A CUTE ANDREW STORY....

Around our house we are getting ready for Christmas. The boys love everything about the holiday and even the smallest things make them excited. We are also getting excited for Andrew's 1st pre-school Christmas performance. Now this is kinda a big deal in our family because it is the 1st official performance one of our kids has been in. We always talk about the songs he is going to sing, how daddy is going to take off work to come watch, and how he gets to stand on the stage in the big church. So today when I went to pick him up from school his teacher tells me that she asked Andrew to be Joseph for the Christmas performance. Ok, so you might think I'm silly, but I automatically feel my heart get excited. "You mean you picked my little boy for one of the starring roles in the show." Inside I was beaming. But then about a second later she says, "but he said NO, NO, I don't want to do that." My mommy heart sank a little with sadness, but it also chuckled because this is sooooo.. Andrew. I know he'd probably freak out on stage in front of all the people and he's not one to beat around the bush, he just told her how he felt, No he wasn't going to be Joseph. Andrew was excited to tell me that his best buddy Jake really wanted to be Joseph, so he told the teacher he would do the job. Thank goodness for good friends!! I guess we don't have an actor on our hands.

Silly Boys...

The boys and I enjoyed a relaxing morning at home today in our Pajamas. We watched a few extra cartoons, played, and caught up on laundry. We finally ventured out at about 10 to ride bikes to the park. I love mornings just like we had today. I had my camera on the table and the boys wanted to take silly pictures, so here they are.

Nashville Adventures

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Our whole family headed out to Nashville, Tennessee this past weekend to visit Toni and Jesse. We had a great time seeing the sights and hanging out. Andrew is definately our country boy. On Saturday we went to Jesse's parent's house where they have tractors, ride on lawn mowers, and many other fun toys. Andrew was literally busting at the seems with excitement. He was in heaven. We then went out to a huge piece of property where there are little lakes stocked with fish. The boys enjoyed their first fishing adventure. Jesse brought out their family's quad motorcycle. This was seriously a dream come true for Andrew. He rode way out into the fields with Jesse. He could have stayed on it all day. Luke enjoyed himself too, but nothing compared to Andrew's excitement. We visited some other beautiful places and all the BIG boys got to go to the Titans football game, which was a highlight for them. Andrew tells me that he wishes he lived in Nashville. Thanks Jesse and Toni for all the fun times and all the yummy food. Andrew has told me at least 5 times, "Mom...T.T. says that she is going to miss me" He melts my heart!!!

Halloween Night

Well....what a night we had!!! We'll start off with my little Luke. He woke up from his nap not feeling the greatest. He just wanted to be held and cuddled, so I didn't have the heart to put him in his costume that was uncomfortable and hot. He cruised around with us during trick or treating though and would grab a lollipop any chance he could get. So he was my first child not in costume.
Then comes my Andrew.....oh to be a three year old!!! Well, we had been having what you could call a difficult week with Andrew. He, being the high energy silly boy that he is was causing his dad and mom some frustration. After a rather hard morning of lots of discipline and mischief behavior, I had spend some time praying while Andrew was sleeping. I said, Lord please..please...please just help my little boy to behave tonight, so we can enjoy the holiday together. He woke up from his nap and he was better, he helped me get ready for our Halloween party and we enjoyed a Halloween cartoon together. Then it came time for his costume.... We had a couple options this year with costumes because my cousins had given us some of their old costumes and Andrew was just wearing one of them. He decided that instead of Scooby Doo he was going to be a shark. I said fine, it wasn't worth an argument. So we got ready with his little red shorts and a white t-shirt (this was to be worn under his costume). He put on his new green running shoes (he thinks they make him run sooooo fast and he needed that for trick-or-treating) and then we put on the costume. He looked GREAT!! After about 5 minutes he decided that he didn't want to wear the costume. After my mom so nicely told me not to worry about all the "Little Things" I decided it wasn't worth a battle with him. I did tell him that he at least had to wear one of his dress up hats. So this is where is lovely KNIGHT costume comes from. He threw on his helmet and the breastplate and he was ready for trick-or-treating. The "mommy" inside of me was secretly dying because our streets our filled with kids in their darling costumes, and then here comes Andrew in his little red shorts, green running shoes, a KNIGHT helmet, and I can't fail to mention his little skinny legs (I think they're so cute). I knew we would look back on these pictures and laugh and remember the wonderful and stretching times we had with our precios little 3 year old son. He had a blast trick or treating, he was comfortable, and I managed to laugh all the way around the block about what an incredibly SILLY boy I have. So, when you see these pictures, YES I did have costumes for my boys, they just never made it out of the house on Halloween night.
After trick-or-treating we had family, friends, and lots of neighbors over for chili, dessert, and the bounce house for the kids. It ended up being a great evening and everyone was on GREAT behavior!!! Enjoy the 4 pictures that I took!!!

Halloween Lunch Party

We had some of our neighborhood friends over for Halloween lunch. Our neighbor Christina and I planned some Halloween games and got cookies for the kids to decorate. There was a lot of energy and excitement in the house about all the day's events. You could say it got a little crazy and hectic with 5 - 3 year olds, 2 - 2 year olds, 2 - 1 year olds, and a newborn all trying to play together. The moms were the ones most ready for nap time when the party was over. We love all our friends that we have right here in our neighborhood. We feel blessed to have so many kids living all around us.

Neighborhood Lunch Party

Pre-School Field Trip

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Carving Pumpkins

This was our family adventure of carving pumpkins. Daddy and Andrew made a masterpiece and Mommy and Luke made one as well. They ended up looking almost the same. Andrew doesn't like to touch the insides, so he just picked the shapes for the face. Luke, as you can tell is really into saying "CHEESE" His face looks like he might be miserable, but he really enjoys scrunching up his entire face and saying CHEESE!!

Let the Festivities Begin

We started our Halloween festivities on Sunday afternoon at Trunk or Treat. This is a big event at our church and Andrew's school for kids to be able to dress up and trick or treat out of people's trunks of their cars. It was our first time going, but the boys really enjoyed it. We went with our neighbors and their kiddos. Andrew and Luke were just a little bit hot in thier costumes, as it was only about 80 degrees, but I think their costumes are made to be worn in the snow. The poor guys were sweating. Grandma ended up carrying them around for at least half of the event. Andrew was Scooby DOO and Luke was Dale the Chipmunk. They looked cute and it would have been great if it was about 50 degrees cooler.