A Visit from the Ratliffs

Our good friends, Phillip, Heather, Emily and Anna, came to visit us from Abilene the weekend before Halloween. It's really great to spend time and catch up with them and see how much our kids are growing. On Saturday, we headed to a local nursery that was offering activities for the kids. Here are Emily and Jake heading in. Aren't they so sweet?

They had a TON of pumpkins there, so we took A LOT of pictures. I didn't get one good picture of all three kids, but here's the best one of Jake and Emily...

and here's an absolutely adorable one of Anna...

They had a petting zoo and Jake loved checking out all the animals...Kevin was a pretty popular guy during the weekend. In the car, both Emily and Jake wanted to hold his hand, so of course, what else can a guy do?

The kids enjoyed lots of play time at home too. Emily and Jake got along really well, so that made everyone very happy. PlayDo was an especially big hit...While at the nursery, each family bought a pumpkin with the goal of carving them that evening. The carving was a lot of fun. The daddies took the lead on that project...

We cut lots of different shapes out of construction paper so the kids could pick out what they wanted their face to look like. That way, they were able to put the face together on the pumpkin themselves, then the daddies took over for the carving. Here's Jake's final selection for his face. The tongue was a Jake special request...

Once they were all finished, it was time for the photo opp. Here's our family...Here's Emily and Jake with their super cheesy smiles...

Finally, here's the best capture of a Daddy/kids shot. I think they all look pretty adorable...

Family Day

I am blessed with an amazing husband. Jake and I love spending time with him, and we're blessed that he takes off work a couple times a school year just so we can have a special family day together. These days he takes off mean so much to me as a mom and a wife. On this day we headed down to Austin, played in the park, then ate at Hut's Hamburgers. Here's Daddy and Jake waiting for the yummy hamburgers to arrive...

Here's Mommy and Jake with proof that every once in while our family does break out of our northern bubble to hit some Austin hot spots...For a special treat after our hamburgers, we headed down S. Lamar to Gourdoughs Doughnuts and it WAS NOT there! I was shocked and very saddened. My heart and tummy had to get over the devastation and make do with Hey Cupcake! Not a bad trade-off. Jake picked the flavor: vanilla with chocolate icing, and we shared in the deliciousness. What a great day!

Cup Stacking Champ

On any given day, we'll try to keep ourselves entertained with all sorts of games, toys, and activities. One that Jake has been liking lately is cup stacking. We have a ton of these small paper cups from an activity Kevin did at school, and Jake loves to play with them. Here he is at work (this pyramid is all his own work; no help from Mommy)...

Showing off his work...

Camping

A few weekends ago, we went camping with a group of friends. This was Jake's first camping experience. I was super excited so I did my best to raise his excitement level too. Kevin and I have only been camping with a group, so it was nice to take Jake for the first time with some other camping pros since we still have some learning to do. I'm proud to say I do think we're ready for a little trip just the 3 of us (of course, something simple), so hopefully we'll see what the Spring brings. Jake was all decked out for the trip and we stopped for Sonic drinks on the way, so he was even a more happy camper!

Our site was really beautiful and had this great rocky area where the kids loved playing. They had all sorts of adventures together...

A couple of the moms brought supplies for pumpkin painting so we started off the morning with a little art project...We couldn't have asked for better weather. We were comfortable in shorts and t-shirts during the day, but it cooled off enough at night to make it comfortable in the tents. It was even warm enough to take a little dip in the lake...

These next pictures are courtesy of Noelle McNeil. The entire group took a hike after breakfast and pumpkin painting. I didn't bring my camera, but it was absolutely beautiful scenery. Noelle was nice enough to capture a group shot of the kids. Here's a few of them...And here's the whole group (minus napping Emma)...

And here's the whole crew (minus Jason and friend) after our hike. We really had so much fun. Jake loved his first camping experience, and I can't wait for the opportunity to take him again. It is also such a blessing to have a good group of friends to share the experience with.

Zoo Day

I'm an entire month behind on my blog. Sometimes life happens, and it doesn't include the motivation to blog. Now I'm back and motivated, so am going to play a little catch up. Back in the beginning of October, we went to the zoo with the Dishman family. Jake loves these two boys, so it was a lot of fun to give them an opportunity to hang out. We enjoyed a train ride...

We also enjoyed feeding a lot of the animals, especially the goats...We stopped by this big rooster for a posed shot of the boys...That was their regular pose, and this is their "group hug"...Good times. Good friends. Thanks for joining us Charis, Colt, Levi and Tatum!

Perfect Park Days

When my parents were in town for a visit, we were blessed with amazing weather. The amazing weather meant that we spent a lot of park time and baseball time. Here's some of our outdoor fun: Scaling the wall at the park...

Ready at bat...

and it's outta there...another day at bat...Tree climbing...More rock climbing...

I sure do love this boy...