Snuggling and Celebrating

I cannot stress enough how helpful my mom is when she's in town.  She volunteers for bath duty, bedtime duty, laundry duty (her choice!) and whatever else she can get herself signed up for.  It is such a nice break for us!  We love you, mom & appreciate everything you do for us!

 The boys love snuggling with Mimi for stories.

Showing off our new Christmas ornaments (Iron Man and Mater) from Mimi!

 Monday was my Aunt Debbie's birthday, so we took her to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate!

 Debbie with her "kids".

 Contrary to how this picture looks, Taylor was a BIG help with these two during lunch.

 The birthday girl!

 Taylor keeping everyone together...

Just the girls! (Kelsie had to get back to campus.)  What a fun lunch and a yummy meal!

Zoo Trip with Mimi

We had a great visit with Mimi last week and took advantage of the beautiful Fall weather with a trip to the zoo!  I miss when we lived five minutes away and could just go over for an hour or so whenever we wanted. Driving there now takes a little more planning ahead, but still a fun trip and worth the drive.

Mimi helping Davis pick out some seafood.

Davis looking for something in the cave.

Mimi on wagon duty!

Our stop at Carter's favorite animal...the penguins.  He did admit that they are a bit stinky, but claims he loves them anyway.  The same could be said of his brother, I suppose, and we still love him...

And of course, no visit would be complete without rides on the carousel and train!

Special time together.  We love you, Mimi!

October Snow!

We had our first significant snowfall last week and I say--bring in on, Winter!!  I love snowy days, especially when I don't have to drive in it.  

We made play-doh and watched the snowfall from the cozy indoors. 

Sean and Carter made a snowman while Davis napped.  

 And had a snowball fight!

Now the snow has all melted and we are expecting 70 degrees on Halloween.  Perfect weather for Trick-or-Treating!

Fall Fun

Megan & I took the kids to the pumpkin patch yesterday after school.  Strangely, we did everything but actually pick pumpkins.  It was windy, dirt & hay were blowing everywhere, and for about three of the longest minutes of my life, I lost Davis among the crowd of kids.  We made the rounds through the jumpy castles and huge slide, saw the animals and had our pictures taken with every wooden cut-out they had.  Then, we called it a day and went out to lunch...guess we'll have to make a separate trip for pumpkin pics!

 Fast slide!

 All four kids looking at the sheep & goats.

 Carter was fascinated by the goat pooping.  He stood there waiting & waiting for it to happen again.  That kid likes to talk about poop.  What can I say?

 These two loved looking at all the animals!

 Pumpkin Patch buddies

 Scarecrow Davis

 Two Cowpokes

Look how big we are, Mom!!

No Smoke Here!

My friend, Megan, and her girls took us to this awesome park last week after school!  It is right next to one of our city's Fire Departments and has enough equipment that it wore the boys out, just in time for naps.  We will definitely be going back!  As a bonus, there was a fire truck parked outside the station and they were spraying water all over the treetops nearby.  The boys were loving it!

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My little Superman

Carter is on the top level (right) and Davis is on the lower level.  This structure is HUGE!