Christmas Carousel

I am participating in Faith's Christmas Card Carousel today. I love seeing all the cute Christmas cards! This is the 7th year for me to join in, so I couldn't miss it!


The front...

The back...

Head over to Faith's blog to check out some other cute Christmas cards! You can check out our past Christmas cards as well, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, & 2014.
-Lauren-

Happy Thanksgiving!

We got back yesterday, from a fun beach trip with my parents and sister. We rented a house down in Galveston and had a blast fishing, collecting sea shells, riding the ferry and enjoying good food and company.

We had such a great time! When we got home I washed about 6 loads of sandy laundry and we even got started decorating for Christmas. Ready to enjoy the last few days of Thanksgiving break!

-Lauren-

Lately

A couple of weekend's ago we had a little party for Adelaide. Talk about dragging her birthday out! With her birthday so close to Halloween, it is hard to have a party the same weekend. So we had it the weekend after.

The day before it rained all day, but it cleared up and we had a beautiful afternoon the day of the party.

Aedan's school does student lead conferences. The students each have a binder where they fill out graphs and such based on the skills they have learned. The parents come and the student walks his/her parent through the work. It was fun and so great to see Aedan so proud of his work. Afterword, we got to decorate pumpkins.

All of a sudden both kids are into arts and crafts. This is a common scene at our house now. 

 This one keeps me on my toes and is pretty hilarious. This is how she arrives at the gym or at school on a regular basis.

This past weekend, was the Fall Fair at Aedan's school. They had a helicopter the kids got to get in. It was super cool!

They also had a cool rock wall to climb. I think Aedan looks so grown up here. 

Aedan had to disguise a turkey and decided he wanted to make it Chewbacca. I think he and Jon did a pretty good job.  

Today, the kindergarten classes put on a Thanksgiving play. It was super cute!

Family pictures are done and Christmas card have been ordered. I'm looking forward to getting our Christmas decorations out next week!!

-Lauren-

Family Time & Halloween

We got to visit with family two weekends in a row!

My sister and parents came down the weekend before Halloween. We were able to have a little get together with my grandmothers and aunt to celebrate Adelaide's birthday.

Then this past weekend Jon's mom was able to come down and help up celebrate Adelaide's birthday and Halloween. The kids loved all the attention! We had a blast dressing up this year!

 -Lauren-

Happy 3rd Birthday Adelaide!

This girl turned 3 today!

Adelaide, here is what you are up to these days...

• You go to bed around 7:30 every night and come out of your room around 7:30 every morning. I hear you up talking to yourself for awhile before you fall asleep and before you get up every morning, but you rarely come out early. 
• You nap every afternoon from about 1:30-3:30. I think you will probably drop your nap before Aedan did (which was just over 4 years old). 
• You are very independent. You are pretty sure you can do anything Aedan can do and you don't want any help. A few weeks ago, we let Aedan go wash his hands on his own at a restaurant. After dinner was over, you hopped out of the booth and just started walking away. We asked where you were going and you said you were going to the bathroom. Obviously we didn't let you go alone, but the whole time you wanted us to stay back so you could do it "myself". 
• You love to pick out your own clothes, which is totally new to me since Aedan still lets me pick out his clothes. 

• You love to run errands. If someone is leaving the house, you insist on going with them. I took you to Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and we just walked up and down every Christmas aisle. You loved looking at everything. 
• You can be pretty bossy. You have no problem trying to tell any of us what to do!
• You are still not a good eater. You survive off milk and maybe some gold fish or popcorn. You like fruit and will attempt to eat a few bites of vegetables but you will not touch any meat. 
• You love to play with your baby dolls. You feed them, change them and put them to bed. You love to take them in the car or push them in your doll stroller at the park. 
• My parents gave you a dollhouse that belonged to me and Emmie when we were little. You LOVE it. 

• You also love to play with Aedan. You guys will dress up as firemen, knights, etc. You are just as good with a play sword as you are with your baby dolls. :)
• You are a daddy's girl. You love to sneak into Daddy's office and I will find you sitting in Daddy's lab while he is on a conference call. 

Adelaide, we just love you so much! You are such a special part of our family. You are so loving and sweet while having a spunky side that makes us laugh every day. You are so precious to me and I have loved getting to know your little personality. I can't wait to see the next year brings!

Love, Mommy

-Lauren-

Football and Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, we took the kids to see the high school football game. It was a lot of fun!

We went with a group of friends, but Aedan's school counselor and her husband ended up sitting right in front of us. Aedan slowly squeezed his way down and sat right in between them for just about the whole first half (we only stayed until the half time show was over). 

Saturday morning we decided to make the hour drive to Sweet Berry Farms. They have the cutest pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, but so so crowded. My friends and I decided next year we will all go the weekend after Halloween. We will probably have the place to ourselves!

Corn Maze

Taken by Aedan (we are thinking about getting him a camera for Christmas because he loves to take pictures!)

Hay Ride

Picking Flowers

It was such a fun weekend!

-Lauren-

Concussion and Swimming in October

Last week we met one of Aedan's new school friends at a park after school. The boys had a blast! Unfortunately, Aedan took a pretty good fall off a stone ledge. He hit the side of his head. I didn't see it happen, but he was pretty upset so we headed home. I was planning to get him home and put some ice on his head.

Well, as soon as we pulled into the driveway, he started throwing up. So I handed Adelaide off to Jon and took him to the ER. Luckily a stand alone ER just opened in town and we were the only ones there. Everyone was very nice and very fast. They checked him out and did a CT scan. Everything looked fine, but he ended up with a mild concussion.

We kept him home from school for a couple of days so he would take it easy. He was a little off the day after the fall, but by the second day he was back to himself. We are very thankful it was not any worse!

And because no post is complete without a picture of this girl. I can't believe she is about to be 3 in just a couple of weeks! She keeps us on our toes and is so much fun. I have a feeling she is going to be the class clown one day. She literally drives this little car all around the house all day.

I am so ready for some cooler weather! It has been in the 90s (even high 90s) all week. On Monday, we decided to embrace the hot weather and go swimming. The water was a little chilly but the kids had a blast. Now come on fall! We are ready!

-Lauren-