Pumpkins and Parties and Angry Birds

I cannot believe that Halloween has come and gone already and we are almost at Thanksgiving!  The time is seriously just flying by!  Which is good and bad, I guess... bad because I hate to see the boys growing up so fast and good because I am SO READY not to be pregnant anymore!  I would push this baby out right here underneath the computer desk right this second if I could.  And I kind of want to punch people in the face when they say,  "Oh, you'll look back and miss these days... don't wish them away!"  Yes, I agree that I will miss the days when the boys were little but I can GUARANTEE that I will not miss being so uncomfortably pregnant and exhausted with three very active little boys to look after.  So there!  Anyway, enough venting... I know that we chose this and I am very thankful for another beautiful baby boy. 

Halloween was much different for us this year with warmer weather and lots of fun school activities (but no neighborhood or good friends to enjoy it with).  I just love the boys' school so much... they do such fun things for the kiddos and everyone is so super nice.  Here are J and E right before their class trips to the "pumpkin patch" (aka a bunch of pumpkins dropped off in a little strip of grass next to the road... gotta love a Florida pumpkin patch!) with his class.  E stamped that pumpkin shirt himself in class.     

I wasn't able to meet the classes at the pumpkin patch but Phil was working nights that week so he was able to help us pick out pumpkins one morning before work.  Happy Fall, Y'all!  :)  

It was hot and bright that day... hence all the squinting!  

The "patch" was right in front of the boys' school, which was convenient.  

Then a few nights later the boys carved their pumpkin.  They requested an Angry Bird face, which Daddy kindly made happen for them.

Jackson got brave and scooped out the insides this year!  :)

The glowing bird face...

On Halloween day J and E had their parties at school.  They got to wear costumes and the school had a little indoor carnival set up for each class to enjoy.  The boys had a lot of fun, even though it doesn't really look like it in these pictures.  :)

I had Reid with me (as always) and he was so excited to see Jackson!  He ran up and hugged him while yelling his version of "Jackson," which sounds something like "Dack-don."

Jackson's favorite game was this mini-golf one.  When the ball went into the hole the volunteer in charge of the game pushed a button and shot the ball back out.  The kids loved it.

Jackson asked to be the black Angry Bird for Halloween this year.  He looooooves to play that game on my phone (which we only let him do once in a blue moon because he will get obsessed with it) and really just loves anything to do with Angry Birds.  The black bird is his favorite because it is actually a bomb that blows up on command.  :) Emmett originally wanted to be Thomas or Percy (trains) but then decided he wanted to be the red bird when he heard that Jackson was going to be the black one.  At first I tried to talk them into being other things that I could just buy costumes of, but they wanted so badly to be these birds.  So I decided to just google a bird costume tutorial and was actually able to throw these together pretty easily and cheaply with some thread and hot glue.  Once I got the black and red done I felt sorry for Reid and didn't want him to be left out, so I decided to make him a blue bird costume.  Oh my gosh he looked so adorable!  They all looked adorable, really... if I do say so myself!  And I know Emmett's red one is actually smaller than Reid's blue one... that was my mistake but I didn't feel like doing it over!  It worked out fine.

Here they are all dolled up right before trick-or-treating.  We had the absolute perfect trick-or-treating weather that night... cool but not cold with a nice breeze.  Wonderful!

Here's hoping they'll want to be Angry Birds again next year and we can actually use these costumes again!  :)

School and Our Days

I realized I never posted about the boys' school this year.... so I'll fix that by sharing some two-months-overdue first day of school photos.  Before the boys could start school we had to cut through all of the crazy red tape to get them seen by a doctor for a physical.  Seems like it took weeks to get that scheduled, but we finally did.  I was nervous for how they would do (especially J), but they did great!

Jackson went first and then when it was Emmett's turn he stood close by and was very concerned for E.  He kept telling the nurse that E was his brother and was very brave.  :)

We decided not to have J start kindergarten this year, and instead put him in 5-day (half day) preschool.  Here he is on his actual first day of school.  :)

And then when it was Emmett's first day (he goes three half-days a week at the same school as J... thanks to the kindness of a stranger who put her child at another school at the last second to open a spot for E so that both boys could be at the same place... that was such a blessing) I completely forgot to take a picture.  And then I forgot for about two weeks after that.  Our condo is about 30 minutes from their preschool, so we are pretty busy every morning trying to get out the door on time.  Everyone asks why I didn't put them in a school that was closer, but by the time we found out we were moving to FL almost all of the spots at good preschools in town were taken and I had a hard time finding a place that could fit both of them. It was truly a blessing that they were able to attend the same school at the last minute.  AND I knew that the school they attend is a good one since many friends have taken their kids there before.  So it's worth the drive (for the most part... sometimes I just want to scream while I'm driving!).  We really love their teachers and everyone that works at the school.  And the curbside drop-off and pickup is just priceless.  :)

So anyway, I finally remembered to take a picture one day about three weeks after the start of school, but here is our little "fake first day" photo shoot.  :)

Can you believe the water in the Gulf that day?  Totally calm and gorgeous... like a crystal clear lake!

So every day I drop either Jackson or J and E off at 9:00 and then I have three hours to kill before I have to pick them up.  I hated to drive all the way back to the beach just to have to turn around again and come back, so for the first week or so I tried to find things to do around town to kill time.  But that got old really quickly.  Then I remembered about a Mommy workout class that I was a part of for a little while right after J was born.  I looked it up on facebook and found out that it was from 9-10 in the morning at a park about halfway between the school and the beach.  Yay!  So I joined that group and am now actually being active during this pregnancy, whereas with Emmett and Reid I basically did nothing exercise-related.  It's such a great class for a lot of reasons... we are outside at a beautiful park by the water and most mornings are super gorgeous, I am meeting a bunch of other moms, I'm staying active and feel better, and I get to keep Reid with me in the jogging stroller and he gets to enjoy the outside and new friends, too!  Although on Tuesday and Thursday I have both Emmett and Reid with me and I have to admit that some of those mornings are spent wishing I had put E in school everyday.  :)

The kiddos stay in strollers for most of the class but can get out at the end to run around and play.  There is this amazing four-headed palm tree in the park that is really old... I think it's so cool!

Reid was walking around with his hat sideways the other morning... so funny!

After class we still have about an hour and a half before picking up the older boys, so we've done a variety of things to pass the time.  Once Reid and I went to the mall to walk around, but that turned out to actually just be Reid climbing on those coin-operated toys the whole time and getting super mad if we left the area, so we never did that again.  (Plus... lots of germs.  Blech!)

Sometimes we drive the next fifteen minutes back to the beach and hang out at home for an hour...

On Wednesdays we get to stay in one place the whole time because I go to a Bible study at the church where the boys go to school.  Reid goes into the nursery child care for a little bit that day and he does not like it!  But we are making progress and every week he gets a little bit better about it.  Here we are one day after class snuggling for a few minutes before picking up the older boys... he was a little upset, but that always makes for good snuggling.

And then one rainy day we went for an extra-special treat at Krispy Kreme.  :)

Reid loves to clean.  :)

So our days during the week are pretty busy and I am usually totally beat by the time naptime rolls around.  We are always thankful for the weekends when we get to slow down and enjoy just being together at the beach... and not drive anywhere!

My Best Friend's Wedding!

(aka... My Sister Becky's Wedding!)  This happened about a month ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting about it.  It was a whirlwind weekend that went by in a blink, but it was SO much fun!  Phil and I had decided at some point to drive up there instead of fly (the wedding was in Youngstown, OH), which was probably not the best decision considering we had just finished our cross-country trip a few weeks prior.  I think we had talked about flying at the beginning and then decided it would be much cheaper to drive... well, in hindsight the cost difference probably didn't outweigh the stress of driving.  At one point on the drive home we were kind of adding up costs to compare and kicking ourselves a little bit for not thinking it through more.  But for as awful as the drive was at times, the wedding celebration made up for it tenfold!  It was just so wonderful to have my whole family together and to get to honor my sister and her new husband and celebrate this truly special event!!  

To start, here's Emmett trying on his tux that I ordered off of amazon.com.  He was SO excited! Becky really wanted Jackson, Emmett, and my nephew Cameron to be her ring bearers, but in true Jackson fashion, he declined right away.  :)  He said, "It's okay... Emmett can do it... I just want to sit with Daddy."  He made that decision the first time we talked about it and never wavered!  I was a little worried that Emmett would back out at the last second, but he did amazingly great.  

The weekend before the wedding we went down to Ocala to spend some time with my family and visit my grandparents on Grandparent's Day.  Reid was very interested in my Pap-pap and his wheelchair and I managed to capture this sweet moment on my phone...

My sisters... my best friends...

Reid loves to put on other people's shoes...

My mom snuggling with Emmett...

In our packing/moving craziness we completely forgot to pack Phil's suit for the wedding, so one night we got to go on a date and pick out a new suit.  Here was the coat of the winner...

And a pic of the loser...  :)

Ugh... then we started our drive.  Not too many pics of that.  We took the truck this time because we had so much stuff to bring with us.  Probably the worst part was having to put Reid in the middle right next to Emmett... E doesn't have much patience for R and had trouble tolerating Reid looking at him or touching him in any way.  Ugh again.

Luckily they all slept pretty well with the noise from the diesel engine...

I've said this before, but I just cannot resist Reid's feet.  I probably need therapy.  That big toe just kills me.  I took this pic while he was sleeping and when I showed it to Phil he said, "Geez... that big toe!  Did he get stung by a bee??"

The boys loved riding on the luggage cart...

Popsicles for dessert at the hotel restaurant...

More sleeping... sweet baby...

It was really neat to be back in Youngstown!  We lived there when I was 10 for about three years and we all absolutely loved it there.  We left and moved to Florida when my dad had a job change and I've never been back until now.  Becky's husband, Ryan, also lived there when he was younger and still has family there so that's why they decided to get married in that town.  The whole weekend was just so perfect... everything went off without a hitch and I know everyone had a great time!  Here are some pics from the rehearsal dinner...

Check out my sister's legs... lucky!  Best legs in the family.  :)

I don't know what was with Phil and his fist pose that weekend!  :)  Becky's mother-in-law found us a great babysitter through their family church and Phil and I were able to have some alone time for the big events that weekend.  It was SO WONDERFUL!

I felt like we hadn't taken any pictures up until this point so we took some posed shots that night.  But we mostly did a lot of this...

We just LOVE Ryan!  So glad he is in our family now... he is such an amazing guy and so perfect for Beck!  And his family is very similar to our family... very fun and silly and happy and we all just had the best time together.

With my sweet cousins Graham and Gretchen... We just love them so much!  And Gretchen seriously kills me with that bod and hair.  How come I didn't look like that in high school??  Don't we share some of the same genes?  haha! :)

It was so hard to get my dad to take a serious picture!  He was either really tense-looking or being silly! We were laughing so much trying to get him to either relax or be serious!

Here he is posing with my Aunt Becky (his youngest sister and Graham and Gretchen's mommy)...

And then it was wedding day!  Becky looked SO beautiful!!  I really hardly got any pictures and could just kick myself.

And my little Emmett-bear looked so handsome! I was so proud of him... he walked slowly down the aisle like a pro and looked so grown up!

My nephew, Cameron, looked so handsome and grown-up, too! They were so precious together.  

Like I said before, everything was just perfect!  The ceremony was perfect and so special and the reception was beautiful and so much fun!  Becky did all of the decorations and flowers herself and they seriously looked amazing.  The reception was in an old railroad station and it was really a neat venue.

It was open bar, and boy how I was wishing I wasn't pregnant that night!  Boo!  My dad, aunts, and uncles were having so much fun and were just on fire!  I was laughing so much.  :)  Here's my dad dancing with his oldest sister, my Aunt Pam, right before dinner.  :)

And then my Aunt Becky and Uncle Greg got caught up in the moment and started dancing, too!  :)

Father/daughter dance.  :)

The new Mr. and Mrs.!!

Phil and I with my grandma, Mimi.  We were all really missing my Pap-pap who wasn't able to make the trip.  :(

Phil (with his eyes closed!) with my uncles and male cousins.  Love these guys so much!

Family shot time!  :)  I love Phil's face here.  I'm not sure if he's making that face because of what my aunt is saying or the shot they were taking!  :)

Becky changed into the cutest little party dress later in the evening...

I love my sisters so much!

And a last sweet shot... Reid woke up super grumpy from one of his naps that weekend and only wanted to snuggy with his Popeye.  :)

What an amazing weekend!  At the end of the reception Ryan's dad told Becky, "That was the best party ever!" and I totally agree.  We were just all so very happy for Becky and Ryan and truly enjoyed spending time with each other and celebrating this wonderful occasion!  I love you so much, Becky!  :)