Pumpkin Carving!

Last night we carved our pumpkins! I was really looking forward to it as I remember it being great fun last year. This year was quite similar to last - Logan wanting nothing to do with the gut part. He let us do all the carving and he just kept ordering us to show him the insides of the pumpkins we were working on. We had an extra pumpkin that our neighbor had given Logan, but we couldn't really carve so we let him go to town on that one.

It was a nice family evening with lots of laughing a few tears when we made him share the pumpkin carving safety knife and good memories! ENJOY!

Posing with the pumpkins

Hugs for the pumpkins

Monkey see.... monkey do. ha!

Momma showing him the inside of my pumpkin. He was pleased when it was "empty" and the guts are "all gone!"

So focused

My favorite picture of the night... keep those guts away from me Daddy!!! ha! Totally can hear him thinking, "I don't know what you think you are going to do with those, but I'm not touching them and you best get them out of my face!" (or something to that effect.)

Finished products... mine is the friendly one... Nathan's is the mean one. Shocker.

Inspiration

You know those moms - the ones you really wish you were more like.

The moms who look like they had a good hour to get ready as opposed to your 5 minute pony tail and teeth brushed and call it good?

The moms whose children are always just so as opposed to your two year old who wears snow boots in public over a pair of footie pajamas he loves to wear, yet they are too small?

The moms who go all out for the parties and get together and make everything pure perfection?

The moms who go all organic and create perfectly nutritious meals rather than a quick box of Kraft mac and cheese to get the dinner done with?

Some days I want to be one of those moms - other days I love my haphazard mommy existence. But there is another kind of mom I am trying to be....

My current mom crush as it were is a gal I don't even know, but she inspires me every day with her grab life by the horns and ride on attitude! She doesn't seem to worry if the grass could be greener on the other side, but rather she loves the color green in her own yard and embraces it with a stunning zest for life attitude.

I want to be her. Her.... Kelle Hampton. She became "popular" in early 2010 when her youngest daughter was born with Down Syndrome and her beautiful words explaining her raw, unedited feelings from that day sparked a viral frenzy of her exquisite Nella's birth story. I read the story and cried, but then kept reading her blog and loving how she views life through these Pollyanna infused eyes that see the beauty in the smallest moments. (Plus she takes awesome pictures and that is just wonderful to see too!)

She motivated me to be more spur of the moment with Logan... like when we went puddle jumping! Just enjoying the mismatched clothes, the JOY Logan showed when jumping in the puddles... it was not about what he was wearing or him looking just so - it was about all of us enjoying the puddle jumping and being outside and together.

The other Kelle-inspired moment of late was baking with Logan... Sweet Lord in heaven it was a mess, but it was SO much fun!

I know she will never read this post, but if you have time - check out her blog.
Check out her "suck the marrow out of life" attitude.
Check out her amazing love she has for her two daughters, husband and step sons.
Check out her kick ass red cowboy boots.
Check her out - you may be inspired in your mommy life, woman life, wife life.
I know I have...

Halloween Party!

Monday night was Logan's Halloween party at his daycare. It was a great time. You never realize how many kids go there until they are all there with all their parents!! GOOD GOSH! Can you say hot and sweaty much?

We were kind of half-assing it when it came to Logan's costume. I didn't want to go spend a ton and was sort of lazy to be honest. We ended up borrowing a costume from the famous Izzy - it was Yoda costume. That would have been super cute. The picture below is the closest we got him in it. Can you see how he is on the brink of utter panic and meltdown? He was - trust me.


So in a snap dicision my mom (who watches him on Mondays) and I decided on an alternative "hunter" costume. He stole this hat from my dad on Saturday's get together and add some camo shorts (it was crazy warm that day) and a brown shirt and some snow boots... he picked the snow boots. He has an obsession. And TADA - this is what you end up with:

Cracks.Me.Up.

Jumping on the bridge

Tooling around the playground. He gave a probably 7 or 8 year old a ride on it. He is STRONG! His next passenger - a little bit bigger.

It took a little bit to get him going, but he made it about 5 feet before he ordered Daddy "OFF!"

Logan and his first teacher, Bobbie. *heart*

Logan and Grandma!

Us.

It was a great time. He actually got some good compliments on his "costume" but I'll try a little harder next year. Of course maybe next year he will get it more so he'll be excited.

Hunt Family Afternoon

On Saturday we spent the majority of the day at my parents' house. My brother's family was out and I must say - it was a GREAT day!! For me it was one of those days where you are just so happy to be where you are and everything is just as it should be. When we first arrived we headed out to take pictures of the kids and grandma and grandpa. We headed across the street to what was my Great Aunt Wilma and Great Uncle George's house. They have some GREAT fall color over there. It was a great time. Then we walked back to do some pictures in my parents back yard area. It was so hard to get all the kids looking and smiling at the same time, but I loved all the pictures for sure. They just had so much fun!

Once my brother and sister-in-law arrived (their kids had spent the night) we just enjoyed hanging out and after nap time we all headed outside to play. I think we pulled out almost every game we ever owned. Basketball... badminton... bow and arrow... horseshoes... football... etc etc. Ultimately it ended in a game of catch the falling leaves. My dad came up with this and I must say - it was hysterical! It is really hard to catch a falling leaf - I dare you to go try! It was such fun. We had a big spaghetti dinner and just had a nice nice nice nice time.

Walking over with Grandma and Grandpa

Cousins! Logan looks up to his big cousin Thomas SO much... he does everything Thomas does. It is pretty darn adorable!

We had a great time throwing leaves at each other - Piper was collecting a big pile and Grandma and Thomas created quite the leaf sandwich!

Love this picture of Thomas! ha!

Sitting on one of the three bridges my parents have on their property.

We have the same picture of the three of us from last year... You can see it here. He has grown up so much!

I think the best picture of the three from the day! I think you can certainly tell they are related!

Pant-less wonder... the kid is a bit nutty.

My family... *heart*

Trip to the orchard!

We have been wanting to take Logan to the orchard for weeks now, but too many things kept getting in our way. FINALLY - we made a trip out this past Saturday morning. The weather was nice and there weren't too many people there as we arrived about 20 minutes after they open. It was the most perfect country orchard (started in 1890) and isn't all commercial and gimmicky. Logan loved it! We enjoyed some cider and donuts and picked out our pumpkins.

The gal who owns it was super sweet and asked if Logan could go with her to help feed the sheep. He was too scared to help, but he did watch and was pretty intrigued by what was going on.

It was a great morning of running through trees and picking out pumpkins. I can't wait to go again next year! Here are some photos from the day!

double fisting donut man! He loved them, but in the end only ate about half before they magically disappeared at the mouth of daddy!

Look at those sugar lips! LOVED IT!

Future fire fighter - saving the kitty who ran up the tree because of the dog.

It is amazing how much better the color is in photos if you have it on the right setting. duh.

What you don't know about this picture is that he is actually having a mega tantrum because we wouldn't let him grab that orange and yellow stick (to the right in the photo) and pull it out of the ground. So he ran off screaming. But doesn't it look like he is just enjoying being outdoors and exploring! ha! And in the picture below - he is still crying.

He saw the sheep!

It was a great morning! The rest of the day was spent with my brother's family and my parents at their house. Some great photos from then, but that will be for tomorrow's post. :-)

Things I want to remember...

1. That when we sing "Old MacDonald"... he has a pig farm. There are no other animals on the old man's farm. There are only piggies. If we try to add another animal - he won't let us continue with the song. He just keeps yelling, "No! PIGGY PIGGY!" It is pretty hysterical.

2. Logan LOVES and I mean L.O.V.E.S. hats, shoes, mittens, boots... basically everything other than pants. Pants... he hates.

3. When I start singing (and I really do have a good voice) and Logan is not in the mood for singing - he will just go, "momma... Momma... MOMMA!" over and over until I stop.

That are so many more "Logan" things, but I just wanted to get these on paper before I forgot! Lord knows I DON'T want to forget all these awesome things about my sweet boy.

School Pictures!

I don't know about you, but growing up I REALLY didn't like school picture day. That concern of - oh no I only have one shot to be as beautiful as ever.... The choice between traditional background, neon blue blinds or laser tag.... (My mom always picked traditional of course.) Is my hair right? What if I blink? Etc etc etc...

But now that I'm a parent - I think school pictures are the most awesome thing of all! I really love that Logan's daycare does pictures in both the spring and fall time. It is great! Even when they are itty bitty babies - they get their pictures taken! So sweet!!

Here are Logan's Fall 2010 school pictures! SO CUTE! It was a hard choice, but can you guess which one I ordered?