Arden's 2nd Birthday

Someone special had her second birthday party today! And she had a blast!

I picked a "vintage cowgirl" theme for her party, but I ended up interpreting that pretty loosely. I just threw a burlap table runner on the table, some flowers in old starbucks bottles, mason jars for drinking pink lemonade, some star shaped platters that seemed cowgirl-ish to me (even though they're technically Christmas decor), and some vintage hankies from my mom thrown over jute string over the window and hutch.

My mom made the cake, as usual, and it was beautiful and delicious, as usual.

We had ham and cheese sandwiches on King's Hawaiian rolls, carrots and grapes, chips with homemade salsa, chocolate peanut butter balls, and cake. Simple, but yummy.

Arden wore a little denim mini skirt, cowgirl boots, and a pink t-shirt that said "cowgirl in training" that Mimi and Grandpa bought for her. She looked so sweet!

Clarke made an awesome video montage with pictures of her from throughout the year. It's become a tradition to do one every year for both of their birthdays. Arden went crazy when we first showed it to her, and she was gasping and pointing at all the pictures, saying "That's me!" and calling out the names of the other people in the pictures. She liked it so much that she started bawling when it ended, and we had to show it to her three times. Here she is watching it at her party with Mimi and Aunt Emily and Granny.

She loved when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and just squirmed in delight (unlike someone else I know). Here's the sweet face she gave, like "Is this for me?!"

Daddy helped her blow out the candles. Two years old!

She kept holding out her fork so we'd help her put bites on it.

Our wonderful family just spoiled her with presents and she loved it! She loved these two tiny ducks from Grandma (Grandma knows her well).

Sharing her crawling baby doll (from Aunt Emily and Uncle Christopher) with her cousin, Kierstyn.

Darling little table from Granny and Papaw, all set up for tea with new glasses and cups from Mimi and Grandpa.

Birthday girl.

Getting help with her new shopping cart and food from Uncle Ben and his girlfriend, Tracy.

Why is it so hard to get a good family picture? Huston did NOT want to smile.

Happy birthday, sweet Arden. We love you so so much!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Mr. Fredricksen and our little bumblebee!

This year was probably the first really happy, exciting, and "successful" Halloween we've ever had with Huston. We started talking about it weeks and weeks ago, and he would scream and say he didn't want to dress up as anything for Halloween and he wasn't going to do it and on and on. But I wouldn't give up, and kept talking about how fun it would be. Eventually he announced that he was going to be Mr. Fredricksen (from Up! of course) for Halloween. But then he would scream and say he wasn't going to wear a bow tie. Finally he decided he would wear a bow tie and he even came around to suspenders. He was super excited to get his "quad cane" and put tennis balls on the bottom, just like in the movie. And obviously it was no problem convincing him to wear glasses. I shouldn't have pushed my luck, but I did. I chased him around trying to get him to let me spray his hair white, but he wouldn't have it, so I backed off.

Here he is in all his Mr. Fredricksen-ness.

I bought balloons for him to carry, but he didn't want to take them trick or treating. It was funny, because all the people we passed just thought he was dressed as an old man. Of course, Mr. Fredricksen is kind of an obscure character, so if he had carried the balloons it might have confused them more and left them wondering why the old man was carrying balloons.

I was so proud of him for saying trick or treat and thank you to all of the people who gave him candy. He got a huge kick out of ringing the doorbells and commenting on all the Halloween lights and decorations we saw.

We passed one house on our street that puts a strobe light up every year (which we haven't talked about for a year) and he said, "Hey, remember when I was two and they put that light out for Halloween?" Everything that happened a long time ago is "when I was two" and isn't that an amazing memory?

Here's our crazy, adorable bumblebee.

She was pleased as punch every time she got a new piece of candy in her bucket. She said "More! Like it! Candy!" Her little feet was trip-trapping along so quickly when we started trick or treating, but they got slower and slower and by the time we made it around the block to the house right next to ours, she looked up at Daddy and said, "Hold me?"

Enjoying the first piece of Halloween candy from our neighbor - a Reese's peanut butter cup.

How does Mr. Fredricksen eat a Reese's?

They were so tuckered out after trick or treating - Clarke read them one story and was about to read them another, but Arden said, "All done! Night night!" at the same time Huston was saying, "Bedtime!"

Now it's the next morning and they're both in their jammies carrying around their buckets full of candy. It's only 8:20 and Huston is already plotting how late it has to be before he can have a sucker. It might be a long day!

Fall at the Dallas Arboretum

Last Thursday some friends and I took our kids to the Dallas Arboretum. I've always gone in the spring before, so it was exciting to finally get to go in the fall. They have a gorgeous "Pumpkin Village" set up with lots of different castles and houses made of pumpkins. The weather was beautiful, the company was divine, and the scenery spectacular.

"Look at all these pumpkins!"

Climbing through a narrow door in Rapunzel's house.

All the kiddos (minus sweet Caroline who was in her stroller). Huston was cracking up because Wyatt was throwing his goldfish crackers in the fountain.

Huston loved the grandfather clocks in Cinderella's castle.

Peeking out the window of one of the pumpkin houses.

Cinderella's house.

My pumpkin pie.

Chillin' on some hay bales.

So cute!

Rocking the wild glasses and examining a weird pumpkin.

My Sunshines

This week:

Arden wore this outfit that was so adorable I wanted to die.

She has been talking up a storm. The other day she said " 'Mon. Follow me! I go find it!" when she was looking for something. I love how she says 'mon for Come on and 'mere for Come here.

There has been some serious sibling fighting this week. These two sure know how to get on each other's nerves in the silliest ways. For example, Arden will say "Boo" and Huston will say "I don't like her to say that!" which causes Arden to say "Boo boo boo boo boo boo boo" and Huston to whine and scream like the world's ending. Or, Huston will say "Cuckoo, cuckoo" and Arden will yell "Like that! Like that!" (which of course means she doesn't like that) causing Huston to say it over and over again and Arden to scream like the world's ending. This week has been a series of incidents just like the ones I just described. It is exhausting.

We've had some backyard playtime in the evenings. Huston and Arden like looking through our fence and making our neighbor's dogs bark. I'm sure they appreciate that.

Some quality Daddy time has been had. Saturday I went shopping with some friends and Daddy took them to the duck pond to feed the ducks grapes and to Chuy's for a special lunch. Huston misheard the word "geese" and called them "weest." He said, "You can just call them 'goose' or 'weest'." Then they got to have dinner at Cracker Barrel with Mimi and Grandpa and Granny and Papaw, too. They had so much fun that Huston was quite disappointed when I returned from shopping, and didn't even want me to come to dinner with them. Daddy read some great stories this week. The kids were waiting for him in the picture below (Arden's hair looks crazy because I just took it out of her pigtails). Two of their favorites were Mouse is Mad and Take Care, Good Knight, both random picks from the library. Arden likes to interrupt to point out random things which she'll say over and over until you acknowledge her, and Huston likes to interrupt to ask a bajillion questions. It can take awhile to make it through a story.

I bribed the kids with chips to get them to kiss each other for this picture.

I sang "You Are My Sunshine" to Huston and told him "You are my sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away."

He told me, "But I'm just going to have to get my own house when I get big."

I said, "But I don't want you to."

And he responded, "Well, you can come visit me."

I told him, "But I'll miss you."

And he replied, "Well you can just come a lot of days. You can come Friday, Monday, Tuesday...But you might miss me. But that's a lot of days you can come. You can come ANY you want to my house when I get big."

I hope his wife agrees.

Nash Farm

Clarke and I took the kids out to a fun free event in Grapevine today, called Nash Farm. We met some friends out there and enjoyed the nice, fall-like weather. There was a little petting zoo and both Huston and Arden really liked petting all the animals. There were chickens, a bunny, sheep, goats, and a turkey. Huston liked the chickens the best.

There was also a pumpkin patch where the kids could pick out a pumpkin to take home.

They decorated them with washable markers which smeared all over the place as we were carrying them, but it was worth it because they were so cute while they were coloring.

I was so happy to get pictures of them with the pumpkins. Even though Arden's hair was driving me (and her) crazy because it was so windy. Her hair was flying in her face in almost every picture I took. Still, every year I wish I had pictures of them in a pumpkin patch, and this is the first year I've ever taken them. So even if they're not perfect, I'm still so happy about it.

Arden kept sitting in piles of dirt and rubbing her fingers in it. She loves dirt.

Huston and Wyatt had fun chasing each other and throwing hay at each other, until we put a stop to the hay throwing.

We went on a hayride right before we left, which was not that exciting, but was a nice way to end the morning.

I love fall!

What did you learn today?

I asked Huston what he learned when I picked him up from Wee Care after my Bible study.

He said, "Jesus can make our friends not sick. He has the power to make us better."

I love hearing God's truth coming out of his precious mouth.

Time is of the Essence

My initial plan for this Saturday was to spend some time cleaning and putting away toys and odds and ends.

Then I saw this quote on a blog this morning:

“Now is the time to get things done…wade in the water, sit in the sun, squish my toes in the mud by the door, explore the world of a boy just four.

Now is the time to study books, flowers, snails, how a cloud looks; to ponder “up,” where God sleeps nights, why mosquitoes take such big bites.

Later there’ll be time to sew and clean, paint the hall that soft new green, to make new drapes, refinish the floor – Later on…when he’s not just four.”

- Irene Foster

And so our morning took a different turn. We made a bigger mess and built some train tracks under the table.

It was so fun to be in his world for a little while.