Halloween Week

We started off Halloween week with crazy sock day! Hudson was so excited to finally get to wear the long socks that all the boys his age are wearing (I hate them!). I figured for Red Ribbon week it would be ok! They ARE crazy, right!?!

 

 Next up was Harrison's Halloween parade and party at school. I made these cute cupcakes for the party! I was proud of myself! Ha!

 Harrison looked so cute in his parade!

 I could not get enough of Harrison's cute buddy, Carter, in this Auburn band costume. Hudson has been asking to wear a marching band costume for years and I actually looked into it last year and realized that there wasn't anything out there that he could wear. This child's grandmother MADE it! It was completely 100% accurate even down to the white tennis shoes! :)

 Harrison's cute Kangaroo class! His best buddy Owen was also a Ghostbuster, which I thought was just hilarious seeing as though Ghostbusters is not exactly a movie for a 4 year old! :) My 4 year old (and Owen too!), however, is obsessed with the movie, and has wanted to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween since last Halloween ended. There was nothing else that would satisfy him!

 Next up was Hudson's Carnival at school! Harrison had soccer the same night, so I took Hudson solo. While it is definitely not my favorite event of the school year, I survived, and Hudson had an absolute blast. So...it is good for that! And obviously good for the school to raise all that money!

 The weather man was predicting rain on Halloween all week, but we really thought it would be later in the evening and we would get some trick or treating in. As it got closer to Saturday though, I realized trick or treating might be a bust and so I decided last minute to take the boys to Boo at the Zoo on Friday night. It was one of those things that I had just thought we would skip this year even though the boys kept asking to go. However, I knew that it would at least get them in their costumes and they would get some candy, so if Saturday didn't work out it would be ok!

We ended up having so much fun and I am so glad we went! Joel wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home. I got there at 5, which was the trick. We got to do everything and didn't have to wait. We stayed until 7:30 which I could not believe since we did not have dinner before! The line to get in was UNREAL when we left. So glad we went early!

My favorite picture from Halloween!

 

The only thing the boys didn't like was that the train ride was not in the dark. However, we did do the haunted hay ride and it was dark by that point so I think that made it better!

 

 Trick or treating!

 Harrison asked for Auburn on his entire face. The look on the poor girl was priceless! However, she came through!

 The boys begged to watch the show before we left. I tried to talk them out of it because I was ready to go, however, I am so glad we stayed. It was super cute! Harrison loves him some "munions" (rhymes with bunions) so it was great. I don't have the heart to tell him that they are "minions!" Munions sounds so much cuter (and funnier!)! Ha!

The boys loved getting to see the Star Wars crew!

 

Saturday morning, I FINALLY got around to carving the pumpkins. They look so bad...pumpkin carving is definitely Joel's job so hopefully he can take back the reigns on that next year! Yikes! They were done though!

 

I just realized in the picture below that we didn't carve the last pumpkin! Oops! Obviously Harrison did not mind!

 

 We were told to expect rain by 5, so we started trick or treating at 4 and by 5, all the kids were done! So, it ended up working perfectly and I honestly loved starting earlier! We could actually see the kids trick or treating, and we were done in time to have dinner and fun afterwards!

We did a hay ride in the neighborhood and the kids loved it. Harrison did a whole lot more sitting in the hayride and eating his candy than actually trick or treating. I was thankful he could do that!

 Goofy smiles!

 Hudson and his friend Matt...it bothered me all night that I could not see his face! His costume had these crazy light up red eyes too!

 When it started raining around 5, it really started raining! We all had ponchos, but we still all got soaked getting back to the house. We hung out for a while and had dinner at a neighbor's house, and then called it a night.

 

And the rain continued into Sunday and we literally never got out of our pajamas that day! It was so nice to do nothing after a full week of fun!

Catching Up

 I'm playing catch up again! Joel has gone to Nashville to meet with a doctor first thing in the morning to hopefully figure out what has been going on with him for the past 8 months, so I decided it was time to update the blog. I haven't mentioned it here I don't think, but it's been about the worst thing you can imagine (aside from cancer), both for him obviously because he never knows by the hour how he is going to feel, and for the kids and I, who are just trying to get by right now. Maybe one day when all of this is over, he can write about his experience. Let's just say that no one should take their health for granted. He is meeting with a doctor tomorrow that specializes in Lyme Disease, and hopefully, he will be able to give Joel some answers and get him on the path to getting well!

Anyway...we've had a busy few weeks! I'll catch up with Halloween week in the next post because there was so much going on that week that I can't possibly include it in one post.

Auburn FINALLY got a win last night! We were so excited! This picture was taken a while ago when it was actually sunny (we haven't seen the sun in a while!). It's been a tough year to be an Auburn Tiger!

 Popsicles at Steel City Pops (again when it was sunny!).

 Birthday party with old buds...we sure do miss sweet Hen!

Evening trips to the Western in our PJ's!

Harrison was star student of the week the week after his birthday. We had fun making his poster!

 On Columbus Day, the boys had the day off so we headed out to the mega park in Leeds. The boys had a blast!

 I just LOVE Harrison's school pic! He asked to wear the pink shirt that day...I just feel like I can imagine him in college in this picture and it makes me sad! Ha!

 We had a fun Mommy/son day at Let's Play on Friday when I finally wasn't working! We had the place to ourselves and had a blast.

 I went to Orlando for a week a couple of weeks ago. This was view from my room. If you can't tell, that would be the security line at the airport down below. The conference was there, breakfast/lunch/dinner was there...we literally weren't able to leave or see the outdoors! I felt like I was in jail!

 A couple of my closest co-workers and I finally broke free and went to Epcot our last day there. It was SO fun!

 We decided on Epcot because they were having the Food & Wine Festival and it is a park that we can never really enjoy when we have our kids with us. We definitely ate and drank ourselves around the world and had so much fun. Wish I could go back!

 I came back in town for Halloween costumes to arrive...here is a sneak peak!

 And baseball ended. Hudson had a great time in fall ball this year. No rest for the weary though as basketball starts on Tuesday!

I went to Vegas last week for a conference. I'm not used to this much traveling and with Joel not really being able to handle the load by himself, we've had to use the grandparents a lot! We are thankful for their help!

One more trip this week and then I'm putting up my suitcase for a while! Ha! Thankfully, this week's trip is for fun as Hudson and I head to California to celebrate Rooney turning one!

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago, we headed to Old Baker Farm to visit our favorite pumpkin patch. We started the day off with a trip through the corn maize. All smiles here at this point! 

 This was probably 40 minutes later and we were STILL not out of the maize. I'm sad to report that it defeated us this year. I don't know what happened!

The boys had never played in the cotton before, so that was a new adventure. They said it stunk! Ha! 

 Obligatory poses...

 Hudson climbed up to the top of the hay bail and asked that I take his picture...so here you go!

 They actually both had so much fun climbing the hay bales. They went up and down a bunch of times.

 Then it was finally time to hit the patch.

 I did not ask them to pose in these pictures...they are so funny (and maybe a little trained).

 This picture below represents reality! :)

 Somebody didn't like touching his dirty pumpkin! We tried the "you pick it, you carry it" mentality, but it clearly did not work! Maybe next year. Thankfully, he recovered quickly!

We had a great morning out! We picked 4 pumpkins that are still proudly waiting on our front porch to be carved! Hopefully we'll get to that this week!

Fall Soccer and Baseball

Harrison is playing soccer this fall and LOVING it. In fact, a couple of weeks ago it was a little rainy and our coach called to cancel right before we were about to leave to go so he was already all dressed and ready, and Harrison just did not understand. He kept saying, "But I just love soccer!" Sweet thing.

 

 We are playing with our buddies in the Homewood league this fall. Vestavia does not have organized soccer until next year for their age, so us Vestavians are playing soccer on Thursday nights in Homewood and it has been fabulous so far!

 His coach is extremely calm and patient and is really trying to get the kids to learn the game, which is really sort of funny since the majority are THREE. Obviously, it's complete chaos (and cuteness!).

 Harrison is still a little timid, but he can kick the ball a mile! If we could just get him to kick it and continue with it to the goal, we'd be doing great! He likes to admire his kicks! :)

Hudson is loving baseball this fall too! His coach is awesome and has taught this boy how to hit! He's doing so well! We are super proud of him. He's doing great catching the ball too!

 Of course he would tell you that his favorite part is playing with his buddies...my social butterfly!

It's been a wonderful fall of sports so far!

Quck Visit With Carrie

Carrie came into town a couple of weekends ago for a quick visit. Our grandmother (Mama Jean) really took a turn for the worse and was in the ICU and things were not looking good. It was so bad that I had prepared the kids and had my big cry and had started to come to terms with it.  She wanted to see her one more time so she flew in for a quick weekend visit. As it turned out, Mama Jean decided she was not quite ready to leave this world yet so we are so happy about that, however she just went back in the hospital today so who knows. 

Carrie brought Rooney solo this time and we were so excited that she was brave enough to do it! It is such a long flight with a little one. We could not wait to get our hands on this precious doll! Hudson just LOVES Rooney. He and I are taking a special trip to Cali just the two of us in a month to celebrate Rooney turning 1 and also celebrating Carrie for surviving one heck of a long year with her health (she's doing great by the way!) and we cannot wait.

 Rooney learned a lot about what it is like to live in the suburbs! Ha!

 And Carrie learned how heavy 3 kids in a wagon are! :) Because only Carrie would do of course!

 We got to see her every day she was here and it was so fun. I really wish we weren't so far away!

 She even helped me make Harrison's "cow jumps over the moon" costume for the nursery rhyme parade (which was on his birthday and he decided he did not want to go to school that day!). I thought it turned out cute!

Carrie, we'll see you in a month! Woo hoo!!!