Happy Halloween!!

Storybook day at school...

The boys have to dress up like a storybook character and give a presentation today.

Kolton chose Wally Shluffmuffin from the Dripping Fangs series.

Kaden is a Deatheater from Harry Potter, but I think without the mask he's representing a Dementor because we couldn't find a Harry Potter costume his size.

Morgan also gets to go in costume to the gym playcare today. She seems to be excited about trick-or-treating, so we'll see if it's successful this year.

UPDATE: Trick-or-Treating was a HUGE SUCCESS with Morgan! Kaden and Morgan chose to go while Kolton chose to stay home to pass out the goodies. After a couple of houses that had dogs, Morgan was more on a dog hunt instead of candy. We got almost all the way around the block before Morgan told me her feet hurt and her bag was too heavy! She was quite the trooper and very polite kitty cat. We have WAY too much candy, so I guess we'll be spending more time at the gym until it's all gone! I refuse to get rid of candy when it go to good use - feeding my cravings is good use!

A Mind of Her Own

Morgan woke up from her nap and found an outfit I had sat out for pictures, so she insisted on wearing it. Then she decided that she no longer wanted to wear it or any other clothes that I sat out for her. Stubborn and opinionated like her mother? Hmmm, I think so! Yes, mom...I know - paybacks are a pain in the arse! There's a reason Jamie calls Morgan's tantrums "Missy Fits" - hahaha!

Making Muffins

Morgan loves ANY opportunity to wear her apron and "help you, Mommy?"! What would we do without Betty Crocker? Double Chocolate muffins...mmmmm, yummmmmmeeeeee! Here she's mixing the eggs, oil, and water - and doing a great job. Once I added the powder mix, she wouldn't keep the whisk inside the bowl so I had to take over - hmmmm, OCD?

Jammie Day

Sunday Morgan wanted to stay in her jammies all day, so we let her. She is enjoying a chicken drumstick (first time I've been able to get her to eat fried chicken) while watching Daddy clean out her carseat. He's such a good guy. He cleaned out my van on Friday and then shampooed the carpets Saturday. He was actually able to remove most of the orange soda stain from 2 years ago - gross, I know...but at least we finally tackled it!

Morgan's new love is playing in the van - I think all kids go through this phase.

Boo-tanica

Today they had "Boo-tanica" at the Botanical Gardens and we decided it would be a GREAT day to go. We decided against wearing costumes, but Morgan had a good time anyway. Kolton manned the camera, he was such good help!


First stop, BUBBLES! What kid can resist making bubbles?


Bean bag (ball) toss...Morgan did surprisingly well.


She couldn't help herself from throwing the prize - a bouncy ball.

Croquet anyone? Papa, I think we need some lessons in holding a golf club.

I wasn't sure Morgan would be able to do this one, but she only tumbled a couple of times. I helped her about 98% of the time (helped meaning held her and bounced her and the ball up and down the hill), the other 2% was when she fell over! She did make a few bounces by herself, though.

Ring toss. The first ring toss was a tiny little game, she bent over and placed the rings on the spindle! This one she did a little better by tossing them while she stood over the octopus.

Mmmmmm...candy! Love Laffy Taffy!

Knock, knock

Morgan was intrigued by how this worked.

Entering the Corn Maze

Kolton had to run way ahead to capture this shot...she was hot on his trail, though.

Our handsome boys

The boys were trying so hard to keep Morgan from sliding off, through the beginning of her tantrum.

Waiting for the hay ride to pick us back up and take us to the parking lot.

Yogalates

Ok, so I might have mentioned that I take yoga and pilates, but actually I LOVE them! On Fridays the gym offers yogalates, yep...a mix of yoga and pilates. I call it my kick-my-butt workout days. Of course, I didn't tell Jamie that I nicknamed it. When he returned home from Iraq, we spent the first week going to the gym daily and doing our own workouts. The second week he told me he was going to join me for my classes, but as Monday approached he decided we needed to take the week off and just hang out. So I was bummed, but I got over it. We are HUGE fans of Biggest Loser and this week Bob-the-trainer mentioned what a GREAT workout yoga can be. Jamie respects Bob's opinion, obviously...have you seen the results he yields? Well, Jamie had today off (comp day) and he asked me last night, "What class do you have tomorrow?" and I told him it was yogalates and he expressed interest in going with me. WOW! I was beyond shocked, but I think Bob was in his head and he finally pushed aside those thoughts that "pilates and yoga are just for girls" - even though I told him we have a guy in class that has to be around 70! So anyway I was trying to explain a few things to him this morning before class to help him out, but apparently I was just stressing him out and making him more nervous - me, nah! I have to say, he can MOVE on a treadmill and lift some MAJOR weight on a bench...but he had NO IDEA what kind of workout yogalates can be for a body. I was thoroughly impressed with his skills. Even though he's never done a lick of core training exercises, he held his own quite well. Our instructor likes to throw in lots of crazy poses and we all voted for the crow, also known as crane. Can you believe that Jamie in his LARGE, MANLY frame was able to not only get up, but hold it? I was beyond ecstatic! It took me weeks to get to where I could hold myself up - and here he was doing it on his first try! As soon as class was over, I just wrapped my arms around him and planted a big kiss on him! He didn't realize how sexy he was in my eyes at that moment - sharing in my love of yogalates! I believe we connected on a whole new level. He seemed honestly impressed with how intense of a workout it was and he's even expressed interest in joining me on his comp Fridays!! I love that man! I will be curious to see how he's feeling tomorrow and Sunday - it usually hurts worse on the second and third days! Shhh! Maybe after another class or two I'll enlighten him on my nickname for "Friday-Kick-My-Butt-Yogalates"!! Hee-hee-hee!

Thursday Girls

I put one of Morgan's clips in my hair this afternoon, mostly to keep from losing it...but it did a great job of holding my hair out of my eyes. So I asked Morgan if she wanted the matching one and we'd take a picture of our matching hair clips (anything to encourage her to wear hair clips/bows/barrettes and keep them IN her hair). She was so excited, until the flash of the first picture! Then she refused to look at the camera...oh, well...I got one good one!

Cute, Sassy & Punkins!

While the boys played football this evening, I took an opportunity to get a festive shot of Morgan.

She has been too influenced by her big bubbies - aye, yie, yie!



Just showing off some of her sassiness.

Clothes, Clothes, and MORE Clothes

Can I just say, I love hand-me-downs! I was not fortunate enough to receive hand-me-downs when I had the twins, and that's when we were dirt poor and desperately needed the help. Thanks to my sister and a WONDERFUL friend, Morgan has more than enough clothes. My friend keeps giving me bags full of clothes! It's crazy! I had to go purchase one of those double hang rods a while ago for all of her pants, but then I got another bag of clothes and I was forced to go out today and get another rod for the rest of the clothes. I'm not sure there are more than a dozen items in the closet that we've actually purchased for her. I sure hope she doesn't go through a growth spurt anytime soon or she won't be able to wear many of these. We may have to change her outfit a couple times a day just to wear them all! Jeannie, you'd better start preparing now...hahaha!

Baby, Hunnnneeeee!

Love Daddy

A little camera shy today...hmmm, that's a new one!

5th Grade Fall Pictures

The boys brought home all A's for the first quarter!!!

Going Home

We decided to break up the trip home by stopping in Chattanooga and visiting the Creative Discovery Museum again since we had so much fun there over Spring Break, but they are closed on Wednesdays! So we went to the Aquarium instead and had a great time. This time we didn't take a stroller and Morgan was free to run and wander to see what she wanted, and it wore her out for the second half of our trip. Kaden and Jamie took in an IMAX movie about prehistoric sea creatures and Kolton, Morgan, and I just enjoyed the aquarium and a drink at TGI Friday's.

Here we are sitting outside of Publix...we needed milk before returning home. Milk goes well with Oreos...huh, Morgan? Kaden is such a goofy kid.


Everything was going smoothly until we pulled into our garage. Morgan started yelling, "NO, NO THIS HOME, MY OTHER HOME! I DON'T LIKE THIS ONE. I DON'T WANT THIS ONE!" Jamie and I just looked at each other and started laughing...it really took us some coaxing to get her out of the van and into the house...she didn't want her toys or her own bed or anything. Can we say s-p-o-i-l-e-d? Oops!

Long Day

Another long day. We took the kids to play Lazer Tag - two 15 minute games. Jamie played the first game with them and I played the second. They thought Lazer Tag was the coolest game ever! Then we went to Adventure Quest where we worked our way through a mirror maze, then played Cosmo Mini Golf, and then through a laser vault. In the laser vault we had to step over or crawl under laser beams like in those spy movies...it was great fun, especially for me - since Morgan insisted on going with me!

Here Jamie is tuckingMorgan in after our long day out.

The boys were unwinding in the pool...such goofballs!

I remember as a child, getting to go horseback riding on vacation. It was something I LOVED to do, one of my favorite. So Jamie finally endulged in my desire and we agreed to take the kids horseback riding on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the stables we visited didn't have a show while we were in town, but maybe another time. The boys weren't real thrilled about it at first, but once we were on the trail...they decided it was pretty cool. They later said that was their high for the day. We were trying to prep Morgan, so for the last month or two she's been saying, "I ride horses in the mountains" and she really did it. We were so afraid she'd scream and refuse to ride, but that was not the case at all. She LOVED it!!!

When we arrived we had to wait until the guide returned to take us on our ride. The kids enjoyed playing with the cat and dog, Duke, while we waited. Morgan was in heaven! Little does she know that this is the closest she'll ever get to having a pet while she's living with me!


Kolton loved Duke.


Jamie and Morgan rode Mr. Gray - and apparently Mr. Gray liked Morgan.

Kolton had Sweetheart and he did AWESOME!!!

Kaden was a little hesitant, but he and Lisa got along just fine. Lisa just kind of mosied along taking her sweet time...a perfect fit for Kaden! He did GREAT, too! These boys did really awesome considering they'd never riden before.

Off we go...the beginning of our hour long ride.


See what I mean about Lisa just kind of doing her own thing? Talk about a gap!

Kaden kept checking on me, because my horse was a character. I rode Georgia. When we walked up to the stables the gal asked if any of us had riden before - I told her I had, but it had been YEARS. So she brings Georgia out and says, "Here's Georgia. We usually put experienced riders on her." I should have retracted my statement! We're told not to let them eat the grass...but if Georgia wanted to eat, Georgia ate. She was too strong for me. She'd get right on the edge of the mountain and stop to eat...I just knew I was going to slide down her neck to my death! She got spooked a couple of times where I had to grip tight...she kept me on my guard.

Here we stopped to give the horses a little break, so I had a few photo ops.


Alex, our guide, was kind enough to take one of me and Georgia...notice she posed for the picture. She was looking the other way until he was ready and then she just casually turned her head.

Morgan couldn't get enough of the horses.
Things went great until we were leaving. Morgan got down out of my arms and went toward Jamie and fell on the rocks and cut her hand pretty deep. No stitches were required, but she screamed and cried for about 30 minutes!