Meet Jack

Meet our new friend Mr.Jack! He did not arrive this way but was picked and carved with much love. Oh...you want to hear the story of Mr.Jack?...



One cool Fall morning a family arrived at a pumpkin farm where there they found three perfect pumpkins...



But only ONE was the MOST perfect pumpkin and he was taken carefully to a loving home where he would receive a face that he could share with the world...



The adorable husband in this special family began the process with his traditional role as the "gut remover". Mr. pumpkin knew it might be a bit uncomfortable but the end product would be worth it! He would be able to glow with pride!



While working on Mr. Pumpkin the adorable husband and the first born in this loving family had fun with the slimy guts! It tickled Mr. Pumpkin to have such silly boys working on him!



Little Bit dove right into Mr. Pumpkin and pulled out a handful of guts that he would have loved to have eaten...if the Momma would have let him!



Finally after recovering from the slimy feeling of Mr. Pumpkin's guts...



The K-Man decided if his little brother could help clean out Mr. Pumpkin, he could too!



Next the Momma stepped in and started her traditional role as the "face carver" with her trusty assistant the K-Man! Mr.Pumpkin was relieved that "the Boys" were not in charge of this task!



After some tender loving care and A LOT of "be careful with that knife!"...



Mr.Pumpkin was now Mr. Jack. AND I think he has the BEST personality, don't you! His glowing face has made our front porch so festive!

Happy Halloween form Our Family (and Mr. Jack) to yours!

Halloween Madness

I hope your Halloween has been as fun and CRAZY as ours has. We have tried to do a little bit of everything to enjoy the Fall Halloween Season! The K-Man and Little Bit are at such fun ages for the holidays. This picture is taken by our house with our very own scare crow. The other day the K-Man played scare crow...We acted like we were crows eating corn and K. tried to scare us with his "scary" faces- (all his idea!)



We decided to be brave and go to THE elementary school Harvest festival. Let me just say, I think the WHOLE town was there. I mean, extended families...EVERYBODY! It was packed, but we all had a blast! My adorable husband put his name in a raffle (Maybe 100 times-Ha!) for some hunting things. He is still waiting for the call that he won it! However, the K-Man did win a gold fish on his first try and it now lives in our pond. He has been named Bat.



I also took the boys to the Library for "Monster Library Time". Little Bit wore his shirt that said, "I Love My Mummy!". Yes, he was too cute!



Here is K-Man making a monster face (and growling) while doing rhymes and listening to books about monsters. We all did a monster craft and danced the monster mash...We looked crazy (but so did everyone else!). I also took K-Man back to the library for campfire stories. It was a night just the two of us got to listen to scary stories, eat smores and do a "creepy" craft. Fun! Fun! Fun!



We also found a Pumpkin Farm in our area and decided to give it a try. At the Pumpkin Farm there were fun places to take pictures (a great thing for moms!), a "petting farm", a jump house, a hay maze, a place to feed cows, a pumpkin horse to ride, and a pumpkin patch.



Here Piggy, Piggy...my children want to feed you while I get pecked by a chicken trying to take the picture!



The kids loved feeding the cows. I think the cows could have skipped a couple of meals after we were done!



The K-Mans face while in a jump house...need I say more!



Picking the perfect pumpkin for my perfect boys...Yes, that includes you, my adorable husband! There were so many to choose from but only ONE perfect one for us!



The K-Man loved the hay maze. There were loose rabbits in the maze that scared him at first. However, when he realized that they were harmless the tide turned and he decided that chasing them was more fun then being scared of them!



Run K-Man! Run! I told you he loved it!



Now here is the famous Pumpkin Horse! I wonder if at midnight it will turn back into a ordinary white horse???? Bummer!



Now finally-I have ALWAYS wanted to attempt Carmel apples. Well, I did it AND they were good...



Just Ask the K-Man!!!


We have so many fun things planned for tomorrow, but really ALL of October has been fun. I am not sure who is having more fun, my boys or Me!

Halloween Good Mail

Let me start off by saying my boys are spoiled rotten!!! Which I think in WONDERFUL!!! Before you gasp...let me finish! It is their grandparents, great- grandparents, aunts and uncles that have done this to them. Though we are quite a distance from all of them they keep our "post lady" VERY BUSY!!! Seriously, The K-Man thinks he "owns" the mail box-Ha!

Halloween was no exception to the spoiling...



Grammie and Poppa sent Halloween cookies, pumpkin peeps, pumpkin window stickers...the list could go on!!




Gramzie and PawPaw sent Halloween coloring books, stickers, crayons, shirts, pumpkin candy holders...the list could go on!!



Auntie Lindsey and Uncle Corey sent glow necklaces...AND these FUN teeth suckers!



I thought we would never get the sucker back from Little Bit! You can always count on my sister to find the funniest things!

Thank you for loving and spoiling my children rooten!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Today is my Adorable Husband's 31st birthday. While I would love to type this special LONG post about how wonderful he is...that really wouldn't represent him. My adorable husband is reserved, humble...you know, the tall dark handsome/strong silent type! He would be sooo embarrassed with a long post all about HIM! So to honor him I decided to post about two things:

1.Why he makes my heart smile.
He puts God first in his life, His family ALWAYS comes before himself, he lets me be myself (which can be scary-Ha!), he is a hard worker, he hold friendships dear, he has introduced the term "barking spider" to our boys!, he LOVES his boys (not only in words but in action), his favorite time of the day is wrestling with the boys, he VERY rarely has a "bad" day, he never complains about what is for supper, he is a MAJOR Aggie (but who isn't, right)...ok, I could go on, but then the post would get too long!

2. What I want my boys to know about him.
I want them to know that I feel like I am the luckiest girl out there to have been chosen by him to be HIS wife. I want the boys to understand that He loves God with all his heart. That he would climb the tallest mountain for them and never hesitate to do what he could to make their dreams come true. That my adorable husband is a great example of a selfless person always putting family and friends before himself.
That he knows how to love his wife and make her feel appreciated.

There are so many things that I could say, but then I have already made too big of a deal of this day for my husband's comfort zone...I'm sure he will plead with me later today to remove some things off this post or the whole thing altogether...Hey babe, I love you and you should be honored today! Happy Birthday!

Fall Addiction- Confession #2

Time to Confess another Fall Addiction...Books! However, not just any books, BUT Halloween, Thanksgiving and Fall books of course!



On that special day, The FIRST Day of Fall, I bring ALL the "Fall" books out! We read them until Thanksgiving and then up they go until next year (it makes them more exciting and special to the boys). I also scope out the Library and reserve books throughout September, October and November that relate to the Fall Season.

Here are a couple of our favorites (To name ONLY a FEW!):
The Runaway Pumpkin By Kevin Lewis
The Pumpkin Patch Parable By Liz Curtis Higgs
Where is Baby Pumpkin by Karen Katz
Five Little Pumpkins
Biscuit is Thankful By Alyssa Satin Capucilli
10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnson
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda WHite
THis is the Pumpkin by Abby Levine
The Ledgend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano
T.REX Trick or Treat by Lois G. Grambling
The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown

We have three more "fall" children books to pick up from the Library today on reserve AND our Scholastic books should be in soon (I ordered more Thanksgiving related books)!...I will let you know if they are good!



The K-Man is getting as CRAZY as I am about reading "fall books". BUT Poor Kid, What choice does he have?

What are some of your families favorite "Fall books"?

Camp Out 2007

We had picked a date about 8 months ago for a group of us to take our families camping together. This little event became even more important to me after we moved away from these special friends in our lives about 6 months ago. Then to my adorable husband's shock and amazement he and a couple of other guys were picked for a hunting trip in New Mexico hunting Mule Deer... Yes, you guessed it the same weekend as the camp out! Sooo...



My adorable Husband could have been here... (New Mexico)



Hunting THIS... (Mule Deer)

BUT instead he was in Huntsville State Park with family and friends...What a Man! All those hunters out there...I have a REAL MAN!

Now, you are just going to have to bear with all the pictures. Oh, and believe me when I say...These are ONLY a FEW of the wonderful camp out pictures!



It's never too young to start fishing, right Little Bit?!



Rylan, Braden, and Jacob...Three Peas in a Wagon!



Say cheese Boys, Momma's got the camera AGAIN! Poppy the Pop-up was wonderful again on this camping trip. We used the heater one night and the air condition the other. Gotta love Texas weather!



"The girls are back in town!"...The flamingo's strike again! Notice what the T-shirts say, Camping Diva...Yes, that's us-Ha! We had a BLAST together. I was never so happy to see the girls again! We stayed up late talking, wrangled the kids, grunged out together, laughed till we cried, drank coffee and worshiped together. Now really, what sounds better then that?



Family Photo Session!



Nothing more precious then father and son time...ok, mother and son time is up there too.



Ok, I know it wasn't New Mexico, but not bad scenery, huh? We could not have asked for a more PERFECT weekend. The weather was wonderful!



The K-Man and Brice having fun in the tent~



Brice, Kannon, Layton and Ashlyn taking a break from all the FUN!!! I know you won't believe it but the K-Man actually asked to go to bed! They all played so hard!



Here are some of our most prized possessions! Our kids~ We are all working together as a "team" to get these little guys to Heaven (becoming the Christians God calls us to be)and having a BLAST along the way!



Happy Birthday all you October Birthdays... Trey, Braden, Jason, Scott, Cait and Robyn!

Thanks for letting me share a very important part of my life and THANK YOU, adorable husband, for letting our family be your MULE DEER-Ha!

Random Acts of Kindness

I have read on several blogs what people are doing to incorporate Random Acts of Kindness to others around them in their daily lives. I have loved reading many different stories of how they have shared kindness through special acts to people they don't know. Well, today I was a recipient of a Random Act of Kindness. I was feeling a bit ambitious and had taken the boys to eat at Cracker Barrel BY MYSELF while we were waiting for a prescription for the K-Man (fresh sweet tea sounded good today!).

Everything had gone pretty smoothly while I got them situated and had ordered our meal. THEN while we were eating two older women that had been siting behind us came up and told me what well behaved children I had. I smiled and said, "thank you" wondering if she was talking to the right person-Ha! I then explained to the K-Man that the sweet ladies think ... "you are using good manners" trying to make it a teachable moment.

Not long after that the waitress came up and told me that our meal had been paid for by the women sitting behind me...I smiled, speechless. It made my day. Of course, then I couldn't help but leave a "nice" tip for the waitress (who was excellent). It really is true, being a recipient of Random Acts of Kindness feels good and makes you want to spread the "goodness".

Update...

I survived. It's over. Emotionally tired. It has to get better.

My adorable husband always tells me that I am stronger then I give myself credit. Today has tested that strength. How does the saying go..."what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." You should see my muscles.

Today is the day!

Today I start my new job. I am working at two "small town" nursing home/rehabiliation facilities as their OT. I will float between the two. I am ONLY working on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I continue to tell myself that over and over!)I am excited about doing something different and the job is sooo flexible, but my real concern are my kids. Not only is today my first day but also Little Bit's. I stayed up late last night writing the teachers a long note about EVERYTHING I could think of to make it easier for them to take care of him the way I do-Ha! I know he will be fine, right? AND he knows I still love him, right? ...Of course he will and of course he does! I'm at a point where I have to let GOd take over my concerns because I am one to let them consume me.



My adorable husband sent me flowers (he is out of state right now, *sigh*) to wish me luck and to thank me for "making it work" (he also said other sweet things, but somethings are to be left for my heart only). He is so thoughtful...

I will be on my knees (in heart) in prayer all day today.

Quiet~

Are you scared of "quiet" in a house with small children? I AM! When it's quiet and there are no children in sight I start to mentally freak-out!!! So, it's been silent here for about 10 minutes...I sneak a peek in the K-Man's room and what do I see...My first born looking at books on his bed and Little Bit playing quietly with some toys! So what's a Mom to do?? Sneak off very quietly and hope that it lasts for a little longer...maybe I can actually finish my coffee!!!

Halloween Phantom

We took a tip from Laurie at Tip Junkie and started the Halloween Phantom for our country loop. The idea is to give a neighbor in your neighborhood a Halloween goodie without letting them know who did it. They are then to put the Halloween Phantom on their door so everyone knows the Phantom has already been to their home. Next, they are to deliver a goodie bag to another person (without being seen) and pass on the poem and Phantom that you can get at Tip Junkie . How Fun!!!

We created our own Halloween Phantom for our neighbors to put on their doors and then we filled 2 goodie bags with the Almost Famous Lacie's Fall Mix .

The K-Man had just as much fun as I did putting the goodies at the door then RUNNING away as fast as we could.



Here is a quick picture of the goodies we put at one of the doors.



Here is my sweet first born trying to get away from the cat! Ha Ha! He is not real familiar with cats. He was a little nervous when the cat came to smell the goodies at the door.

We had so much fun doing this! I think it will be a new fall tradition for our family~ Thanks Laurie