Happy Halloween!

We had a fun day today for Halloween. I started off the morning with pumpkin shaped pancakes for the boys (I totally stole this idea from Rachel with her ghost pancakes, but they were just too cute!):We then spent the day out at my mom's working on mine and Brian's costume for our class party tomorrow night (more to come on that subject tomorrow evening - don't miss it!) We headed back home to get ready for Trick or Treating. Reed was so excited to get to wear his costume. Once it was time to put it on, he was jumping up and down squealing like a banshee. Here are my sweet boys.

Hudson, however, was not as enthralled with Reed's costume. He kept trying to take Reed's mask off so he could see his face.
The newness of his pumpkin costume wore off quickly. He thought it was fine until he tried to crawl. When the giant puffiness of the pumpkin got in the way, he would sit up and pull on it with all his might as to remove the terrible hindrance from his body. It was quite funny.
Gammy, DadDad, Uncle Brandon and Mimi went with us to go trick-or-treating. (One weird thing - I did not bring a candy basket for Hudson as he is only 9 months old...I had several people ask me if I wanted them to give him candy. Ummm - no, he's not really ready for a mouthful of Laffy Taffy, but thanks!) Reed very much enjoyed himself at the numerous houses we stopped at. There was one house, all decorated up, that we had to go into the garage to get the candy. Quick back story -Last weekend, I made a terrible mistake. I was looking for costumes for myself and Brian and I took Reed into a Halloween store. Since then, he has had nightmares. Often. He gets up in the middle of the night crying and we always tell him to go back to bed. I wake up in the morning to get Hudson and I find every light blazing - kitchen, hallway, office, bathroom and his room - with him sound asleep in his bed. He has told me about 3 times "Mom, I'm never going into another Halloween store again." So, back to tonight...a couple had made their garage into a mini haunted house - a witch in a chair with a sword, a vampire in a casket, you name it. We went in, got the candy and left with me saying the whole time "It's all pretend, these are just people dressed up, Mom is right here, nobody will hurt you," etc, & so on. We left and he was smiling and said it was fun...we'll see how fun it is at 4:00 in the morning. Ugh. (P.S. If you're wondering about the picture with Reed holding the dollar, ask Ann Jay about that one!)

I'm SO not the kind of mom I thought I'd be...

...well, on some things at least.

And one of those things I'm talking about? Matching clothes. Before I had two kids, I'd see people with their children in the same shirts or outfits and think "Well, that's kinda cute, but it's also pretty silly." I guess when it is your own children and they are the cutest two little boys you know, that "silly" idea just fades into the distance. A few weeks ago I posted them in their matching camo and now...well, it's almost Halloween, so I have to get them into the holiday spirit. So, without further ado....

And somehow I can look at this picture and in no way does it look "silly" to me. :)

Happy (almost) Halloween!!

My bed buddy

After dinner, I have a ritual where I go to our bedroom, and spend some time winding down before I go to sleep. Sometimes I watch TV, sometimes I read...just something to get me calm from the crazy of the day. Reed will sometimes come into our room to watch TV with me. We have been known to fall asleep and Saturday night, without me knowing, Brian took this picture of us. I found it on my camera Sunday morning and thought it was so sweet. Reed wanted to hold my hand that night - he is such a precious child! He is such a good kid and though I get on to him and get upset with him, I am SO lucky to have him as my son. I'm so glad that God picked me for his mom!

At least we can laugh about it...

Cami and I went to deliver a meal on Saturday night and Hudson and Emory rode along with us. The house we were going to was about 15 minutes away from Cami's, so we thought it would be no big deal. Well, I recieved wrong directions, so we ended up driving an extra 20 or 30 minutes before we were able to get to the right place. After dropping off the food and visiting for a bit, we headed home. At this point it was after 7:00. Emory had no nap that day and was way past her dinner time. Hudson was also super tired. The result of all of this was a crying fit from the back seat that began pretty much as soon as Hudson's car seat strap was snapped. He started crying and mind you, his upset cry is a VERY high pitched scream/squeal. Emory then began to cry (probably because her ear drums were bleeding from the horrid noise) and was yelling at Hudson to "Quit it!" I think she even tried to smack him at some point to make the blasted noise stop which only in turn made it louder! Oh sweet goodness...Cami and I had no choice but to sit up front and laugh as our poor children cried their eyes out in the back seat. The picture I got was not in the midst of the madness (I was driving at the time), but when we pulled up to Cami's house, these are the expressions I captured:

They both look tired, done in and like they are wondering why in the world I needed a picture of them at this particular moment.

Good times.

Too pointy!!

Hudson was chewing on this ball last night and every time he bit on it, I guess the "spines" were a little too much - he kept making this same face over and over...pretty funny stuff...

He's stuck...again...

Hudson has been getting stuck a lot lately. He crawls (it's really more of a army crawl where he drags the lower have of his body with him causing some minor flailing of his legs). For example....this is yesterday when he got stuck under one of the dining chairs...

and today he got stuck on a Dr. Pepper 12 pack box. Seriously? How does that happen?



I guess this just comes with the territory of crawling, but goodness...

Family Portraits

Today we had our annual family portraits done (well, they will be annual from now on at least). We go to church with an awesome photographer. Penny not only took our family pictures last year, but she did my maternity portraits and Hudson's newborn shots. She did our Christmas card last year and will no doubt be doing it again this year. She is VERY talented and I plan on having her take our pictures from here on out. Here are a few shots from the session or a sneak peek as Penny calls it...

Funny Pictures

Here are some funny shots from the last couple of days.

Ummmm...that really not how you're supposed to use the Exersaucer, but hey, whatever works. (and by the way, he does have a diaper on, you just can't see it because of all the fat. I love it!)

Last night when Brian came in from work, he picked up Hudson and Reed wanted a ride, too. When Brian carries him on his back, Reed always stands on the back of Brian's jeans which really makes for a funny picture! Aren't my boys sweet?

Reed has a toy that my brother got him which consists of a plastic "log" with plastic bottles and cans on top. It comes with a gun and when you shoot the gun at the log, little pegs pop up making the can/bottles fly causing it to look as if you shot the cans off of the log. (My brother is a gunsmith...what can I say? In all seriousness, it is a very cute toy.) The bottles are in two pieces, so it looks like you end up "shooting" it in half. Of course all of these fun toy pieces are spread around the house. Hudson came army crawling in the office the other day and pulled up in a chair and when I saw what he had, I just had to laugh. It looks like he's ready for a throw down with his broken bottle in his hand...

Sweet Friends

I was able to watch Emory yesterday for a couple of hours. She and Reed just crack me up. I could hear them in Reed's room - they'd start to fight about something and their voices would begin to slowly rise as the "No, it's mine!" and "I had it first!" started to waft out to the living room. I'd say "You two be sweet to each other!" and after a moment hear a sweet "Okaaaaay" from two little voices in unison. They are truly like brother and sister.

I so miss sweet Tate. He'll always be the missing piece when we get together. Nothing could have been sweeter than to have all the Gilbert children at my home yesterday. What a joy to know that this life is not the end - we again will see him one day and my boys will get to meet Emory's "Bubba Tate".

Fun with Foam

I was cleaning today and found one of the foam puzzles that the boys like so much. After playing with Hudson a bit, I realized that if the foam pieces are wet, they will stick to you. I stuck one on my forehead and Hudson thought it was hilarious. So, of course you all know me, I had to stick one on his forehead.

Then Reed decided not only to join in -

but in a big way.

Man, they make me laugh.

Bathroom Reading Material

Today Reed was in the bathroom doing his business and came out with Brian's Street Rodder in his hand. I looked up at him and he said "Mom, I saw this magazine in the bathroom and decided I needed to read it while I was in there."

And it begins.

8 Months Old

Yesterday was another milestone - Hudson turned 8 months old. He is getting big so fast and I find myself wondering where the time went. He is a true joy in our lives we love our little monkey man!

Canton

I just got back from an awesome weekend in Canton! I went with my friends Sarah, Cami & Amy. Cami's parents have a time share cabin just outside of Tyler (which is about 45 minutes from Canton) that they graciously let us use. Cami, Amy & I left about 3:00 on Friday and headed to Fort Worth to pick up Sarah from where she works. After coming back to the house twice (once for my money that I left and the second time for my tennis shoes) and waving at the same neighbors who were standing in their driveway watching us pass by multiple times, we were on our way! We picked up Sarah and decided to eat at one of our favorite places...P.F. Changs - YUM! We had great discussion over dinner and really enjoyed each others' company. We headed on to the cabin (stopping at Dairy Queen on the way where I looked at my lap the whole time to avoid ordering their dairy goodness) and finally got there about 11:00. We went in, took a look around and proceeded to head out to the car to unload our bags and as we were walking down the stairs to the cabin, I squealed "SKUNK!" Yes, there was a skunk about 20 feet outside our door! All I had was a sad little flashlight about 3 inches long that really only works in "close up" situations, so here we are, 4 girls squished up against a window, watching a skunk stroll around aimlessly outside. It finally headed off into the trees and we made a run for our pajamas & toothbrushes.


The next morning we got up early and spent about 6 hours shopping Canton. We found almost everything we came for and a few more fun things! Here is a picture of my favorite purchase of the day (my McCain/Palin T-shirt) and some other fun things:

Sarah in a Hillary mask at Wal-Mart...VERY creepy and for so many reasons!

Eating at Mercado's

After shopping, we had another great girls night of food, chatter & fun. We ate at an awesome restaurant called Mercado's - the best tamales I have EVER had...Yum! We slept in Sunday morning and after Cami cooked us breakfast (thank you, Cami!), we headed back to our families. I was so glad to see my boys, but the weekend was a much needed break. My batteries are recharged and I'm so thankful for sweet friends!

My little photographer

I love photography. I am by no means a pro, but it's a really fun hobby I enjoy. I have a bigger camera that I use when we go on trips and for special pictures. For my birthday, Brian bought me a little camera that I keep in my purse for when we are out and about and I need to take a quick picture of my crazy children. Lately, Reed has had a new fascination with my camera. He has learned how to take a picture, so he walks around the house taking pictures of random things. I think he's pretty good - anyone know a good talent scout?

"Feet"

"Da Plane"

"Just Around the Corner"

"Light"

(Isn't the placement of his finger wonderful? I'm sure that was on purpose)

Now, I saved the best for last. Yes, this is an actual picture Reed took. I can't tell you what the subject was, but I'm sure that this is his interpretation of "abstract".

AWESOME!

Reed - The Incredible Hulk

Gammy & DadDad came over last night and brought dinner (Yay!). They had been in New York last weekend seeing shows and having a great time. This is the first time they had seen Reed's Hulk gloves that my parents bought him at one of the garage sales in my neighborhood last weekend. If you have never seen the gloves before, they are pretty funny. I can see why a little boy would like them, but when you put them on, you just have an irresistible, irrepressible urge to punch! Now, DadDad is a big man, but I guess the gloves give Reed a false sense of security - even if he is only using one of them. Here they are sharing the gloves and whoopin' up on each other...