Happy 11th Birthday Zane!!

Today is Zane's llth birthday. I just can NOT believe that he's that old. Time truly does fly by with these kiddos. I've been a little weepy this week with 2 birthdays at once. Tomorrow is the big Haunted Trail party so stay tuned for some good pics! I took these pictures this morning before he left for school. He looks a little sleepy :).He got his main present from us tonight- Rock Band 2. I can't say that Jared and I weren't a little excited, too!!

My First Easter Dress

This post is for my Mom. When I was pregnant with Lydia she gave me my first Easter dress and a picture of me in it. I was almost a year old in this picture...and here's Lyddie in it at almost a year old. I had a little more hair... I think that you would see more resemblance if you looked at JARED'S baby pictures!! I let her look at the picture of me. She did NOT want to let it go (notice that she's holding it in the pic above). More walking.Unfortunately, I picked a bad time to play dress up. She'd had her bath and was ready for BED!

WALKING...and Other Fun Things!!

We have several birthdays coming up so I NEED to get caught up! Lydia has started walking!! Last week she started taking steps (just a couple for 2 days and then six or seven at a time after that). Today she really turned a corner. She seemed more determined. When she would fall she would stand right back up and walk again. Something just seems different when they walk. I'm excited but I want to drag it out too. I think it's because I know she's my last baby (unless God has other plans!) and I want to hold on to her being little. Here's a picture of her walking last week.She loves to empty bags and drawers. On this day she would get something out...

act really surprised... shake it and then look at me with a big smile. I could've played for hours!! The kids in our neighborhood are so sweet with her. Here are a couple of the girls. There are several boys that are pretty smitten with her, too. I car pool and when they get in the car she gets really excited. Today one of them walked in and said, "Ok, she's really cute. I just have to admit it. She is." He's 8 and there were girls standing there so I found it pretty sweet :).
Harrison ran downstairs like this (him, Jacob, Zane, and some neighborhood kids were playing upstairs). I asked what he was doing with the toilet paper. He told me that they were grenades. Lydia and Courtney playing in the pantry. It's the favorite place to hang out! I wouldn't want to run into this in the woods! If you do, come see us on Thursday night!!
Jared got Harrison's couch out for Lyddie. She LOVED it! She had Harrison's shoe on watching cartoons. I told you she's growing up!! Tonight we made Halloween pretzels with chocolate tops. The boys really enjoyed it.

The Best Day of My Life

Harrison played hookie from preschool today (is there even such a thing?!). I would've picked him up early to go Zane's Halloween party at school and I didn't feel like driving into town several times, so we decided just to stay home. It was fabulous! After the party, Darcy gave him several treats that the other kids had gotten. He looked at me and said, "This is the best day of my LIFE!". Afterwards, we ran into a couple of stores looking for invitations for Zane and Lyddie's birthday parties. When we got back to the car I realized that we'd lost Lydia's bow. As we're getting out of the car to go back in Harrison says, "This is really messing up the best day of my life." He wasn't sassy or hateful. Just very matter-of-fact. Here are some random pictures from the last few days. Jared and Aaron have been brainstorming for the haunted trail for Zane's birthday party.

This is hanging in the garage next to my car. I know it's there but it startles me every time I walk out there! It's the 12 foot pirate!

I think that Jared might have a new Halloween buddy!Jared worked on this one for quite a while last night. He attached all of the body parts to a shoe box (covered in H's skeleton shirt, of course). The legs are actually two bones that are connected and move. He attached a rope so when you pull it, it looks like the skeleton is moving the pedals. It's very freaky and fun!! Notice that he's wearing a helmet. Safety first!

Zane and the neighborhood kids were selling lemonade yesterday. Drew's recipe apparently made it into the newspaper at one time (quite a selling point I must say-I did rush down to buy some!). They were a LITTLE on the high pressure side. Drew rang doorbells holding a poster and anytime someone walked outside they would hold the poster towards them. They had fun.

Lyddie loves to call Daddy. She never calls me (I guess because I'm always right there!). She picks it up and says, "Dadadadadada." It's very sweet. She got eaten up by mosquitos. If anyone know of a magic potion that will clear them up, please let me know :).

I love this face. She makes it a lot when she's playing. She gets this excited open mouth grin.

She found this in her toy box and LOVED it. Old toys are the best!

The Pumpkin Patch

Shelley and I took Carter, Lydia, and Harrison to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. We had such a great time! The babies didn't like getting down in the straw or grass at first. They got used to it and enjoyed climbing all over the pumpkins. This picture was taken when we first got there. You can tell that Lyddie is not liking the straw.Trying not to touch the straw.

I love this picture. It looks like Lyddie is REALLY telling him something and his expression is so serious. I didn't get great pictures. This is one of the only ones where they are both KIND OF looking at me.




Harrison really liked to turn the pumpkins over and look at the price on the bottom. Once, when he turned it over, it started rolling down the hill and right over THIS sign. "This is a BIG pumpkin!"

Harrison had the job of pulling the wagon full of pumpkins. It was a little heavy getting back up the hill. He did great :)!
He's posing with our loot!

Biker Chick

Lydia and I watched Jared ride the dirt bike around the back fields yesterday. Then she took a turn. She really enjoyed going fast and especially liked popping wheelies (haha Granny!). She liked SITTING with Jared! Have I mentioned that she is SUCH a Daddy's girl right now. Anytime he is near she tries her hardest to get to him. It's very sweet.

Halloween Time

Have I mentioned that we like Halloween... :)? I think I like it so much because Jared has SO much fun with it! Once we bring out the box with all of the masks in it, you never know "who" is going to walk around the corner!! We got the boxes out a couple of days ago. Harrison's friend Gavin from down the street was over playing. They emptied all of the boxes and "decorated" the front of the house. They played for a couple of hours and were very creative!
This is Frank. Here, he had "killed" Gavin but Harrison still wasn't too scared to get a picture!
We went out to dinner and Lydia was playing Peek-A-Boo.
We stopped at Walgreen and came out with THIS and a 12 foot hanging pirate skeleton. We got some strange looks on the way to the bowling alley. Don't worry, I was driving!!