Trip to North Carolina

I got to go visit Alli for a week in North Carolina.  I haven't seen her since August, and I have miss her and her family a ton!  I flew in late Friday night. 

 These little muffins are who I miss.  They are getting so grown up.

 Saturday the first day I was there we went to Duke University and took pictures of the gardens.

 I took a bit of stroll around the campus. 

 The buildings are so majestic and old.

 I couldn't even imagine seeing these buildings day in and day out.

I enjoyed visiting the campus.

 The third day we went to a movie.

 Then we went to the art museum.

 It turns out it is closed on Mondays, who knew. 

 It was a nice day, so we just went around and looked at the pieces outside.

 We had a good time and it was a good way to spend the day.

The colors where still beautiful even this late in the season.  

 On Tuesday we were in a fairytale. 

 Allison got us tickets to the famous Biltmore.

 This house is massive and beautiful.

 There were no pictures allowed inside this huge mansion.

 But Allison never let that stop her.

 The Biltmore is 179,000 square feet.  It has a bowling ally and a swimming pool.

 It has over 250 rooms and acres and acres of gardens and forest. 

It is truly an amazing building.  It makes you want to travel back in time, but only if you are rich like the Vanderbilts.

 That night we went the coolest theater.

The next day we went home and got pedicures.  

 The last day I was there was Sydney's birthday.  We went to her school to have lunch with her.

 That night we went bowling and there were some awesome moves.

 We played two games.  I pretty much rock at bowling Eli got a higher score than I did.

 Sydney's birthday is the reason I went when I did. 

 She turned 8 and I am not going to be able to make it to her baptism. So I have to make up for it by being there for her birthday.

I had a great trip and am super grateful to Jason and my mom for making it possible for me to go.  I miss these guys so much.

Halloween 2013

Every year I have a Halloween party.  There have been years like last year that it didn't happen because we have moved, and don't know anyone. Those years are few, since Dillon was born I try every year to have one.  I like to go all out.  We changed things up a bit this year and I think it turned out well.

 I sent out these cute little invitations.  The kids get to invite all their friends.  I was surprised Dillon even had two friends from his class in Twin come.

 These were the kids costumes.  I'm lazy and don't make them...maybe next year...maybe not!

 These were Jason and my costumes.

 We had tons of goodies for the kids.

 Most of the ideas for things came from Pintrest.

 We had Pizza and chips.

 I made witch brooms and deviled eggs that had the spiders on them, but they never made an appearance.  I forgot about them in the refrigerator. Boo is right. 

 In my defense I had other things on my mind. 

 I didn't get a picture of all the things, because once the kids showed up it was crazy.  We had this Pinata.  We did a treasure hunt.  The kids got to spray each other with silly string (outside of coarse).  They went trick or treating after they colored their treat bags.

 We ate, did this balloon dart board thing.  You can't tell but Jason went to a lot of trouble to cut this out in a pumpkin shape.  It was way cute.  Each balloon had a prize in it.  We did pumpkin bowling, and had a movie going in the movie room. 

There was not a dull moment.  We used to do a fish pond, decorate cookies and do a craft, but the kids are getting too old for that now.  Every other year my family has come, this is the first year no one from my imitate family came.   After everyone left we counted 32 kids, that is not even including their parents.  Crazy but fun.  My kids look forward to Halloween every year.  Hopefully they always will.

It's Pumpkin Time

We had a wonderful Halloween around here.  We "Boo"ed a few people and I think the kids will remember that for a long time.  We decorated pumpkins and no one even cried.

 Jason cleaned out the pumpkins this year bless his heart. 

 Truman picked out his own this year and did it all by himself.  I was very proud of him.

 Jason did Elleree's for her and we made sure he had the hardest pattern.  Okay Elleree wanted an owl and it just so happened that it had a ton of small details.

 After much deliberation Dillon picked out a Minion pattern, and did it all by himself.  He didn't get frustrated and cry this year, Yea!!  My kids are growing up.

 I did Beckett's, he wanted a car, so we did Lighting McQueen.  He was happy.

 Here they are with the final product. 

Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Fall Fun

This fall we haven't had a whole lot of opportunities to get together as a family.  Jason has been working quite a bit and the boys always seemed to have a game or practice.  We were able to make an excursion to the corn maze that CSI puts on.  It was not very impressive, but what do you do.  

 The stocks were so small in some places you could see everything.  This is not necessarily a bad thing for someone like myself who has no sense of direction.  My grandma always said I take after her, and could get lost anywhere.  I didn't get any pictures of Dillon because he was always running ahead.

 There was still corn on the stocks and every few feet Beckett felt compelled to stop and inspect the crop.  Corn on the cob is one of his very favorite things.  We ended up with him holding two ears and the flashlight and me holding one. 

He was very disappointed that he couldn't just eat the corn in the car.  I am glad he has a short memory sometimes because I chucked those ears as soon as we got home.  I'm a good mom like that!

In other news Truman received his bobcat award. Random I know, but it has to be put somewhere.