Halloween at Chuck E Cheese

After Trick or Treating, we headed to Chuck E Cheese because we went there last year, and no one was there. Well, this year was the complete opposite...every one and their wild child was there! The place was CRAZY WILD...and I'm being nice by describing it that way! We would have never gone there if our experience last year had not been so good...oh, well, you win some, you lose some:)

The kids had a good time despite being pushed aside, begged to for tokens, and nearly trampled over a couple of times.

Halloween was fun this year! I can't believe that this was Paul David's FOURTH Halloween. That's just crazy!

Trick or Treating

We went over to Mimi and Paw Paw's to Trick or Treat...they have sweet neighbors who like our kids!

Paul David was not too happy about being the spider again. I had to bribe him that this was the last time he'd have to be it...anyone need a size 2T-3T spider costume for next year???

Oooh, Candy!

Paul David quickly caught on to the whole candy thing:

.
Sweet Baby Pumpkin on his First Halloween:

The spider with Mimi and Paw Paw

"I wanna be Colt McCoy, Mommy!"

Paul David's Trick or Treat Bucket...we got it last year after Halloween at the Bookstore.
It was perfect!

Happy Halloween from the Legoudes Family:

Build A Bear

Paul David got a gift card to Build a Bear for his birthday from Aunt Carol. This week I found a coupon online for $5 off that expired today, so today was the day to go!

Guess what we found there:

BEVO

Can you believe that they had a longhorn?? It was PERFECT!

I was so afraid that he would freak out when he got to the stuff me part (since he seems to freak out at the weirdest things), but he did great. He even helped put the stuffing in Bevo!

Here he's putting the heart in Bevo:

Then we went and "fluffed" him:

We had fun dressing Bevo:

Guess what they had to dress him in:

A Longhorn Football Uniform...it was like the stars aligned or something!

He had the best time and has carried it around all day.

Thank you Aunt Carol for the gift card...Paul David LOVED it!

First Taste of Cereal

Today is a big day for Judson...it's his FIRST Halloween, his FIRST taste of something other than milk, and tonight will be his FIRST trip to Chuck E Cheese!

FIRST, here's his morning cereal tasting:

At first, I couldn't keep his hands out of his mouth to give him a bite. Toward the end, he was reaching for my hands:

And pulling them to his mouth...mouth WIDE open:

He really enjoyed it:

I'm really thinking that he was ready for cereal and that he's going to be just as good an eater as his brother. He's got to have a love of food in his genes considering who his parents are and our love of all things edible!

Pumkin' Pie

The Imagination Movers have been growing this huge pumpkin and then making pumpkin pie most of the week, so when we went to the Pumpkin Patch Thursday and got pumpkins, well, Paul David thought we needed to make a pumpkin pie!!!

I finally got all the ingredients together, and we made one Friday afternoon (after he practiced making one at Mimi's). After his nap, he got to have a piece.

He mostly like the Cool-Whip which he called the icing. He did eat some of the pie, but mostly kept yelling, "I need more icing!"

I really can't blame him though...I've been known to put away a container of Cool-Whip with some help back in the day:)

I think he enjoyed it, but I think he really just like helping to make it. He tasted all the ingredients as we put them in! He really likes helping me cook...of course, it usually leads to me having to sweep the floor, but I guess that's his way of getting me to clean:)

Pumpkin Carving

Thursday afternoon while Judson slept, Paul David and I (mostly I) carved our big pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

I tried to get him to help scoop the guts out, but he really wasn't into that! He called them "spider webs."

I cut out an eye and gave it to him. He started singing, "The Eye of the Pumpkin is upon you!" He cracks me up ALL the time, but changing the words to songs is hilarious to me because I do it all the time!

Our carved "Hack-O-Lantern!"

We present:

all lit up:

At this point, he started singing Happy Birthday!

Judson woke up, so we got him posed by our Jack-o-Lantern, too:

Paul David and I had fun, and I have it all on video. I sat the camera up and let it just run the whole time. I even got him singing Five Little Pumpkins! If I ever get myself in gear with the video thing, I'll have to post it!

Happy Halloween!

Mental Snapshots

Be forewarned, I'm feeling a teeny bit mushy on this rainy afternoon. Blame it on the hormones, the rain, or the just being a woman, but consider yourself warned:) Mostly, I think I'm feeling this way because I bought rice cereal today at the grocery store. I keep coming up with excuses for not feeding Judson solids yet, but the real reason is that it makes me cry that my baby is old enough for real food. For some reason, that little thing represents the beginning of when the months start going by REALLY fast! See the first 4-5 months around here are like climbing a grassy hill. It's nice and all, but it's still a struggle. After you get to the top, it's just lovely...and pretty easy to just take it all in. Then, you start going down the hill and you pretty much roll down it so fast you miss it. And then your teeny, tiny baby is ONE. I just want to slow this all down!

So that leads me into...a couple of weeks ago, Pam and Jim got married on the Office. On the way to the ceremony, they talked about taking "mental snapshots or pictures" of the day...things they wanted to remember, but knew wouldn't be caught with a camera. Then, this morning (around 2:30 a.m. when I was up with Judson), I was reading a blog of a girl with a 17 month old. She talked about these "mental pictures" of things she wanted to remember about her little boy that you really can't take a picture of. That's it...I need to take some "mental pictures," but write them down.

It's those sweet moments you think you'll always remember, but you don't.
Those moments that tug at your heart, and you just want to bottle them up and keep them close.
The moments you need to remember when it seems you're falling apart.

Moments like when Paul David:

says, "You wanna play football with me?"
holds his baby brother's hand every time he holds him.
was a baby, and he ALWAYS slept at the end of the baby bed by the door...ALWAYS.
wore a sticker with the UT tower on it to bed and woke up with it the next day.
sucked on my shoulder to go to sleep until he found his thumb.
made sure to hold my hand when we walked in to MDO

And the moments when Judson:
grabbed my face between his hands the other night as I was putting him to bed
lunged for my Sonic cup and was so excited when I put it near him
would stretch out his arms and poke out his bottom when you picked him up when he was teeny, tiny
smiled the biggest smile at you just because you smiled at him
sleeps in the same corner of the bed...top left corner

Yes, those are the moments that make every day the best day ever...even though I don't realize it sometimes! I will say that this being a parent thing is THE HARDEST THING EVER, but boy do the rewards come pouring in. When I taught, I thought it was hard, but very rewarding. I always dreaded going, though. Staying at home, is way harder and way more rewarding...and I don't dread any day. Now, I may not want to get out of bed or can't wait to go to bed, but I don't dread getting up every morning...even when I was getting up 4 times at night:) My house is a wreck, there are groceries in bags in the kitchen floor, I need to take a shower, but I'm so crazy happy.

So how could I be sitting here crying my eyes out, but be the happiest I've ever been??? When you know you're very blessed and so content...well, you cry...tears of JOY! I know the months just get better and better from now on, but I want to treasure each moment...the good and the bad!

Now, I guess I'll go find a place on the shelf for that Rice Cereal!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We FINALLY got to go to the Pumpkin Patch this year! Tiffany (our Pumpkin Patch Pal) and I had scheduled it twice and both days it had rained. This was our 3rd year to go to the Pumpkin Patch together. Tiffany and I both worked at Shadow Forest and were pregnant at the same time. I had Paul David on October 4, 2006 and she had Sailor on October 5, 2006. They're less than 24 hours apart in age! She also has a little boy, Kane, who's 5.

Here are the kiddos in 2007:

The kiddos in 2008---the year Paul David WOULD NOT BE STILL:

And the three oldest kiddos in 2009:

Look at how much they have grown up! They were all looking in the vicinity of the camera...and in ONE place! We didn't attempt to get Judson in one with them all because he's not sitting up too well yet. Next year, we'll have 5 kiddos...Tiffany's due with Baby Piper on Feb. 15th.

So here are some of the shots from our Pumpkin Patch Adventure:

I LOVE this face...

"HA!"

Sweet Sailor...I'm always excited to see what her outfit looks like. She has the CUTEST clothes, ever!

Kane had a blast with this mallet and pumpkin:

Paul David was such a good poser today:

The Three of Us:

Paul David picked out this pumpkin and has been carrying it around all afternoon saying, "You want to make a Punkin' Pie now!" Umm, yeah, Pumpkin Pies are made out of pumpkin in a can, dude!

I asked Paul David to go pick out Judson a pumpkin, and he picked this one:

It was just the PERFECT size for Judson. Don't worry, I washed it before I gave it to him:)

I'm so glad that we finally got to the pumpkin patch. It was fun to see Tiffany, Kane and Sailor. We can't wait to meet Piper and have all 5 kiddos at the Pumpkin Patch next year!