Happy Halloween!

I never grew up enjoying Halloween much. I actually only think I "trick-or-treated" a few times when I was younger - mostly because my mom didn't like Halloween and now I don't really much... But I do love fall and I do love my gorgeous boys and I LOVE the fun they have with this holiday - so I embrace it for them.   This year I carved my very first pumpkin - with strong encouragement from Ryan - and it actually was kind of fun!  This is the first year that I let Jackson pick out his costume.  He overwhelmingly chose Dash from the Incredibles because - as Jackson says - Dash is "super fast!"  Ethan is going to be Superman... because that's what I had a costume for (Jackson was Superman 2 years ago.)  So tonight, Ryan is taking the boys out trick or treating.... since I got to take J last year - Ryan wants his turn.   With nice weather tonight, should be lots of fun!  

Happy Halloween!

Bouncy House Fun!

Our days of nice weather are numbered... So Ryan pulled out the bouncy house for one last fun afternoon of bouncy fun!  Ethan was not terribly excited about it but Jackson really worked on showing him how great it was!

Orange Leaf!

Last week, we had dinner and then decided to make a fun trip to Orange Leaf.  We're all a "sweet tooth" family, so we may make this a regular thing!  Jackson chose strawberry.  Apparently, this is his favorite because he told us before we got there that that was what he wanted.

Notice what Ethan is doing in this picture... I had to fix their lighting a few times.

 Yep, we put away 27 oz of ice cream!!!!

 

Ethan enjoyed running around playing in their big empty shop.

 He ate EVERY bit of it!!

E & CC

Ethan, oh Ethan... He is officially receiving all of my attention on Mondays now that we pulled him out of Mother's Day Out on Mondays so he only goes on Thursday now... So on Monday, he is free to be the man of the house!  So what's a man to do but invite a sweet adorable little girl over to his house to play!?  Ethan and Calliope are 6 days apart - and are totally adorable together!  We had such a fun playdate and hope we get to have another next week!

Ready... Aim... FIRE!!!

Keisha and I agreed that last week was pretty tough - so to blow off some steam did the only thing that Arkansans d0... went to the firing range!! For those of you who don't know, my father-in-law is a police officer, and he has quite the arsenal. For this adventure we went with a selection of various handguns.

This was the first time that Keisha had ever shot a gun of any kind. Eye and ear protection required!

Keisha's first weapon of choice was a semi-automatic .22 caliber revolver. I thought that she would like shooting, but I really don't think that she did! This gun is relatively small, so it was a good place to start. It hadn't been cleaned in a long time though, so it did get jammed a few times.

Next, she switched over to a 9mm pistol. This one was considerably more powerful than the first one she fired, and she liked it even less. She looks pretty tough - I better no mess with her!!

Then it was my turn. I started off with a 9mm pistol, then I worked in a .40 caliber pistol, a 380, and my favorite - a 357 Magnum. If you don't know guns (by the way, don't feel bad... I know just enough about them to compose these few lines of text), a 357 Magnum is one of those big, scary looking silver revolvers. Big gun go boom.

Me with the 9mm. I felt I was VERY accurate with this one!

I love this pic. If you look close, you can see that the barrel of the gun is recoiling and the empty shell is being ejected from the chamber. That is it flying off in the right hand side of the frame...

Me selecting my ammo...

Another great shot of the bullet casing being ejected from the gun - it's the shiny thing at the top of the frame. This was the .40 caliber pistol, which was more powerful than the silver 9mm I was shooting earlier - you can get an idea of the "kick" by how high the barrel of the gun is pointing in this pic - it started out straight!

A huge THANK YOU to Don, my Father-in-law for taking us... we had a BLAST!

15 Months!

I can hardly believe it to type it.  My sweet baby boy is 15 months old today.  He has been such in incredible joy in our lives - I get so excited each morning to go see his gorgeous brown eyes and big slobbery smile! 

I realized I haven't updated much about him in a long time, so here's my big 15-month old in a nutshell: Ethan weighs 23 pounds, 10oz.... his hair is very red and curly, his legs are chubby and his little giggle makes me melt.  He is so happy and so incredibly smart.  He knows how to stack blocks and throw and kick balls.  He knows how to climb the stairs and sit and go down them. He puts Legos together and apart. He can identify his body parts and animals in the Brown Bear Series - his absolute favorite books... he wants us to read them to him about 25 times a day (no exaggeration!).  He is EXTREMELY attached to his paci - he sleeps with 6 of them.  He has a sign that he created for asking me for it... He also loves his blanket.  He has 4 identical ones that my grandma sewed for me - and he sleeps with it and sometimes it's the only thing that can calm him down... Which leads to my next thing - Ethan is a Leo.  With a Leo-sized temper. That's affirmative.  He can go from happy, sweet, melt your heart out Ethan Chase to screaming, mad, follow-you-around-dragging-at-your-feet cuz he's mad Ethan in about 2 seconds flat.  He is quite the talker too!  He says several words including: Dada, Momma, Bubba, Kitty, Bye Bye, Hi, Banana, Milk, Night Night.  He is a thinker - an observer - then, a do-er.  He studies people and faces and then reacts.  At Mother's Day Out, they have told me so many times how happy he is and how well he plays with all the kids - and how he knows who Jesus is (they have a poster on the wall of Jesus with some children and everytime the teachers sing/say "Jesus", E will walk over and point!).  He loves loves loves to be outside and has a total meltdown every time we have to come inside.  He absolutely adores his big brother - he wants to hug him all the time and recently he has learned to kiss - it's open-mouth kisses, but still precious.  He blows kisses too - to anyone.  He has no idea how much I love him - and probably never will...

Wormy Friends.

oh how he has missed haley....

Last weekend, Ryan drove down to a campground where our friends Brad, Darla and their sweet girl Haley - who used to be Jackson's BFF at Mother's Day Out.  Well, this fall - Haley moved to full-time preschool-type program so Jackson almost never sees her!  So Ryan drove up and had "camping-style" dinner with them and let J play with Haley for a few hours.  I wish I would've been there to watch these two, but Darla snapped some shots for me!  Looks just like old times to me...

 Daddy helped J roast his first marshmallows!!

Busted.

 

 I tried to keep it secret for as long as I could but Ethan found my shampoo closet.  Yes, I have a shampoo closet because my husband worked for a shampoo company... so we might have just a few bottles of shampoo and conditioner.... Apparently, my boy didn't like how I had it organized though.  I must admit that I'm pretty impressed he was able to carry these very heavy bottles!! 

this is how we do it in the country...

My family - about 90% of them are headquartered from, and still reside in, Boxley Valley... Ponca, Kingston, etc.  It's really one of the most beautiful areas I've ever seen.  I'm so proud of our family history there.  On Friday, my mom took a vacation day and we drove the boys over to see Grandma and the some of the other family - a long overdue visit for us!  It's only a little over an hour drive - so not bad at all!  After a really yummy lunch complete with sweet potato casserole, pinto beans, rolls, beef casserole and sweet tea  - we drove over to Ponca to see my newest baby cousin, Hadley.  He's my grandma's 8th great-grandchild!  The boys LOVED playing outside in the country.  Jackson was excited that I let him go potty outside in the trees, twice.  He felt pretty cool.... and funny.  We really had a great time - such a good visit!

I love this shirt I got Jackson from this company called Peace Love World .  I like this company because for every tee you buy online, they donate one to a child in need!  Since Jackson loves happy faces, I thought it was appropriate for him to have one!  On the shirt, it says "I Am Happiness".... I couldn't agree more.  :)

 

Outside, I was playing with my manual settings on my camera and trying to get a feel for how they work... so some of the best pics had funky lighting, but hey - I'm an amateur!  :)