The North Pole Express

The family got a chance to board the North Pole Express this year and go see Santa and Mrs. Claus! We had a fun and exciting time! A quick train ride to the North Pole, we played with elves, saw Mr. and Mrs. C, then had milk and cookies on the way home!!

 

“I’m so excited!”

Here comes the train!

JE and his new penguin buddy!

“I see the North Pole!”

John Emory wasn't real sure about them!

“Time to go home already?”

WOW!! Where have I been?? October recap and highlights!!

Sorry guys, I know it's been a while, but I've just been plain lazy when it comes to the blog lately! (and to be honest it's probably gonna take a while to get through this post! not really in the blogging mood, again kinda feeling lazy!) So here goes...

First up Halloween related pics:

Pumpkins ready for carving!

 



Here is Eric's pumpkin



This is John Emory's

These are my mummy lights!

10/31/11:
We dress up at work every year and this year we picked a Disney theme: ( I know it's a bad picture, but this was the only group shot I really got!)

Hannah Montana, Jessie, Tink, Capt. Hook, a Witch (Hocus Pocus), and Mr. Fredrickson from Up



Hannah Montana made a special trip to TPS to see Eric's class! They were so excited!!!

 Now these next few pictures are before we went trick or treating:

JE and our sweet neighbor Hannah, and Camden in the background

An X-man and a ladybug



Eric's self made costume (why did I spend money on a costume this year that he didn't wear?) In case you are wondering, he was a high angle rescue team member! Pretty clever huh?? 



JE and Maggie ready to go get some candy!!

Almost forgot our annual Trick or Treating on Sorority Row at the University:

A little background.... JE fell asleep on the way home from my parents on this day. Well, there really wasn't a lot of time to get a sufficient nap in , so we dressed him in a costume like Eric's while he was still snoozing.... When he woke up, that costume had to come off! As a result, the only thing I could get him in that resembled a costume was an Alabama jersey... Eric's army costume...a whole $3!!

JE, Eric, and his birthday buddy Mary Randall. They have celebrated Halloween together every year since they were born!

Group Shot!!

Poor JE, can you tell how tired he was... he had this look for most of the night!

Moving right along to the next highlight....

Cub Scouts (or as JE calls them pub scouts)

This month in Cub Scouts Eric learned about CPR, which if you know anything about my boy you will realize he was on cloud nine learning some first aid stuff!

Next up for cub scouts was Camp Haunted!Now I should get a mom of the year award for this... this is my second camping trip with him b/c James had to work. Now if you will remember the weekend before Halloween was super cold, and no I was so cold I did not sleep a wink!



The morning after...




Troop 151



Playing Tug of War... one of the many activities they participated in the next morning

So this pic has a funny story behind it... when ever a scout loses something, the scout master makes them sing a song in front of everyone in order to get it back. Well if you know Eric, you knew this was only a matter of time. He left his hat behind at one of the stations. and after searching all over the camp for it, we learned that the scout master had it... luckily he wasn't the only one to lose something. His song of choice... Brown Squirrel. Here they are shaking their bushy tails!! Even got a little bit of the scout master shaking it!!

We had a great time camping, however after hiking for 100 miles! I could not move the next day! Ouch I'm out of shape!! Hope daddy gets to experience the next trip!! I will mention I have met some great ladies who also deserve some mom of the year awards!! It is great getting to know them while our boys learn some important things about life!!  

So I leave you with this precious parting picture of my boys with our darling little neighbor Hannah!

Hope you all had a great October!! Guess what, November is nearly over and I'm just finishing this!! :)

Weekend Birthday Fun = super tired monday!

This weekend we had lots of celebrations going on! And unfortunately Jamie had to work the whole weekend and missed all the fun :( First up is this girl in the pic below... If you can believe it, this is my niece Rebecca! I know it's so hard to believe how grown up she looks! And folks, she is officially a teenager now!! What are we gonna do?? Do you realize this also means she will be driving in THREE years!! yup! Makes me feel really old now! (and on a side note, if she is 13 then that means Jamie and I have been together for 13years now!! We met right before she was born. Wow!!) To make her day special, we surprised her with a party at Super Skate! Her daddy really surprised her with that nice new guitar she's strumming there! Cool present John!

Here she is opening presents with two of the cutest little fellas I know!

Eric taking in some of the artwork in the party room!

John and Amii

Poor Rebecca has to entertain us at her birthday party! JK she is really enjoying playing with her new guitar! And there is little sis Caroline having a good time too!

Yummy, Cookie Co. nuff said!

Taking a break from the vigorous skating!

This blurry dark figure is Eric skating! and might I add, he is doing much better than last time! Only fell a few times!

If you look real close, you can see Jason and Jenni! I know horrible pics, but what can you do while you're at the skating rink? Am I right or what? We had to leave unfortunately a little earlier than expected because my very talented brother john got hurt doing some acrobatic flips while skating! No, really he did! It was however not on purpose! He was skating, minding his own business, when some little kid (not mine) fell in front of him.... from what I hear (because of course I missed it) he jumped over the kid, did a flip in the air and then rolled a few times when he landed! Wish I had seen that! Glad we did not have to call the ambulance though and I hope you are feeling better!! We had a great time celebrating Rebecca's birthday! Can't wait to do it again! I am really starting to enjoy these skating parties, may make it a weekly thing.... We will see! Anyone else wanna go with? 

Next up, 3 boys in a box!! On Sunday, we had the honor of attending JE's good friend Mac's 3rd birthday party! What fun this was! Melanie (and Brett) did a great job of getting everything ready! It's the  Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

JE taking time to paint a pumpkin an appropriate Halloween color: Black

Eric munching on some snacks and yes a cupcake he stole before the birthday boy blew out the candles! Sorry Mel!

I know, not a good pic, but that's the birthday boy blowing out the candles... now you can have a cupcake!

Bobbing for apples!

Ah yes, and David Turner who was the unfortunate victim of a cupcake incident!  
Good times were had by all that attended! Thanks for having us, but after all that partying, I still had to go to work on Monday= long, tired week! (But worth it)

Fall Break 2011

Fall Break kinda snuck up on us this year! We didn’t go anywhere for a vacation, although that would have been great! We played around the house and neighbor hood and took a couple of day trips!

First up: Pennington, AL

What you may ask is in Pennington, AL and where is it?? (sorry Robert, I don’t think this is your town, unless you are from Choctaw County?)

The Hunting camp is there… We took the boys for a day trip to shoot bb guns and take a walk in the woods to see the river and look for deer!

    

The were shooting at some pigs we saw with their stick guns!

Pretending to fish in the river…

On the next day we took a trip to the Birmingham Zoo..

 

Three of the lion cubs

This tiger looked a little hungry…

This is a pic of JE’s hiney and the elephant hiney! This is what he did when I asked if he wanted a picture with the elephant hiney!!

 

Crazy Kids!

We had a blast! on our family fall break adventures… and to close out with a few neighborhood pictures!