Pumpkin Fun

Well, we might have started a new tradition. We had never painted/carved pumpkins before, but last night we all got to have our hand at decorating our own pumpkins. We had 2 large pumpkins delivered to our front bench by the pumpkin fairy (a.k.a. my mom). Adriana was SO excited that the pumpkin fairy dropped them off at our house. We decided that last night we would decorate our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. My parents came over for dinner and then we decorated them.
Ryan wanted to carve, here is a picture of his "blueprint" of what he was going to carve.



This is a picture of Adriana "smiling" with her little pumpkins before she painted them.


Ryan working hard at carving his pumpkin.


Adriana working hard at painting hers.


Ryan with his finished product.


Adriana with her finished product. Notice how
much water and paint are ALL over the place.
It was a mess, but worth it.


Me and my clown Pumpkin. (This pose is a result
of a long hard day).

This was a lot of fun, and maybe we can do it again next year.

Ball Pit Fun

We have a new and exciting toy. The kids LOVE it! My mom and dad bought us one of those turtles you put sand in a few weeks ago. I had it sitting in our garage and a friend saw it and told me that a friend of hers had one of those and filled it with ball pit balls. At first I thought that was a crazy idea, but then the more I thought about it I liked it, especially with winter coming and they wouldn't be able to go out and play as much. I looked on craigslist for some ball pit balls, thinking this was a long shot, but actually found a lady selling 200 balls for $5 (if I would have bought 200 balls new, it would have cost me $20), this was perfect! The balls were in really good shape. After sterilizing them, we put them in the turtle and let the kids go to town. Paxton LOVES little balls like these, that fit in his hands. They both LOVE it so much, what a great idea. Here is a video from the first night we let them play in them. I love how Paxton just sits there and kicks his feet so much. Its so cute to see him crawling in and out of the turtle all on his own (its not shown in this video though). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video!

Paxton's First Steps

Since my blog has kind of become my baby book/scrapbook, I'm writing this as a milestone so I don't forget. On October 18th, 3 days before Paxton turns 11 months old, he has taken his first couple of steps. He is awful tired tonight, and I think he would take more, if he wasn't so tired, but the first steps is a big deal. I know, I know, in a couple of weeks I'll be writing about how much it wears me out chasing him around, but I'm a proud momma. Adriana did the same thing. She started walking within a week or two before turning 11 months old. I'll try to get video of him walking, and post it soon. Just thought I would share our exciting milestone with our readers.

Silly Sister

Adriana is such a silly girl. The older she gets the more her personality comes through. She has a very tender heart and a sweet spirit (trust me, she has many moments when she is quite "spicy"). All in all, she is a great kid. She LOVES to ham it up in front of the camera, I came across these pictures on day on the computer and thought it speaks volumes of the different sides of this child. She's a hoot, and we love her to pieces!

Our Home Ready for Fall

These are some of our fall decorations peppered around our house. I LOVE fall. I love the smells, the warm colors and the foods that are associated with fall. Hope you are making the most of this season. (By the way, it wasn't until I posted these pictures until I realized that my wreath is hanging upside down. I left it that way in the pictures, but will correct it on the door. Ooops!)

Good Bye to the Smell of Fall

Its a sad day for me. One of the first things I bought for my very first apartment in Nashville was a Fall scented candle from Linens-N-Things. I LOVED this candle. Fall is my FAVORITE season and something about this candle brought it all to life for me. To this day, when I smell it burning, I think of my little apartment in Nashville and living the single life. This candle as burned every Fall for the past 7 years. It has burned in 6 different homes. All my fall decor smells like this candle. I know its silly, but today I had to throw this candle away. It had burned to the very bottom. I am sad, because they no longer make this scent. I don't know if its the scent or the memories it brought to me every time it burned, that I'm going to miss the most. Goodbye Fall Candle, Goodbye!

The back of the candle. Barely any wicks left.

Adriana Feeding Paxton

This is a little video I took of Adriana feeding Paxton tonight at dinner. Its amazing how helpful and sweet she can be one minute and the next she can push him to the ground for no reason. I know its just all apart of the sibling relationship, but I treasure sweet moments like this.

A Wonderful Visit

I know, I know, I have been so slacked on keeping up with my blog. I have good reasons why I don't have time to do it these days, but really no good excuses. I'm sorry.
A little over a week ago, we had the privilege of having Ryan's parents come up for a visit from Alabama. We haven't seen them in person since February. We were so excited to have them come up and stay for a few days. Here is a little glimpse of the days they were here:
FRIDAY:
Even though they came in on Thursday late afternoon, we really didn't do much until Friday. Ryan took Friday off and we headed down to Silver Dollar City. We were blessed by someone giving us FREE guest passes so that they could go. God completely blessed our day. It was PERFECT weather (mid 70's) and it wasn't crowded AT ALL. It was GREAT!! We had always wanted to take them down to SDC but never had tickets. Adriana was in Heaven having her PopPop and HeeHee down there with us.



Hee Hee and Adriana riding on the rides. Adriana
only wanted Sandy to ride on the rides with her.

My sad looking men.

Don't know about Adriana and HeeHee

but PopPop looks like he's guilty of something.

Trying to stand up straight in the crooked house.

You can tell by the way Ryan is standing vs the

angles of the walls on how crooked it is.

Adriana trying to stand up straight.

He looks like his daddy when he sleeps. He

was wiped out! He only wanted Ryan to hold

him all day, but he got a little nap in and was

good to go.

SATURDAY:

Well, Friday, late night, Ryan's sister, Lauren drove up from Oklahoma City to see Jim and Sandy and us. We were so glad she could make it. Saturday involved being lazy, which isn't a bad thing. We got to lay around and visit, watch football and just enjoy each other's company. That evening, we, of course, had to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Adriana associates Jim and Sandy's visit with C.E.C., so every time they come in town, we go there. It was a good time. Adriana had a blast and so did the big kids.

Jim, Lauren and Ryan doing Ski Ball.

Paxton getting in on the action.

Adriana was SO excited to see the

mouse, she stalked him a few times.

Chow time.

Again, PopPop looking awful guilty.

SUNDAY:

Sunday was church, of course, then mom had us over for a yummy lunch. (Lauren had to go home early that day, so she left before we went to church.) We had a good lunch and enjoyed sitting around and visiting. Something I'm so thankful for, is that our parents get along so well. Even though its a just a couple of times a year they see each other, its such an easy feeling and I'm so happy for that. We ended up staying until dinner time and decided to make breakfast for dinner. Sandy makes amazing homemade pancakes, so she whipped us up some and we ate them all gone. It was a good, lazy Sunday afternoon, filled with lots of family and love.

Adriana helping the grandma's make pancakes.

Paxton having bonding time with the grandpa's.

The Boy's. Football and all.

Enjoying dinner together.

PopPop getting some hugs in from Paxton.

I can't say it enough, I feel 100% blessed to call Jim and Sandy, my in-laws. Couldn't ask for a better family. Thank you guys for coming up here to see us. We love you and miss you!

Sickness and Doctors

This has a been a LONG week! I can't believe that it was on Monday when Ryan's parents left, it seems like forever ago! On Monday night Paxton came down with a pretty high fever. He was up ALL night long. He was a good baby for not feeling well, but he just didn't sleep. The next day, he still ran a fever and didn't nap. That night, he didn't sleep again! I was exhausted! Wednesday afternoon I took him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection. Of course, he didn't. Which don't get me wrong, I'm glad that there wasn't anything wrong with him, but when you have to pay $30 for an office visit, you kind of hope they find something so that they will give him medicine to help him feel better and SLEEP! No such luck. The good news is by that afternoon, he didn't have a fever and he was so exhausted he slept great through that night.
Yesterday, Thursday, I had to go to the doctor for myself. I have been fighting this awful rash that appeared a little over a week ago. I pretty much knew what I had, and again, didn't want to pay $30 for an office visit and they do nothing about it. What I read about it, is that there is really no cure and it has to run its course for 6-8 weeks! Well, the itching was unbearable and the rash had spread throughout my entire body. I broke down and went yesterday. I was glad I went and I had what I thought I did, however, she gave me some good prescriptions to help with the itch. I have taken them today and haven't itched all day! Praise God!
Well last night, Adriana came down with a high fever out of the blue. She doesn't get sick too often, but when she has in the past, its normally a 24 hour bug and it hits her quickly, as this did. I wasn't too concerned about it. I drugged her up right before bedtime, but within an hour, her temp had gotten to 103.8 and she complained about her throat hurting. I sponged her off and she went back to bed. Around Mid-night she woke up throwing up, which lasted throughout the night. She's such a trooper and never cried or complained just said, after her vomiting, in a sweet voice "getting sick is no fun". She was such a good kid. She slept until 12:30pm today, when I finally went in and woke her up. Her temp was 104.7. I was quite nervous and called the doctor. they said it could be strep and took keep my eye on her. Last time I checked her temp was down to 101.8, so that's good that its coming down. hopefully the end is in sight. Lets just hope that Ryan isn't the next victim in our house of sickness!