Thanks Nanna!

We love our Halloween loot!

Cubbies in Costume

The kiddos got to wear their costumes to Cubbies tonight at church. They were so excited about dressing up when they got home from school. So, here are Spidey and Momo........

Fire Safety

Sometimes I really wish there was a manual to this parenting thing. One that sort of broke things down into chapters like, "this is age appropriate for a five year old". Then I would have answers ready when I have conversations like I did today. Cause you know I would read ahead in the manual :)


C: Does the devil live in heaven with God and Jesus?

Mom: No

C: Then where does he live?

Mom: Well, there is a bad place that is really hot and has flames and he lives there because he doesn't love Jesus

C: Is he by himself there?

Mom: (thinking....) No, there are people that have to go there because they don't know Jesus.

C: Well, I know Jesus

Mom: Then you don't have to worry about it.

C: (after a pause of deep thought) Why don't those people just STOP, DROP, and ROLL?!?

Seriously, he is hilarious and doesn't even know it! He also asked a few weeks ago if the tooth fairy knows Jesus!

The rest of the weekend

I got the green light from Maria, so here are the few pics I snapped of the little princess' homecoming!

AP was waiting very patiently to give balloons to the baby :)

She's too cute, right?

Hubs and I had a grand time on our little 24 hours away. The game...not so good. Sleeping until 9:45...awesome!

As soon as we picked up the kiddos and the dogs, it was time to go to a nearby park to celebrate another little friend's birthday. That was our 3rd birthday party of the week!

Welcome Home!

Ap and I went to the airport last night to welcome home another Kyrgyz princess to TN. Oh my goodness, baby Ellie is even cuter in person than she is on her mommy's blog. I got a few cute pics, but I won't share them until Maria gets a chance to tell blogworld about their homecoming. Today hubs and I are on our way to K-town for another big game. We are actually going to spend the night this time since the game is so late. I think what I am most excited about is sleeping all night! It's been a while since there have been no kiddos or dogs to wake us up :)

For the SPOOKY outfits...

Thanks, Baba!

Farming Pumpkins

I think just about everyone we know has been to a pumpkin farm in the last few weeks. I've seen so many pictures of cute little ones picking out their pumpkins! Today was our turn. C's class went on a field trip to Honeysuckle Hill Farm and AP and I tagged along. Our little friend G went, too. The kiddos all had a blast. They learned about how pumpkins are pollinated, pet many animals (AP liked touching the little piglet snouts!), went through a corn maze, went on a hayride, played on a big playground, and picked out their own pumpkins. They were so worn out that even C took a nap when we got home (that is a rare occurrence). Here are my little pumpkin farmers...check out AP's new version of saying "cheese" :) She screams it and looks mad in the pictures!

And these are C's teachers :) I trust my baby with a bunch of pigs :)

So that's how you do it!

After some instruction that I should have sought in the first place, C's room is perfectly striped. It's exactly what I had in mind. I think it turned out great! And for anyone interested, you have to take the tape off while the paint is still wet :)

School Spirit

Here are my little Cougars before school yesterday all decked out in their school colors (ok, maybe AP is not a Cougar yet, but her mom was and her brother is, so she can pretend)

After school, I caught the kiddos sharing some sibling love :)

Then we all went to the football game last night. It was a "blue-out", meaning everybody was supposed to wear their blue. I pulled out my old softball pullover from 1994 :)

Today Hubs is taking C to Knoxville for his very first UT game!! Fun times!

And I'm not sure what kind of face AP is making, but she is rockin' some leg warmers today!

It's Out!

C finally lost that loose tooth! It had been hanging on by a thread for the last few days. Last night we had some serious discussions about letting mommy and daddy pull it.
I was afraid he was going to swallow it during the night because it was basically upside down in his mouth. He got upset, so we let him go to bed with it still in his mouth. Then it survived his morning oatmeal and his fruit snack at school, but lunch pushed it right out! He was so excited to show me his mouth when I picked him up from school today. He brought it home in a little bag with his name on it. He kept checking on the bag all afternoon and made sure to tuck it under his pillow before he went to bed. Here is our little snaggletooth.

I think I hear the tooth fairy now :)

Farmer Day and Painting Faux Pas

Today is Farmer Day at C's school. This dress up day was harder for us than usual b/c C doesn't really have any farm clothes and around here the farmers wear jeans and T-shirts and look just like everyone else. So, we dug out his John Deere hat and tool belt. Then C said that farmers wear bandannas like cowboys, so we added that. Here's our little farmer!

And, as always, little sister wanted to say cheese, too :)

As for the fainting faux pas....let me just say that if you are going to paint a red stripe and you have to paint multiple coats of red, then when you peel the tape off, then the entire red stripe might just peel right off with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so frustrated, mostly about all the time that I had spent painting it that was wasted. So, we tried to put our heads together and decide what we did wrong and now have a new plan of attack. Here is what it looked like after I took the tape off, there's a perfect stripe, but it is white, as in primer white, b/c all the layers of paint peeled off perfectly! Any suggestions are welcome :) And we waited 48 hours before taking the tape off, so surely it was dry ?!?

I need a break from my break!

We have been enjoying Fall Break from school since last Thursday and we have been BUSY! The main project that I wanted to accomplish was repainting C's room. When we moved to our house in March, C was excited that his room was a Titans room. He thought that was such a big boy room. However, his room was so dark that it felt like he was in a cave. It also had Titans wallpaper border around the middle of the room. I am not a big fan of wallpaper or really dark colors in kids' rooms, so we decided to take action. He really wanted it to still be a Titans room, so we found Glidden team colors at H@me Depot. We decided to make the top half of the room the lighter Titans blue and paint a red stripe around the middle. I got a new laser level and it is now my new best friend! It vacuum seals to the wall and shines a laser line around the wall so that you can tape a perfect straight line. I forgot to take a picture before we started but here is a picture after we had taped and primed the top. The walls were all the dark navy that is on the bottom.

After some painting we took a break to go practice our Superman swings!C also worked on perfecting his monkey bar techniques. He is really into monkey bars lately. He does it at school, at church, and at the park. He has even developed callouses on his hands from it!and some more jumping and sliding....After church yesterday we did some baking together. Of course the kiddos favorite part was licking the beaters. AP decided to clean her brother's face :)Then we finished the light blue on the top of the room and added the next line of tape to make the stripe. So far so good....Then this morning we were off to the zoo to meet some good friends. It wouldn't be a day at the zoo without greeting the meerkats first!
AP caught red handed putting leaves all over K's head! Little stinker!I am currently working on my FIFTH coat of red paint on that darn stripe! I'll be glad when I can share the finished product!