putting up ornaments

We put up the Christmas tree on Friday night. The boys hung all the ornaments one by one - all the motorcycles, cars, superheroes, and this year, thanks to Ava, the holiday Barbies - then I rearranged a bit so that there were some higher than 40 inches from the bottom of the tree. One of the first ornaments Carter put up is this frame with a wedding photo of me and Charlie. He hangs it on a branch and says:

"Awwwwww! Marriage - what a beautiful thing!"




I cracked up laughing! Here's our tree. Next I'll need to take some pictures of the three kids under the tree in their holiday jammies!

thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are a few things I'm most thankful for...

happy birthday

Happy birthday to my amazing Carter! You are six years old today. It is so hard to believe how big you've gotten. When you came into our bed to say good morning this morning I was blown away by how far down your long legs stretched but adored how you still fit so perfectly cuddled up to me. You're a terrific big brother to Logan and Ava and can be so helpful to me. You are a wonderful kindergartener who can't get enough of learning new things who remembers everything he's heard. And you are incredibly outgoing and such a great friend to all the kids you're around. You are so into cars, sports, coloring, writing, drawing, and you have a terrific imagination. The past six years have been full of adventure and love raising you as our first child and I can't imagine where we'll all be in six years from now. I hope you loved your birthday breakfast - pancakes, candle and all and I hope you enjoy your birthday lunch with Aunt Natalie and your football party with all the people who love you! Carter, I love you and I'm so proud of you and wish for you to have the perfect sixth birthday and many many many more!

carter 2003

newborn

carter 2009

sixth birthday party

make a wish...

opening his jay cutler jersey from grandma

football buddies

dylan, carter, jacob

Cater was eating litttle fudge cookies in the car.
C: Wow, Mom, when you put two in your mouth it's like an ocean of chocolate!

halloween

This year I let the boys pick their costumes. No theme. I gave up control. I hope next year they can be something all together. Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell. Three Little Pigs. Tin Man, Lion, and Dorthy. Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. We'll see...This year Carter had his heart set on being a Clone Trooper - Captain Rex from Star Wars the Clone Wars. Who knows where that came from. He's never seen the movie. He says it's a cartoon he's seen at Miss Gayle's. Whatever. There was no changing his mind. When I suggested the Peter Pan theme he said, "Maybe next year, Mom." Logan wanted Batman at first but they didn't have his size so he picked a racecar driver. He loved it. They both played in those costumes practically every day the whole week before Halloween. They love dressing up.

We had a little Halloween party on Saturday with all of the cousins at Grandma's house. Natalie and Jamie organized lots of fun things to do: Halloween bingo, bobbing for apples, Halloween pictionary, mummy wrapping, and lots of treats! Grandma even took all the kids through Spooky Town (the haunted familyroom!). Later we went trick-or-treating up and down the street with Austin, Becca, Rachel and Evan in her neighborhood.

We got home around 5:00 and met up with friends to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. There's a "spooky house" that looks really cool with lots of dead creepy stuff and lights in their yard that all the boys wanted to go to, but "not until it's dark. it's got to be dark when we go there!" The boys made out pretty good needing their treat bags emptied once or twice since they were full and heavy. This is the first year we did a big portion of the neighborhood. The little ones seemed a house behind lots of the time, but Logan kept up with the big boys pretty well grabbing handfulls from the houses with candy and a sign "Please take one." Carter gave a report as he zoomed on to the next house "I got a Butterfinger!" or "This one gave Milk Duds!" Too funny!

My camera died just as I was getting ready to take pictures in our neighborhood so I'll have to steal pictures from the other Moms. Here's a peek at a lot of the fun from the party at Grandma's! Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

bobbing for apples

ava mummy

doctor, hannah montana, clone trooper, parrot, racecar driver, batman, frankenstein

becca, rachel, carter, ava, logan, austin, evan

no that's not cookie monster, it's frankenstein evan!
ava's party costume!
ava's trick-or-treat costume

pumpkins

PUMPKIN PICKING

This year we took the kids to Sonny Acres. We fed the goats, llamas, and sheep and picked out our pumpkins. The boys were both tired, it had been a busy day and neither of them were that into it. I had more fun on the second grade field trip the week after taking the boys. We got a couple nice pumpkins that we carved a few nights before Halloween.

i love this...pumpkins growing on trees!

PUMPKIN CARVING

Once again, Logan was more into the goopy, wet, and stringy mess involved in scooping out the seeds. Carter didn't like it at first, but eventually scooped away all the insides after Daddy started it. He was cute about planning his jack-o-lantern's face though, drawing out the design onto the paper bag we had spread out to cover the table. Logan just liked poking little holes with the pen! He told me what shapes he wanted and we did his together. After I did the carving they each pushed out the parts and used the tools to finish it off. I didn't plan on carving Ava's little pumpkin, but decided her's would be cute if I carved a little "a" in it.

peek-a-BOO ava!