We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at a local park in Temple. The daddies were going to the Aggie game. (So, so sad.)
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| cousins. |
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| This park had the old school dangerous merry go round. My kids loved it! |
And I mean what I say when I say “dangerous”.
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| rilyn! |
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| ella |
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| They had a high merry go round that the girls could sit on and spin!!!
They loved it! |
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| Asher jumping off a “climbing wall” |
We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family on Wednesday! I believe this is our first posed group shot since Jessica’s wedding 2 years ago.
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| Eric, Jessica, James, Julie, Jeff, Becca
Ella, Grandpa, Caden, Grandma, Asher, and Rilyn |
Of course, we always do the “around the dining room table” shot!
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| Thanksgiving meal |
Grandparents with the grandkids! I love Asher and Ella’s faces in this picture!
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The girls had movie night Thursday evening at school. They loved going to school at night in their pjs to watch Rio with all their friends! Asher loved it too!
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| Rilyn watching the movie |
This afternoon, the girls had Thanksgiving feasts in their grade levels. Rilyn’s was buffet style. Look at Rilyn trying to get Asher to come in line with her to try some food!
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| come here little brother! |
And this is what Asher was doing. Sigh. Is there hope for this one? 😉
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| Asher just being Asher |
And in the kindergarten wing, they ate “Indian style”! Literally, dressed as Indians and sitting Indian style! 😉
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Why does my child want to smell the deli meat?
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| She isn’t a fan of deli meat at home, so I was impressed when she took a bite! |
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| and I figured this reaction would be coming! |
I’m going to say that this was the most fun Halloween we have had as a family. I have no doubt this is because our kids are getting older!
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| I’m happy to say that all my kid meal toys disappeared by the time we finished
trick-or-treating! |
Every year, the neighborhood kids (and some extra!) meet up on Jen’s lawn for chili, cornbread, and pre-trick-or-treating pictures!
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| lots of friends! |
Super Why vs. Captain America!
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| cousins |
I can just imagine the boys saying, “Who invited Super Why? Is he even a real super hero? Ooooooo, I’m so scared of his ‘power to read!'” 😉
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| Spiderman, Thor, Batman, Super Why, and Hulk |
Belle and Rapunzel!
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| Ella and Anna |
When it was time to go trick or treating, the big kids took off!
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| speed=more candy! |
Asher stayed behind with the little guys!
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One of Ella’s friends from kindergarten had a haunted house in her garage. This friend also has 3 teenage brothers. This haunted house was going to be scary! But Ella wanted to see her friend, so in she went! (Even though I told her she probably wouldn’t be in there-and she wasn’t.) Ella tried to be brave at first, but you can see the fear in her eyes-and tears!
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| in the garage haunted house |
And this is Ella coming out of the haunted house! Poor girl!
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One of Asher’s favorite cartoons on PBS is Super Why! So naturally he picked to be Wyatt for Halloween this year! I had a little fun editing these pictures!
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| Wyatt! |
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| taking off! |
Coming in for a landing!
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| with the power to read! |
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Every year around this time I wonder the same thing. Will this be the year no one cries when we carve pumpkins?
Nope, not this year.
As long as we force our son to touch the pulp, there will be tears! Now I know we could not force our son, but what would the fun be in that? 🙂
(We were at my parents Octaranch in College Station because James, Rilyn, and I went to the depressing Aggie game against Missouri earlier that day.)
Once again, we did the pumpkin gospel story to show the kids how when we trust in God, He takes out our yucky sin (pulp) and makes us a new creation (or rather in this case a new “face”). See this previous post for the Bible verses and what to say.
I would be as concerned as Ella if I saw my daddy cutting off his thumb with a knife!
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| don’t worry folks, James still has one good thumb left! 😉 |
You can see Asher’s concern right from the beginning and Rilyn’s joy as daddy cuts open her pumpkin. Rilyn has never had a problem digging in and grabbing out the pulp with her bare hands!
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Ella’s turn. Again, Asher wringing his hands in concern.
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This look is more for show. Look at me make gross noises and faces while I’m digging out the slime everybody! 😉
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| ewwwwwww |
It’s Asher’s turn.
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The pulp is coming to get you!!!
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| those seeds are scary!! |
Ella does not like to touch pulp. Here she is showing off her one seed she got with the spoon.
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Hiding behind daddy.
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Asher did love carving the pumpkin, probably because it didn’t involve pulp!
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Rilyn’s first pumpkin carving!
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| 2006 |
Ella’s first!
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| 2007 |
Leave it to my parents to introduce my kids to their first gruesome Halloween party! 😉 I think because my dad is a doctor, blood and guts are not that scary, but rather a reality. 😉 And you will see on my flashback Friday this week, that I didn’t mind the gore either growing up! Anyway, after Rilyn’s cheer competition on Saturday, my parents drove my kids back to Temple to take them to another doctor’s Halloween party that was “for the kids”. (Mom, I’m fine with what they saw, I just think it was funny that this party was marketed for young kids!)
Harmless enough…a “haunted house”
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I can hear my mom now, “stand in front of the gruesome corpse kids!” Asher isn’t so sure…
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In this graveyard, it looks like all my kids are ready to get outta there!
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And Asher is running from the spooky house! Hehe, this picture of him cracks me up!
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| ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! |
Now for some family fun! My dad drove the “train” around the property full of kids. Not sure why Asher is sitting with some random girl and not Ella. Rilyn is in the front with grandpa.
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Ella was the one who broke the spider pinata (chopped off his head!) therefore we now have a broken spider pinata in our house as a “trophy”. 🙂 I think she is posing with the party host.
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The kids had a lot of fun with a hayride and play equipment too. The week before Halloween is always one big party around here! Lots of sweets and fun! Stay tuned!
*Some pictures were left out to keep this post PG. (Seriously, there was a grim reaper with a rifle pointed at the kids!!)?!?!?!
We went to the Elgin Christmas tree farm on Monday to have some fun with tractors, hay, and, of course PUMPKINS!!
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| awkward family shot with James death gripping Asher’s neck to get him to stay still! |
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The kids love the many mazes!
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| cornfield maze! |
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I think this was Asher and Caden’s favorite thing to do!
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| zoom |
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| who doesn’t love to fall into a pile of trucks?!? |
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Friends for life! (In age order)
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Hayride time!
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| hayride with your best friend! |
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| sweet sister kisses |
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To see some of my favorite pumpkin patch pictures, please visit my photography blog! (Yes, I take A LOT of photos everywhere I go!)
Quick update on our BUSY life! Fall schedule is officially here and I’m trying to keep my head afloat with all of the swirling activities! On top of that I am taking the Manor Falcon football/cheer team/individual pictures. That’s about 80 individuals, so I have my hands full right now! Here is a look at my side of the photos (I will be uploading my pictures to a printing company that will put it in football team templates.)
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One SUPER BLESSING during this crazy season, is that Asher is potty-trained FINALLY! He is one month shy of 3 1/2 and my girls were trained at 3. So this last 6 months felt like eternity trying to get this boy trained!! It took naked days, constipation, and enemas, to get him to relent and actually poop in the potty. Bribing him with rewards didn’t do a thing for him. Good thing compassion is not my strong suit in the battle, because if so, I truly believe Asher wouldn’t be trained until kindergarten! Stubborn doesn’t begin to describe his personality!
Here he is on the potty. I love that the frame behind him is when he was a toddler destroying our bathroom with shreds of toilet paper! 😉 Not much has changed, except he destroys with blocks and cars all over the house!
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| I did it! |
Today I went grocery shopping by myself! 🙂
But I guess the more important milestone was that Asher had his first day of preschool! 😉 He was soooo excited to start this year (last year he cried the entire first day!)
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| yes, he was supposed to get a hair cut this weekend but it never happened. oops |
Four boys, all the same age, all from the neighborhood, are all going to the same preschool (3 out of 4 in the same class!), so we HAD to buy them all matching t-shirts! This is their superhero poses in the donut store parking lot!
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| Gavin, Caden, Asher, and Kian ready to start the day!!! |
Asher and Caden with their teacher.
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| Asher fell asleep on the car ride home, which he NEVER does, so it must of been a busy day! |
the paquettes 