"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 4: 6-9

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Trick or Treating 2013

Tanner was the spear head of our family costumes this Halloween! Randomly on our way to get Saturday morning donuts, Tanner asked to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween, which led into Carson wanting to be Woody. We stopped at a garage sale on the way home from our donut trip only to find a Buzz Lightyear costume in Tanner's size for $2! Meant to be for sure! And that's how we ended up being the "Toy Story family" for Halloween! Originally, the boys wanted Daddy to be "Stinky Pete" from Toy Story 2, but we convinced them he would make a better soldier :)
Mommy had the honor of being Jessie!  
Toy Story Family... 
Our tradition of trick or treating in Nana and Papa's neighborhood continued this year. Our first trick or treat stop is always Nana's house! 
Our 4 little cuties this year... 
Toy Story Woody Pumpkin! 
Jessie and her handsome soldier boy! 
The kids did a great job walking the neighborhood. Carson and Hannah took turns pulling Hadley! 
Haddie girl checking out her candy bag! So cute! 
Carson was super excited about his treats! Another successful and fun trick or treating adventure! 

Pumpkin Painting!

More fall fun....pumpkin painting! This kept these 3 busy for awhile! They were little artists! And the weather was absolutely gorgeous outside!
Final projects and proud!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Pumpkin Carving

Each year, as the boys get older, it gets more fun carving pumpkins! They actually have a preference now of how they want their pumpkins to look and it's a great time! Carson and Tanner each helped scoop out all of the "yuck"!
Then we drew faces on their pumpkins and had them use pushpins along the lines to make it easier to cut. Great fine motor skills activity! 
It was only appropriate for us to carve our big pumpkin into the St. Louis Cardinal! The final World Series game was on, we were the Cardinals T-ball team this year, and the boys loved the idea! Daddy went right to work! 
Our pumpkins this fall... 
After baths, we cheered on the Cardinals!!!

Preschool Fall Parade

We were so excited to participate in the Fall parade at Preschool this year! The boys couldn't wait to wear their costumes to school! 
Woody from Toy Story... 
And our Buzz Lightyear! "To infinity...and beyond!!" 
Hannah was a beautiful fairy princess. We got a quick photo of the 3 of them before the big parade began! 
Carson and his wonderful teacher Mrs. Wilson... 
Tanner with his wonderful teachers Ms. Jenni and Ms. Debbie. They were butterflies since Tanner's class is called the butterfly friends! 
Let the parade begin! Our sweet fairy princess waving to the crowd! 
Carson's class was next! They were stopping along the way for a few "treats" from the church office staff. 
And there's our Buzz Lightyear! 
Each class stopped along the way to sing a few songs for the parents. They were so cute and did a great job! 
Carson's teachers, Pinkalicious and Purplicious! 
Carson's class all dressed up! 
Here are a couple of videos of Carson and Tanner's class singing their fall songs during the parade!

Such a fun morning! 


Friday, October 25, 2013

Celebrating 7 years!

It's hard to believe that Matt and I said "I do!" 7 years ago! I had no idea how blessed I was on this day! Life with this man only gets better! This year has had it's ups and downs! He has been my rock through my struggles with vertigo, and has led our family in decisions this year that have been life changing. I'm so thankful for such a committed, God-loving, spiritual leading husband and father! He pours so much into our boys, and they love their Daddy! 
We were able to sneak away for 3 days thanks to my wonderful parents! We try to always get away, even for just a night, and this weekend was a top weekend away for sure! We kicked it off with the Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line Concert in Tampa, then drove 2 hours south to Naples after the concert. We stayed in downtown Naples at the Trianon Hotel. It was a beautiful place!
We didn't get to the hotel until about 1am, but we were still up bright and early! We had bagels on the terrace outside at our hotel. The weather was cool and breezy! Another reason we love that we got married in the Fall, we always have great weather! 
After breakfast, we had an awesome 5 mile run on the beach! It was the first time we've ever ran on the beach, and it was so beautiful! The air was so cool and breezy and made 5 miles super easy and fun!  
We even got crazy and did some high jumps and different speed intervals! It was great! 
Our little hermit crab friend we found on the beach... 
After our run, we walked historic 3rd street back to our hotel and got ready for the day! Matt's brother Ken used to live near Naples and recommended an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch.  
It was delicious! And approved by the food critic himself! (Thanks Ken!) 
After lunch, we went to the Silverspot Cinema. It's not your average movie theater. They have a full restaurant, and plush leather seats! It was awesome! 
We saw the movie Gravity with my favorite actress, Sandra Bullock. It was really good! The best part was lounging in the leather seats eating popcorn and hanging out!  
After the movie, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our sunset cruise. We made reservations earlier in the day because the Double Sunshine is a popular attraction in Naples! 
The weather was GORGEOUS! We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the views!  
The first part of the 90 minute tour is hearing all about the million dollar homes and who they belong to along the waterways heading towards the Gulf of Mexico. Most of these houses are only used by their owners 2-4 weeks out of the year!  
The tour guide had a lot of interesting facts that he shared, like the house that had a 4 year old granddaughter who runs to the edge of the water everytime she sees the Double Sunshine pass. He also shared about an owner who has 90 grandchildren! We actually saw a few of them riding the golf cart along the property. 
After touring the canals, we went out into the Gulf where the sun was just starting to set! It was a breathtaking view to say the least. Postcard sunset for sure! 
It was one of my favorite things I've ever done! To be out on the water and watch the sun go down was so relaxing and so beautiful! 
The next morning, we were up early again and headed to breakfast at a restaurant I had seen online before leaving for our trip. It was a cute little cafe on 3rd street called Jane's. It was everything I thought it would be and more! 
We ate outside on their adorable patio! 
The food was amazing! Matt had a salmon southwest omelet filled with cream cheese and breakfast potatoes! And I had their delicious custard filled cinnamon french toast with powdered sugar and raspberry sauce! Yum!
We walked down 3rd street to the Farmer's market after breakfast. 
Then walked to the pier to check out the beach again. Beautiful morning! 
We were watching all of the fishermen and the fish they were catching, when we noticed 2 dolphins swimming in the ocean next to the pier!  
So awesome to see them out in the wild and so close! 
Before leaving to head home, we went to Pinchers Crab Shack for lunch in Tin City. The Stone Crab Fest was going on too.  
We enjoyed lunch along the river. It was beautiful! There were so many boats passing by, it was a great view. 
My crab loving hubby enjoying his lunch! 
I got the crab cake sandwich which was so good!  
We were excited to get home to our boys and bought them a few souvenirs. The last time we went to the west coast over the summer, we searched for sand dollars along the beach and in the water and had no luck. So we bought them each their own sand dollar and star fish. They were happy to see us! 
It was a wonderful 3 days having fun with my honey! Happy 7 years Matty!