Pumpkin Carving Party 2008

Once again we had our annual Pumpkin Carving Party at our house, and once again it was a huge success! We literally start talking about and planning for next year's party almost immediately after we have concluded this year's party! And that's no exaggeration! For the past four years, we have gathered at our house to carve our pumpkins, toast the pumpkin seeds, eat wonderful fall dishes, and kick off the holiday seasons! The above picture is our "couldron" of "Goulish Punch" to go with our yearly "Cheeseburger Soup," "Fall Spiced Cider," "Pumpkin Cheesecake," and many other wonderful autumn dishes!

The children of the group! It's hard to believe that when we started having this party, Xander and Cade were the ONLY kids! Seems like we add a couple every year! :)

The girls of the bunch. Poor little Kyla has to endure a houseful of little boys!

The boys of the bunch. Well...all except Hayes. He was already snoozing at 7 o'clock as usual.

Cade with the pumpkin Shane and the boys carved.

Xander and the pumpkin that Shane and the boys carved.

Gage and the pumpkin he and Josh carved.

The Sarah Palin Rally

Several weeks ago, Shane was able to get us tickets (which was NOT an easy task!!!) to the Sarah Palin rally at the Minges Colluseum so we attended the event with Sara (my sister-in-law) and Michelle (Laura Grace's mom). Over 8,000 people were in the colluseum and over 1,500 people were seated in the ECU football stadium next door to watch on the big screen. It was AMAZING to see all of the support for the Republican Party, more specifically Sarah Palin!

Brazillian Steakhouse in Raleigh (Sunday School Class Activity)

This past Saturday, we went to Raleigh with some of our Sunday School couples for dinner at the Brazillian Steakhouse. With an exotic salad bar (some things unrecognizable! Okay, most...) and endless meat choices, we walked out with our bellies full and our wallets empty. Although I'm not much of a meat-eater, I enjoyed sampling the choices and taking part in the entertaining conversation.

Dan and Sarah Wall with baby Ian

Pedro and Jill Hernandez

(we later realized that Pedro looks like a "Who" off of "Horton Hears a Who" with that flower coming out of his head! Bad photography blunder on my part! oops! :)

Terry and Sara Dawson

Andy and Crystal Blease
(with those wine bottles and Andy's half-closed eyelids, they look like the heavy drinkers of the group! :)

Cade's First Field Trip (Briley's Farm)

We all remember our first field trip...right? Okay, maybe not. But our MOTHER'S probably do! The same will probably be true for this "monumental" occasion in Cade's life; therefore, I made sure to capture every second in pictures so that I can later "remind" him of what fun he had! :) Starting the day off with a bang, I lost the bus at a stoplight and thus proceeded to get lost only to FINALLY arrive at the farm just in time to watch the hayride with my precious little 4-year-old on-board rolling out of sight. Typical. (I guess it's a good thing he won't remember everything about this day.)

Once the hayride returned, Cade jumped off the wagon with pumpkin in tow and trotted past me without even questioning my tardiness. Gotta love kids. The rest of the morning ran smoothly, and the spontaneous hugs and kisses more than made up for my initial greeting!

Cade and his best buddy, Lowell

Cade "milking" the mock cow

Cade picking his own cotton

Mrs. Stephens and Cade

Super-Hero Fun!

Our little super-heroes! Recently, Laura Grace came over with Sara and Gage for the day. As always, the kids dressed up in their favorite super-hero costume.

Hayes is Six Months Old!

I can hardly believe that my baby is 6 months old already! It seems like just yesterday we were rushing to the hospital after my amniocentesis sent me into labor five weeks early. With each child, I seem to lament the onset of each stage and the absence of the last more and more; and as exciting as it is to see them grow and develop, I can't help but somewhat miss their sole dependence upon me. Maybe I feel it more with Hayes, because I don't know for sure if he will be our last; but whatever the case may be, I definitely am not in a hurry for him to grow up on me!

When we went to the doctor, we were pleased to see that he is growing and progressing just fine. Weighing in at 17 lbs., Hayes is right on target in the 50 percentile; and one would never know that he is quite the picky eater! It's not so much WHAT he eats as it is from whom he eats it! Developmentally, he is a little behind, but that is to be expected. Absolutely detesting "tummy-time," Hayes only began rolling over from front to back in the last month and has yet to go from back to front. I'm sure he's looking at me like, "If I hate being on my tummy so much, then why prey tell would I WANT to roll onto my TUMMY?!"

Above: First, we have Hayes sitting in the Bumbo, practicing sitting up like a big boy!

Second, we have Cade playing the favorite game of "peekaboo." Hayes thinks he's absolutely hysterical, and Cade loves that Hayes finally thinks he's funny! (being funny is HIGHLY important to Cade!)

Above: First, Hayes is learning how to eat his fruits and veggies, obviously LOVING them!

Second, Hayes with his Santa jammies (yes, I know...it's a little early) and Xander with his patch and pirate jammies. Xander has to wear a patch for two hours every day, because he needs to strengthen his left "weak" eye.

Our precious boys

The Extraordinary Women Conference; Lynchburg, VA

This past weekend, I joined three of my friends~Dawn, Angie, and Charlene~ on a trip to Lynchburg, VA, for the EWomen Conference. Having attended once before, we knew that we were in for an unbelievable journey. The theme for the conference was "Discovering God's Dream," and we were ready for whatever God had in store for us. Therefore, after several "glitches" in the plan and the issue of gas prices spiking, we set off determined that nothing was going to stop us from receiving a blessing this weekend!

Arriving at the Vines Center in time to claim our seats (excellent seats, I might add!), we settled back (after a few hikes back to the car for forgotten tickets and cameras...all MY fault, of course!) for the conference. The hilarious Chonda Pierce started us off laughing and blessed us with her outrageous humor and witty testimony.

Read on to hear about the rest of the conference...

Karen Kingsbury

Meeting Karen Kingsbury was by far the highlight of the conference! I have read almost ALL of her books and have LOVED every single one of them! We were just about the last people to leave on Friday night; therefore, we were able to talk with her and have her sign our books without much of a wait at all. I was thrilled to find her just as personable and down-to-earth as I had hoped she would be! Taking her time, she chatted easily and joked with the brothers who were helping her take pictures for her website.

To my surprise, I found out that she also writes children's books, which of course I bought, so we had her sign those to our children as well. On Saturday, she spoke in one of the sessions and actually read one of the children's books, Let Me Hold You Longer, to us leaving not a dry eye in the place! Feeling a little like a "groupie," I actually bought a few more books and stood in line once again to get her autograph on those as well. However, we ended up getting another picture taken for her website because she said she was having a "better-hair day"! :) I loved that! See? Even famous authors worry about their hair! Anyway, the whole experience was amazing, and I will never forget it!

Random Girl with Great Hair...

So...this is just some girl we didn't know. Angie has been wanting to get her hair cut, but she hasn't been able to find the right style! Well, as we were walking around the Vines Center, Angie grabs me and says that we have GOT to get her picture! Since I had my camera with me, I went up to this girl (whose name I still don't know) and asked her if my "crazy" friend could get a picture of her hair! I stood next to her so she didn't feel too stupid, but I'm sure she probably thought we were a bunch of lunatics!!! Oh, well, Angie got her picture; and it really IS cute hair, don't you think? :)

Richie McDonald

Country music fans may recognize Richie McDonald by face (a pretty nice-looking one too! :), if not by name...he is the former lead singer for Lonestar. We were not aware that he was going to be giving a concert Friday night of the conference, but were pleasantly surprised by it! He sang many of the songs that he made famous with Lonestar along with many of his new solo songs. Because he wanted to spend more time with his family, he left Lonestar and began his own solo Christian career. I bought his CD titled "Faith & Family" and absolutely LOVE it! The song in the video below is on the CD along with many others.

As you can see, we were all pretty excited to get our picture with him...and yes, he had his arms around us!!! :) Something I'm sure we'll never forget!