pumpkin carving 101

we didn't go to a pumpkin patch this year... mainly b/c of all the rain. and the one day we were going to go, it was 40 degrees outside! so, we visited the pumpkin patch at bitsy and poppi's house :) these are my attmeps to take pics of our little pumpkins... whether they were willing or not! we started a tradition of carving pumpkins at bitsy and poppi's house last year. we did it again on tuesday night and it was so fun! it is one of our favorite fall festivities! and i know as the kids get older it will continue to be great fun! enjoy the pics. and the pumpkins!

the cutest pumpkins in the patch!lucas supervised the carving!

let the carving begin!!

hard at work!

trace had fun playing with the pumpkin guts... then he held out his hands and said "wipe me mama!!" he doesn't like to be dirty for long!

caden and lala were loving it!

carving is hard work!

trace wanted a pirate. so that's what daddy made him :)

which one is your favorite???

brothers...skeletons...scary cats

my blessings!

sweet boys! guess you've caught on by now, that i buy them matching outfits/pj's/costumes as much as possible! i just can't help it! double the cuteness!
still working on getting them both to smile though!

silly skelton

i know his nose looks awful. he has had a bad cold. just ignore it and focus on the sweet baby!

trace and i made halloween cookies. trace called them scary cats!

i've never really let him help me bake (shame on me, i know!) but he really did good.

ready with his oven mitts!

yay, they're ready now!

and all the boys enjoy the cookies!

like father like sons :)

even lulu gets a few bites (no wonder he turns his nose up at green beans now!)

and he washes it down with juice. such a big boy!

i want to eat him up!

lucas has a mouthful of teeth now! he has a total of 7 as of sunday morning. but we took these pics last week when he was just my lil vampire! he has done the same thing as trace, they both got their 2 middle teeth in on the bottom, then their vampire teeth up top! i think he is so cute!!! don't you agree??

ahhhh! have i mentioned lately that i want to EAT HIM UP????

lil monsters

BRRRR!!! freezing at the fun fall festival :)

the cutest little monsters E.V.E.R.

ahhh, i could just eat him up!

this monster marches to the beat of a different drummer. love the cowboy boots!

we had a great time at the fall festival... well, it could have been a little warmer, and trace could have felt better, and lucas could have taken more than a 2 second nap on the way there, and i could have remembered my jacket. but ya know. it was good, overall :) i was so happy that i bought these warm outfits for the boys, b/c man, it was cold outside! and trace added extra warmth with his cowboy boots! don't you love it? he had not been feeling well, so when i woke him up from his nap and he refused to wear his "monster toes," out the door we went with his cowboy boots! at least he agreed to wear the costume.

i meant to post this sooner, b/c the fall festival was a week ago at church. but the boys have been sick with yucky colds. nate and i have been fighting the alabama crud too. and we've still stayed busy. no time to lay around sick. gotta get up and go!

there have been fall festivals, football games to watch (on tv of course. but go noles and roll tide!) and birthday parties to attend (happy birthday to my sweet niece laura grace. i can't believe you are 2 lala belle!) it seems we are always on the go, and i know it's just gonna get busier with the holdiays approaching! tomorrow nite we will all carve pumpkins at bitsy and poppi's house, so look for another post to follow soon!

happy fall ya'll :)

another Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

******************
i have not sat at work and procrastinated all day long just because it is monday. that is never my attitude on monday. i always get my work done promply as it comes it. there are never stacks and stacks and more stacks of stuff for me to do on my desk.
*******************





ooohh, this next one has a picture. fun! i did not wake up to trace crying at 3:45 AM one day last week... and walk in his room to see THIS.


he did not somehow manage to tump over his toy shelf and make a HUGE mess. i seriously don't have a clue how it happened. after the incident, he was not screaming for mama and nate did not throw him in bed with me. he did not stare at me for the next hour and a half, then cry when the alarm went off and again scream for mama when i had to get in the shower. no, we never have "those kinds" of mornings at our house!

i did not again proceed to buy and use tons more paper products to keep from doing the dishes so often last week. i mean, i LOVE doing dishes by hand since we don't have a dishwasher (seriously, we don't have one!) so i never wait til there are no clean spoons or bottles to wash the ones in the sink.

**************************


we did not have our church's fall festival at church on sunday, when it was 45 degrees outside. i did not wake both boys up from their much needed naps to dress them in their matching little monsters outfit. and trace did not yell and scream and cry that he didn't want to wear his "monster toes" and i would have never let my stubborn 2 yr old wear his coyboy boots with his monster costume. and i did not argue with him for 10 minutes before giving in, b/c i would never want things to be perfect after spending so much on the costumes. i am not obsessive like that :)

*********************
last, but not least... i did not have to convince trace to go to the dr after the fall festival. he had not been running a fever all weekend. and meme most certainly did not go with us, just b/c trace said he wanted to ride in her van! and of course, since we went strait from the said fall festival, i did not let trace wear his costume, complete with cowboy boots into the dr. nope, not this mama that has it all together :) and we did not leave the dr having paid our $35 co-pay just to hear those dreaded words: flu-like symptoms but flu test was negative. must be a highly contagious cold that will last 5-7 days. really, i was not like ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW? hey, don't get me wrong. i wasn't relieved to hear my kid was fine. and i also wasn't frustrated at hearing what we always hear "let it run it's course." GRRR and ARGHHH
**************************

oh, and what's up with these spacing issues. it's not getting on my nerves AT ALL that my blog will not do what i tell it to or space how i want it to. that's not why i have these **** things everywhere to separate my not-me's.

*************************


so let's hear it~ what haven't YOU done lately? trust me, it feels great just to lay it all out! so come on. join the fun. mckmama is even giving away another prize this week for joining NMM and linking back to her blog. just check out more info at mckmama.com

wordless wednesday

Not Me! Monday

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week!

i most certainly did not try and buy gas last week and only get 12 cents from the pump. i did not move to another pump and only get 9 cents from that one. i did not have 2 babies in the car and did not leave them in the car while i went into the gas station and very rudely tell the cashier he needed to put out of order signs on their pumps and then storm out of there. nope, not me!

i did not have to go to the next gas station and try and pump gas there. i didn't have any problems with those pumps, and if i did, i would not have had to go into yet another gas station while leaving my 2 screaming babies in the car to tell them something was wrong with their gas pumps as well. when i finally was able to fill the gas tank up, i did not get a call from my bank checking to see if my card had been stolen b/c it had been used 4 times in 10 minutes. no, i don't have that kind of bad luck! then, i did not go home ranting and raving to my husband about it. and he would never proceed to say "why don't you blog about it on your next not me monday." he does not know me that well at all. :)

i did not use paper cups and plates all last week so i didn't have to do the dishes. i didn't finally give in and ask nate to wash them this weekend, only b/c we were out of spoons. i would never leave a few dishes in the sink for a whole week.

i did not pull a shirt out of the dirty clothes basket and after sniffing it and inspecting it for spit up or stains declare that it was still clean enough to wear again for a meeting saturday morning. i didn't get several compliments on it the 2nd time i wore it. and i didn't totally forget i was wearing a dirty shirt. not me.

lastly, i did not decide to write this not me monday just to try and win a cool prize from mckmama. i would never blog just for the sake of possibly winning something.

so now that i've been honest, let's hear what you haven't been doing lately!

like a weed

first things first, look at my adorable little "pumpkin butt!!" :) i used to call both the boys by that nickname when they were itty bitty. (and nate would laugh at me!) so when i found these cute lil pj's on sale for $5 i couldn't resist buying them!

guess what? in the past week or so, lucas has started crawling!! at first he started crawling on his belly in circles. now he will lunge forward, and get up on his hands and knees some too. he isn't fast but he's efficient!! he is growing up so fast! AND he has 2 more teeth. his top "vampire teeth" are in now. trace did the same thing, got his 2 front teeth on bottom, then those cute lil SHARP vampire teeth up top. just in time for halloween :) are my boys the only ones that get those teeth before the 2 front teeth on top? just wondering...

i also love the sweet little feet in these pj's!

the other day i was doing the dishes and trace came in the kitchen looking like this! what a GOOF BALL! looks like he is trying to be MRS potato head! :)

sweet brothers. they are so sweet to each other. trace loves to make lucas smile. he loves to share his juice, toys, whatever he can! and lucas loves when trace gives him attention. they are sweet sweet brothers! and silly too!

well, based on the picture below, can you guess how lucas spent his 8 month birthday? being sick :( he JUST finished up his 2nd round of 10 days of antibiotics on monday for an ear infection that he just couldn't seem to kick. i thought he was finally better. well tuesday he took a 4 1/2 hour nap at meme's house and woke up with a fever of 102. he ran a fever the rest of the day and night and all day wednesday. i took him to the dr wednesday, on his 8 month birthday. i kinda thought it was the flu. poor baby was pitiful. turns out flu was negative. and his ears were clear. both great news, but what's wrong with my baby? dr checks his throat and finally finds the problem. strep test came back negative as well, also a good thing. the not good news is that he has a viral infection in his throat... and they can't give him anything for it. she said to expect a fever for 3-4 days. and fussiness. and drooling. and just a lil boy that doesn't feel well. but i think the worst of it may be behind us. he started getting sick tuesday, and up until yesterday, has had a fever off and on. but he woke up this morning and i think his fever has finally broke! he went on to meme's house, so i know he is in good hands! praise god she is over the flu and is feeling better! and we are also thankful to bisty and poppi who helped out while meme was sick. also poppi watched lucas yesterday while bitsy and trace went to bible study. it's so hard for nate and i to be off work, and my vacation and sick time is GONE. don't know how we'll make it til january... but we will! guess we just won't get paid next time we have to be off!

anyways. back to the positives, right? lucas, my dear sweet lil boy, is growing like a weed! he weighed 18 pounds even at the dr... and he has been on 20 days of antibiotics and sick for over a month. and he still continues to put on weight! YAY. the dr said we should bring him in next week for a flu shot, and then we can skip his 9 month well visit b/c she is happy with his growth and progress. he is only in the 25th % for weight, and the 50th % for height. but he is growing great so hopefully we can get this sick baby well for a while!! we've seen too much of peds east lately and DEF given them too much of our hard earned money!!!

oh... well it's finally the weekend and i am so happy! i hope it's a fever free one for all, and some resting and relaxation is definitely in order! lots of time lounging at the house sounds so good to me! and maybe a big pot of chili too.

what baby do you know that smiles with a fever of 102? lucas had a ball playing with the paper on the table at the dr... he did scream the whole way from meme's to roebuck, a 20 minute drive that was so hard for me to make. i was almost in tears too, listening to my poor baby cry! but i knew if i pulled over and got him calm, he would scream again the minute he got back in his seat. as soon as we got there and i got him out of his seat, he was happy the WHOLE TIME at the dr. who wouldn't be happy with their mama holding them? :) and spoiling them? and letting them hit their mama over and over just b/c it made them laugh? sweet baby! oh, and he slept on the way home, like a good lil boy!! :)