Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

The boys got all dressed up tonight and we
celebrated Halloween at Nancy's house as we always do.

This year Austin wanted to be something scary, so he picked out this costume....




And Jackson was Mickey Mouse...
and this was about the only time he left his hat on!
The past two years he has had costumes with hats
and he has done great...this year...not so much!
And he HATED any costume with a mask!
We cried a lot this Halloween....

We tried to get a picture of them both on the porch, but Jackson turned around
to say something to Austin and busted out crying...
even when Austin would take off the mask, he would talk to him,
but immediately start crying when he saw him put it back on.

We finally were able to get a laugh out of him before we
left for Nancy's, but he had shed his ears.

Here is a group shot of all of the kids tonight at Nancy's...
minus Jackson, because when he saw the masks...
he was OUT OF THERE!!!!!

We had a great time at Nancy's and ate too much...

Austin and I did something new last night for Halloween.
Athens was having a Storytelling Festival this weekend. 
They began this three or four years ago and the kids have
always gone with school and Austin LOVES it!
This year they were telling Ghost Stories!
He came home last Wednesday and asked if we could go back.
So last night about 10 o'clock we headed up to the courthouse square
and listened to Ghost Stories...
it was great!
I enjoyed getting so spend some time alone with him
and it was a fun little Halloween memory!

Hope everyone else had a fun time

Happy Halloween Ya'll

Gift Wrap Anyone??

Have I ever told you all how much I love my husband?

He really is pretty great!

He's very handy...he can fix almost anything...

or build most anything...
I really am lucky to have a wonderful husband!
Not only is he very handy to have around, he also
is very good to say
"Yeah-- I can do that"
even when he might not really want to.
Case in point...

The Wrapping Paper Cabinet

I have talked about it here and here


It is finally finished!
And I can't be more excited!!!!!!!

He hung a curtain rod to hold my humongous rolls of ribbon.

I can't wait to order all of the other happy colors of the rainbow.

Rolls and Rolls of Curling Ribbon...eeehhhh.....
this makes me HAPPY!




I just love the top of this armoire.
When I dreamed this idea up in my little mind,
I wanted something pretty at the top.
When I saw this on Craig's List I knew it was PERFECT!
So my loving Husband, went to pick it up, in the rain, for me!




I ordered all of my bows and ribbons and paper for Christmas
and they are all hanging and ready to go!!!!
I am waiting until after the holidays
to order the general birthday wrap and such...
but I also ordered the solid green and solid red paper
to use for dual purpose...
change the ribbon to blue or yellow and it could be
birthday party colors...I also ordered the standard white paper...
can't go wrong with that!
But there are 9 more openings for bows...
must...order...more...colors...
I know-- I've fallen off my rocker!

Each side of the doors hold 4 rolls of paper--
one side holiday and the other general birthday/baby paper

So there is my little wrapping cabinet all finished!
I am so excited!
I am going to start putting it to use and wrap some Christmas presents
that are floating around in the scrapbook room before they are found by
little eyes....

Third Times a Charm...Right!?!

Austin has a new accessory that will be with his Halloween Costume this year...
Yep...he's broken his arm...again...sigh...
This is his third broken arm...second time for this arm...
He has now caught up to Scott as far as broken bones, stitches and such...
we told him it was time to stop!


He fell in PE and tried to catch himself and would up
breaking his wrist and cracking his head on the gym floor!
His head was OK but he gave everyone a scare...
He said Coach Brad came over and was asking him a lot of questions
like what his name was and what day it was...he answered the day question wrong and
Austin said he got a very concerned look on his face and then Austin said...
"wait a minute-- we were at church last night so it's Thursday -- not Wednesday"
He said Coach Brad looked a little more relieved after that.
But we headed to Decatur Orthopedic after school and
came out with this!
He's tired of it already...
so am I!!!

TV BEST Competition

Last Saturday was the Tennessee Valley BEST Competition.

This is the North Alabama area Robotics competitions.

There were 20 schools from the North Alabama area that competed this year!

And ABS Trobotics was ready to compete.

This was Austin's first year on the Robotics Team and he

had  a lot of fun!

Here is a photo of our Robot in Action...

The boys took 3rd place in the Most Photogenic

and

2nd place in the Most Robust

(needing the least amount of repairs during competition)

Our T-shirt design brought home 1st Place

as well as their Engineering Notebook

They placed 12th overall...

not as close to First as they wanted to be...

but wait until next year!!!!

Austin hanging out in the pits getting ready for his turn to drive.

He was chosen as one of the sixth graders to drive.

He was excited and scared to death at the same time!

I have to admit I was a little nervous for him too!

All set and ready to go!

Trying to get the box set and ready to go...



Poor Jackson-- he was such a trooper!

We spent the day in the Gym at Calhoun and he was

not able to get down and play or walk around...

He sat the stillest I have ever seen him.

It was soooo loud int here.

Loud music and Pep Bands but in the end he

could not hold out and fell FAST asleep when Scott

was finally able to come and sit with us.

We finished off the evening with a yummy dinner at Cracker Barrel!  YUM

and I didn't have to cook it-- even better!!!

This took a lot of time the last several weeks, but Austin and Scott

were able to spend a lot of time together.

I think Austin learned a lot and he is looking forward next year.

This is not usually a year round activity, but they are trying

to get more interest from others at school and allow us to have a larger team

in the future.

There are a lot of different things that go into this competition.

There is marketing, advertising, fund raising, engineering, computer programming

and the list just goes on and on...

For six weeks they go at it full force...

but they had fun on game day!

And that is what matters at the end of the day!

Tate Farms 2010

We took our annual trip to Tate Farms on October 12, 2010.
Austin was out for Fall Pause and Scott took off from work and we
played all day!
After a quick visit with some of our dear friends
we headed to the Farm!

I just love Tate Farms!
There are so many things for the kids to play on and do.
Animals and tractors...oh the tractors~
Jackson CRIED so hard when we left
because he didn't want to have to leave the
tractors behind.




Jackson was a WILD MAN!!! He was running from one thing to another
faster than we could take a snap shot!!

It's a little hard to see in the collage, but I always take Austin's picture by this
"How tall are you" sign every year...
couldn't believe that it says he is almost 5 feet tall!!!
YIKES!!!

Both of the boys had a blast in the Corn Crib!
Jackson jumped and threw corn all over the place!
We buried both of the boys in corn and they had a lot of fun...
until Jackson spotted the tractor pulling the Hay Ride...
and he was off!!!

They have so many different areas for the kids to play in.
One of the new things was this GIANT slide.
Austin grabbed Jackson's hand and said
"Let's GO!!" and they were off.
I didn't think that Jackson would do it, but up he went and then...
DOWN they came...laughing all the way!!!
Scott even got in on the fun~

We took our Hay Ride out into the Pumpkin Patch to find 
the perfect pumpkin to carve...
that we ARE going to actually carve this year!
I tried to get a really cute picture of Jackson sitting by a pumpkin...
Umm...that didn't work very well.
He would not sit still for anything!
He was just so excited by all of the pumpkins!




We went on a Tuesday afternoon while everyone else was at school
and practically had the place to ourselves.
It was wonderful!
The weather was perfect!
Warm enough for shorts but not so hot we couldn't breathe!
I told Scott while we were on our hayride that I did wish
that one year when we came to the Pumpkin Patch it
would actually feel like Fall...
but in North Alabama, I think that is only a dream!

Busy, Busy...BUSY!!!

 

 

 

 

Things have been a little crazy around here lately!!!

We thought with the beginning of school that our schedule

would calm down and we would be able to get into a good routine...

I am beginning to think that CHAOS is our normal routine!!!

 

Thought I would put up a little post and let you know

what's been going on...

it's a little random so sit back and hang on!!!

 

Austin celebrated Grandparent's Day at

school earlier in September...

Mamma and Papa we able to come and have lunch

with Austin and Jackson.

Andrew was coming over to say Hi to Jackson

when I snapped the picture.

 

 

 

We recently bought a new-to-us

Pool Table!!!

 

Scott has always wanted a Pool Table...

that has always been the plan since we built the house.

I wanted one that was pretty...Scott wanted one we didn't have to

take out a second mortgage on the house to get...

I think we both are happy.

And now to the thing that is causing the MOST chaos

Austin has joined the Robotics Team at school.

Boy-- this takes A LOT of time!!

He and Scott have both been running like crazy

working on this project.

The teams all take their robots to compete at

Calhoun Community College on

October 16th!

(they still have a lot of work to do before they get there!!!)

Last Sunday, they participated in Mall Day and all of the

local schools brought their robots to the mall

and tried them out on the track to see

what changes they need to make

to get their Robots in tip-top shape

Like I said-- they still have a lot of work to do!

Austin has also been busy with Boy Scouts and recently camped out...

in the rain...

Jackson is running a mile a minute... literally!

He doesn't walk anywhere!!!

But he's talking up a storm and making us laugh every day.

We ordered his Halloween costume yesterday...

I tried to get him to like the Frog costume...

but he chose this one...

I think he's going to be one CUTE little Mickey Mouse!!

This is our favorite show of the moment so I think that is

why he chose this one.  We sat at the computer and he would point

at all of the different costumes and name all of the characters and I would ask

"do you want to be ??? for Halloween"

and he would reply

"Noooooooo...wanna be Mickey--O'Tay"

So I said "OK-- Mickey it is!"

(and Mickey was on sale and free shipping--Whoo Hoo)

Austin has his "Fall Pause" as we are all referring to it as

coming up this week.

We don't get a full week like we have in the past--

Just Monday and Tuesday...

So it is now known as

Fall Pause

cause it's not really a break!!

Scott is going to take off those days and hang out with us,

so we are trying to come up with a few fun things to do with the boys...

We probably won't go far...

but don't worry ...

We'll update the ol' blog and let you know what we've done!!!