Fire Station Tour!

Our Moms group got to tour the Fire Station for Fire Safety Month! We were excited to see the fire truck up close and see the inside of the fire station that we live just down the street from! 

The firemen were so nice and explained all of the features of the truck to the kids... 

Then one of them dressed in the fire suit and explained to the kids that this is what the fireman would look like if he had to come into your house for a fire. He explained to them that even though he looks scary, he's there to help you... 

Carson with the fireman... 

Carson sitting on the fire engine... 

The pole... 

The firemen have an awesome kitchen! 

Living room... 

And beds for everyone. During this talk, the alarm actually went off and the firemen were called to an emergency. Thankfully they told us what to do beforehand in case this happened. We all rushed down the stairs and into the parking lot. 

We watched as the firemen quickly loaded up and headed out! It was actually a really cool thing to witness! 

What a fun morning touring the fire station! We are so thankful for our first emergency responders! 

Family Pumpkin Patch Day

Oh how I LOVE Fall!!! Even though we don't experience the leaves changing colors on the trees, for us Floridians, just a change of temperature is enough to love fall! Well, that and every coffee place has pumpkin everything! :) We took our second trip this year as a family to Santa's Christmas Tree Forest for their pumpkin patch and super fun activities! Here's our sweet little family of four this fall...

Grandma Marie joined in our fun afternoon too! 

Sweet brothers! 

The giant jumping pillow is a huge hit! The boys can get lots of energy out on this thing! They bounced and bounced and bounced! 

And paused for a little brotherly wrestling too! :) 

This was the first time Carson was old enough to do the zipline. They had two. A smaller one which he did first and loved it, and then a bigger one. He insisted on doing the bigger one once he knew how much fun the smaller one was! Here he is all suited up for his big ziplining adventure! 

Such a brave and daredevil boy! 

"That was awesome!!!" Two thumbs up! 

After the ziplining fun, we went on the hayride... 

And after the hayride, the boys rode the horses!

They also have a small petting farm which the boys love! My little animal lovers! 

Then it was time to pick out our pumpkins to take home! 

Our 2 little pumpkins... 

Finding the perfect ones... 

This one!

We ended our fun day at the pumpkin patch with a fresh bag of homemade kettle corn popcorn! Yum! 

Hadley's Pumpkin Patch Birthday Party!

We had a blast at Hadley's 1st birthday party! It was a pumpkin patch theme and Jamie threw a super fun party! Hadley's smash cake was a big pumpkin, and then the "patch" were little pumpkin cupcakes! So cute! 

The cutest little pumpkin! Her outfit was adorable!!! 

Besides the fun playground, there were pumpkin games! Carson loved the pumpkin toss and pumpkin bowling! He especially loved the "prizes" at the end which were pumpkin candy corns!  

Tanner and Carson both got good quality time with Aunt Brooke and Uncle Jacob. Tanner had Uncle Jacob push him on the swing and showed him all of his fun tricks! 

It was so fun seeing baby Lily in Aunt  Brooke's belly! She has really popped and is so super cute! 

Hadley loved her cake! She loves every type of food, and she loved the sugary icing and the cake part! Way to go Had! Dig in! 

Jamie set up a fun photo op at the party! We love you sweet girl! You are a huge blessing to our family with your sweet and sassy personality! Can't wait to see you blossom even more this year! 

Hadley is ONE!

It's so hard to believe that our little pumpkin Hadley is ONE! We celebrated with her on the night of her birthday at the pumpkin patch! I love being so close with my sweet nieces! The four cousins are more like brother and sister - they love each other! 

Birthday girl with her Uncle Matt... 

The kids had fun playing the beanbag games and other activities. The weather was a beautiful fall night! 

Then it was off to check out the pumpkins! 

Sweet boys... 

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you so much! 

Carson's glasses!

Carson's glasses came in on Wednesday and we were so excited to begin this journey! The sweet optical lady taught him how to put them on and take them off. He did so great listening to instructions! She even told him what to say if any of his preschool classmates or friends asked to wear them! 

Looking in the mirror for the first time and checking out his new look! 

He kept saying "my shoes are so big" and "wow, look at those tiny rocks on the ground" when we went outside. He only asked a couple of times how long he had to wear them, but other than that, he has been a CHAMP! Clearly he really needed them because he never skipped a beat. He puts them on and off on his own and goes on with his day! He tells everyone he is handsome, and we agree 100%!! 

Everyone has been so incredibly sweet to show Carson their support. Uncle Will and Papa wore their glasses for Carson the night he got them. We've had several people text us pictures of them in their own glasses to show Carson, and his teacher was ready with an Arthur book on getting glasses to read to his class. Several of his classmates called him "cool" or "they look really nice" and I was so happy about that! Carson's friend Landon bought him a lego set to put together too!

His treat for being such a good boy...an "icey drink" aka a slurpee! So proud of our big boy and so thankful for all that prayed for our transition! He is doing awesome!!! 

Carson's eye exam

At Carson's 5 year old check-up, his pediatrician was a little concerned when he didn't do so well on his eye exam. It's hard to tell at this age if there really is a "problem" or not, so he referred us out to the best pediatric ophthalmologist in our area. I took Carson on Friday afternoon for his exam. He wanted to take his favorite bear, Rainbow bear, along for the exam (thanks Aunt Sharon!) 

The exam started off with a simple letter reading chart. He did great on that.  

Then they tested his depth perception using 3D glasses, as well as a color test. I was a bit confused at first when the nurse examining him was questioning me on whether or not he knew his colors. Of course he knows his colors I kept saying, but the more the color test went on, the more questions she had for me. She asked if color blindness ran in our family, and my grandfather was indeed color blind. She let me know then that this was not going to be a quick visit and Carson's eyes would need to be dilated.  

After his eyes were dilated, they took pictures of his eyes before we saw the doctor. They were SO good with Carson (and me, as I was a bit tearful!) They let Rainbow bear do everything Carson had to do and made each exam super fun for him.  

The doctor put on a movie for Carson in the exam room and went on to explain to me that Carson has an astigmatism, and is also near sighted and far sighted. He also said that his color shades are a bit off, which they called a color deficiency, but were not concerned by any means about that at this moment. I was a bit emotional as I had prepared myself for the possibility of glasses, but the Mommy guilt sets in on what I did wrong or how I didn't know our baby needed them so badly! I burst into tears when the doctor began to switch lenses in and out of pretend glasses while Carson watched a movie and Carson yelled out, "I can see the castle!!!" The doctor instantly knew which lenses he needed and we were off to the optical department to pick out our super cool glasses!  

We have to wait about 5 days before his glasses will come in, but are using these days to prepare Carson for this transition. Here's our super cool dude coming out of the eye doctor with his cool shades and lollipop! He did awesome for a 3 hour appointment!