Loving this time of year!!

I love this time of year as so many fun things are happening almost every day!! Here are some fun pictures of the week so far...

Wednesday was Claire's fall party at preschool! They dressed up in their costumes and pretty much partied all day!! Mom, O and I went to the party for a little bit and brought goodie bags and a fun craft (Thank you Mrs. Perry =)). Claire, I am sure you will not be surprised, has two costumes this year. She at first wanted to be a bride, and then we saw a FABULOUS costume last week that we, I mean she had to have! So I bought the second one and she was a bride for her school party...you will see the other in our Halloween pictures!!!

So here is my little Bride...

Last night was "Progress Party Sleepover" at Gymnastics. They were to wear their pjs and bring a blanket or sleeping bag. At the end of class, the parents came into the gym and layed on their blankets with them and the instructors showed us the kids progress on the TV as they had been recording all night. It was really cute and Claire was sooooo excited to see herself on TV. Shane was supposed to get pictures of us in the gym together at the "pajama party", but in true Owen fashion, they had to leave to the van as O filled Daddy a nice diaper. Smooth Owen =)!! So here are a few pictures from before class...And finally Owen has not really had that much going on compared to sissy, but he never fails to give me a great photo op. His new obsession = wearing his Razorback Football helmet all day EVERYWHERE=)!!Have a GREAT HALLOWEEN!! We are having a big Halloween party here at our house tomorrow night!! CLAIRE AND OWEN'S BOO BASH!! Stay tuned for pictures...all the adults are dressing up too!! Should be fun!!!

Handsome Boys!

First - I love the new tag going around to put out the 6th picture in the 6th folder on your computer...so here is mine!


This is June 2006 (we did not have a digital camera when Claire was first born) - Claire was 2½ and Owen was in my belly! This is one of my favs of her in her cute bathing suit outside playing in the sprinkler....as you can see Claire had the attitude at an early age =)....so sweet, look at those legs!!

This is a perfect transition into the latest hilarious story about Claire....


In the car after school...
Claire: "Mama, I got hit in the nose today by a boy"
Mama: "Are you okay? Did it bleed?"
Claire: "No, I am fine...Elijah did it."
Some background: Last week when we went to see them at the park, her teacher was telling me that Claire and Elijah are always at it and he is always hitting her or something and then she usually retaliates. She has to keep them apart, but they always end up together somehow.

Mama: "Did you tell the teacher?"
Claire: "Yes."
Mama: "Did he get in trouble?"
Claire: "Yes, she took us both and told us that we do not need to play together anymore since we cannot play nice."
Mama: "Claire I do not want you to play with him anymore. You need to play with someone else and stay out of trouble. You do what teacher told you and I better not hear that you are doing it again, do you understand?"
Claire: "Yes Mama..." long pause..... "...but sometimes he is really handsome."

Mom and I laughed so hard under our breaths. Now it all makes sense. I called Shane later to tell him about this hilarious convo, yet he did not seem as amused....


In other Owen related news...

• Owen has lost his shoes (new ones).
• Ruined the dry erase board with a permanent marker.
• Learned to stand on the end table and then leap head first into the couch...after telling him numerous times to stop, I spanked him on his butt, brought him to huge alligator tears...but when I walked off, they stopped and he proceeded to come up behind me, hit me on the rear and say "Bad Mama".
• Bust his lip 3 times in one week.
• Develop an insane fear of shopping baskets, specifically Hobby Lobby ones, and I am now that Mom that pushes a screaming child around the store.
• Finally master that left cross just high enough to punch his sister.

I am sure there is more to tell, but I must go as I hear him right now feeding the dogs...equals grabbing handfuls from the dog food bag and throwing the food at the bowls.

Since I have a pic of my little flirt Claire...here is the 6th picture of the 6th folder picture in the folders after we got our new digital camera for Christmas after big O was born =). This is December 2006 - Owen was just 4 months old and Claire was 2...look at those eyes!!!

Pumpkin Pictures and catching up!

So, I officially survived a weekend trip for Tara's Bachelorette Party! I think I was the oldest one there....well actually not, but the only MOM there! So, let's just say I did more "Mom-ing" than "Bachelorette-ing" =)...it was tons of fun and I will let you check out Tara to see all the incriminating pictures and hear all about the fabulous time!!! She is still recovering, so the post will probably be later =).

I was so excited to get home to my sweeties and get back to normal! I have been out of town for the past 2 weekends so it felt great to get home last night and know that I am home for awhile!! The next trip we take, we are all taking together!! So I need to catch you up with some cute pictures!!

Last Thursday, Mom and I took the kiddos to a pumpkin stand to take some pictures and get a pumpkin to carve. I had to miss the Brown Family Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest, Saturday night, so I wanted to at least take the kids to pick out a pumpkin. So we got all dressed up in cute fall clothes in hopes of some good pictures...hope is the key word there!! Let's just say we tried to get some cute shots of them together...so here are a ton of pictures!

Shane watched the kids this weekend while I was gone and poor Owen was sick AGAIN! So he had to miss the Carving party as well, but he did drop Claire off so she could hang out with her cousins and have a good time! Here is Claire laughing it up with Sterling at the party! Thanks Lane for sending me this cute picture! Last week I didn't have a Tutu Picture as Claire was sick last Monday and we missed dance. I did get a great picture of her at Gymnastics Wednesday that is just too cute! She is wearing her new "Go Hogs" leotard! And here is her Tutu Picture from this morning! Today they were to wear their costumes, but Claire's would not work at Dance Class, so we opted for the super cute Sara Rose Halloween Tutu and tights!!! As you will see in these pictures, Claire was less than thrilled to have her picture taken..=)

Hope you had a great Monday!! Lots of fun things this week...stay tuned =)!!

Yes...those were my kids...

Yes, that was my daughter pouting in the corner as we asked the nice sales lady at the cute kids boutique to bring out a few sizes of....Uggs!

Yes, that was my daughter that told me "I don't want Uggs today, can we just do it tomorrow??!"

Disclaimer: Yes, I know I have lost my mind in buying an almost 5 year old Uggs, but have you seen these?? And you would not blame me if you knew that shortly dear hubby is putting me on a budget (can you guess why?) and I only have a limited time to grab these things while I can =) (love you Shane =)).

Yes, that was my daughter that just kept shaking her head as I explained that "Mama, Tara and Nicole have some and they are the best boots ever! You can wear them ALL the time just like you did your other furry boots". (I was at least smart enough to test run a much cheaper pair of boots last year to see if she would actually wear them, she LOVED them).

Yes that was my daughter that once the sales lady came back with the absolute cutest boots ever, tried to run away from her Mama, while Mama was trying to keep a smile and not make a scene in said boutique.

Yes, that was my daughter that once Mama got a hold of her, began throwing her skinny, but tall body around so that Mama could not hold her while starting to cry.

Yes, that was my daughter that started screaming crying "I don't want Ugg boots" while Mama was trying to pry dirty Keds off her feet, that were turned in so that she could not get them off. At this point Nonna is helping hold her down and trying to talk some sense into her as we have now caused a scene and Mama is just about to lose her mind.

Yes, that was my daughter that once she actually saw them, turned it off, took off her shoe and smiled while wiping tears and saying "Mama, these are like yours!!"

Oh yeah...Yes, that was my son that during all this took off his socks (not sure why his shoes did not make it out of the van), threw them across the sweet shoe section, and then was walking around barefoot...stroller on his back as he is still strapped in and can just carry it that way, taking down every pair of expensive baby shoes he can get his hands on and then throwing them as far as possible.

All in the name of an overpriced pair of boots....but can you blame me???

PS - I stole this post idea from Maggie !

Held my breath for...Field Trip Day!!!

So, last night our house was full of a bunch of sickies =(. Fevers had subsided, just a lot of runny noses, coughing and all around BAD MOODS! Our hopes were that we would all be better tomorrow (today)...especially Claire as she was soooooo looking forward to her very first Field Trip at her preschool. So when Shane walked into the office as I was taking a break and catching up blogs, last night at 8:30 and told me that the kids were asleep...I was stoked!! We had no naps yesterday and the night before was the never ending night of NO SLEEP for ANYONE (except Cooper and Oscar, they just hid under our comforter..."if we don't move, no one will remember we are here" =)), and the fact they were already ASLEEP, I had hope for today!! Shane and I got to bed to get some much needed sleep as quickly as possible...and EVERYONE slept all night!!

So Owen wakes up early as I expected (he was out before 8 last night)...and he was in a great mood, no fever and ready to eat breakfast (that was the other bad thing, Claire and Owen have barely eaten for days)! I felt better just on account of a full night's sleep, and Shane did not hit his snooze a million times, so I knew he felt better. The only one left...Miss Claire!

I got O situated and held my breath as I walked upstairs to get her up and see what kind of day we were going to experience =). I started to wake her up and she sat straight up in bed, looked at me with tired eyes and said "Mama it's FIELD TRIP DAY!!". She had no fever, a little sniffly, but soooo much better!! The next comment out of her mouth "Mama, I hope you have something cute planned for me to wear, this is a BIG day!"

Sniff, sniff...That's my girl =)!!

So it has been a big day for Claire and of course I had something cute planned for her big day.

Such a big girl now!! She looks so old to me!! This outfit fit her when we bought back when she started school, but she has been sick for a week and lost so much weight, she barely could keep the pants up!!

Owen in his pirate shirt (yes, we have quite a few pirate shirts =)) - he does not even look like a baby anymore!! I couldn't get him to look at the camera - he was more interested in looking at our pumpkins! They took the kids on the church bus (she was soooo excited to ride the bus, it was so cute seeing all the car seats sitting in the bus =)) and took them to a park where they picked out pumpkins, had a picnic and played! Mom, Owen and I stopped by to see them at the park. We missed the pumpkins, but Claire was so excited to show everyone her little brother =).

My pretty girl!Taking little brother to meet her friends =)... Claire and her buddy Channing =) I love O's face in this one =)...This picture cracks me up - Claire is chatting it up with her friends and O is looking for something better to do, but Claire insisted he stay with her =).Hope you had a great day!!!