October 30 - Pumpkin Patch

Luke and I had a 'date night' last Friday while Julia was at Kendall's house for a birthday sleepover. We went to JSC's Fright Night at the Gilruth Center (the NASA gym) and had a great time. We had our first ever food truck experience (although after paying $20 for two 'gourmet' hotdogs I think I'm done with food trucks) and Luke did a ton of fun games: monster memory, creepy bowling, eyeball on a spoon as well as some others. He also loved the bounce house (of course!), had a bat painted on his forehead and we went on a haunted walk outside. It was a great time!

Earlier this week we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch. We've had a lot of rain here recently with the tropical storm so it was nice to finally get out of the house (soccer was cancelled last weekend and we spent all day Sunday cleaning and organizing the house, it was too wet to do anything). Julia was absolutely hilarious at the pumpkin patch-after quickly picking out the pumpkins, she just wanted to take photos! She was even 'directing' some of the shots. It was really funny. 

Slightly blurry but so cute

Love these kids

Mom, take a picture of me here

Oh, look at these! Luke, over here, we need a photo

Okay, now I need you guys to kiss for me. Mom, hold the pumpkin. Perfect

Luke was content pulling this wagon around the place

October 28 - Welcome to the Desert

 Last week I visited the beautiful Cooper State, Arizona. My first trip to Arizona was a few years ago for a sales conference and we barely left the hotel. This time, Cara (my co-worker and friend) and I were able to see some of the landscape. We primarily worked in the Phoenix/Tempe area and drove to Tuscon one day to visit some hospitals. The north part of Tuscon is nice although we saw something unique in one of the hospitals in south Tuscon-hospital security walking around with German Shepherds. The sales rep told us were about 40 miles from the border which is why they had them. We also worked at the hospital where Gabrielle Gifford (state rep that was shot a few years ago) was treated. We ate lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant (that was very different from the Tex-Mex I'm used to) and it was delicious. 

The desert drive was very different from anything we'd ever seen-there was literally desert around us and mountains in the distance The sunset was unbelievable. We had about 20min of free time one afternoon and took a helicopter ride around Scottsdale (nice suburb in Phoenix). It was amazing! We will be back in Scottsdale in January for our national sales meeting and might take another ride. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Getting ready to ride!

This is awesome

Golf course

Camelback Mountain

October 26 - First Tooth!

Exciting news folks. Julia lost her first tooth last Sunday!! The tooth in question was loose for quite a long time so it was a little surprising that it finally fell out. Julia was SUPER excited about the tooth fairy. So excited that she slept with her pillow next to her...and ended up sleeping on top of it! No worries-the tooth fairy was still able to recover her tooth and giver her some quarters. :) Another tooth is current loose, woo hoo!

October 19 - Partytime

Luke's party was this weekend and it was a blast. We couldn't have asked for a better day-sunny, breezy and about 80 degrees, it was perfect! We started out the day at the soccer fields (about 4H between the 2 kids). Both games went well and Julia scored several goals. When we got home, the slide had been delivered (it was steeper than I thought it would be) and the kids immediately played on it while JD and I finished getting the house ready. The party started at 4pm and went until around 7:30pm and the kids all had a blast. The slide was a huge hit (we also had hula hoops and bean bag cornhole set up). Fun times for all!

The kids and I spent Friday evening baking - the double oven made it a lot easier! We made 24 cupcakes & 4 9" rounds in less than an hour. 

The cake

Snowcone time!

The girls

Luke, Isaac & Mason

Karma really wanted to go down the slide too!

Amelia was content being petted

How many parents does it take to block the wind and light the candles?

And....3 wasn't enough. We had to move indoors to sing happy birthday

Luke & Kathryn

Momma, I'll go to bed after I play with this for just a few more minutes

October 15 - Happy Birthday Luke!

My little dimpled munchkin is a big five year old now. FIVE. 5!?! Yesterday, we went to dinner at the 'fancy restaurant' (also known as McAllister's Deli, his choice) and then ice cream. Afterward we came home where he was surprised to find a huge stormtrooper waiting for him in the family room! He opened family presents and the kids (and JD) had fun playing with everything. Thank you to all of our family who called Luke on his special day, it meant a lot to him! His party is this Saturday and he is VERY excited to have his friends over. 

Stormtrooper (Karma barked at the balloon for an hour straight hehe)

Present time!

Spiderman

October 7 - Tiger Bumblebees

We took some unofficial soccer photos last weekend before our game. Introducing...the most adorable team in the history of youth soccer..the Tiger Bumblebees!

Silly TB's

Luke in action

October 5 - Edamomma

The kids are big fans of edamame. They were eating some the other night and Luke told me that instead of calling it edamame, he is now calling it 'edamomma.' For you northerners reading this blog, he calls me 'momma.' I have tried for 5 years to get them to call me 'mommy' and they insist on calling me 'momma' (well, I'm now 'mom' to Julia but Luke is still all about his momma). Anyway...it was adorable and very funny!

So October is here, yay!  The weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS. The kids and I went to the park last week to play for a few hours and had a great time. On Friday, the girl scouts came over for movie night. They voted on the movie and it was almost unanimous: Disney's Descendants. I think all of the girls (sans 2) have seen the movie at least 20x and knew all the words and songs. It was quite a sight seeing a bunch of little girls singing and dancing for a few hours. 


Soccer Saturday was fun. Luke and I headed to Friendswood (town about 25min away) and play a tough game. Our team lost (it was about 15-0) but the kids had fun. After his game, we headed to our home field to watch Julia play, her team did really well. After taking off sweaty shinguards and cleats, the kids, dogs and I headed to our neighborhood park to enjoy the beautiful weather. Hannah came over afterwards and the kids decided to decorate the house for Halloween. It looks adorable (although they put about 50 stickers on my front windows). 


Yesterday, we once again had amazing weather (amazing here = 60s in the morning and highs in the low 80s). We had a family picnic at the park and then JD and I went out for date night. Fab weekend!

The furry babies

Picnic fun

Halloween time!

Our babysitter is in cosmetology school and I let her do my eye makeup last night...I told her she had free reign. I'm usually very plain Jane so this was quite a change!

Date night!