Trick-Or-Treat

Happy Halloween. As you can tell Kaylyn was dressed as a cat and Luke was dressed as Superman. Luke's choice of costume surprised me since he is a Spider man freak, but he said he wanted to be Superman, because Superman had a cape and he could fly high. Luckily we made it through the night without Luke attempting to fly like Superman! Kaylyn had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be this year. We finally settled on a cat costume. She kept picking out these costumes that were....let's just say a little "old" for her to be wearing at 6 years old. She's kind of past the age of dressing older being cute and not old enough to be wearing and American Idol Mid-drift shirt with leather pants! (This costume is what she originally picked out, but sadly Halloween Express was out of those when I went to get her costume :) ).

We went trick-or-treating with our friends Kaitlyn and Sam. Their mom had the great idea to just take the kids to 5 or 6 houses of church members and family that lived around her and then bring the kids back to her house for a hot dog roast and marsh mellow roast and just let them play and give out candy to other trick-or-treaters. I loved this idea since the kids would end up with enough candy to be satisfied, but not so much I am still having to ration out candy at Easter! They had the best time playing with all the other kids. By the time it was over I think Deborah had about 15 kids running around in her back yard! I think this will have to become a yearly tradition.

Superman, meet Spiderman!

This is Luke's buddy Sam, dressed as Spiderman. Sam's sister Kaitlyn was dressed as Hannah Montana, but somehow I didn't get a good pic of her. Sorry Kaitlyn!!

The Popcorn Ball

Luke ate on this popcorn ball for literally about 2 hours! I didn't think he was ever going to finish it.

Roasting Marshmellows

I think this was probably Kaylyn's favorite part of the night. She didn't want to eat them after she'd roasted them, she just wanted to burn them and then sling them off. A few ended up in her hair! You can imagine the fun we had washing that stuff out!

This is what you call a car load...

Okay, I know I will get fussed at by the ER folks, but this was so funny I just had to post it. We just had one more house we had to go to, but in order to get to this house we would have had to walk by about 8 more houses all with lights on, which meant all the kids would want to stop to trick-or-treat those houses, which would have taken forever. In order to avoid this situation, we decided we would just drive to the last house, so yes...we did put 7 kids and 2 adults in my car and drive around the block. In all fairness, when this plan was formed we only had 4 kids, but when we got in the car they had multiplied and there were 7! I'm still not sure how that happened!

Fall Festival

We had our church fall festival this evening. The kids had a great time. They loved the moonwalk, slide, hayride, and lots of other fun activities. This is the first of about 4 fall festivals we have to go to this week! A very busy time!

Goin' on a Hayride

Little stinker!! He refused to look at the camera!

And this one insisted on making crazy faces!

Fun Activities

Lovin' The Slides

Bear and Bryant...

Kaylyn got her new bird, plus one more, as promised. Their names are Bear and Bryant. Bear is the blue one and Bryant is the Turquoise one. Kaylyn has claimed Bryant as her bird and Luke has claimed Bear has his bird. Did you notice the kid's shirts? I'm trying really hard to shelter them from their Daddy's War Eagle brainwashing! I think I'm winning...they both love Alabama football...for now anyway. Anytime there is a game on the T.V. Luke starts screaming "Yeah Alabama, Roll Tide!" He will sit and watch just about all of the games. Kaylyn on the other hand is a different story...this week it's Alabama Football, next week may be different. You know how little girls are about their Daddy's! I kind of cheated though, because I told her Santa Claus had to be for Alabama...why else would he wear red and white all the time?!

Check Out My New Ride!

This week I decided to get rid of my gas-guzzling Pilot and bought myself a new '08 Accord. So far, I love it!

Good Job Kaylyn!!!!

Kaylyn got her first report card today, she made straight A's. We are so proud of her! Because she made straight A's, I gave her $5. When I asked her what she was going to buy with her money, she said she wanted to buy a new bird...is this not the saddest thing?! For those of you who are confused by this check out the post "Farewell Bama" from August 5 and you will understand.


I reluctantly told her we would go to the pet store on Thursday to get a new bird. I just couldn't tell her no. She swears she will take care of the bird, but we all know better! How many of you mothers with young children have gotten them pets with the promise of "I'll take care of it"...raise your hand. (raising my hand...) We all know how that always turns out! Oh well, I guess we'll be the proud owner of a new parakeet on Thursday!


P.S. I cropped our name and address off of the top of the report card for the obvious reasons.

The Pumpkin Patch

Today Kaylyn's class went to The Heart of Dixie Railroad Pumpkin Patch in Calera. They had an exciting time. They got to ride on a real train and hunt for pumpkins. Luke got to go too. I think he was more excited about riding on the train than anything. Let me just say this...first grade teachers have nerves of steel!!! I don't know how they managed to get 80+ six and seven year olds (who had gone wild) to and from Calera, but they did! They are some brave souls!!!

Of course Kaylyn picked the BIGGEST pumpkin she could find!

And Luke picked the smallest pumpkin he could find...

Luke picked the smallest pumpkin he could find...not sure why, but I didn't argue. That meant I didn't have to carry it around! He also loved riding on the train.

More Pumpkin Patch Pics...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Flower Girl....

Kaylyn was the flower girl in my cousin Liza's wedding this afternoon. She did such a good job. This kind of thing is right up her alley...anything that involves getting dressed up and being in front of a bunch of people. She thought she was so grown up being with all of the bride's maids. She just sat there and carried on conversation like she had known them her whole life. That's my little social butterfly!

How many more pictures are there?!

I think she was a little bored with all the picture-taking at this point!!

Chloe...

This is Chloe, my niece who is due to arrive in late November/ early December. Isn't she cute?!

The Next Karate Kid

Well, last night after Kaylyn's karate class Luke started begging to take karate. At first I told him no because I didn't think he was ready yet, but he kept on with the "Peas, Peas, I take karate toooo!" So anyway I caved and decided to let him try out a class this afternoon. They have a Tiger Cub class that is just for 3 and 4 year olds and it is at a much slower pace. He did great. He sat and listened and followed instructions perfectly, so I signed him up for a trial month. Now I think I will just have to move into Jasper TaeKwonDo!

Tiger Cubs

Future Black Belt

Kaylyn has been begging for months now to take karate. We wouldn't let her start until we found out how school would go since this is the first year she has had to real homework and take real test. She has been doing great in school so we finally decided to take the plunge and let her start TawKwonDo. She was so cute doing all the kicks and punches. I think she looks adorable in her uniform. She has been so excited all week, it's all she's talked about. I even had to fight with her to get her to go to dance last night because she wanted to go to karate then. She told the instructor that she was going to be a black belt just like her mama and daddy one day!


P.S. I think my camera battery was about to die, so most of my pics turned out blurry. Sorry for the poor quality, but I'm going to post them anyway.

Kicks and Punches!

Sweet Hands

Is this not the sweetest picture?! This is Luke's latest artwork added to the fridge.

Continued Prayers For The Russell Family...

I talked to Mandy's mom yesterday and she said Emma is doing great. She is gaining weight, eating well, and no problems breathing. She's just hanging out now and getting her antibiotics. Right now her scheduled discharge date is set for October 10.


Mandy on the other hand is still having a rough time. She is still running fever and having to receive antibiotics because of this. They were going to place a PICC line yesterday because her IV's keep blowing and they are out of places to stick her. Her hematocrit has returned to normal, so she didn't have to be transfused.


Please continue to pray for this family.