thanksgiving

It's always fun to attend the Thanksgiving feast at school.  Boston's lucky to have a dad with a very flexible work schedule who can also attend.  We learned after his kindergarten year, that you DO NOT eat the school's Thanksgiving feast...you bring your own lunch. 

Boston requested Wendy's.  So Wendy's it was.

 Right after Boston's feast, we had to RUSH to Hudson's.  His was a little more enjoyable of a feast---CHICKFILA, grapes, rolls, tater tots and cupcakes.  He scored big.

 The last day before Thanksgiving break, Boston came walking to the car after school wearing this.

 Apparently, he won the CHEIF SQUANTO award.  I guess throughout November you could earn a feather if you were being good.  Well, apparently he collected the MOST feathers and became THE CHIEF! He was very proud.

 Our Thanksgiving break started and these boys get bored FAST if there's not something for them to do.  We sat down one afternoon to do a little Thanksgiving crafting.  I feel like I used to do all this fun holiday crafting a lot more.  I'm slacking now as life gets busier. 

 The day before Thanksgiving, my parents ended up passing through Houston because my dad had some interviewing to do here.  It worked out nicely since they were going to Dallas with my sisters for Thanksgiving and we were heading to Baton Rouge.  We were grateful they took time to eat an early Mexican dinner with us before heading the rest of the way to Dallas. Shortly after they left, we finished packing up our car to head to Baton Rouge to spend Thanksgiving with Kent's family.

 I can honestly forget about taking pictures sometimes and got ONE picture on Thanksgiving Day of my three boys.  Boston wore that sweater all of 20 minutes.  They weren't thrilled that I brought them sweaters to wear for the occasion.  My boys are finally starting to have voices on their clothing desires and its driving me NUTS! 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with Kent's mom and siblings. Kent offered to fry a turkey in my dad's infrared fryer for the occasion.  Something went wrong and it took FOREVER before the turkey was finished....so we ate Thanksgiving with no turkey.  Thankfully, Carol had prepared a ham as well.  I love a good Thanksgiving dinner.  I look forward to it every year.  The boys enjoyed time with all their Hooper cousins that they hardly took too much time to even eat. 

Who wants to skip Thanksgiving dinner??  Not me.

I'm thankfully for SO many things but I'm MOST thankful for my little family.  This year we really tried to focus on things that we don't realize we have that we should be grateful for.  One that kept coming up over and over in Boston's prayers this year was "heat".  We've had some unusually cold days so far this year so I'm assuming that's what brought that one on.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

3 months

This kid hit his 3 month mark in November.  I'm always amazed at the progress and change that happens from month to month.

He's still growing bigger and thicker with a tint of strawberry blonde hair.

He enjoys his tummy time as long as he isn't placed on his belly too close to naptime.

He started rolling over around 12 weeks.  For a few days, he was consistently doing it over and over.  Now it's like he's worn out with that new trick and could careless.

 He's still loved by his big brothers.  Crazy enough he almost smiles the most for them.

We started trying out the bumbo but he doesn't seem to love it too much quite yet.

 He's been such a good sleeper.  Around 10 weeks he started sleeping from 11:30 pm-8/8:30 am.  We love that.  He's had to be my child who has to be flexible.  Life doesn't allow this kid to sleep every nap in his crib like his brothers.  Thankfully, he's been okay with managing both crib napping and car seat napping.  I'm not sure how long that will last but for now, I'll take it. 

 We laugh every time we wake him for his last feeding for the night.  We unwrap him and UP goes the "PRAISE JESUS" arm.  He holds it there almost the whole time he's being fed.  He's bumped up to 5 oz every 3 hours (he's up for an hour and down sleeping for two--yes, I'm a "Babywise" momma).  I'm still pumping and keeping the storage going.  Hudson HATES when I tell him I have to pump.  Poor kid.  Once I get enough storage, then I'll be DONE.  I'm looking forward to that day.

This kid is sweet and mellow and just a perfect fit.

You gotta love that face!

football 2014

Football season has come and gone. 

It was Boston's first year doing tackle and I was pretty nervous about it.

We bought Boston's helmet and pads early on so that he had plenty of time to get used to them.

Practices started the first of August and it was definitely not easy for Boston the first few practices.

He was hard to read this season because he would dread going a lot of times but then he would come home saying how much FUN he had and how much he LOVED it.  Apparently, he enjoys all the fun drills WAY more then all the running during the 2 hour practices.

 Hudson would always BEG to go over to the park during practices.  Since I was SO nervous about tackle, it was hard for me to walk away from the practice but you've got to keep the little man entertained.

 Boston was ALWAYS full of sweat.  It always made me worry but he always thought it was pretty cool (must be a boy thing).

 Kent helped coach again this year.  It made me feel WAY more comfortable about the whole thing especially since I had Nolan towards the end of August and wasn't able to go to many practices this year.

We had a few LATE night games

 But this little boy stayed busy thankfully (and the baby slept).  I also got smart and started to get a sitter when we had 8 pm games so Hudson could just go to bed.

 Last year, he was constantly coming over to me completely muddy.  This year, it only happened ONCE. 

We had our homecoming game

 

 

 And Boston got loaded up with lots of loot.

 He also received a CRUNCH award after one of the games.  Coach Tryon would give out TWO crunch awards each game for players who did an awesome job that night.  Boston works hard to get one each year.

 And to finish the season off, Papa was able to come over for his last game. 

The Eagles finished 5-5 this year.

Boston played various positions from running back, full back, and lineman.

They played hard, learned a lot and did their best.

I was sure proud of my little tackle football player.

He says he's not sure if he wants to play next year or not (again, he gives mixed signals) BUT he does say he wants to play in college AND the NFL....

halloween

We went back and forth on a few different theme ideas this year for the boys.  Finally, we settled on STAR WARS.

Boston requested Darth Vader

And Hudson...well he got to be a Jedi (he wanted to be a few other characters whose costumes all sold out before I could get to them).

I'm not a massive fan over those cheap costumes made of that cheap material but I didn't have many more options this year sadly so I had to deal with it.

 We tried to pose for a group shot but Yoda (aka Nolan) wasn't having it.  Between the wind and needing a nap, this is the best shot.

 This year my Aunt Jill invited us over to her neighborhood for trick or treating so we decided to try it out.  Thankfully, right after some chili eating and before trick or treating, everyone was somewhat okay with taking a group shot.  Hey, it turned out a little better than the first.

 Then we were off hunting for some candy.  My boys got lucky this year because my Aunt's neighborhood is VERY generous on Halloween.  From massive pixie sticks, giant candy bars, HANDFULS of candy and even TOYS, these boys got loaded down.  Although we weren't trick or treating with friends like we usually do, it was still a perfect night.  The weather was perfect, the boys had a BLAST, all the homes were REALLY in the Halloween spirit and Boston deemed it "The BEST Halloween EVER!"

 And although Nolan will never remember this Halloween, staring at this cute little peaceful Yoda all night made the night even better!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

fall happenings

There's so much to do during the fall and I LOVE it. 

I feel like as life gets busier its getting MUCH harder to squeeze in some of the fun things we usually do.  I guess you just do what you can.

I found a Groupon for this place called "Halter".  We had never been before, I had heard little about it and thought maybe we would check it out.

Let's just say that although its for a good cause, we probably won't be back.  I prefer Dewberry farms. The HEAT that day didn't help either. 

The priceless moment was the haunted forest.  It really wasn't scary at all but Boston has been BUGGING us to take him to a haunted house.  After telling him over AND over that he probably needs to be a little bigger, I think this haunted forest did it for him. 

Hudson got a chance to ride a horse for the FIRST time.  He was THRILLED about this.

 There was a little tractor train that gave a fun little ride for everyone (I think this is the only group shot we got of all the kids--Curtis' and Hoopers).

We finished with this little horse and buggy gig after the petting zoo.  The kids were completely done afterwards. 

So what do you do on a HOT day in the fall?  Finish the day off with a little Bahama Bucks snowballs!

Emily and I were crazy enough to take the boys down to the zoo for Boo Zoo.  It was SO busy that we couldn't even find parking for 30 minutes until we basically created our OWN spot.  It was one of those quick trips to the zoo where we didn't accomplish TOO much but zoo+costumes=fun for the little boys.  Plus, we caved and let them ride the merry-go-round. 

 

 We also had our first annual SOUP AND SCOOP with our friends the Curtis'.  I LOVED this idea when Marcie told me about it.  I laughed once we started carving pumpkins once again this year that after the "scooping" is done, it pretty much turns into Kent's job.

 Our two pumpkins are on the right.  Can you tell the difference between boys and girls?

 We also had our ward TRUNK OR TREAT.  I failed to take any pictures but this one of sweet Nolan.  It was a little chaotic in our building that night.  The boys had a blast and I let Boston roam with his friends for the first time alone.  Perks to getting older I guess.  He told me he felt pretty cool being able to do run around on his own.