Happy Halloween!

Shame shame on me for this being SO late! I mean, come on, we have already celebrated Thanksgiving, and Christmas is fast approaching!  Oh well, atleast it's getting done, right? Right.

Connor had a fantastic Halloween this year! He was "Piderman," and he FULLY grasped the concept of "Trick-or-treating."

But let's rewind to the whole pumpkin carving thing:

He did NOT like the pumpkin guts. He said it was "nassssty!" Oh well, like Father, like Son, I suppose :)  (Justin "claims" to have an allergy to the inside of the pumpkin, and he "gags" when he has to touch the inside LOL, but I will give him this: he slapped on a pair of latex gloves and did a little dirty work this year. Thanks, baby!) I carved a traditional jack-o-lantern, a ghost pumpkin, and of course, a Buzz Lightyear pumpkin! I thought about it too late this year, but next year, I plan to carve an "In Good Hands" pumpkin! Lol! :)

Back to Halloween:

Carley came to trick-or-treat with her boyfriend (Awe...), so we snapped a few pics at the house before heading down to the Hossley's to meet up with the rest of our trick-or-treating group!  We had about 8 kiddos, including Baylor and Benton, and little Ferris who is the grandson of our neighbors who's pool you may have seen us in this summer ;)  Ferris lives in Germany, so this was a big, fun, first time experience for him, and we were so glad we got to share it with him!

 

And this was the ONLY time he wore his mask.  It lasted all of 8 seconds......

We hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween! Time for me to get a move on this blog, huh? :)

October Birthdays, Take 3.....(for turning THREE!)

Our third Birthday party of the month was Brett's Thomas the Train themed THIRD Birthday! Say THAT 3 times fast! Every time Brett has a birthday, it makes me realize how much closer Connor is to being one year older, crazy huh?! I remember when Adrienne brought a 5 month old Brett to meet a 5 minute old Connor (ok, he wasn't actually 5 minutes old, but he was brand spankin' new to the world) :) It sometimes takes my breath away to realize how fast the time goes these days. Between work, and life, and raising a child.....it's like you blink, and another year is gone...ok, I will stop with all the sentimental crap and move on to the party! Lol! Brett's party was at his Nana's house so that all his Fort Smith friends could come celebrate! What a good time :)

Nothin' but 4 rowdy boys playing trains and having a ball! Well, I guess they weren't too rowdy..... surprisingly!

(There's a 5th little boy, but Parker isn't quite old enough to be Rowdy)

Brett was kind enough to lead us all in the Birthday song lol! His mommy made a delicious blue and white swirled Thomas the Train cake! I wanted to ask for another piece, buuuuuut since no one else went for seconds, well.....you know.....

Connor, Brett, and Xander......aren't they the sweetest, most well behaved little boys you've ever seen?!

Yeeeeeah right LOL! GOTCHA'! Now, this is more like it! :)

Happy THIRD birthday to the spunkiest, craziest little dare-devil we know! I still believe you will be a stunt man someday :)

October Birthdays, Take 2....(for turning TWO!)

The weekend after the big skating shin-dig, we celebrated Connor's "durr-fren's" (girlfriend's) Birthday at Wild Things Farm!  The kids had a ball doing all the activities that Wild Things has to offer! There was a hayride, petting zoo, monster mulch slide, a candy cannon, and plenty of room to run and play! Of course there was also pizza and cake, which no kid (or adult, for that matter) can live without :)  Connor played a LOT of football between activities. His razorback football helmet and football....well, they are like underwear, he never leaves home without them.

The Freeman's insisted that no one tell them the score of the Arkansas vs. Ole Miss game since it was on during the party, so those of us that kept looking at our Smart Phone's just talked amongst ourselves and never made a peep about the game.  Later on, we loaded up for the first leg of the hayride.  As soon as we stopped, the driver (who had ear-buds in the entire time we were on the hayride) yells, "WOOOOO ARKANSAS! WE'RE FINALLY AHEAD!" Ha, ha, Freeman's, I knew it wouldn't remain a secret for long. :) Needless to say, after that, we were free to share the details of the game. :)

We were at Wild Things for a good 4 hours, so a certain little someone was EXTREMELY worn out (and so was a certain big someone! I have been worn a little thin these days lol!)

Sitting next to the Birthday girl, enjoying a little pizza for lunch (and a quick check of the Hog's score, which I kept a secret from the Freeman's! lol!) :)



Enjoying the Hayride with my 2 favorite boys <3



The kids petting the squeelinist pig I've ever met lol! (on a sweet side note, Connor brought me this stuffed Razorback today, 2 weeks after the party, and says, "You wanna' pet my pig?!" He was acting just like the girl holding the pig in the pic, pretending we were at the Farm. SO cute!)

Next up: Milkin' a "cow." He wasn't really into this, and was ready to move on to the next activity :)



He kept wanting to go back to the "doat's" (goats) lol! The kids got to feed the goats some popcorn! (Again, I am having issues with uploading pictures, so be sure to tilt your head to the right) :)

On to the big mulch slide!!

Ok, I know this is getting old, but head to the right again. After the big slide, it was time to head back and get some cake! Here is the Birthday Girl with her Momma and Daddy!

Connor and Jonnah causing a little trouble at the cake table lol! :) They are very anxious to dig in!

 The Candy Cannon was hit! Look out! It's raining CANDY!!!!

 Connor snagged himself a few pieces :)

This is my favorite picture of the day! Carley heard me call for Connor while she was in the middle of opening presents. She decided at that point that she was done opening presents and that she wanted to be with Connor.  They truly are in love....it's so sweet :)



Happy Birthday Little Miss! You sure do bring a lot of Sunshine into people's lives! Hope turning TWO was one of the best days of your little life! :)

October Birthdays, Take 1.....

We attended 3 Birthday parties in the month of October! Whew, we are Birthday'd OUT! But each party was very fun and very different! We went to a skating party, a party at Wild Things Farm, and good old-fashioned Thomas the Train themed, homemade cake, toys and lots of boys party! Of course, Connor had a ball at them ALL!  Here are a few pictures from Baylor's 7th Birthday Party at Crystal Palace! It was Connor's first time on skates, and he did great (because I made sure the wheels were as tight as they could get them lol!)

**side note: I tried everything under the SUN to get the majority of these pics to upload right side up. Unfortunately, my efforts were worthless, so please tilt your head to the left as you enjoy these pictures :)

Justin was on the speed skating team as a kid, so this was such a fun opportunity to share one of his favorite things with Connor. <3

And here is the Birthday Boy! All of 7 years old! Happy Birthday, Baylor! You have turned into quite the smart young man! And thank you for being so sweet to Connor, he sure loves you :)

As you tilt your head to the left, you will see that Connor participated in a little limbo action!

Look at daddy GO! Justin was SO FAST that all I got was this blur!

Birthday present time!

Oh, Justin....gross! Like Father......

Like Son....lol!

Please tilt your head to the right for this picture :) This is Connor skating without the "helper!" :)

Look, Connor is embarrassed by me LOL! I can't skate at all, but hey, I gave it a good shot! :)

And at the end of the party, the kids (and some adults.....yours truly included lol) participated in a little electric slide!

My Idol.....

I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting the Pioneer Woman at the Phoenix Expo Center in Fort Smith! I have been following The Pioneer Woman for a couple of years now, and I just love her recipes, photography, and internet personality! If you don't know who she is, please do youself a favor and check her out at www.thepioneerwoman.com. You can thank me later ;)

Mom was going to get us tickets as an early anniversary present (to me.....I suppose she is proud of me for being married for 6 years lol!), and her wonderful, amazingly awesome friend, Debbie, invited us to sit with her at her VIP table! I had not been that excited in a long time! We gladly accepted the invitation!

I took my cookbook to have it signed by The Pioneer Woman, and was so very excited to have my picture made with her.  Star Struck? You betcha!

Great-Birthdays!

Connor's Great-Grandmother celebrated her 86th Birthday on October 2nd! We celebrated with a delicious cake (that Great-Grandmother's dog, Annie, eventually found her way into when no one was looking....those flowers that Great-Grandmother so kindly requested on her cake? Gone in no time flat....the only evidence of those flowers was the orange icing on Annie's white coat.....nice lol!)

I love how Justin is putting bunny ears on Connor....never a dull moment :)

Connor's Great-Grandpa celebrated his 87th Birthday yesterday! My Mom and Aunt Marcy travelled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to spend a few days with him.  Since we are so far away, we just gave him a call and sent him a virtual Birthday card!



We hope that everyone's Birthday celebration was fantastic, and we love you both so VERY much!



First Festivities of Fall!

Connor has had a VERY active week! First  up, a Wednesday afternoon trip to the fair with the Hossley boys (if you ask him, he will tell you, "Those are my boys")

Connor hasn't ridden anything more than the quarter Bob the Builder ride at Walmart, so I wasn't sure how well the ride would go. I was surprised and thrilled that he wanted to ride them all! He started out slow on the little train that goes around and around (at about 2 mph), and worked up to the fast race cars and the ferris wheel! He also rode the carousel, bumper boats (side note about those....I had to keep telling him to turn around and sit down because he was obsessing about the fact that the bumper boat didn't have a motor...lol....Mr. Mechanical), helicopters, and the huge slide....

Speaking of the huge slide....as a kid, I never EVER went down that thing.  Too high, too scary, and something about the potato sack turned me off.  The Hossley boys wanted to ride, so of COURSE Connor did too.  I told the lady taking tickets that I would just carry Connor's sack up to the top.  She says, "Oh no, he is too little to ride by himself, you have to go with him!" My heart dropped into my stomach.  Here I was, 30 years old, at the fair, terrified to ride down the slide.....oh yes, the sacrifices we make for our children.  I conquered my fear of the giant slide....screaming like a little girl all the way down while my 2-year old laughed at me. :) I am thankful there aren't any pictures of this particular milestone in my life ;)

Of course it's a must to have your picture made by the MONSTER TRUCK!

I think riding with Baylor helped to ease some of the ride anxiety. Baylor is always so sweet to take care of Connor :)



Macon got in on a little helicopter action! :)



When Connor told everyone about these race car's, he was fixated on the fact that there was no steering wheel lol



Saturday, the Scarlet's and the Hossley's hit up the Fort Smith Airshow! It happens every other year, so this was the first year for Connor to go! We went and bought Connor some ear muffs for the show because we knew the Thunderbirds would get a little loud :)

Before the big show, we walked through the giant cargo plane that we see from time to time in the skies of Fort Smith.  I had no idea it was THIS BIG! We snapped a couple pictures while we were in there....notice the look on Connor's face in the picure with me.....this is pretty much how he feels about me all the time LOL! :)

I love how we caught Benton in the middle of a sneeze LOL!

The boys were doing a little dance in front of the plane....notice the oldest kiddo thinks that the little ones are acting pretty lame lol :)

Suited up in ear-muffs, Bomb-Pop in hand, sunglasses on.....Ready for the Thunderbirds!

The few times they flew right overhead, vibrating the ground, Connor wasn't as big of fan as he was when they were far away :)  Good thing Mom and Dad are here to save the day! :)



 Much better view from up here! Thanks, Dad!

All-in-all, we had a great week....BUSY, but tons of fun! I love watching Connor experience new things :)