Sweetness

5 Months Old

You are a smiley, cuddly, wiggly, curious, drooly, busy boy.

We have been working on sitting up this week and you are starting to catch on. You sit for about 5-7 seconds and then get excited about your feet or something in front of you and then you fly backwards.

Sweet boy, I love you and adore you!

You have now fallen into a day time sleeping routine. Yay!! You sleep 12 hours at night, take a 2 hour morning nap and a 3 hour afternoon nap. I love routine, so you have really helped your tired, routine deprived momma out!!

These feet have become something fun and exciting to play with this month. You just lay on my bed holding your feet and just talking and babbling away. You have also gotten control of your hands, so you grab at toys, put them in your mouth and bang them all about.

You are now entering the fun baby stage where the personality comes out, where you start to learn and see new things. I LOVE this stage!!!

Waiting for the Bus

This is a very special time in the morning for these two boys in my life. They sit on the bed of the truck and watch the sunrise, they talk about life, they talk about God. What a precious thing for a Father and Son!

My Pink Surprise

Happy 10 year wedding anniversary to me!!  My husband surprised me with this awesome gift.  I came home from a wedding on Saturday night and it was all put together in the middle of our den.  I have been wanting this super cute pink bike and a trailer for a long time.  Ever since Clayton learned to ride his bike without training wheels, I have wanted to ride the neighborhood with him.  I had a BLAST riding with him and with Oliver in the trailer.  I cannot wait for Elliot to get big enough to ride in the trailer.

Joel decided to give it a go round.

I LOVE pink, I LOVE spending time with my boys, I LOVE being outside, and I LOVE burning calories in a fun way (burned 500 in an hour).  The perfect gift.

I took it around the block without the trailer and I seriously thought I was 12 years old.....and then I woke up.

Happy 10 Years!!

Happy Anniversary.....

....To the man I fell in love with at the age of 14 over a plate of "cheese grooves" and parsley at the Olive Garden.

....To the man who is still making me laugh after 18 years of knowing each other and 10 years of marriage.

....To the man who puts God first in our marriage and has completely committed himself to this marriage since the day we made that covenant.

....to the BEST father to our three boys.

....to the man who is laid back, simple, and first to apologize.

...to the man I fully trust.

...to the man that still thinks I am "HOT" even though I have seen myself in the mirror and don't see it AT ALL!!!

I LOVE YOU, Joel. I love you more today than 10 years ago.

(Happy Anniversary to Jenni and Tim, my sister and brother-in-law!! In case you were wondering about the pictures with the two brides, we had a double wedding. It couldn't have been a more perfect day!)

Halloween at Mimi's

It is a tradition to go trick-or-treating at Mimi and Gongi's house. Mimi and Gongi are two very special people to the Halpin family. We love them dearly. We usually go with all the cousins, but due to busy schedules, we headed of there with Noah and Owen and the Amezcuas went on another day. Every year they give each one of us a Christmas ornament to add to the tree. It has been a tradition since Joel was a little boy. The boys cannot wait to hang their new ornament on the tree!!

Mimi loving on Elliot

Gigi loving on Elliot (he gets loved on a lot in case you didn't notice)

The two football players having a REAL game.

Mimi and Gongi have the BEST climbing tree in their front yard. I love that tree.

The DMA

On the first Tuesday of the month, the Dallas Museum of Art is free.  They have lots of activities for kids (crafts, storytime, music).  My sister-in-law, Rachel and my nephews have been many times and have had a blast.  This time we went with them and we had a blast.  We first hopped aboard the DART rail which all the boys LOVE!  And then, walked three blocks down to the DMA.  It was so fun just walking around downtown.  It was a gorgeous day!

Here are the boys making a costume.  I think they really enjoyed this.

Here is Oliver's finished product...

Then we went to several really fun play areas.

...and then a picnic lunch outside.  The DMA is a little strict with their rules, so it was a little difficult with four small boys, but fun nonetheless.  The best part was enjoying the company of our cousins and Aunt Rachel.

We look forward to going again someday.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!!
Happy first Halloween to Elliot. He was ready for bed at this point, so I just put a costume on him really quick to get some pictures of him, and then off to bed he went. He wore Clayton's first Halloween costume, Mickey Mouse.

Then, off to trick or treat. Our other cousins, Emily and Macey, joined us at our house after the festival.

Our little plant was loved on by his ladybug cousin.
(by the way, the brown part on his body is supposed to be a pot.)

Oliver really got the hang of it this year. This boy LOVES chocolate, so he was pumped about all of the chocolate being poured into his bag. I am not sure how much he ate that night, but I do know it was A LOT.

Our last stop was our sweet neighbor, Jacob's house. Oliver was so excited to see him on the front porch passing out candy. A plant and a bee go perfectly together.

Now, we have TONS of candy, and I can't stop eating it. I think I have eaten my weight in candy. YIKES!!

Fall Festival

The boys have wanted to be Jawas (some little star wars guys) for months. The "real" costume was $50, so I decided I was going to make the costume. A couple of weeks ago, I finally went and bought the 4 yards of brown fabric needed to make these costumes. Lo and behold, a week before Halloween, Clayton decided he wanted to be a pirate (to go with his book report). So, I decided to make Oliver a pirate costume also. I spent an evening cutting all the fabric for two pirate costumes. The next morning, I showed Oliver the fabric I had cut and tried to get him excited about the whole pirate thing. Well....didn't go as planned. He said no to the pirate idea and when I asked him what he wanted to be, my sweet, hilarious, mind of his own Oliver said, "I want to be a plant". After trying not to drop to the floor roll around laughing, I was supportive of his decision and we went to hobby lobby and he picked out exactly the plant he wanted to be "a blue plant". So, here they are...

The Pirate

And the Plant

We went to the Fall Festival at Firewheel Mall. CROWDED would be an understatement. We didn't last too long.

Some of the cousins came too. Here is Sleeping Beauty Olivia.

Here is Football Player Noah

And Football Player Owen.

Last, but not least (just the tiniest) Elliot as himself. He was asleep when we got there, so no costume.

We had fun, the weather was awesome, but we were ready to get home to do some Trick or Treating.

Book Report

Clayton had a big project due today. We spent all week working on this project. He had to read a book of his choice, then make a poster that had different elements of the book. He chose "Pirates Don't Change Diapers". He chose this mainly because they could dress up like a character in their book and he really wanted to dress like a pirate. He read the book all by himself. We then had to get creative with the poster. We tea stained paper to make it look old and Joel was in charge of burning the paper. Then Clayton got to work on the rest of the project. All together, he did a great job.

I spent the week making the pirate costume to go with the poster.