Trick or Treat

This year was so fun! Brice was an evil jester and we decided to dress Anna as Cindy Lou Who. Awesome job by my mom who made the costume! Most people knew who she was and loved it! I only wish one of us had dressed up as the Grinch!
This girl was all about the trick or treating! Didn't want to be carried and didn't want anyone carrying her ghost bucket. She would walk away from one house, say bye-bye and then say, "more ca-cies" (candy)! Brice thought he could out-stare or out-scare this guy.
Both kids did our entire street and then we brought Anna home while Brice did another street. It was his first year doing more than one street and he loved it despite one haunted house.


All the grandparents came with dinner (thanks, mom) and snacks (thanks, Robin) and then handed out candy for us! So, we had to trick or treat at our own house!

Checking out her candy on the couch.
Brice made it back home where he proceeded to stuff four pieces of chocolate down his throat in about three minutes!

Pumpkin Picking, Pumpkin Carving

I do believe we are ready for Halloween in this house. After that game today, we are ready to move on to something everyone can enjoy. Proud to be a Gator Hater, GO DAWGS and like we always say, "maybe next year". Kind of tired of saying that...

Anywho. Yesterday, I took the kids to a church just up the street that always has a pumpkin patch and much prefer paying for an overpriced pumpkin there than just getting one out of the bin at the grocery store. Anna acted as if she has been doing this as long as Brice has and as soon as her feet touched the ground from the car, she ran into the hay, looking and touching and saying, "punks"! She enjoyed herself.Brice was entranced by these white ones after he told me "there's no such thing as a white pumpkin, mom". Oh yes there is my dear.
Brice couldn't decide if he wanted a tall, skinny or round one. I talked him into the biggest one we've ever gotten and it is tall and skinny!
Anna is watching Brice here and then spotted a whole other flat filled with pumpkins...
...unfortunately, the flat was filled with rotted pumpkins where she proceeded to step in pumpkin puke and fall flat on her tiny heiny. And let me tell you how bad it smelled. Her left shoe and right pant leg took the brunt of the fall and oh. my. gosh. Brice was having a fit in the car the whole way home.
Here is Justin cleaning out the guts. We always have some sort of project for him ready to go after the Dawgs lose to Florida. This year, because we did play so well and fought our hardest, I let him have a knife. ;) Two years ago, he painted a certain someone's room a pretty pink.
After this next picture, Brice took over with the camera and started taking pictures of all things Halloween around our house.
Our candy bowl.
Guess he was trying to scare himself here.
A witch. (No comments necessary on that)
Justin's fine carving job.

Happy Halloween!!! Happy Halloween!!! Happy Halloween!!! Happy Halloween!!! Happy Halloween!!!

Cute Conversations

We've had a couple of Cute Conversations around here over the past couple of days.

I am doing Religious Education at home with Brice since Catholics are weird and don't have Sunday school. They have their classes during the week which I know is going to interfere with sports. I just decided that it would take the pressure off if I did it at home. So, this week, I read Brice a story about Saint Rose of Lima. Before I started the story I asked, "Do you know what a Saint is?"

"Yes, it's the football team from New Orleans."!!!

Obviously, he and Justin have been watching football on Sundays while I'm at work! And sports is interfering regardless!



Anna does not like when the teachers get her out of the car at school. I try to warn her the day before that she has school and she usually responds with "cry". So yesterday, Brice says to Anna while she is sitting at the little table and chairs, "Anna, do you have school tomorrow?"

"Cry."

"You don't have to cry. I go to school everyday and I don't cry. I haven't cried since my one year old class. [I interject here to tell him it was actually his two year old class] So, you don't have to cry, okay Anna?"

"Ahhh-K."

And, I am happy to report that she didn't! She was such a big girl and let the teacher get her out and in they went. Her daily report said that "she is having so much fun at school, we love her!". So proud of my little Anna Claire!

Can I Get a "Go Dawgs!"?

I know there are several different team fans that read this blog, but I have yelled Roll Tide a few times this season and I want to hear a GO DAWGS! after looking at these pictures.


One day, some boy will look at these pictures of Anna and think to himself, "wow, It's Great To Be a Georgia Bulldog!" Yes. It Is. Can I Get a "Go Dawgs!"? GOOOOO DAWGS! SIC 'EM! WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!

Kick Butt Months

So, I've decided that May and October are two months that really Kick my Butt. May is filled with the beginning of birthday celebrations, end of school things and planning for the summer. We are now in October and it is kicking my butt as well. So many things that I am wanting to do but just can't squeeze it all in. Football, festivals, showers, work, preparing for the upcoming holidays (which in my line of work means planning ahead two to three months on the work schedule and having to decide months in advance what your family can and cannot do), and just life in general has been crazy around here.

I do realize that it is already Wednesday but I'm going to tell you about our past weekend because it was jam packed with activities. And, I had trouble with loading the pictures in the right order again so...

Saturday afternoon after the Dawgs kicked butt (recurring theme) against Vandy, I headed over to volunteer with the Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation's Remembrance Celebration. For those of you who don't know, October is Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month and so the Foundation has a candle lighting ceremony every year to honor those little ones who families never got to meet or were only able to have with them a short time here on Earth. Keira, the president who lost her triplet Zoe is amazing and offers all kinds of references for the families that attend. She reads the list of names of babies and this year there were over 300. She has the volunteers set out tea lights in water lily looking things. Once they are all lit and it is dark, it is so beautiful!! The pictures below are of the program. This year I was in charge of the kids' craft table. Keira makes a point of having the siblings allowed to come because she feels they have suffered a loss just as much as the parents.
This poem was read by one of the bereaved mothers. Her whole family was there. She and her husband has four boys and one daughter and just recently lost their second daughter.
Of course, it moves everyone to tears.

So, backtracking a little. Friday night, we headed to Athens for the Homecoming Parade which we try to do every year. I think we missed one year due to bad rainy weather but Brice has been almost every year of his life and this was Anna's first parade. We didn't take her last year because Brice, Justin and I ended up staying the night in Athens for the game on Saturday. She loved it and anticipated the next float, car, whatever. I love this tradition that we've started! Unfortunately, as the parade started and I turned on my camera, the battery light started flashing so I didn't get many good pictures.

Brice eagerly awaits candy and flying footballs!

Ready.
"OVER HERE!" Brice did end up with some good candy which thanks to Mollie, Jonathan's girlfriend, he was able to keep up with it.
The picture below is of Charley Trippi, a Georgia legend, who played during the time of the War. I believe he actually played, left for a year to fight and then came back. Awesome homecoming!

Brice rounded out his fun weekend by staying at Jonathan's house in Athens and the going to the shutout game with Jonathan, Mollie, and Justin. The boy is a Georgia fan!

22 Months-Altenately Titled...Might As Well Be TWO

Not sure why these uploaded out of order but anyway, Anna turns twenty-two months today which is very hard for me to believe. She is still as sweet as can be and still very spunky. Brice is not allowed to touch anything of hers without hearing about it. It's quite unfair but he is so good about just letting it go!
I can't say much has changed in the past month. She is learning her colors and knows red, green, blue and pink and purple. We don't teach the color orange in this house, kidding of course. I do think she knows how to count but she won't do it for me. It usually comes out as two, five, two five, two. As with everything, she will do it in her own time. She says many words and is getting much better about putting two/three word sentences together. Although, I have a much harder time understanding her than I ever did with Brice. As of late, she has been giving me a time with going down for naps. It drives me to want to drink mid-afternoon or scream at the top of my lungs. I know this is fleeting but some days, wow! She exerts herself very well and I can see the two year old in her!
These pictures were taken about two weeks ago when she came to me with all of her bows and just kept handing them to me. Very Laura Ingalls Wilder, don't you think?

Fall Break Family Fun

So Brice is on fall break and I had every intention of enjoying the weather and getting out of the house so that he stayed busy. On Friday I ended up taking them both to the dentist with me which was a little nerve racking but they were both very good. Anna wasn't a fan of Mommy being in the chair or the squirter in my mouth! After that we headed to the park for some fun. Brice couldn't wait to wear his skeleton shirt so you will see it a lot in the pictures below. It was washed in between wears!

Covering her ears so she didn't have to hear Rocky Top. And, we didn't hear it very much, thank goodness! GO DAWGS!!! A BIG WIN FOR US OVER THOSE VOLS! LOVE IT!
On Sunday, I had planned a day at Cagle's Dairy Farm. I've been wanting to go but it is not very close to our house at all so I knew I had to gear everyone up. We did enjoy it despite the "trip"! Anna must have said, "Cows" fifty times before we got there. Then when we got out of the car, we had to wait in line for tickets and she started with, "See, cows...see cows". I guess she thought they would greet us at the car door!


Brice feeding the cows. He really enjoyed it and was disappointed I didn't take pictures of the mechanical milking and processing plant. The reason I didn't is because the cow they were "milking" was actually pregnant and wasn't even producing milk so they just demonstrated how they hook them up and then fake milk flowed through the tubing.
Anna fed the calf one leaf and that was it. She really liked watching me feeding the calf though and kept finding leaves for me to feed it.

So, during the milking demonstration, Brice asks me, "What does that feel like?" I wanted to say "Well...it kind of..." just kidding, I'm not going to go into detail because he was allowed to put his thumb in the attachment and feel it himself! Although I don't think this machine is the same as a live baby...
We then got to go on a hayride and watch this Border Collie, Tib, herd the cows. It was pretty neat to see and Anna loved seeing, "more cows and dog"!

Checking out Tib.
Leading the way even though she's not sure what's next. As far as she knew, there had to be more cows around the corner!
Picking out her complimentary pumpkin.

As for the next couple of days, we will be playing at the park again tomorrow and then Justin and Brice head to Turner Field for the Braves' playoff game. Tuesday, we will take it easy and recover from our Fall Break Family Fun!!!