We had our family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago so I thought I would share some of my favorites over the next couple of days:) Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

We went to our friend's for a huge halloween party. She had at least 15 families over for a yummy dinner and bounce house fun before going out trick or treating! We had a great time, thanks Amanda!

Here are the three fireman and the two sister dalmatians:)



we attempted at a group shot but you can see it didn't go so well....plus we are missing several kids in this.

They had a great time going house to house. Last year Jackson had no idea he was getting candy, he only wanted to ring the doorbells.......This year he would pick out a piece of candy and turn around and say, "Mommy, Open this please." .......at every single house.


And just because I am having fun looking back..... (Since my kids are 14 months apart I am really enjoying comparing them at basically the same ages:)

Monkey Jackson in 2007 with best buddy Aidan (Aidan is Jackson's banana)

Jackson and Aidan as dinosaurs in 2008

Jackson and Aidan (and Jeremiah) as Fireman in 2009
Livi and Kaylie as dalmatians

Pumpkin Patch

Well with only one day left in October I suppose it is time to reveal our pumpkin patch photos!

Here they are climbing on all of the pumpkins:)








Then we put them on the trailer to get some pictures together......these were the best two:







But the best are the hilarious outtakes:

Jackson, put your arm around sissy......no not like that!

here hold a pumpkin instead.

"Wait I dropped mine! I'll just take yours brother!"

"Look at the what?"





riding the barrel train......yes it was a tight squeeze but our little dare devil (olivia) would have totally stood up during the ride.




waiting patiently for the hay ride.....


one happy boy and one concerned little lady.....



Looking back......
on the pumpkin trailer 2007


an all out refusal to look at the camera in 2008

so glad we are past that phase and happy with a new sister in 2009

October 23, 2009

Readoption Day! We had to get Livi legalized in the states (her citizenship not her actual adoption) and change her name to Olivia Shataye :)

realizing I should of taught my dad how to use the zoom on my camera:)

the court room is fun on adoption day!

waiting for our names to be called

waiting with PopPop's glasses on

finally our turn with squirmy kiddos

this one with the judge is a little blurry but the other one has Livi's eyes closed.....yeah I can never get good shots!

State Fair

Excuse me while I try to catch up from a month worth of no blogging. Here is when we went to the state fair back in September:) They are too cute not to share.....

with big tex



Then we headed over to see the dog show followed by helping hands on the farm. They sure were helpful......


watering the trees and picking the fruit.

carrying the goods.

after milking the cows

they planted seeds

and drove the tractors to deliver the food to the animals.


Then we went over to the petting zoo to see

lots of crazy animals.


Jackson got roping lessons from a real live cowboy.



Daddy hit the tiny inside red star of these black stars with a dart to win Jackson a guitar.

They rode the motorcycles


went to the car show

and watched the African Acrobats.


We also pigged out on lots of fair food and had a great day!

me with big tex in 2007 because Jackson was too busy doing this....



2008

2009

Hair

Daddy is taking a class at the seminary on Tuesday nights so we decided to watch some TV, pop some popcorn and do hair! I love to practice with Livi's hair.....it doesn't need to be styled right now since it is still short but it is important for me to practice parting and for her to practice sitting still.

A trip to Pop's house

Last weekend we went to my grandparents house to introduce them to their new great grandbaby:) Jackson loves their farm, the animals, and especially the tractor.

cousin Tanner:)

Balloon Fest

Every year since Jackson was born we have been going to the Balloon Festival in the Fall. We have a great time watching all of the balloons take off and this year we stuck around for the balloon glow at night but snuck out before the fireworks:)

I am sure the other side of this balloon was impressive:)



balloon glow

And because I have enjoyed watching my little family grow, here are our family pictures of the past balloon fests.

Fall 2007

Fall 2008

Fall 2009

Mother's Day Out

So it has come to my attention through my last post and Amy's post that not everyone has Mother's Day Out.....how is this possible? How do you people live your lives? Ok, I kid....I am not that desperately in need of MDO......well, sorta. Ok so let me try an explain the wonderful world of Mother's Day Out.

Down here in the South, there is like a huge church on almost every corner, and almost every church uses it's masses of Sunday school classrooms stocked with toys and tiny chairs and tiny tables to outreach to the community during the week. They do this by having a preschool and Mother's Day Out program. For instance, our church's program runs 3 days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 9-2 pm. But, you can enroll your kid for 1, 2, or 3 days and from 9 am to 12pm or from 9am to 2pm. The Mother's Day Out is for babies 6 months to 3 years old and the preschool is for 3 and 4 year olds, (and some churches even have kindergarten programs). They both have age appropriate curriculum wear they learn colors, shapes, letters, and bible stories. And since I was formerly a teacher B.K. (before kids), I taught in the preschool and was still able to feel like I was staying home with Jackson since I only taught 2 days a week. Now this year, I am using MDO more to my advantage by having Jackson go two mornings a week and using this time to grocery shop, ahem, bond with Olivia:) Don't judge, grocery shopping with only one child is worth it's weight in gold. Now MDO is not a free service, but it isn't too terribly expensive, plus Jackson is socializing and learning things every day. I really love our program at our church and love how so many people in our community are introduced to the love of Jesus Christ through it! I can't tell you how many children and families have come to Christ through this and how many children of different faiths I have personally taught. It always seemed odd to me that a Hindu woman would choose a Christian church to send her child to preschool at but hey, it happened all the time....and these kids learned about the bible and told their parents! It was incredible. Anyways I am rambling......

Ok so I have some catch up posts to do this week. I would love to actually finish our trip posts since I am such a blogging slacker! But here are a few pictures of the kids riding their bikes! The ones with the ponytails are for you, Tisha! It was my first attempt so don't look too hard at the parts.....

Now that he knows how to pedal, he has no problems leaving me in the dust....

First Day of School

Today was Jackson's first day of Mother's Day Out. I used to teach at the preschool and he was down the hall.....today I was down the hall in women's bible study:) It was a nice break from kids and I loved that they both missed me terribly (well ok they just missed me a little). I thought I would post all of Jackson's first day of school pictures for fun:)

Jackson's very first day of MDO with Mrs. Dot at 6 months old


Last year with Miss Jeanne and Miss Jade at 18 months old

This year with Mrs. Marlene at 2 1/2 and

with Mrs. Whitney


Olivia isn't missing out on the fun though. Mrs. Dot doesn't teach MDO anymore so she watches the other kids for bible study. We love her so much and had to get a first day picture with Livi.



I tried to get a picture of the both of them (Olivia has a matching pink backpack) but she was too busy trying to open other people's car doors.....

Now Daddy and Jackson are making bagel pizzas and Livi is rearranging the kitchen chairs all over the house..






have a good night!

Blogger friends!!

Ahh this weekend is FINALLY here! It is RLC staff retreat weekend and I get to hang out with some awesome blogger friends! AMY BOTTOMLY.....you and me tomorrow, I can not wait!


I promise, I will be a good blogger and bring my camera:)

Can I share with you?

Ok so out of desperation of having the same meals over and over and over again I started looking for some new recipes.....I love to eat and I LOVE to cook so I am often bored with my same ole repertoire. Then I found this blog, Life's Ambrosia. It is so yummy and so very easy:) My favorites so far (and this is by no means healthy or low fat stuff.....this is the good stuff) cheesy sloppy joes, slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches, slow cooker pulled pork enchiladas, cheesy tator tots, asian pork meatballs (we had these tonight with fried rice....so good), and the flank steak with chimichurri sauce..... So I just wanted to share with you in case you were in need of some new recipes:)

Morning at the Park

This morning was BEAUTIFUL! Technically it is still August in Texas and it was actually cool today! You know like low 80's? Yeah that is cool here. So I loaded up the kids with all of our fun park stuff, lunches, picnic blankets, etc. and headed to our favorite park. Jackson and I usually do this once a week all year long from September-April, so this was Olivia's first time at what will soon be her favorite playtime spot:) I started taking pictures after Olivia decided to cover, and I mean COVER, herself in dirt and playground mulch. She was literally taking huge handfuls and rubbing it on her arms and legs:) She was so dirty that when we got home I just put a huge beach towel in her crib for her to take a nap on!

blowing bubbles





so content with her bubbles.....







Lunch Time!





Hey brother, what are you doing?

can I come up?

up
up
all the way up!

We love days at the park:)

Happy Birthday Honey!!

Today Paul turned 29:) We took it easy today and just had a great time as a family. We started out at the spray park with the kids. I had not fished out my camera battery yet, which ended up taking some work to get it out, so I took some pictures using Paul's cell phone.








After that we ran through Steak and Shake drive through for yummy mini burgers, fries, and milk shakes. The kids were in heaven! After naps, the kids gave daddy his presents and we worked on making him his cake. Jackson and Olivia loved making the presents this week and worked really hard on them. Jackson made him a picture frame and Olivia made a bulletin board for his office. They used foam stickers and did it all by themselves! I would point where the letters should go so they actually spelled words and even Olivia worked really hard to spell Daddy:) But I never actually did anything so this is really the first crafts that were 100% done by them.

my sweet girl making cake:)

Why do I always get these goofy faces when I ask him to smile?

teamwork

ignore the no pants, we are potty training:)





daddy's foam bulletin board

Jackson and Olivia made this fun birthday card as if you couldn't guess.....


Daddy's new picture frame.....don't ask about the winter jacket.

no we will not both look at the camera......


decorating the cake

we will win Food Network Cake Challenge for sure:)

The best picture I got of all of them together.....

Happy Birthday Daddy we love you!!


Ignore my singing but I thought this was a cute video:)

oh and Jackson got a new motorcycle from the dollar store because he pooped in the potty twice today:) just in case you were wondering

while I was making dinner......

Olivia was busy doing this.......



That would be my camera battery stuck in the bottom of Olivia's play baby bottle.