pumpkin shmumpkin

ok so this is almost the last post about all things pumpkins, i promise! :) we have had a ton of fun lately. first the pumpkin patch, then we had a pumpkin carving party. as always, i will share some of my most fav pics. we went to the great pumpkin patch in hayden with all of nate's family. we rode the covered wagon, picked pumpkins, all the kids but lucas rode a pony (he got on one but i made nate take him off, he was screaming bloody murder... so i collected my $4 back! overpriced much? geez!) and then we had a picnic. we went early before it got too crowded, and hot! what a great choice that was!!the boys

our fam at the pumpkin patch!

it's become a tradition to have a pumpkin carving party at my parents house each year. it was storming like crazy tuesday, so we weren't sure if we would be able to have our party outside. but luckily, the rain held off til we were finished and home. the adults carved pumpkins, a few were just photographers (ahem... me) and the kids ran around mostly, but occasionally played with the pumpkin guts and made "pumpkin soup!"

i did pretend to carve for a few photos anyway :)

and here are the finished products. we have some super talented pumpkin carvers, if you ask me. trace is so obsessed with the bumblebee transformer right now. hence his costume. and pointing out every yellow truck or suv he sees and yelling "i see a bumblebee car!" and going bananas when we see jets in the sky and the line they've made in the clouds. apparently uncle josh told trace those were transformers and that they live in our world?!? :o) anywho. so naturally trace wanted nate to carve him a bumblebee pumpkin. so that's what he did. :o)

the rest of the jack-o-lanterns

they all looked so good lit up. see???

and last, the pumpkin carvers and their pieces of art. if you can't tell, starting from the far left is: poppi (my dad), josh, grandaddy (nate's dad) shannon, rachel, d, and of course, nate!

next up: halloween. and it can't come soon enough for me. i'm just about ready for these festivities to be over. i know i was all about fall a few weeks ago, but hearing "is tonite when we go trick-or-treating" gets old after the 497th time! :o)

look-a-like

i think it's fun to compare my 2 monkeys and see how much they look a like! :o)

how well do you know my whitt boys? which one is trace and which one is lucas? (i'm sure you can figure it out, but to me, the resemblence is still crazy!!)

busy weekend

we had such a busy weekend. it was a lot of fun, but i'm still recovering! :) seriously. i've gone to sleep before 9 o'clock the past 2 nites. hey, i'm not ashamed. i love my sleep! anyways! saturday we had to do inventory at work... it's the one saturday a year that i have to work. and it makes me realize how grateful i am to always have the weekend off! i worked from 7-3 then bought groceries. by time i got home it was 5:30. i was whooped! nate graciously kept the boys entertained all day. of course they were great for their daddy! i just wish they were 1/2 as good for me as they are for him. ha! but on sunday, the fun began! we had church, then my niece's 3rd birthday party, then the fall festival at church! it was such a busy day, and notice there was no time for the kids to take a nap b/w church and the festivities! and i must say, lucas and trace both behaved pretty well, considering all the sugar they consumed, and the lack of nap time! for a second, i thought about not even taking my camera sunday. sometimes it's stressful trying to get pics of everything. but then my OCD kicked in and i took 649, just to make sure i didn't miss a memory! :o) seriously, it was more like 127. and to spare you from all 127 pics, i made a few collages from my fav pics of the day! oh, and lala's party was a costume party. laura grace was cinderella and caden was a (thug) pirate/captain hook. (not sure which one!) kenley was jessie (from toy story) and mason was woody! isn't that the cutest idea ever? and although i thought trace was going to be batman, a few weeks ago, he decided he wanted to be the bumblebee transformer. hey whatever floats your boat! and lucas was a sock monkey! the kids were all so cute in their costumes! i can't wait til they get to dress up again to trick-or-treat and then we can retire the costumes for the year! :o)

our church had it's fall festival early this year, in hopes of having lots of visitors. and i must say, we had a fantastic turnout from the community and it was the best one yet! there were over 20 booths/games with candy and prizes, as well as a 5 blow up jumpy things/slides, a dunking booth, popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs and snowcones! the kids all had a ball. i would have preferred the weather to be about 15 degrees cooler, but hey, at least it was a beautiful sunny day! (could have been cold and rainy!) hope you enjoy the pics!

(not sure what happened to the text on the collage below... but it says "the boys dunk their daddies... so fun!") and a lot of fun it was! josh and nate were both in the dunking booth at one point, and caden and trace tried their hardest to hit the target and knock 'em in the water. after several failed attempts, with bitsy and meme's help, both succeeded! i love how both nate and josh have their hands up in the air, knowing they are about to fall in the water! :)

next up on the fall fun calendar: the pumpkin patch with the whole fam saturday and then carving pumpkins next week! YaY! i love fall!!!

what kind of fall fun have you been up to or do you have planned? i'd love to hear!

Bama Boys

orange beach- part 2

more sandy fun! nate, being the artist that he is, carved trace's name in the sand :)

brothers at the beach!

lucas sure loves his poppi! some days he wakes up and the first words out of his mouth are "Pop Pop!" ♥ he had a blast fishing with him!

the outdoor pool was in the shade the whole time. so each day after the beach, the guys took the kids swimming in the indoor pool. it was so nice! the bottom right hand pic is trace jumping off the side of the pool. ya'll, i am so proud of him. he has come so far in the past few months. at the beginning of summer, he would not get in the pool by himself. NOW, he is jumping off the side, without anyone catching him! i love my 2 little fish named trace and lucas :)

below is the awesome condo where we stayed. the kitchen, dining room, and living room were all huge open rooms. we had a glass door going out to the patio (we were on the bottom level, which was so nice) and it opened right up to the bay. it was cool and breezy on the patio and oh so nice!! (sorry guys, not trying to rub it in, just remembering how wonderful it was!)

and of course, we took some family pics! again, not sure why my boys wouldn't smile, but whatever. i'm so over that! :)

the big boys!

this is my fav one of us!

and another perfectly posed pic of shannon and josh, and their kids who actually smile for the camera!

and last but not least, in my opinion, one of the reasons we had so much fun on our trip...

BITSY AND POPPI!

we really did have a wonderful time, and i'm so glad we got to enjoy this weekend trip to the beach with the whole family! hopefully these memories will get us through the winter, til we can get to the beach again next year! :)

Psalm 106:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever!"

orange beach- part 1

we had a wonderful time at the beach.... we were so blessed to be able to stay at a super nice condo at a super nice price. (thanks to shannon for the awesome hook up!) let me just say, the beach in october is fabulous! we practically had the place to ourselves!! :) we haven't been to the beach with my whole family (bitsy, poppi, shannon, josh, caden, lala, me, nate, trace, and lucas) since 2008 when i was pregnant with lucas. needless to say, the 4 cousins had an absolute blast this trip!! whether they were throwing sand, collecting shells, playing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, fishing on the pier, riding go-carts at the track, or just hanging out at the congo (as the kids called it) eating all sorts of sugar filled treats, there were plenty of smiles and shouts of delight! and the adults had a pretty good time as well! enjoy the pics and see for yourselves...

fun at the beach!

lucas loved the sand...

and the kids especially loved hanging out with bitsy and poppi!

my dad named this big bird (i think it's a blue heron?) blue. creative i know. :) he would hang out when we were fishing and he loved the treats poppi would throw to him. lucas, however, didn't love when we fed blue. he would get a real worried look on his face and say "fish, fish" while the bird was enjoying his meal!

good times!

g

o

n

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fishin'

stay tuned for orange beach, part 2. i know, you are so excited you can't stand it! :)