed a lens from my brother-in-law and wanted to try it out!





I got Photoshop a few months ago and have been playing with it lately. On the picture below, I took part of James' body out. Pretty cool, huh? He was holding Cole up on the railings... so before I get any emails... NO, I would not trust my 5 month old to balance on top of that thing :)








There were tons of pecan trees where we went and the kids loved opening them up and eating the pecans. Yum!


Austin reminds me of some sort of cartoon character here.

When we were done we headed to one of our favorite parks.


Emily has finally mastered the art of swinging. No more pushing her on the swings! Abby is getting there too - but seems always distracted by something.



We tried to pose them again one more time at the park, but this time Abby was tired of all the posing.

Obviously.

Cole was smiling it up toward the end of our adventure. Isn't that the way it always works?

5 months old!

Cole - you are 5 months old now!

What are you up to?

You are getting so big... and round!! I love pinching your chubby little legs. I love all your rolls... and kissing your little round cheeks.

You are almost sitting up! Here you are with a little assistance. I bet next month you will have this mastered and then soon after that you will be on the move! Your sisters and brother need to do a better job of picking up choking hazards (i.e. Barbie shoes and miniature football helmets). You can roll over when you are on your tummy to your back, but not quite yet the other way around.

You LOVE music. Not so much the radio, more so people singing to you. If someone wants to see you smile, all they need to do is sing the ABC's or Twinkle Twinkle - just about any of the classics. Gets you every time!

Here you are in your crib... you're not here very often. But we are going to start practicing really soon. Seriously.

"Dear God, please make my mommy give me more milk. I know she feeds me every 2 hours but I want more. Amen."

Instead you are still sleeping here. And loving it a little too much :)

You might be so darn tired because you seldom nap. You are my anti-nap little boy - and let me tell you it is exhausting! I can get you to nap a few times a week and you are so much more happier at night on those days.

You love the outdoors! You really enjoy going for walks in your stroller.... and your head turns every time you hear a car coming. They fascinate you.

Your hands are ALWAYS in your mouth. Now everything you can get your hands on goes directly into the mouth. You are so curious and want to touch everything.

You love being out of the house. We run lots of errands and people comment all the time to me how good you are! You really are. We've had lunch dates with friends, parent/teacher conferences, lunch with your siblings at school, gone to tons of stores, doctor's appointments, gym trips... and you are content just sitting and watching the world around you.

I can hardly believe you joined our family 5 months ago. We love you so very much little man!