Thanksgiving Day!!

Luke and Daddy

Luke and Carter's third Thanksgiving was another success with many new memories.  This year we traveled to my grandparents house in Oklahoma (L&C's other great grandparents).  I love spending time with my grandparents and I'm so thankful Luke and Carter are getting to know them.  My grandmother is a great cook and prepared a wonderful meal for everyone.  I just don't understand how when you go to grandmas house food just appears by the pounds.  I can barely cook for two adults and two toddlers!!!  Several of my cousins I haven't seen in a while were also there.  I also finally got to meet our newest second cousin (Liam) and was lucky enough to witness him crawling for the first time.  He has been working on it for a few days and finally got it down.  Maybe he was holding out to show off in front of everyone or maybe it was due to his awesome instructor, Luke, who was demonstrating the crawl for him.   Either way, it was very exciting!!!  What a wonderful day!!!





Liam resting after his huge accomplishment

 

A fun fall day at the zoo

What a fun fall day at the zoo!!!!  It was actually nice to be with older kiddos who were actually interested in seeing all the animals.  I think we saw every single exhibit and had to be sure we were able to spot each animal in each cage. This was a nice change of pace for me since my guys just see the zoo as a free for all running ground.  Not really, they are starting to enjoy all the animals and making the sound that goes with that particular animal.  Along with walking our little tails off, we rode the carousal, looked through the shops and tried to catch the train, but it was closed for repairs. I really enjoyed having lots of helpers with me and watching the babies interact and have fun with their cousins and Oma. 


Mason and Ethan



Gavin, our tour guide

Mommy monkey with her baby (Lola)

Our first time on the carousal

Everyone had to see what bird they were

Oma and her 5 handsome grandsons

3rd Annual Thanksgiving Potluck Playgroup

Each year this event gets more and more crazy.  The first year Martha started it all the babies were either in infant carriers or rolling across the floor.  We were all able to enjoy our meal and visit about our upcoming holiday plans.  The second year I like to refer to as 'controled chaos'.  Babies crawling everywhere and a few even walking.  Lots of crying and very little eating.  This year I would say it was 'uncontroled chaos' with no eating by either the toddlers or the mom's, despite the attempt.  Martha put together a wonderful meal that we all got to enjoy once we got home and children were napping. 

After an attempt at lunch and breaking up several toddler scrabbles, we all played outside.  All the kiddos loved playing in the leaves and taking turns on the swings (I say 'taking turns' lightly, it was actually deadly fights over whose turn it actually was).  All in all, with 6 mom's and 13 babies (one sibling to a set of twins) I have to say success to another playgroup.  I can't wait to see what the 4th annual has in store for us!! :)

Touring Lowes

 With our big project going on at our house, we have made several trips to Lowes lately.  L&C are starting to be more interested in exploring the store rather than riding in the basket.  This leaves me running crazy through the store and Jeff trying to grab the things he needs in hopes he doesn't have to buy anything extra that one of the babies just can't live without.  I have noticed that he hasn't invited us to ride alone with him in a while. 
I checked into attending one of the little kids workshops while we were there, but I still think we may be to young for something like that.  Maybe next year. 

Build-A-Bear Playdate

 This morning was an interesting sight at Build-A-Bear Workshop if you were there and not a part of FWMoM's.  We had 7 mom's which makes for 14 toddlers!!!!  I think we are a bit young to get the idea of Build a bear, but they did have fun tearing the store to pieces.  Each child picked out a bear and a little outfit, then had fun on the computer creating a fun name for their new friend.  I'm sure the girls working this morning we exhausted by the time we left, but we are very thankful for their wonderful patience and help.  I look forward to visiting Build-A-Bear again sometime, but maybe when they are a tad bit older and can participate more. 



All the kiddos getting ready to stuff their bears

Carter creating a name for his bear



Luke loved helping stuff his bear and placing it's heart inside



Carter was't to sure about helping



Not real sure what happened here, but it looks like Luke is trying to get in the bears house.



Fort Worth Stockyards

We had a fun time at the stockyards today.  We went in the afternoon to catch the train, but unfortunately the train only runs on the weekends.  Which was a huge bummer cause Luke really has had a huge interest in trains, hence the Thomas in his hand.  We still enjoyed the beautiful day running through the old streets and getting very dirty.  We also saw our first cattle drive.  All the boys loved seeing all the horses and steers.  Martha and I had a fun time taking pictures and running with all the boys.  Next time we will make sure the train is running. 

Luke and his 'Phomas'

Luke and Evan riding the horses

Anyone home?

Watching the cattle

Sweet boy!!

Halloween 2010

 

Halloween was a success!!!!  I wasn't sure how they would do with their costumes and the trick or treating, but show candy to any child and I think they will do whatever it takes.  We went trick or treating with our friends, Cason and Holden and all four of them caught onto it real fast.  Carter greeted each person with a 'hi' followed by 'tandy please' then a 'thank you, bye'.  Between the two of us I don't think a piece of candy hit his bag until the 5th or 6th house.  We enjoyed our first Halloween adventure and I do have to say my babies make spiders look cute!! :)

Country Critter Farm

L&C with their friends at Country Critter Farm

Wow!!!  What an awesome place and close to home (if you have any clue where we live you would know there isn't much less than a 30 min drive).  Saturday morning we headed just a few minutes south and met up with some of our little friends for a autum fun play date.  Country Critter Farm is basically a families backyard that they have made into a petting/play farm.  It is great place for kiddos our age to run and explore.  A few of the things they have is of course a petting zoo area, pony rides, a train ride, a hay ride, bounce houses, a fun maze and a real pumpkin patch where each of the kids got to pick out their very own pumpkin to take home.  We had fun playing and chasing the animals (and kids).  We hope to visit again next year.

Bounce house fun

Luke not loving the bounce house

Happy boy on the train

L and Mommy having a snack



Petting the baby goat



C having a melt down in the pumpkin patch

My little buck a roo

All six on the trian ride, but only two finished and it wasn't L&C