their favorite game...

Kinley and Ty just love this game lately.

 It is so cute to see Kinley try so hard to make Ty laugh.

All she does is just go back and forth behind his high chair and he giggles and laughs so much.

I love these moments!

Elmo Princess

Ok, you know how sometimes your kid comes to you with the craziest Halloween outfit idea and you just wonder where they came up with it and how you in the world you are going to make it happen!?

 

 Well, that happened to me this year.

Kinley has decided this year that she wants to be an Elmo Princess.

What the what?!

I am not sure what that even is.

I think she just loves elmo and loves princesses and decided to merge them....who wouldn't!? 

  So, I found a picture on pinterest for what I thought might work for her vision and she said "It's perfect!"

I dont even have that picture anymore and what I did was not near as cute but, I just winged it with a bunch of tulle and felt and made an Elmo Princess costume.

 

I can't tell if I love it or am scared by it. But, Kinley is excited about it. I am pretty sure anyone 100 yards away will see a huge Elmo face and wonder what that is...but, I told myself go big or go home...she's three and its Halloween!

 The day I finished it Kinley asked for a photo shoot so here are some phone pics...her posing cracks me up.

If you see an Elmo princess walking your way...don't be alarmed...it's probably Kinley.

Halloween...here we come!

October phone pics

Here is a little of what we have been up to in October besides pumpkin patches. Lots of phone pics and instagrams... Ty has been really going crazy wanting to walk. He can't quite do it yet but he would prefer to hold my hand and walk than crawl these days, so I assume his independence is coming soon. Eeek! This is us for a walk on the sidewalk on our street one day picking up acorns.

We love being outside playing in the front yard since the weather is still not too cold. Kinley has been making playdough ice cream cones. But, Ty prefers his bottle. We love spending time in our jammies in the morning cuddling and making silly faces.

We helped my mom clean out her closet one saturday and she found all these fabulous clip on earrings that Kinley could play with and they were fantastic and she loved them!!

We have also been playing the backyard a lot on the slide. Ty is a little obsessed with it right now since he loves to climb and climb and climb and Kinley has been practicing writing her name with sidewalk chalk.

We spent some time with the Aubrey and Grady this past weekend. We picked up some papa murphy's pizza and brought it home to bake. We love the little murphs pizzas! The girls could spread the sauce and cheese and pepperoni and bake it themselves. And there is matching tattoos when you finish! And without knowing it we ended up in matching jammies that night! They loved it.

Saturday we went to watch Aubrey's soccer game. She did so great and scored a goal! Kinley has been begging to play soccer after seeeing Ella and Aubrey are playing. I really wanted to take her to a game to see what it was like.

I think she loved it! (despite this silly sun in my eyes face)

Just a little October yet. Crazy!

Loving this start to the Fall and holiday season!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

October for us has been filled with pumpkin patch visits gslore! We visit Hall's Pumpkin Farm like 20 times every October. It is just so much fun and for such a limited time. The first time we went was at the very beginning of the month when the Fogles were in town and the Maverick and AG and SR got were all there too! It was so fun having so many friends there playing together!

Kinley and Eden were totally into posing like crazy. Pulling wagons

Feeding the baby animals...

And playing with lots of pumpkins...

 

Then I got to go to Halls on a preschool field trip with Kinley's Turtles class. It was so fun to just get to go by myself with Kinley. She was so excited for me to see her with her class and for me to be with her during a school day. They took some class pictures..

played with all kinds of friends in all the three's classes...

And got to go on a hay ride with just their class.

They also fed donkeys and cows with bread. Kinley wasn't too scared and fed both of them. She did so good!

Look at how big she looks!

 

Then, I got to take Ty by himself to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with the playgroup. That place is crazy! There are like two different pumpkin patches right next to each other and it can be a little confusing if you haven't been before. There is a fence right down the middle that we hiked over a couple times with strollers and a very pregnant Lindsey :) The most fun thing for Ty was riding the barrel train. He could go all by himself and just loved it.

Our playgroup took up an entire train.  It was so cute.

Linds is such a trooper in her preggo state.

Here is some hay mom...

Since October is not quite over I am sure there are more pumpkin patch visits in our near future.

 I love this time of year!

Fredericksburg weekend

Hello October...now that we are half way through with you it might be time to update you with what we have been doing!

It has been busy (as always) and full of so much fun and activity.

I have a few posts I am getting ready to show you what we have been up to (i.e. lots of visits to the pumpkin patch) but, I just wanted to try to stay as current as possible and update about the trip to Fredericksburg Ben and I just got back from.

That's right...you read that correctly...just Ben and I.

It has been quite some time (since our honeymoon 6 1/2 years ago to be exact) since Ben and I went on a trip just the two of us. We have had weekends away with other adult friends and family but never just the two of us. It was long overdue.

We basically booked this time for my 30th birthday in August but, just now had the time and babysitters to go. It ended up being perfect though because October is the prime month in the Texas Hill Country.

After doing lots of research and asking for many recommendations Ben and I booked the Basse Suite at the Hoffman Haus. I cannot say enough about these accomodations. They are gorgeous. Totally beautiful and quaint and clean and comfortable.

We totally felt like we hit the jackpot staying there.

The Hoffman Haus is a bed and breakfast and the Basse suite was our own little house that they would drop off a picnic basket full of breakfast at our door every morning. This was no ordinary breakfast...it was amazing hot breafast with things like quiche, french bread french toast, eggs, pepper smoked bacon, fruit, muffins, etc. It was delicious.

The Basse House  

Our Kitchen

  Our sitting room

 

Our bedroom Our Bathroom (my favorite room :) The second bedroom and bathroom

We pretty much just relaxed and played the whole weekend by ear. We did what we wanted when we wanted with no schedule really and it was divine. The town of Fredericksburg is just so cute. It is an old German town with lots of German flair and even a local brewery. Main street is lined with tons of beautiful buildings hundreds of years old that are still beautiful have great architecture like this old hospital turned into a kitchen store.

While I was enjoying a massage at the Hoffman Haus, Ben also toured the local World War II museum and was super impressed. He saw incredible authentic artifacts and moving pictures.

He even searched up and down the garden walls until he found a photo of the exact boat his grandpa served on in the war. Can you imagine getting this letter?

 

He said this photo made him so sad and reminded him that this little japanese boy could have been a baby boy like Ty.

 

We visited some wineries on Saturday and even played golf at the local municipal course on Sunday. But, Ben's favorite thing we did was tour Garrison Brothers Bourbon distillery in Hye, TX.

It is the only bourbon distillery in Texas and I highly recommend this tour for anyone taking their husband to Fredericksburg.

We learned more about the science experiment of making bourbon and the differences between bourbon and whiskey than I ever thought I would know. I think it was most exciting for Ben because the owner is just as good-old Texas boy following his dream. You can't even buy the bourbon there because it is against the law but, we did get to taste a sip from each of the 4 stages of the distilling process.

It was pretty cool. Overall, we had a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend just the two of us. It was so much fun to just be together. We were like little honeymooners reconnecting and it was just so fun.

I still feel sappy talking about it but, that is just how I feel. I totally am blessed and married the exact right person for me.

I just feel so thankful that after 13 years we are still crazy about each other. But, meanwhile....Kinley and Ty were having a great old time with Honey & Boss. I requested picture updates like every 10 minutes. They spent Friday night at Bass Pro shops and Grapevine Mills. Kinley even got a Build-a-Bear.

 

Saturday, they had an amazing pumpkin carving and face painting party at Lindy's house with all the other in-town great-grandkids. I am sad I missed this but, the kids looked like they had a blast! Sunday, they went to church with Honey & Boss and Kinley spent the afternoon with Pops & Gram before Honey took her to Kiley's birthday party at the pumpkin patch. I am so thankful she got to go spend some time with sweet friends even when we weren't there. We all had a great weekend and time away was treasured and appreciated by all.

I just had tears in my eyes when we saw our kids when we got home.

I am totally a sap!

Happy October!