Carving Time!

Every year on the week of Halloween we always get together with my brothers and sister n law and nieces and nephew for pumpkin carving. We always eat dinner together, then go pick out our pumpkins and then carve them. We have been doing this for a long time, well going on 6 yrs now. This year was a little different but it was still a whole lot of fun! This year Dan, Joshua and I already had our pumpkin to carve that we brought from Nebraska, so my brother and sister n law picked theirs out on the way over. Also, my brother Chad was not able to be here because of his recent move to Dallas! :-( We had fun, but it didn't feel complete with him not being here. Joshua got in on the action just like last year except this time he wore gloves, why you ask; because everyone else was wearing them. This is how we go about pumpkin carving: The women take all the "guts" out of the pumpkins and scape them so they are clean and then the men carve them. I don't know why it is like this, but this is how it has been done so we have not changed it. Joshua wanted a smiley face so that is what Dan carved. At one point Missy was elbow deep in pumpkin goo and said "there are too many pumpkins and not enough help!" To which she then remembered that Chad was always here to help one of the girls out with their pumpkin. (Everyone was assigned a kid and a pumpkin). I thought that was funny! It all worked out and all the pumpkins were carved and everyone had a great time! I love family traditions and I am so happy that we have kept this one going!!!

Joshua with his pumpkin brought all the way from Nebraska!!

The set up! Yea, it's a whole process!



Cleaning out the pumpkins.

Joshua "stirring" his pumpkin.

The traditional picture

Jordan, Dylan and Kenzie's carved pumpkins!

Whirlwind Weekend

This weekend was a whirlwind, but fun! On Friday, Joshua's school had their annual fall festival and his class was in charge of the cake walk booth. Dan and I went early to help set up the booth. I believe the cake walk was Joshua's favorite booth out of the whole festival! Numbers and music, what's not to love!? On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Plano to help celebrate Aubrey's first birthday! It was really nice to see family and be able to visit with them and share Aubrey's birthday! All the kids had a great time running and playing together and the adults enjoyed football and good conversation after the party. We stayed over at my cousin's house (Brittney and Jeff) and we stayed up way past our bedtime playing a game called Dice Capades! This is game is really fun and interesting. We all laughed until we cried and just had a really good time hanging out. My brother, Chad came over as well and it was so great to spend time with him and my cousin and her husband. We always have a blast when we get together. On Sunday, we went to Dan's mom's house to spend the day with Mimi and Papa. We had a fun time going to see Mimi's store and eating lunch out. Mimi's store is by a place called Uptown Popcorn and it is really yummy. We went in there to get a drink for Joshua and came out with some yummy buttery popcorn. They let you try any flavor you want and boy do they have a lot of flavors. We enjoyed our Sunday with Mimi and Papa. We got on the road about 5 and headed back home. We would have been home by 830, but do to some annoying construction traffic we didn't get home until 10. It seems like all of our weekends are whirlwinds, but we always have a great time no matter what!

Cake walk!

Joshua enjoying the cake walk booth

Pumpkin bowling. He kept pushing it along until it knocked a bottle over and then he got to pick a prize...a car(are we surprised, No!)

First taste of Cotton Candy...


There were numbers underneath the boats, but Joshua didn't care he just wanted to push them around in the water. This was probably his 2nd favorite booth!

The jump house which he stayed in for about a minute and never jumped. This also ended our fun at the festival when Joshua got pushed by another kid and got his feelings hurt and wanted to go home right then and there. Such a sensitive kiddo!

Maddie and Joshua playing on the iphone

The birthday girl!! Her mommy made her shirt and it said "I am 1!" Too cute!

The famous first birthday cake face!

I guess you can also have this face at 2 !!!

We carved pumpkins on Monday night, so check back for that post this week as well.

Nebraska Road Trip 2010 (Part III)

After the zoo on Saturday morning, we got in the car to head back home. We left around 12:30pm and as soon as we were on the highway Joshua was asleep. This was actually his first long nap since we had been in Nebraska. I guess there was just too much stuff to do and see, who had time for a nap, right? Our goal on the way home was to make it to Oklahoma City or Norman for the night (about 9 hrs. again). On the way back I had told Dan that I wanted to stop at various places along the way to do some fun things and I also wanted to take pictures of the state signs too. Well none of that quite worked out how I had planned. I missed the Nebraska sign coming up and leaving and I missed the Iowa sign coming up too. Quick note: Technically you do not have to go through Iowa to get to Nebraska or at least not our planned route, but for some reason, the GPS thought it would be a good idea. So, in following the GPS we ended up going through Iowa on the way up and then ended up going through Missouri on the way back home. Not a big deal! Just allowed us to say that we have driven through those states...ha!

About those fun destination that I wanted to go to along the way, by the time we got anywhere it was already 5 or 6 in the evening and most places that I had mapped out had closed or were about to close. But, being as determined as I was I decided to just randomly pick signs that said state park or wildlife refuge. The park that I chose was named Air Navy Park, so I thought it would be fun for Joshua to see airplanes and boats, but it actually had none of that and it was the smallest park I have ever seen, so that was a bummer. Later on I see a sign for a wildlife refuge and thought once again how fun it would be. Well, after traveling down a long winding road we arrive to an office that is closed and when we get out to check out the map of the place; it is basically a place with walking trails and places that you can fish and hunt. Batting zero here! None the less Joshua enjoyed just running around and picking up rocks, so I guess it worked out. After the last attempt with a "fun" place Dan and I decided that we would just go somewhere fun and different for dinner, which we did and that was nice. We also were able to catch the Texas/Nebraska football game on the radio while traveling and that was a major plus and Texas WON! (Even better) We made it to Norman, OK around 11pm which once again we could not find a hotel, so we had to stay outside of Norman. Norman had a pretty good excuse for having no vacancy at the hotels because they had played at home that day. The next morning we got up and hit the road by 730 and drove the last 6 hrs home. We stopped off in Plano to visit with family and then we were home by 4pm on Sunday!!! We had a great time traveling and spending time in Nebraska, our only regret was that we could not stay longer!!

Grandpa, Grandma and Joshua before we left on Sat.

In Oklahoma at a scenic overlook. Gotta love self timers on cameras!!

The wildlife refuge! Yep this is about it as far as what we did while we were there

The one and only solid nap that he took the whole time on the trip and it was when we were leaving...

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful time! We loved every minute of it!

To sum up our travels: 6 states (TX, OK, KS, IA, NE, MO), 7 tanks of gas, 2 hotels,

28 hours(total travel time), 1,706 total miles and tons of lasting memories!!!

Nebraska Road Trip 2010 (Part II)

While in Nebraska we had a lot of fun going to the pumpkin patch, the children's museum and the zoo. We also had fun visiting with Grandpa, Grandma, uncle Ben, Sara, G-pa, G-ma, Aunt Jane, Uncle Mike, Marla and GiGi. It was nice because we do not get to see them nearly as often as we would like. We arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's house on Wed. around 1pm. We basically just hung out that day and evening since we had been traveling so much the day before and Joshua needed to run off some energy, which he did. When he got out of the car, he told me that "he needed to run, run, run!" That is exactly what he did. He had so much fun playing catch with grandpa and looking at the fish in their pond. The next 3 days were crammed with fun, fun, fun!! During the day over the next 3 days we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch, which was absolutely the coolest pumpkin patch I have ever been too. Joshua loved it! It was like a little boy's dream. Outdoors, dirt, hay, and wide open spaces to run til you dropped. We also went the the Children's Museum and the Zoo. Both of these places also were great fun! We had never been to the children's museum so that was a great experience and Joshua's favorite exhibit was the ball room. It was hard to drag him away from there. We thought that he would only be able to hang for an hour, but we ended up staying about 2 because he was having so much fun. The morning that we left we decided to go to the zoo, because the last time we went there were a few exhibits that we did not get to see. So we spent a couple of hours there before getting on the road. Our evenings were spent visiting with the family and hanging out on the deck. The weather was absolutely perfect! I really could not get over how perfect the weather was. During the day is was in the low 70's and at night it was high 50's. It was nice to actually be able to wear some long sleeves in October and to actually see a true season of Fall. There were so many pictures that were taken that I could not post them all, but here are the highlights of what we did.

In the ball exhibit. He was very interested to see how everything worked!

Joshua and the big, red firetruck

This is called the Light Piano...Awesome!


Water table...always a favorite

Loves being at Grandpa and Grandma's!!

On the hunt for his pumpkin!

"It's heavvyy!"

On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch

Lots of animals to feed and pet, there was even a camel there.

We tried to get a family picture in front of these pumpkins, but Joshua was not having any part of it.

In a "cave" in the Desert Dome at the Zoo

Desert Dome

Rain forest Exhibit at the Zoo

You can actually reach out and touch the falls at this stop

Once again, these were just the highlights of our time in Nebraska. Check back for the last post on our Nebraska Road Trip of 2010. When we head back home!!

Nebraska Road Trip 2010 (Part I)

We decided during the summer that we wanted to go to Nebraska to see Grandma and Grandpa and to visit the pumpkin patch that Dan went to when he was little. After searching for cheap airline tickets and finding zero, we decided that it would be cheaper to drive than to fly. Plus we thought it would be fun to take our first family(our little family) road trip ever! So after picking the date, planning and mapping; the day finally came to get on the road. Dan and I decided that in order to help save money we would bring an ice chest and stock it full of drinks and sandwhich stuff for lunches and suppers and also pack snack food items as well. So on Tuesday, Oct. 12th we loaded up the car and pulled out of the driveway at around 3:30 in the afternoon. We had so much stuff that you would have thought we were moving there, but when you are going on a 14 hr road trip with a 2 and 1/2 yr old, you just have to make sure you have EVERYTHING!!! Dan and I decided that we would stop every 3 hrs to stretch and take potty breaks, but our goal for the first leg of the trip would be to reach Wichita,KS and stop for the night. Round Rock, TX to Wichita, KS took about 9 hrs. Joshua did very well in the car and Dan and I took turns driving, so whoever wasn't driving at the time sat in the back to keep Joshua company. You would think that you could find a hotel on a Tuesday night around midnight, but that was not the case. It took us 3 tries before we actually found a hotel that said we have a room and even then it was the last room. What goes on in Kansas on Tuesday nights?? LOL!!

See what I mean by everything!

Can you find Joshua??

Daddy and Joshua ready to go!

On the road somewhere, but having a good time!


It was unreal how many casinos were in OK when we passed through!

We finally made it to Wichita, KS and got some much needed rest. Check back for Part II, our time in Nebraska in the next post!

Sneak Peek!

This is a sneak peek of what is to come. We had a great time in Nebraska and there are tons of pictures to show, but it is going to take probably 3 post to fit in everything that we did while we were gone. I will try to post Part I of our Road Trip to Nebraska tomorrow. I am just too exhausted to think and try to organize the events tonight! So here are a few pics to hold you over...

A Saturday in Pumpkins

Saturday we drove about an hour away to take my friend Jana to a pumpkin patch. The GPS took us the scenic route, so it seemed like forever before we were there, but it was a very pretty drive. Everyone had a really good time.

Pumpkins for Sale

Joshua went around sitting on all the pumpkins, I guess he was trying to see which one was more comfortable!

Went through a corn maze and at the end you got to ring the bell

Joshua leading the way through the maze

He kept saying, this is bumpy!

There were goats there that we fed and pet