You Can't Make Them Smile

You can put six kids in their Halloween costumes and try to take their pictures... but you can't make them do anything else you might have been hoping for.

To see the rest of our attempt at a photo-shoot in our front yard click here.

Pumpkin Picking

Trips to the Orchard

I love fall!

One of our favorite things to do in the fall is go to the orchard. We have one about three minutes from our house, so we go just about every week from August through October. It's too hard to have 50 cent apple slushies just minutes from your home, and not take advantage of them.

Turkey Time

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wondeful Thanksgiving with family and friends - two of them actually.

Prior to the big turkey day, we had a playdate with our friends the Macks, James, and Lands and made our very own turkey shirts. The shirts turned out really cute (they say "I'm Thankful for My Family") and the back of Miss Bug's has her handprint. The following day was MOPS, so we decided to dress up our kiddos in their shirts and try to get a picture of all of them together...

This is the best I could get. But to be really honest, it's a pretty good description of their personalities/talents at the moment... (from L to R) Sarah is pretty laid back and easy going; Annabelle is just starting to sit up; at the time, Abby was spending most of her time sleeping; Connor is quite the little ladies man; and then there's Bug. The picture says it all. She's TWO.

She was all smiles before the picture. And then, when I asked her to participate, her answer was of course, "No." And when I forced her to participate, the hysterics began.

So that’s our precious little Bug. Always the life of the party.

And not in the other pictures. She's probably laying on the floor kicking and screaming.

I have family pictures from the actual Thankgiving celebrations to come... but between the TWO YEAR OLD and being SIX WEEKS away from my due date, I'm not feeling so up to blogging these days!

Happy Halloween!

We spent Halloween at my parent's house. MissBug went trick-or-treating through the neighborhood, and was much better at it by this time than she was at Zoo-Boo.

She did insist on riding on Daddy's shoulders between every house. We didn't go to that many houses, but she insisted on being carried to them.

She was required to walk up to the front doors on her own to get the candy, though.

By the end of the night she was a pro.

And she ate a LOT of candy.

The next morning, J got her out of bed, and I laid in bed listening to them on the monitor. It went something like this:

Daddy: "Good morning Bug."

Bug: "Treat!"

Daddy: "No more trick-or-treat, sweetie. Halloween is over."

Bug: "Candy!"

Daddy: "I think we've created a monster."

Pumpkin Carving

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. MissBug has been carrying her “baby pumpkin” around for about a month now. It was going to bed with her, eating meals with us, and pretty much a close family friend.

Surprisingly, cutting Baby Pumpkin open and pulling out his guts didn’t seem to bother her too much. She was slightly grossed out, but not like last year when she shivered and wouldn’t touch the insides.

As soon as J cut the top off, she stuck her little hand in and grabbed a handful and stuck it in her mouth. Gross.

Afterwards, I roasted the pumpkin seeds and we watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.

I’d like to add that J and I were both slightly disappointed in this movie… we hadn’t seen it since we were kids, and we both remembered the Great Pumpkin coming – he doesn’t – but for some reason, we both were just sure that he did.

More Fall Fun

On Thursday before Halloween we celebrated with J's family. Poppy got a hay wagon just for the occassion, so we all got to go on a big hayride. The kiddos also got to pick their own pumpkins that Poppy and Moo-moo grew for them, and decorate halloween cookies.

Zoo-Boo

We did all sorts of fun Halloween activities over the last week. Our fun-filled week kicked off the Sunday before Halloween with a trip to the zoo for "Zoo-Boo."

Miss Bug tried out her costume for the first time too. She was supposed to be a bumble-bee, but with the recent obsession with tu-tus I had to make one of those to go with it... so she was a "Bumble-bee Princess."

And if you asked her, she was just a Princess.

MissBug's very first attempt at trick-or-treating...

Pumpkin Playdate

Last week we made a trip Waterman's for their Fall Harvest Festival with our good buddies The Macks, The James, and The Lands... between us we had five kiddos (and one in utero) all under the age of 26 months. Whew.

Miss Bug's bestest friend in the world is Sarah, and they were sure happy to see each other. (Bug asks me almost every day if she gets to see Sarah.) They're only about three months apart, and they've been buddies since they were about seven and ten months old. Sarah just got a little sister, Abby, about three weeks ago, so they hadn't seen each other in a little bit longer than they were used to and I think they were going through withdrawals.

Their relationship works pretty much like this:  Bug drags Sarah around and tells her what to do. Sarah, a very laid back little gal, takes it like a champ.

Bug got to try out a bouncy house for the first time. And of course, picked a pumpkin and took a hayride.

The crowd:

After I looked through these pictures (and the other 50 I took that day), and saw all of us Mommies, my very first and honest thought was, "Boy, we all look really tired."

Happy Fall!

Happy Thanksgiving 08!

Favorite Thanksgiving Moments: Papaw busted out the circa 1980's? 90s? - who cares, it's huge - camcorder. :)

Bug was, of course, center of attention. (As if she would have it any other way.) And asserted her dominance whenever possible.


Again, with the male bonding. She was taken with her cousin Trent, who was just as taken with her.


We had two wonderful Thanksgivings. One with each side of the family. They were long and easy days, with lots of good food and great company. I have made so many pumpkin rolls now that I never want to see one again, but other than that, it was one of the best Thanksgivings yet!

Scarred for Life?

We were just trying to get our money's worth out of the costumes.

And the orginal idea was to take them to the Children's Museum. But the Children's Museum was too packed, so we went to the mall instead.

After people started pointing, we decided it was time to go home.

Is it so wrong to take your child out in public in her Haloween costume? (Aren't they just going to love us when they're teenagers?)