Carving the night away

The before shot:

Yesterday we finally got around to carving our pumpkin. I carved and Luke and I cleaned the pumpkin. Kaden did not want anything to do with it. Gabriel looked inside but that was it.

Luke and Gabriel inspecting the inside:

Luke started cleaning:

Aunt LeeAnn I think we got an Italian pumpkin, check it out, there is spaghetti on the inside:

The finished jack-o-lantern:

Should be a fun night tonight. Hopefully I will get to blog again soon seeing that our movers come tomorrow! Yah, I am stressing a little bit. I feel like I have to do so much and nothing is done. Doesn't help that Mike has an insane week. He was almost 2 hours later then he thought he would be yesterday. Yikes, I certainly hope we don't forget to set something aside that we might need. I will be glad when Friday comes and the movers are gone and we are relaxing with family!

Halloween Round #1

On Friday afternoon we had a Halloween party at Michael's work. What an interesting day that was. Mike was able to come home a little early to help me get the kiddos ready. That was a chore in and of itself, Superman Luke was dressed first and desperately trying to run out of the house. Kaden however did not want a costume on and fought us hard. But through his tears he turned into Dash (from the Incredibles). It was an insane downpour as we drove to the squadron, Kaden did not enjoy that either, thunder and lightning everywhere. We ran the kids inside but the parking lot is forever away from the building so even with jackets and umbrellas, we were all drenched! But do you think that could stop Halloween fun? We were there all of 10 minutes before we headed to the center of the building for a tornado warning. Oh yeah, over 25 minutes in a hallway with lots of kiddos wanting candy---such fun! Actually all the kids did really well waiting. Here's a photo of us waiting out the tornado and water spout scares:

And here are my boys who found the drinking fountain a fun thing to play with, and look at apparently: And no, Kaden did not have to go to the bathroom, he was just posing I guess:
Then the trick-or-treating started. Kaden was scared of half the rooms, because, well, they were scary. Luke went in everywhere and got the most candy by far: Blurry but cute none-the-less:
Kaden-man was a BIG hit at the cupcake walk. He was dancing around as they played Laurie Berkner songs. (and for those of you that know her, that is Elyssa, Jason and Lisa's daughter)

We did have a fun, fun time. The boys are looking forward to Halloween night when they get to go to houses for candy.

2006 World Champions!!!!

The St. Louis Cardinals are the Champions!!!!!!

How good does it feel to say that? Cardinal Nation believed! The game was so exciting last night. We won, we won, we won! Let's enjoy the celebration! :) Weaver, you were unbelievable and David you were certainly the MVP!!!!!

It was a very exciting game. I was stressed in the 9th, not because I didn't have faith but because 2 runs is still a close game and I wanted desperately to win in St. Louis for the players, for the fans, for Uncle Don and Aunt Deb--who were there!!!!! When we won game 3, I about bit my thumb off during the 9th inning. And last night I folded my arms and was squeezing them so tight look what happened to me: Who says fans don't suffer?!

Gotcha! I am totally kidding. That is my lovely bruise from getting 8 vials of blood drawn on Tuesday, see the needle prick? It is now starting to look better. Ha, trying to be funny.

Way to go Cardinals! I am so excited! It's nice to be World Champions! 24 years was a long time to wait. :)

Dancing with the Cards

I am not the only excited Cardinal fan out there. When Preston Wilson made his amazing catch last night I felt my baby move for the first time. Such an amazing feeling!! Obviously, it's never too early to be a baseball fan!!!!

Who said being the underdog is a bad thing?! Not St. Louis fans, that's for sure! The Cardinals won again last night and are now leading 3 games to 1. What a fun game tonight!!!! Way to go Eckstein, he certainly was the player of the game! Go Cardinals!!! One more game!

On Wednesday night when the Cards game was rained out, Mike was flipping channels and I asked him to stop on Dancing with the Stars. I have never seen it but my Mom told me that Emmitt Smith is amazing! And just our luck he was dancing first, doing the Mambo. Didn't take too long until Kaden and Luke joined in. I cannot tell you how hilarious it was and the pictures do not do it justice. We were cracking up! Thaddeus you would have cried watching them try to 'shake it' like Emmitt. (notice he is in the background on the TV--this was not a recreation of the event)

After baths that night, I decided Kaden needed a haircut, I did cut a lot off, it was getting so long--especially in the back. So here's the pic I took of him this morning, don't worry Grandmom the boy still has LOTS of hair.

We have out Halloween party at Mike's work this afternoon, the boys are very excited as you can imagine. There will be pictures.

More on the baby front: I am now 15 weeks, I had my doc appointment on Tues and all looks great. The baby's heartbeat was in the upper 140's, same as Kaden and Gabriels, Luke's was always in the 160's. Don't worry, I haven't conceded anything yet!!! I will be seen once again before we leave here. And baby you can move anytime, Momma loves to feel you.

And That's a Winner

The Cards are now leading the Series 2-1. What a masterful performance by Carpenter! An amazing game. Our bats are coming around, watch---this is going to be great!
Go Redbirds!!!
Thanks for the winner Uncle Don! :)

Fall Festival and the Fall Classic

Oh. My. Goodness! The Cards win game one! The Cards win game one! I knew it, I called it, we had the advantage in my eyes! Way to go Redbirds! 1-0, we're 1-0!!!!! :) Yeah, Cardinals!

What an exciting game last night, I did miss most of it. Went out for a goodbye dinner with some friends. I did get to see the end. I am still SO excited!

Yesterday was a Fall Festival at Luke's school. We had a great time. They had 6 different HUGE (and I mean that) inflatables for the kiddos to play on. You know they loved that! Here's Luke and Kaden on a couple:

Gabriel was such a sweetie the whole time. He was too little to play on the inflatables but he did get to run around a bit. Here he is making silly faces at his Momma (note the outfit):
They had little carnival games for the kiddos too. This is Luke and Kaden at the dinosaur dig--yeah, Grandmom, that's playdoh they are digging in:
Searching in the haystack for prizes:
Kaden at the penny toss, getting help from Daddy:

The kids had a blast and slept pretty good last night you can imagine. Fun times.

On a separate note, the moving countdown has begun. The movers are coming tomorrow to take inventory of what we have. They will be here Nov 1st-3rd. We will be heading to St. Louis, home of the world famous underdog World Series leading Cardinals, on Nov 9th. WOW! Just 17 more days here in Florida.

And just a mere 175 days until baby 4's due date! :) I am still getting sick, though not quite as often but the nausea is there for parts of everyday. I started my second trimester so hopefully I will be feeling much better soon. I go to the doc again on Tues, I will update you guys then!!

We WON!!!!!!!!

Celebrate, celebrate!!!! Yeah Cardinals! We did it! We won and what a game 7!!!!! Suppan pitched an amazing game, totally the MVP of the series! And what an ending!!! Way to go Yadier. Guess being the EXTREME underdog isn't too bad for the Cards! So much for us not getting through the series with San Diego!!! Way to go Cardinals!

Ghosts and my pumpkin

Yesterday Luke and I did some Halloween decorating. I bought the cutest little plastic ghosts and pumpkins at Target. (you fill them with scraps of paper and use twist ties to close them) Luke was a big help and we had lots of fun. We went outside and put them on our bushes in front of the house and big tree in the side yard. They look pretty cool if I do say so myself. It was a fun project to do with the kiddos, Kaden wouldn't sit long enough to help (surprise, surprise) but Luke had a great time. Easy, cheap, cute, and fun to do, yeah Target!!!!!

Luke hanging up a ghost.

And Jackie, this next photo is for you!! This is the outfit that you and Thaddeus sent Gabriel when he was born. It's 6-12 months, but my little guy can still fit into it at 21 months. This picture is so adorable I can just hear your squeal of how cute he looks. And no, you still can't have him. But come and visit whenever you want, we would LOVE to have you guys!! :)

Mommy's punkin.

Cousin time!

Aunt Belva and the kids came over to spend the weekend with us. We had a great time, the kiddos LOVE playing together.

While they were sitting together for dinner, I went in for the picture. I had them all say cheese and it turned out pretty cute, huh?

Then Belva, Mike, and I were serenated with "cheeeeese"s for the next 20 mintues. Each kiddo trying to say it longer and louder then the next. They were all laughing, it was adorable, so I took another picture:
Gabriel and Kaden were cracking up! It was SO funny.

We do make some pretty, pretty babies in this family :) Thanks Aunt Belva for the visit!!

And GO Cardinals--today is a big game for the boys.
Let's go Cardinals, let's go.

Baseball is in our blood

I promise, promise, promise this picture was NOT set up. Last night I put Luke and Kaden to bed but let Gabriel stay up a little longer (because the commercial break was over and I didn't want to miss any of the Cards game). Gabriel ran over to the toys and got a bat and ball. He was so proud of himself, he showed off to Daddy. I got this cute picture as he was running all over the living room laughing. Way to cute, and I know that you are proud Uncle Thaddeus.

Luke looks good:

Check these out! They're the proofs for Luke's school picture. Isn't that a great photo? I am a proud Mom right now.
I know you Grandma's are LOVING this picture!!!! Let me know what you think!
What a good looking kid, if I do say so myself!

Sportacular!!!!!!

We are quite the happy sports family right now! (and yes, we are assuming the Raiders are not in existence this year...)

My Tigers, Mizzou is 6-0!!! Awesome! And now people are even saying they are good! Way to go boys! Mizzou-Rah!!!!! We are ranked 19th and 21st right now! Sweet.

And let's celebrate the Cardinals win last night! Oh yeah, that's right. NLCS here we come. Watch out Mets. Maybe the Cards being the underdog is a good thing. Go Redbirds!

And for Michael, let's cheer the A's dismantling of the Twins. Everyone wrote them off but the A's sure showed them (with Thomas the REAL comeback player of the year and their great pitching!)

Last day of fun, fun times!

Our last day at Disney we decided to do and redo the kiddos favorites things. It started out early in the morning, Michael got up and went to Animal Kingdom by himself, the boys and I slept in. He went to ride the new awesome roller coaster Everest, and he LOVED it. He talked about it all day. He took some great pictures. These are the ones I decided to share. Check out that view in pic #2, awesome!
When Mike returned we headed over to Magic Kingdom again. First we did the Buzz Lightyear ride again, then headed off to Toon Town (the section for little ones). We went through Minnie's House and took a photo in Minnie's heart chair. Note the 2 Buzz's, thanks Grandmom for those, they were, and still are, a HUGE hit!!! We went on to meet some characters. First was Donald, Kaden didn't want to say hi to him. (sorry the picture is blurry) Then we were with Chip and Dale forever. Gabriel loved them and just laughed and laughed, he obviously loved Chip's nose. Dale kept taking the Buzz Lightyear toy and flying it around. It was really funny.
Here's the boys waiting to re-ride Dumbo. I couldn't resist this picture with them all looking through the fence, too cute!!!

Here is Kaden-man, though he doesn't look too excited, trust me, he LOVED it!!!

Then we saw Tigger, what a hit he was! He was right outside the Pooh ride.A Happy Kaden-man riding Winnie the Pooh's Adventures. He loved this one too.

Next we headed over to MGM for a parade and a special visit with a friend. Look who we saw in the parade: (can you imagine how excited Luke Thomas was??")

Here is a photo of all of us with Mary Poppins. (Only read this if you are over the age of 10 years---this happens to be Jackie's (my bro's Thad's girlfriend) cousin Laura. We were able to find out her schedule and visited her. She of course was Mary to us and the boys were the thrilled with the extra time she gave them! Thanks Jackie for helping us set that up!) Great picture! We went to Downtown Disney that night for a little shopping. Here's all my boys with a Basset made of Legos. Very cool.

And a family photo by the Lochness Lego monster.

After spending an insane amount of money at the huge Disney Store we headed back to sleep. The next day we drove home. We did have a wonderful trip. Our boys did great and I am so proud of them. We are planning our next trip in 3 years. Should be awesome fun!!!! We LOVE Disney!!! :)

Magic Kingdom!

Alrighty, time for more photos. This was Sunday, our day at Magic Kingdom. The first thing we headed for was Dumbo, my favorite actually, but that is not why it was first, honest. Kaden was a little scared but not for long he loved it. Mike had the camera and Kaden so no picture this time.
Here is Luke waiting for Goofy's Barnstormer, the kiddos roller coaster. He loved it and went on to ride the big people coasters! That boy had no fear! Here is Luke waiting for the cars. Goodness was he excited to ride this?!
Daddy took Luke so I had Kaden and the baby, Kaden didn't want to drive so this is a GREAT (read sarcastically) picture of me trying to drive while laughing like crazy. Mike took the photo as Luke was driving him around, he is proud of this picture. While Daddy and Luke were riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, another of my favorite, but prego didn't ride. Kaden and I decided to get some snacks. But we both shared with Gabriel.
This one I am proud of because I took it with my left hand as I fed him with my right!!
Here is Daddy's favorite photo, his boys with his favorites. Note that Luke has on a Capt Hook shirt, that went over really well. Hook liked that, we changed at nap time, earlier in the day he had on Peter Pan, think how that would have gone over with Hook? They are fun characters.
We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and loved it of course. This is a pic of us waiting in the dungeon.
They have added Johnny Depp, I mean Capt Jack Sparrow to 3 different parts of the ride, here a photo Michael took. Oh yeah, his voice is added too, not too shabby... Here's Daddy and Luke on Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride which is Dumbo again. I love it.