Guess Who Won?

That's right!!!

We won the pumpkin carving contest!!

WHOOOO HOOOO!!

Thanks Mom for the idea.. thanks John for cutting the pumpkin... and thanks little man for painting Cookie Monster. This was so much fun and I am so excited that we won.. we never win!

Oh.. and guess what?


On the same day I found out we won the Pumpkin contest... I also found out that we were chosen for family of the month... double win!!

We are truly blessed this month!!

Carving The Pumpkin

Every year, Joshua's school has a pumpkin carving contest.

 

And every year we turn our pumpkin in on the first day and by judging day.. its moldy and falling apart. So, this year, we were out to find something simple that makes a big impact.

 

And my mom found it on the Internet.. it was perfect.

 

Here are the supplies... do you know what it is yet?

 

Hint: Cookies, Big Eyes, and blue paint!

 

 

John carves the pumpkin. (I really should make him wear shirts for pictures, but never think about it.)

Joshua and I take out the guts.

 

 

And Joshua paints him blue...

 

 

Did you guess what he is yet??

 

Cookie Monster!!!

 

YUM YUM YUM!!!

 

Look how cute he turned out...

I am loving him... thanks Mom for the idea!!!

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of the year again... I love the colors and I love the cool weather..... Texas of course.. has neither.  Our grass is brown and dying from lack of rain. Our weather is hot enough to eat sno-cones.

 

However.. we still carry on and pretend its fall the best we can, and that means a trip to the pumpkin patch. This is Joshua's favorite place to go because he loves to ride the train.

 

We played games. We took pictures. We picked out a pumpkin for each of his classmates and of course a few for the house. We rode the train.. like 5 times. And last, but not least, we ate sno-cones because we worked up a sweat in the 80 degree weather we had that day. (Ok.. maybe 78 degrees because there was a nice breeze.)

 

Despite the weather, this is our favorite place to kick off the fall season.

 

 

 

 

A rare picture of me.. I seriously hate pictures of me.. I have gained so much weight, but I have been working on that. Posts to come soon.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a orange flavored sno-cone Mom!!
(she thought it might be pumpkin flavored. Yuck!)

Halloween Decorations Inside

 I am so late on posting this, but hey.. This month we are late on everything.

October starts the beginning of parties, field trips, football and family traditions.

Throw in a trip to Del Rio and one to Louisiana... and we are getting ready for our Disney cruise... So, I am surprised I have time to do anything! I did finally get our decorations up.... halfway through the month, but that is how we roll around here...

I didn't put up as much as last year, because well.. lets face it.. not much longer and I will be taking them back down. 

I am seriously thinking I should start on  decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving is even here... or is that too weird?

Anyways... here is the inside of our house this year...

Grandparents Day

Happy Grandparents Day!!

Joshua made frames this year for both sets of grandparents and inside the frames are pictures of Joshua with that set of grandparents.

We mailed off Meema and Tetaw's because they live 4+ hours away.

However, he was able to give Granna and Papa their gift that night, and boy was he so proud of it. He was excited to watch Granna open the frame.

After this, we treated Granna and Papa to a night out at Texas Roadhouse.

Joshua has the best grandparents ever and I hope they all know how much we love and appreciate everything they do!



"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children."

Holiday Weekend Bust

This weekend has been everything less than spectacular. Yes.. you read that right. Holiday weekend loaded with lots of sick people = not spectacular.

It started out with a hope and glimmer. A birthday party for our cousin Austin. Good food, wonderful family.... presents.. and cake!! Cookie cake! It was yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

The kids had a blast playing outside and in Austin's famous tree house. Joshua didn't want to leave, but the mosquitoes had come out to play and that was most certainly our cue to exit and say our good-byes.

  

Our next visit that night was to a restaurant called Pine Tree Lodge. It's a hole in the wall backwoods place where the fried food is sinful and the alligators roam free. We ate some oysters and shrimp.. and then visited our little friend who looked very hungry. All was great. 

 

Until Joshua started complaining his tummy hurt.

He said it was just because he ate so much. He had ate a lot... hot dog, shrimp, and fries. I thought it might be true, because he says that sometimes at home. On occasion, Joshua will even march right up to you and demand you feel how full his belly is. So, I just shrugged it off.

We went back to Granna's house, he took a shower and put on his jammies. He loaded up in Aunt Mandi and Uncle Ryan's car and went over to spend the night.

 

4:30 am.

 

Ring Ring!!

 

"What the heck?"

 

Ring Ring!!

 

I pushed like 7 buttons on my moms home phone before I actually answered it. It was my brother telling me that Joshua was sick and he was going to clean him up and bring him over. Poor baby. His tummy really did hurt. (Aunt Mandi was sick too!) He spent most of Saturday like this...

 

And then we went home to get some anti nauseous medicine. After taking it.. he felt much better. Still not 100% and he was still running a temp. But it was a great holiday weekend.

 

For the last two days I haven't felt too hot either. I am drained, but for other reasons that I will spare you from hearing on here. Lets just say the surgery was a week ago and I am reaping some effects today. My mind says you have a million things to do today, and my body is saying "please rest up, you need a break."

As for Joshua.. he is 2000% better and has more energy that I know how to channel. All I want to do is rest... and all he wants to do is play Ninja boy.

 

It's a great holiday! Happy Labor day weekend! Hope yours was better than mine!

Happy Birthday America

For us, the birthday of America... started with a whole lot of water... and ended with a bang. (and a few people screaming.)

First things first... my mother bought 500 water balloons. It came with this bottle that looked pretty easy to set up and do.. so I volunteered John to work on the balloons while Mom and I baked.

However.. this was not as easy as it seemed. It took about 5 hours and two people to get about 250 balloons filled before we gave up because we couldn't feel our fingers anymore.

But... it was worth it.

The party was held at my Brother and Sister in laws house. She had is decorated so cute. All the small touches really made it feel like you wanted to stand up and sing "God Bless America."

The food was even better. I know I have said it once.. so I am saying it again... my Sister in law can cook!! and apparently so can my brother, because the hamburgers were great!

Bauer Ranch sure knows how to throw a party...

Water slide with cannons... Check!

250 water balloons gone in 4 minutes flat.... Check!

Crafts for the kids... Check!

Bubbles... Check!

Cheers for America.. Check!!!

Fireworks for the Kids... Check!!

Crazy Fun Aunt... Check!!

And the Grand Finale... beautiful fireworks that lit up the sky so perfectly. My dad made great choices this year for fireworks because they were all just so big and beautiful.

Everything was going great... until it wasn't....

John set off a firework and it fell over and went crazy. It shot straight into the crowd of people and everyone went running frantically. Three of the little nieces had minor burns on them that were gone by the time they woke up the following morning.

And John... well he caught one in his 'Misters'.... and is very bruised... 


But we are all alive. We all had a great time. This will be the party talked about for years to come because it was such a success with a surprise firework attack at the end.

Thank you to Mandi and Ryan for hosting the Bauer Ranch Freedom Bash this year!!