Gingerbread Men

Of course we had to go ahead with our annual Gingerbread House Decorating party/competition regardless of the fact that baby #2 still hasn't made his arrival! My mom has been here helping me decorate for Christmas, get the laundry done, making meals to put in the freezer, etc. She has really been a life saver! Well, she has been helping me make the houses and with the leftover dough we decided to make some gingerbread men. Samuel was very excited to help out!!!

Testing the dough. Quickly telling us it tasted "Yucky" and then ate another piece.

Showing me his rolling pin and mouthful of dough.

Making handprints

My cute little cheeseball

Can you tell which ones Samuel cut out?

The Arboretum

We met our friends today at the Arboretum while our husbands braved the crazy shopping (Ryan behind the counter and DJ standing in the LONG lines at Best Buy!). We had fun watching the boys feed the fish, wish the could get in the water, run around and play in the "treehouse". We love our buddies and are so thankful for their friendship!

Getting as close to the water as possible!!!

Of course they would find some water to jump in. Boys will be boys, right?

Jacob, Ben and Samuel "cheese"ing it up!

Daddy's Little Helper

Because of our pending birth of baby #2 we decided to hang our Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Day! Ryan was awesome and climbed on the roof (carefully I might add!) and on ladders galore to put up our beautiful lights. Samuel was more than happy to "help" by climbing the ladder and distracting Daddy for some play time each time he got down from a ladder!

Taking a nice break after lights and dinner! I LOVE my two boys!!!

Happy Birthday Ben

We went to the park yesterday for Ben's 3rd birthday! It was a great way to let the kids play and celebrate our little buddy! Sherry was very creative and made some super cute Froggie cupcakes that also were surrounded by some blue cupcakes (for the water!) Isn't she so clever!!!

Our two peas in a pod! They had so much fun swinging together! I was shocked to get a good picture of them both, aren't they just so happy!!!

Ben snacking on his doritos! He would lick all the cheese off each chip before he ate it! SO cute!

Happy Birthday Ben! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!

June and Caroline certainly weren't going to miss out on those yummy cupcakes!

Cute little Pirate

Samuel's Grandaddy and RuRu are here this week visiting. They stayed at our house on Sunday evening for Ryan and I to go to our small group. Here is one of the cute pictures they got of Samuel after dinner. He was trying to wink and I think it's just so cute. Every time we ask him what a pirate says he says "arrrrrr" and closes one of his eyes. I just love how spunky this little guy is!

Pumpkin Carving

We decided that Sunday was the perfect day to carve our pumpkin! It was a breezy fall day and just great to be outside. Ryan designed it this year and we both love it's simplicity! Samuel LOVED sticking his hand in and scooping out the goop inside! He also enjoyed eating the seeds. Samuel even decided the best way to end the event was with a popsicle while we lit our little pumpkin, and we figured why not!?

Deep in thought designing our pumpkin

Samuel has been very into pushing the button. Here is the result of his handiwork!

Getting messy. He liked pulling out the yucky stuff, and then quickly wanted a towel to wash off his dirty hand!

My 2 favorite men!

Samuel was a good scooper!

I just LOVE this smile!!!

I decided to help too!

While I was carving Samuel pulled his basketball goal down on himself!

Admiring our handiwork, popsicle in hand!

Fall Festival

Last night was our fall festival at church. Samuel had a great time dressed as a pirate. Of course he wore his hat all around our house before we left, and refused to wear it at all the whole night, but life goes on! He LOVED the "jump house" and spent most of his time there. Samuel also went up and down the bouncy slide lots with our neighbor that was there, thank you Maddie for playing with Samuel!!!

Ryan and I entered the Corn Hole tournament, and quickly realized we hadn't practiced quite enough! We lost in the first round 24-3, but we did have fun!

We also have a "trunk or treat" and it was great. Each of the participants decorate their cars and pass out candy to the kids! It was so much fun. One of the cars was a cow and they borrowed our cow costume to make it a little more realistic, another car was a truck full of goats and chickens (real ones!). There was even one where you had to actually fish for your candy!

He would have stayed in here for hours!!!

Having fun on the big bouncy slide

Charlotte was an Indian princess, but decided she also wanted to wear Samuel's pirate hat!

"Samuel, I'll hold you and keep you safe". It was so precious (unfortunately the picture is aweful!)

Trying to keep Samuel safe.

Charlotte trying to help Samuel sit up on the hay! She was glad to be helpful!

Are they loving on each other, or just playing hard. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but this time Charlotte seems to be enjoying it!

So excited about his "pitate candy" (at our house most candy is considered "daddy's snack", so Samuel was super excited to be getting his own candy).

Checking out the chicken and giggling at how it moved!

Samuel got to feed the goats

Shaunna (the pumpkin) and I are due just 2 days apart, her with her first son, Gus, and me with #2, still no name!

Proof that I was there. Check out that bag, Samuel's RuRu sent that to him when she heard he was going to be a pirate. It's SOOOOOOO cute!!!

Samuel sharing his dog with the cow!