Turkey, Trimmings, and Pie... Oh My!!

This post is out of order,I've gotten so far behind in my posting. This is about the Thanksgiving that almost didn't happen. We had been planning on spending Thanksgiving with the Husted family at their new home in Virginia ever since we heard that they would be PCSing this fall from Ellsworth to Virgina where Allen was taking a job at the Pentagon. A lot of obstacles came into play regarding this road trip--mostly with Trace's school. He's in the AFIT IDE program and it's been pretty rigorous and the homework has been daunting. The kids and I hadn't spent a weekend with him in I don't know how long--if that's any indication of how little we've seen him in the last couple of months. So, in order for us to go he was going to have to get ahead in homework for him to even afford the time away. What a roller coaster ride. One day we were going, the next day we weren't! Finally his instructors show a little mercy and homework that he thought would be due this week is now due at a later date. We're all excited because we think it's all a GO! Trace checks the weather and a portion of West Virginia that we will have to travel through is forecasted for snow! 6-12 inches of SNOW! UGH! So, we prayed that the weather would subside and decide to wait until Tuesday to go final on our decision. Long story short on travel day the clouds parted and the sun came out and we decided to make a run for it. All the praise and glory to God for answering our prayers. The entire drive was rain/snow free and for the most part the roads were not busy at all. We arrived late Wednesday night. Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Husteds in their beautiful new home. Friday was spent touring the Washington DC area. There was way too much to do and not a lot of time to do it in. We walked the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, took the Capital tour and by the time we were done with that, it was starting to get dark out, we decided to call it a day and head for home for Turkey leftovers and a photo shoot in Cindy's in-home studio. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids for our Christmas card and also get Beckett's 2 yr shots. What was supposed to be an hour drive from DC's to the Husted's ended up taking 2 hours due to some incorrect directions from On star. (it certainly wasn't driver error!!) It ended up being quite entertaining. Alec, (Cindy and Allen's 10 year old) was begging for his dad to pull over and let his mom drive! But alas...we made it home even with Allen driving. Saturday we packed out early morning and had a pretty uneventful ride home. We had such a good time and I am SO glad we were able to go!!






This is Beckett taking in the sites of Washington D.C.

B-Man turns TWO!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet,sweet, BOY!

Got Blogger?

Okay, so my friend, Cindy is amazingly talented...she is the one that designed my blog and has since made creating custom blogs into a business. For a limited time she is running a holiday special where she will custom design a site for you for only $25.00!! (What a steal!!) So, if you don't have a blog---now is a good time to start one. If you do, how about an blog lift? I promise you won't be disappointed in her handiwork. I also guarantee that it will impress your family and friends... That's not all...She's also hosting a give-a-way from now until Thanksgiving day for a free year long subscription!! (How cool is that???) check her site for details...

Mariah hit's the campaign trail...

Mariah was nominated as a candidate for the coveted 5Th grade class vice president. Here she is hard at work on her campaign. Her slogan... Don't be a dum-dum vote Mariah for VP.. hmmmm?



Her hard work paid off... Students voted on Monday and today she found out that she is the newly elected 5Th grade vice president!! Way to go, Mariah!

School Pictures

Guess what came home today?? I thought it would be fun to post my own pictures in the girl's respective grades. I've come to the conclusion that both of them are WAAYY cuter than I ever was!

Alden & ME 2ND Grade



Mariah & Me 5Th grade

Trick Or Treat!

This was our basket of candy...10 bags to be exact. It lasted 1 HOUR before we had to turn poor little costumed clad tykes away. This was giving one piece EACH! I am usually not that chincy but I had heard that in this neighborhood you had to be or you'd run out of candy in the first 15 minutes.



It's a bird, It's a Plane, it's Super-Girl, Mariah! Pretty as a Princess Alden, and Count Dracula Beckett... well that's what I had intended him to be. I have never allowed my kids to dress in anything dark spirited for Halloween. However I found this costume and tried it on him and thought he looked too cute. SO--thought I could adhere numbers to his cape and he could be "Count Dracula" from Sesame Street. But we had a litte costume difficulty and he went as he was. I guess I could have taped a sign to his back that read "Edward Cullen" if you're a Twilight fan, you know that he's the prince charming of vampires...

Hitting the streets...




This is my friend, Thelma. She seemed appalled that I wasn't going to dress up to dish out candy. She told me that I lost my Cool Parent Status! he.he.he. She looked great though..I love how spirited they are. They are definitely the cool parents on the block. Her neighbors house was very Scccarrryy and Beckett wouldn't even go up to the door.




Speaking of getting into the spirit of Halloween look at this cutie...



Another cutie..Our friends Chris and Heather's litte Tiger (aka Katie) We did a trial run the day before to practice her trick or treating. She was too cute. as soon as you would put the treat in her bucket she wanted to eat it.




All in all it was a fun night. Beckett walked the entire way with a death grip on his pumpkin pail. He wasn't giving his loot up for anything...even when he started to become unbalanced and started tripping because his pail was too full and two heavy he wouldn't let Trace carry it. I had some interesting trick or treaters. Teenagers without costumes that actually had the nerve to tell me that they didn't like the candy I handed them and wanted something else from the basket! I should have sent them on their way with nothing at all!!

The kids brought in quite a haul and I am sure we'll still be seeing remnants at Easter!

Pumpkin Carving

And this is what they look liked when they were all finished...



ooh...very scary!!!

The Great Pumpkin

Last weekend we took the kids to a local farm near our home to pick out their pumpkins to make their jack-O-lanterns. The Great Pumpkin just happened to be visiting this day. He talked to the kids and offered them a gift...Apples right off the farm. The sure were tasty. They had a good time looking for their perfect pumpkin. Alden was determined to find the biggest one in the patch. Mariah didn't mind if hers wasn't the biggest, she just wanted one that was perfectly round and the perfect shade of Orange. Beckett didn't care much for looking, he preferred to sit on them. After their pumpkins were picked Trace hauled them to the Van.




They had this display honoring our Military. I know i am biased...but I thought it was pretty cool!

Some 80's Inspired Family Fun

New threads purchased at the Goodwill.... $14.00
One pair of Leg Warmers $4.99
One can of Aqua Net $1.99
A date with our kids to a decade themed sock hop and showing up as one of very FEW parents that dressed up... PRICELESS! (Does that make us the COOL parents????)



Yes... our first clue that we could possibly be the only parents dressed up was in the parking lot. Alden's school PTO sponsored a family sock hop last night, the note home said to dress up in your favorite decade. I convinced Trace that it meant the whole family. He reluctantly agreed, and probably asked me a 100 times if we were going to be the "only" ones dressed up. I assured him that NO WAY...everyone was going to be dressed up. Uh... NOT,so much!! We were probably one of 5 couples that dressed up. It was rather embarrassing. In fact, Trace actually scared a child. She took one look at him and ran to her dad who was in earshot of Trace and said "that man over there is scaring me....!" Trace quickly went to restroom and removed his mullet. However, it's not all about US!!! The girls had a great time they boogied down with their friends and we had to carry them out kicking and screaming...Not really, but they didn't want to leave. They looked totally cute in their get-ups... LIKE, TOTALLY!






Beckett was our rebel child and dressed in circa 1950's duds. He's really hard to get a picture of because he's always on the move. We completed his outfit with a tattoo and a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his t-shirt. NO...not real cigarettes, no need to call Child Protective Services it was only a battery.. I PROMISE!