Cutest Pumpkins in the Patch

We finally made it out to the pumpkin patch for our pictures. My nephews were able to go with us, too. We had a great time. Scarlett is the only girl, so with five boys she is a little out numbered. She really clings to cousin Mitchell. I am so glad that he doesn't mind and he puts up with her hanging on him. At fourteen I am sure there are other things he would rather be doing, but he never lets on that she is bothering him. She just loves HER Mitchell.The kids had a great time. We rode the hayride out to the patch and they all picked out the biggest pumpkin they possibly could and then yelled for someone to come carry it! :)
This is a annual event for us. I have scrapbook pages dating back to 2002 when Ethan was just a little over a year old. I just love looking back at my cute little pumpkins! My mom usually makes Scarlett the cutest outfits to wear to the Pumpkin Patch, but this year we never got around to making it. But I still have lots of cute pictures from our day at the patch and that is what is important to me. :) A lady at the pumpkin patch with her child took a big group picture of all of us. We look like a motley crew! ha!
How is this for a scary crew of kids! :) ha! I just love all these silly monster face pictures. They crack me up with the things they come up with. Scarlett may be the only girl, but she fits right in with the boys.
Here is our group shot, what a fun day we had! We stayed out there so long that we had to race home and get changed to make it to Ethan's end of the season soccer party. We love Larry's Pizza. They have the best pizza buffet. YUMMO! I tried the BLT pizza, let's just say HEAVEN! If you have a Larry's close by, GO TRY THAT PIZZA! It is so good. Ethan had a great coach this year, we are excited about Spring soccer. The team stays together, so I am sure they will be even better next year. Our week has been busy, as usual. The kids are so excited that tomorrow is Halloween! They can't wait to go trick or treating. We always have so much fun and get way too much candy. Saturday morning we are getting up early to drive to Fayetteville to go to the Razorback game, so Ethan is in heaven. Candy, Halloween and the Razorbacks.. does life get any better????

Have a great day!

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!

October 28, 2000 was a busy day! Who knew at that time just how much life would change in 8 shorts years. I remember thinking on that day that it couldn't get any better. Boy, was I wrong! How blessed are we that God always knows so much better than we do, and always has better things waiting around the corner. After 8 years of marriage and two kids, it just keeps getting better.

Hubby proposed to me on December 3, 1999 after dating for over five years! I was a little past ready to get my ring, and he had been given a small word of advice regarding the new millenium, and a wedding! ha! :) Not a threat, just some advice! The night he proposed was just perfect, I remember waking up and looking at my hand that night after I went to bed, just to make sure it was real and that I FINALLY had a ring on my finger and I was going to be getting married.

After almost 11 months of planning the big day arrived and it was nothing short of everything I wanted! I was so happy, and so excited to start my life with hubby. Here is a picture of our wedding party. We were so lucky that everybody was able to be here to share with us. :) If you look to the bottom left you will notice LAH. :) I think she was the first person I talked to after getting my ring! I couldn't wait to ask SOMEBODY to be MY bridesmaid!

From that night on life has just kept getting better. Sure we have our ups and downs, but it is the valleys that make the peaks so much more amazing! We went to Montreal for our honeymoon, and I laughed at the end of the week when it was time to go home and I didn't want to leave. That was THE FIRST time I had ever gone away from home and not called home crying. My poor parents have been called at all hours of the day by all kinds of people because I would be crying so bad to just go home. But not this time, it was so appropriate that I was okay. It was a huge sign to me that I found my new home and my new home was wherever hubby was. It all seemed just right!

So, to you hubby, I celebrate 8 great years! I know I harrass you about your list making habits, the "annoying" little things you do, but that makes YOU who YOU are! That makes you who I feel in love with. You are an amazing daddy; and just think you thought you didnt know anything about kids. :)

Thanks for being a great husband and even better daddy. Thank you for always putting the kids first and supporting me always. I love you! I cant wait to see what the next 8 years have in store for us.

All things SPOOKY!!!

Monday was the the day we finally were able to fit in BOO AT THE ZOO. This is an annual event for us. The kids just love it! Any excuse to get dressed up in their costumes is a good thing to them. This year with all the craziness going on I didn't get their costumes ordered in time, so neither one of the kids are what they originally planned to be. We compromised and it turned out really cute. Scarlett was Batgirl and Ethan was Batman.. but Scarlett refused to call him that, if she was "girl" then he was going to be Batboy!
Boo at the Zoo is always so much fun, but this year Hayden came to join the kids so that made it even better! They had a buddy to run around with and act crazy! Poor Hayden wanted to go in the Haunted House... or rather he THOUGHT he wanted to go in.. so I went in with him.. let's just say we didn't last very long in the house! I am not a fan of things jumping out at me and scaring me, but he definitely wasnt'. But he was the bravest of the three, he at least made it IN the door!

The kids get a bucket FULL of candy! It was funny, we noticed at one point that Scarlett had almost double what the boys had. It must have been her good looks! :)

They rode the train, and the merry go round and went to all the Trick or Treat booths twice. They had a great time!
After we were all done at Boo At the Zoo we looked at more Halloween lights and then had to race home for some Monday Night Football! Ethan had it recorded on the DVR, his Titans were playing he had his match ups all set. Two years ago this set of mini football helmets was ALL Ethan asked for for Christmas. What four year old asks for that??? He took every helmet this week and put them all beside who they were going up against and the buy week teams lined the side of the case. He was so funny! He did it all by himself. He gets the Sunday sports section and uses the match ups to place his helmets in the right order. He may love baseball and soccer, but he is a QB in the making at heart! :)
Lastly I thought I would share with you my front door decoration. With us hoping to be moving soon, I did not get our Halloween decorations out this year, much to my children's dismay. Scarlett being so unhappy with that, she made me a ghost for the front door. :) She was so proud of herself . She made me a ghost or a zombie. We choose to put the ghost on front door! :) Happy Halloween everybody!!!

Coming out on top

Saturday and Sunday were spent taxing Ethan back and forth from soccer to baseball and back to soccer. On Saturday we left our house at 8:15 and did not get back home until 4:30 that afternoon! I was doing the quick change with Ethan in the car between games to have him ready to play by the time we arrived at the next game.

His team was playing in the Lakewood Fallfest Soccer Tournament, but to Ethan that was HIS National Championship. He is such a serious soccer player. I finally figured out that he was holding his breath a lot of the times when he would run down the field. He had me really worried at one point thinking something could be wrong! I was ready to call in the doctors, start testing... and then I noticed he was holding his breath. This weekend I had him chew gum and guess what.. no problems! He didn't look short of breath one time and he was faster out on the field.

Miss Nancie and Hayden came out to watch his "championship" game and that made Ethan's day! He was so glad they were able to come see him play. I think it made him try a little harder, which is a good thing. He learned the sliding kick this weekend, or rather, he finally got it down, and once he knew he could do it, he was trying constantly to slide and kick the ball off the field. I never caught him on camera doing that.. but it was very cute!
Ethan was so excited that they won the U7 division of the tournament! He proclaimed they were the "National Champs of Arkansas".. okay, so not exactly true.. but Hey! When you are seven and you just won big, you can think anything you want, and I most definitely was not going to ruin his moment. They were all presented with medals and the team trophy. The boys were so excited! Congratulations ASC BURN! You had a great season!

The day after our night in the woods...Part 2

I guess I should start with the night IN the teepee. IT WAS COLD!!! The geese flying overhead were at 5am were miserable and the "cots" were uncomfortable! Other than that it was wonderful. Ethan got in his sleeping bag, and bundled up with blankets and slept like a rock. We had to wake him up the next morning. Scarlett got right in the middle of hubby and I and slept really well. I, on the other hand, decided that Indians must have had holes in the tops of the teepee to shoot the birds as they fly overhead squawking. We woke up, got dressed (yes, none of us showered) and went to eat breakfast and warm up at the lodge. This was a great decision!We had a big country boy breakfast, as Ethan calls it, and needed to work off some calories so we headed down the Cedar Falls Trail. We were a little unsure if Scarlett would be able to keep up, but she led the way, singing the whole time. She is a natural hiker! They both found walking sticks they used during our hike. They were so funny the closer we got to the falls. They were getting so excited when they heard the water flowing. Ethan kept saying, "I hear it.. it's right around this corner...".
At the end of our hike we were rewarded with some of the natural beauty of Arkansas. It was so pretty and peaceful there at the bottom of the hill. Great photo opportunity! We made the kids pose everywhere on the those rocks at the bottom. Thankfully we thought ahead and brought plenty of water to drink.
Ethan, our photographer, snapping a picture of hubby and I. We were both so tired! But this was so worth it for the kids.
It was still really chilly there by the waterfall. After a 30 minute hiatus, we started our trip back. We were ready to head home. We still had a lot to do and needed our energy that we had left. We had a great time and this was just another way that homeschooling has been such a blessing for me. It is so wonderful to be able to be with my kids and watch them experience new things everyday. Even if some of it is a little unconventional.


While this was a blast, hubby and I did decide that next time... we will just stay at the lodge! ha!

Our Night in the Woods...Part 1

Warning: This will be a long post with LOTS of pictures. :)

Finally I have been able to sit down and look at our pictures from our night in the woods and get back to blogging. We have been super busy this past weekend. Thursday night was our big camp out and we had the BEST time! The kids LOVED it! You would not believe how packed down our car was for just one night of camping. There is also a pumped up Ethan, smiling away in the back seat. We arrived at Petit Jean Mountain and went to the overlook first. We explained the story of how Petit Jean got its name and when we were done, Scarlett wanted to dig her up!! Leave that to Scarlett. The views from the top of Petit Jean were amazing! We stayed up there almost an hour taking pictures from all sides.
A happy Ethan in his "KING OF THE WORLD!" pose.
After checking out the top of the mountain we got our keys to the teepee. YIPPY! We were pleasantly surprised and Ethan even said it was better than his dream. The views were great from our teepee. We were right by the lake with a great back "porch" and picnic area. This was going to be FUN!We had a "mini" school lesson and talked about Native American Indian and made our head dresses. They turned out really cute and the kids did a great job. Scarlett would now like to meet a real native Indian so if anybody knows where I can get in touch with one for her to speak with just let me know.After that it was time to start the camp fire. YIPPEE! It was starting to cool off and it was going to be a great night around the fire with the family. We had so much fun. Ethan built a mini fire just for he and Scarlett. He built it just like his daddy's. It didn't burn very long, but long enough for them to roast their own hot dogs. We roasted hot dogs, popped jiffy popcorn, made hot cocoa and smores all around the campfire. How much fun was that! I knew there was no way they were near as hungry as it sounded; but they wanted to "make" all those things since it was so much fun to watch the fire and be cooking over the open flame. Ethan proclaimed at one point that "MAN MAKE FIRE!".If you look closely you can see our Halloween lights wrapped around our deck at the teepee. We had to be a little festive. :)
After all the cooking it was time for bed.. that was where the real adventure began! :) Stay tuned for the morning after...

Thanks for reading if you made it this far...

Fallin' into Fall...

This week has been spent catching up on some of our favorite fall things to do. We carved pumpkins, made caramel apples and toasted our pumpkin seeds. This weekend we will finally make it out to the Pumpkin Patch (this is a mom thing so I can have pictures to scrapbook!) and tonight we go for our campout! The kids are so excited! They have never been camping, but the thought of sitting around a warm fire, roasting marshmallows and eating smores sounds like a wonderful plan to them. We haven't explained the part about there being no bathroom, the fact that it is going to be COLD outside and sleeping pretty close to the ground without a nice comfy mattress. ha! Mean parents that we are, we figured we would let them be excited for a bit!

We spent Monday playing at Pinnacle Mountain State Park with our friends. The actual mountain entrance was closed so we found a nice little area with a trail and had a picnic and then walked on the trail. We came up with a "mini" scavenger hunt and the kids quickly found all the things on their list. It was such a nice day! I just love October!!! Hayden and Ethan would play ball all day long everyday if we let them. We had Kirispy Kreme Jack O'Donuts for dessert! YUMMO!!! Have you tried their Pumpkin Spice donuts??? Let's just say that a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and one of those would make an excellent lunch! and a ton of calories!


Wednesday afternoon we carved pumpkins. Oh what fun it is! You would think the inside of the pumpkin was the most disgusting thing ever to hear my children whine about "touching that stuff". Scarlett was so funny while I carved her pumpkin. "Wow, Mommy! You are so strong" "Wow, Mommy! How did you do that?" "You are a super mommy". Who knew that carving a pumpkin could make me so special!



After carving we toasted the pumpkin seeds and made caramel apples. We had the perfect fall evening! Top it off with a bowl of warm taco soup (We had left over soup in the fridge, so that's not really what we had for dinner.. but it would have been nice) and we were set for bed.


This morning we are packing up for our camping trip. We did learn we have electricity at the teepee. The kids have placed so much stuff by the front door that they want to take. They pack like their mother. We should have lots of fun! Hubby is off today and tomorrow and we have a date night planned tomorrow night. YIPPEE! It is our monthly GNO (girls night out) and we have decided the guys could come this month ONLY! What could be better a night out with my girls and hubby! That sounds like the best of both worlds.

Party like a Rock Star!

Saturday and Sunday have both been filled with lots of fun! Apparently I was feeling a bit hubby deprived and a little sleep deprived on Saturday. Hubby and I stayed up until 3am doing what we love to do, just watching music videos and talking. I miss getting to just sit around and talk to hubby and music is definitely a huge bond between us. This whole week had left me exhausted and Sunday I played catch up on my sleep. I woke up at 1:30 this afternoon!!! Looking VERY scary but feeling oh so rested hubby just laughed when I walked into the living room and said "I guess I was tired!". UH DUHH!!
After Ethan's baseball game Scarlett and I headed out for girls day (Friday night was our usually scheduled girls night with Nana..it didn't count). We had lunch at a place called ZaZa, all I can say is YUMMO! It is a brick oven pizzeria with great salads! We met up with Ms. Michelle and Avery and had a great lunch. Michelle is one of my oldest and closest friends. At ZaZa they had a corner with the guitar hero video game out for the girls to play. They started their rock star date off right. Rocking out to "SLOW RIDE" . ha! From ZaZa we headed off to Alltel Arena and The Cheetah Girls concert. These too were so cute! They both looked rocked out in their cool "fashion". You should have seen Avery dancing around and singing. Who knew that $10 glow stick would bring so much joy to two rocker girls! The glow stick quickly became a microphone with every Cheetah Girls song they knew. Even the ones they ad libbed majority of the words. The funnel cake was a big hit! They both loved it and apparently the rock star live style can leave a five year old very hungry! Scarlett was so funny. This was her first concert and I wasn't sure if she understood just what a "concert" was, she said she did but I had my doubts. We arrived at Alltel and found our seats. There were video screens up playing music and Scarlett thought that was the show! She thought she was going to sit and watch music videos. When the real band came out, she looked at me and asked, "..are those real people?". From there I think we found another music lover! If she is anything like her daddy and I she will love live music of any kind! WOO HOO! I have a new person to go to concerts. I see another Keith Urban show in my future very soon! Introduce her to mommy's favorite! :) Or maybe that could just be a good excuse to go to another Keith show and sit right beside him, and touch him and get awesome pictures... AHH the memories. :) That was before I was blogging or you would have gotten an earful! Trust me!

On Sunday night Ethan sang during the worship service at church. He had told me he didn't think he was supposed to, but at 5:20 we get a call from his choir director, Ms. Jennifer, telling me Ethan was supposed to be there at 5:00! OOPS! Off we race to get him showered and cleaned. We make it there just in time. I sat in the pew camera ready and was going to get lots o pictures.. but you see what happens when your child is the smallest one on stage...you catch him walking in an walking out, but someone is always in front of them on stage! :) Ethan sang really good and he knew all the hand motions. I was so proud of him! He has missed a lot of choir with all our activities so I was happy that he has learned so fast.
Hope you all had a great weekend! We are ready for a busy week. Ethan has a soccer tournament next Saturday. He has decided it is the "National Championship" of soccer and has spent a lot of time practicing in the backyard with his soccer goal his daddy built him. He is taking this tournament very seriously! :) So, between Monday and Friday we expect nothing less than busy! :) Have a great week!

Laughter...

Doesn't laughter just make your heart feel good? I love to hear my kids laugh! When I hear them giggling and laughing it makes me smile even if I have no clue what they are laughing about. They learned the joys of spinning in a swing this week. Did you do this as a kid? Spin the swing around as much as you can and then just let go and you take off spinning? I remember doing this as a kid and just LOVED it. Apparently my kids love it, too. Scarlett looks like a little torpedo spinning around and around. Our neighbors probably think we are nuts. Between me on the trampoline playing "Red Light Green Light" and the yelling my kids do in the backyard. I bet they are ready for us to MOVE!

We did a lot of playing outside this week and once the kids were inside they were bored! I do not like hearing that word! I think with all the toys, games and other things they have around them they can come up with something. I tell them all the time to use their imagination. One after noon they asked if they could use some of my scrapbook tools. Of course they could, but just what were they going to make. Imagine my surprise when this is what I found...a homemade checkers game! I laughed and then I felt a little bad as if my kids were deprived of something. I supposed I could buy them a real checkers game! But then again that would have taken away a whole afternoon of fun they had with my circle punch. I love when they are creative and come up with things on their own. They had a good time playing checkers even though the paper checkers don't last a whole game! ha! They kept coming back in the room to get more circles to finish the game. Too funny!

Today is Saturday and we are off to Ethan's baseball game in a little bit. Scarlett is going to her first concert tonight. Her little friend Avery and her are going to the Cheetah Girls. What fun! We went shopping last night with Nana and she talked her into buying her some "fashion" so she would look "cool" tonight! OH MY!

I will definitely have to take lots of pictures. She is so excited!

Have a great day!