lions & tigers & dinosaurs.....oh my!

ian is getting ready for halloween! he loves the dinosaur costume (that i bought for $5.oo last season). he walks around growling/roaring at everyone.

the pumpkin farm

yesterday the kids & i went to a pumpkin farm with some friends and their children. it was a lot of fun. there were haystacks to climb on, a "hay maze" to run through, a hayride, cotton to pick, a corn maze, animals to "feed" and pumpkins to choose from. after trying everthing out...especially a full-speed-ahead run through the corn maze, we took a break for some snacks. everyone had a really good time. i think the cutest part was the girls playing hide and seek around the four trees. one was really big, but the others were itty bitty little things. elise, emmy & madi took turns hiding behind them and then finding the other two. none of them seem to notice or care how easy it was to play, they just enjoyed being together. as a side note to the trip, elise used her first port-a-potty. she went in by herself at first, but after looking down in the toilet came out and goes, "you might need to help me. it's way down in there!" not fun, but we did it!

i'm queen of the haystack!

we're in high cotton!

i'm a big kid too!

goin' on a hayride

checking out the chicken

 

running through the corn maze

 

feeding the animals

the best part of the day...dirt!

it's the great pumpkin!

playing hide & seek

elise, emmy & madi played hide & seek after the activities. they took turns counting and hiding behind the same four trees & had a blast!

cracker barrel

last night we met aunt verona, uncle blaine, janet, lee, shelia, & mitch at cracker barrel for supper. elise, as usual, was great...good manners, sat in her chair, all that good stuff. ian on the other hand thought he was at the park & acted accordingly. which is precisely why we don't eat out much! =) but we had a wonderful time. it was nice to visit & eat good food & catch up on everything. i think that is what is so great about family is that no matter how long it is between visits, we seem to pick right back up where we were. and that's how it felt this time. it was just relaxing (except for the ian part), easy and comfortable. aunt verona was sweet to get us souveniers...two halloween votive candle holders that are just cute as can be, and a couple of gumball treats for the kids. (it took ian a little bit to figure out that the gumballs were to eat...he mostly threw his around on the floor like regular balls.) sheila & janet were just fun to visit with & are so nice & sweet. mitch played with our kids outside for a long time. i'm sure he was worn out, but it was so nice. i can't wait for them to bring davin out sometime to play. i think he would have a blast with our kids. he is right in between them in age, so i think they would all have fun. oh and someone also payed for our meal...blaine & lee are likely suspects...but we never could get an affirmative. but it was so nice of them. anyway, the night was just great, even if we were all tired by the end. family is just the best!

that is so cool

okay, so it doesn't take much...but the other day i was complaining to cory that my digital camera was not being recognized when i tried to download pictures. i didn't know if it was the computer, the camera, or the cord, but i was frustrated and annoyed. i suggested that maybe we should get a card reader so i could download the pictures from my memory card that way (since i thought the cord was the problem). so cory goes, "oh, there's a card reader built in to the computer." well, i downloaded my pics today using the card reader ON THE FRONT OF MY COMPUTER. that is just too cool!

so happy together
i love that the kids play so well together. elise is so great to include ian & help him with things he is still learning how to do. and ian absolutely worships the ground elise walks on. when she is not around (in primary class or with a friend) he constantly asks, "ah see see?" meaning "where's elise?" they are a great pair and are so sweet. i hope they will always love each other and take care of each other the way they do now.

the bucket

ian got a mr. potato head for his birthday which was a big hit. an equally big hit was the mr. potato head bucket which he loves to wear on his head. he's so cute putting it on and sliding it around just right so that he can see out the front. maybe he's a budding astronaut....

mr. potato head

snack pack

one day recently i was really tired and was trying to rest. about mid afternoon elise decided she wanted a snack of "butter bread". knowing that was a task she could manage on her own, i let her take care of it herself. she did it very well...a little too well, actually. when she showed me what she had accomplished, i was quite surprised to find out she had made six whole sandwiches of butter bread. what a funny mess!

elise makes her own snack 

our foray into the world of sleepovers

one night this week we had most of the cousins over for a sleepover. what a wild, crazy night that was! none of the kids took naps that day, but all still managed to stay awake until 11:00pm. the night included cory's homemade popcorn & the movie "the incredibles". this party was kind of spur of the moment, meaning no one had pajamas or toothbrushes, so i found them some of my t-shirts that were similar & they all seemed okay with that. then they lined up for the potty & a round of toothbrushing with the same one or two toothbrushes. at "bedtime" everyone wanted to say a prayer, so of course we let them. katie prayed for "her daddy to get her five kitty cats" which i found out later meant "kit kats". each one prayed for their friends, and elise blessed that we wouldn't get hit by a hurricane or tornado. it was very cute and sweet. they were up at 8 the next morning raring to go again. i think they had a lot of fun just being little girls & we had a lot of fun watching them and seeing them be together. they are a sweet group.

popcorn & a movie

girls just wanna have fun...

sour

i love sour things...granny smith apples, tart lemonade, sour gummy things, sour candy...whatever. so i ventured out and tried the new-to-me sour cherry chewing gum by altoids. it is just possibly the sourest thing i have ever tasted. i'm not sure if my pregnancy taste buds are off, or if it really is that sour. either way, i can barely tolerate it.

ribbit ribbit

when i was somewhere between four & six years old, i was over at Grandma Delia's house and needed to got to the bathroom. when i looked in the toilet, there looking up at me was a frog! i was pretty scared, thinking of that thing jumping on me or something & so ran to tell the grownups about the problem. no one believed me, thinking either i had made it up, imagined it, or mistaken some poop for a frog, especially after they went to check out the situation and found no evidence of a frog. i was vindicated a few days later when grandma delia called up our house and informed my dad that, indeed, there was a frog in the toilet & would he please come get it out! he did just that, and scooped out our little froggy friend with a old cool whip bowl.

fast forward to about a month ago. i was taking a shower and elise cames in to use the bathroom. i heard her pee, flush, etc. and the the lid slam shut. she said, "oh that scared me to death!" i thougth the lid had scared her and said, "that was a loud noise, wasn't it?" she goes, "no mama! not the lid! the frog in the toiled scared me!" for one split second i thought, "there cannot possibly be a frog in the toilet!" but just as quickly remembered the disbelief i faced over the very same thing as a child. besides, never having told that story to elise before, i decided that the odds of it not being true weren't good....sort of the "truth is stranger than fiction" type thing. so i said, "elise, let me see it." she opened the toilet and i peeked in and sure enough, therewas a living, breathing frog staring up at us from the toilet bowl. cory, of course, came to the rescue and saved us from the amphibian.

and i was left wondering, "just what are the odds?"

cory's mississippi trip

cory went to mississippi last weekend with a group of 150 or so men from our stake, along with similar numbers of men from other nc stakes to help the people along the gulf coast affected by the recent hurricanes. they left friday morning & returned monday afternoon. throughout saturday & sunday he worked with a team of about 10 men from our ward to help clear trees from people's yards. he seemed to have a wonderful experience, albeit a tiring one. one house particularly touched him. the family consisted of a mother, father and 2 children aged closely to ours. these 10 men spent from apx. 7am to 3pm clearing trees from their yard, so you can imagine the enormity of the task if left to the father of this family. while not members of our church, they were kind, good people who were deeply grateful for the help they received. the mother had fixed egg & cheese biscuits for them for breakfast and then shrimp jambalaya for lunch. when cory's work crew worked on a neighboring house the next day, the family came over and again expressed their appreciation for the service & offered them a cool place to cool off and rest if they needed it. cory really enjoyed this trip & the service he and others were able to provide, along with the brotherhood he felt amonst those he served with.