november wrap up

Keeping up with this whole blog thing has been next to impossible.  Our move to Dallas has totally thrown me off.  I'm not completely throwing in the towel quite yet.  I'm trying to avoid allowing Instagram (Chatbooks) to replace my blog.  We will see how this goes.  Doing a little catching up is very much needed (especially since in a few months I will almost be a YEAR behind! AH!).  So, here's what a BRIEF recap of our NOVEMBER (2015).

I decided that it's important to get exploring Dallas.  There's SO MUCH to explore and we definitely need to expand our horizons.  I decided to take my boys down to Allen to find this adorable, BIG, colorful park---Celebration Park.  The boys LOVED running around ALL over the place.  Up and down slides, across monkey bars, through tunnels, and just running (lots of running for Nolan).

 Nolan turned 15 MONTHS and I'm pretty sure my BUSIEST baby to date.  He LOVES to be funny, he loves to move and he LOVES to climb.  There's a new bruise on his head every other day.  

OH! Side note, this Chicco booster is THE best.  It's compact and easy to travel with, you can sit it on the ground or in a chair and SUPER easy to clean.  It was a GREAT buy.

 Hudson finished up a VERY rainy and windy soccer season.  Sadly, we did NOT love his coach.  He was INTENSE and some where along the lines forgot that these kids are FOUR and not PRO'S.  Now don't get me wrong, I love a good competition BUT when you're yelling and screaming at four year olds out of frustration, that's just not okay.  I had a minor run in with the guy and needless to say, we won't be playing back on that team AGAIN.  

 When dad is around, anything can happen.

 Hudson wanted his hair spiked for the first time.  He looks too old and different to me. 

 The great thing about the weather in Texas is that you can still pleasantly enjoy the outside for fall and some of winter.  We took many walks around the neighborhood while Boston was in school.

We had to divide and conquer the boys' Thanksgiving feasts.  

I went to Hudson's feast where he came out dressed like a pilgrim and explained to me that he was holding his "Book of Mormon"....wonder how this little baptist preschool felt about that!  He also told me that he snuck the fake ring that he got out of the dentist treasure box to school and gave it to his "friend" Lila.  We are in trouble with that boy.

 These are all his cute little friends from church that somehow all winded up in the same class this year.

 Since the school feast in the cafeteria is disgusting, Kent and Boston feasted on CANES instead.

 Then we headed to Louisiana for Thanksgiving with my family.  There were late nights of tickle attacks from Papa.

 The boys LOVED to try to climb my parent's trees.

 Every year we have to cook multiple turkeys.  The last few years the SMOKED turkey has won for everyone's favorite with the fried coming in second and that sad oven roasted turkey comes in last.  

Every year we have SO much to be thankful for but I'm super thankful for each of these handsome boys.  I'm truly blest to be their mom/wife.  I love them.

 Trying to keep all these kiddos happy all week when my parents pool is out of commission in the winter can be tricky SO a movie is always a must.

 And lastly, we decided Boston was old enough to go to his FIRST LSU game.  That crowd is a crazy one....like CRAZY so we have been hesitant to take him but finally decided it was time.

 He LOVED getting to experience how LOUD and CRAZY Tiger Stadium can get (and also how loud and crazy his momma gets....).  And of course seeing LSU WIN makes it EVEN better.  They beat A&M 19-7.  We were grateful for the win because Les Miles' job was on the line after loosing THREE straight games (they finished 9-3 in the SEC which isn't terrible but LSU wants better than that).  We are happy he's sticking around because even though he's the Mad Hatter, we love him!

And lastly, the countdown is on for us to close on our house.  We THOUGHT it was 15 days BUT it was more like 18 (which at this point EVERY day felt like eternity).

h-a-l-l-o-w-e-e-n

For Halloween, we decided to travel on down to Houston to continue our tradition of trick or treating with the Buchanan's.  The boys were THRILLED to be able to spend Halloween with their best buds!

This year, we decided to go with a "spooky" theme for costumes.  I'm thankful that another year went by and I was able to keep a theme going with the kids.  Not sure if I will have any more left after this one.  After seeing nothing but CORNY mummy costumes, I decided to make my own.  Couldn't be hard to throw together some rags.  

Wrong.

They definitely took more effort than you would think ESPECIALLY when they need to be worn more than once.  Thankfully, after some stress, they turned out and I was quite proud.

The older boys thoroughly enjoyed getting into character.  Nolan on the other hand wanted nothing to do with his head piece OR makeup.  Sometimes, I just gotta let go (words according to Kent).

The boys loaded up their bellies before it was time to hit the doors.

 They were lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride with Ashley's neighbor who had their own little hay ride going on.....then we eventually got left behind and the kids had to suffer and run house to house (which is a task when the houses are so far spread apart).

 These two have no idea how lucky they got it that night.

 There were a couple "spooky" houses all done up.  I totally love it.  I kept making mental note of what I want to do to our house one day!  

The boys always tend to walk up to these houses with a little more caution. 

 Seriously priceless.

By the end, these kids were straight EXHAUSTED and SWEATING.  My boys had stripped their mummy costumes little by little as the night went on.  All my hard work down the drain just like that!

Plenty of fun, spookiness and candy made for another successful Halloween!

annual pumpkin patch visit {october 2015}

It's catch up time around here.  This blog is LONG overdue for some updates.  Living with my sister before getting into our house has REALLY thrown me off and demotivated me but Kent REALLY wants me to keep this thing going....so for the sake of our posterity, I'm going to try. 

Sadly, we didn't make it out to one of my ALL time favorite pumpkin patches this year.  I was SO looking forward to it now that we are living in Dallas, but our schedule was just too hectic (not to mention the rain) and we couldn't make it work.  Instead, we settled for one just north of us.  It was fun but no Flower Mound patch.

Nolan was obsessed with all the animals although he wasn't thrilled when I tried to get him to feed the cows.

Hudson of course had little to no worries about that nasty tongue touching his hand.

OR the goats.

The boys RAN through a muddy hay maze (I'm wondering now why I didn't have better shoes on them).

Of course when you see a pig made from hay, you have to stop and take a picture with it.

We got to go on a muddy hayride around some farm land,

The boys attempted to rope a few cows,

Play on some tractors that I think some are getting too big for (when did THAT happen?),

And of course pick out our pumpkins....well basically we got to pick what they had set aside because the "patch" was too muddy to get to.

And then of course, we had to attempt to get some obligatory photos at the pumpkin patch (when everyone including Kent gets a little impatient).

annual spooky dinner

We had our annual spooky dinner.  It's one of our FAVORITE traditions.  

This year we changed our dinner up a bit.  

Our menu consisted of

BONES

WITCH POTION

GHOST potatoes

VAMPIRE BLOOD

 RIBS

 And for dessert, DIRT & WORMS.

 

 It was a tad crazy this year (as it always is Sunday dinner with all the cousins) BUT it's always memorable listening to spooky music, reminiscing on favorite Halloween memories and just enjoying the spooky food!