Decorations

The kids are so excited about Halloween this year. Their costumes are ready, the pumpkins carved, but Owen insisted we aren't ready until we have decorations. Today we made spiders and ghosts to hang around the house.

Cole working on his spider:


Jacob showing off his spider. He used an entire glue stick on this one:

Jacob working hard on a ghost:

Owen and his spider "Sammy":

Cole:

Jacob:
Our finished decorations:

Carving Pumpkins

This weekend we carved our pumpkins for Halloween. Marshall cleaned & prepped, and I carved. That's a fair trade, right? The kids were so excited to finally get them done...they've been waiting for weeks and of course we went with a Star Wars theme.

Owen helping Marshall clean out the first pumpkin.

Jacob's reaction to seeing the "slime"

Cole:

Our Yoda, Anakin & Captain Rex pumpkins:

Vote for Owen!

The other day I asked Owen if he'd like me to enter him in the Gap casting call. He was reluctant until I told him about the prizes. This morning he dressed and posed himself and demanded I take his picture for the contest. :-)

Please go vote for him. You can vote once a day for the next few weeks. :-)

Vote Here!

Here is the photo he wanted to enter:

More of the every day

Here are a few pictures from Owen's soccer game Saturday. He loves playing soccer and watching them play is very entertaining.




After Owen's soccer game we had 2 birthday parties to attend, and then of course the LSU vs. Georgia game was on. Even Diego showed his team spirit:

This morning Jacob & Cole had some "homework" to do after breakfast. Jacob sticks his crayons behind his ear for safe-keeping:

Owen is home today because he was sick throughout the night. As you can see he's fine now, but we have to follow the 24-hour rule for returning to school after fever or vomiting.

And here is Cole, posing for the camera after asking me to take his picture:

The Everyday

These are just a few snapshots from earlier today...trying to capture the everyday stuff before they change completely. Some of you have probably seen these on Facebook, but I thought I'd share for those of you who aren't on there.


I just had to throw this one in. He loves lounging on this rug & he blends right in!

Watching Airplanes

A few weeks ago Marshall and the kids were playing around on You Tube and watched this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC5uSKLdRCI

Now I hear this nonstop. Be sure to watch all 3 to hear the different versions, and definitely watch until the very end of Cole's...he's hilarious!

Oh, and if you're visiting the actual blog (instead of e-mail or Google Reader) you'll want to pause the music to the right.


Owen



Jacob



Cole

Swimming

We've all been enjoying the pool this summer, and even though we're looking forward to cooler weather we're going to miss our afternoon swims. Here are some videos I took last week of the kids swimming. They're all so comfortable in the water. We still put the swimming vests on Jacob & Cole for safety reasons when we're just playing in the pool, but they both love to practice without them and it amazes me how much they remember from swimming lessons back in June.

Owen's dive




Jacob swimming



Cole snorkeling



Owen Swimming



Cole's dive

Not what you think

This afternoon Cole appeared with 2 foam tiger claws on his hands. When I asked him if he was a tiger fan he emphatically replied "No, I'm a rancor!". For those of you who don't know, a rancor is a big, scary animal in the Star Wars movies.

Soon after I was called to Owen's room to watch a movie and this is what I saw:

Jacob was the audience while Owen and Cole acted out an elaborate (made-up) scene from Star Wars where Captain Rex battles a rancor.


It was a vicious fight, but in the end the rancor was defeated:

How cute are they?!?!?!

And if you can stand any more cuteness hop on over to my blog to see some new photos of Anne Marie & Catherine. Those girls are so sweet & adorable they almost make me want another baby...almost.

Confession

Check out Owen's enthusiasm as we continue our tradition of photographing our kids in their LSU gear at the start of each football season:



In June the only picture I took that I didn't get paid for was of my steam cleaner. Sad. Since then I've been much better about documenting the day-to-day stuff in our lives, hence all the blog posts. It's always a bit of a struggle for me to balance capturing these memories with just making memories with my boys. I think both are important for all of us.

These are from this morning. Owen spelled his name to help him identify his castle in the city they were constructing.





And for the record, our kids do own clothes...lots of them actually. They just prefer to be nearly-naked and will strip them off as soon as they get the chance. :-)

Happy Birthday Marshall!

Happy birthday Marshall...we love you!!!

making Daddy's cake:




notice Jacob licking his lips here:

Fun in the sprinkler

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the kind - no naps, cranky kids, cranky parents, bedtime can't come soon enough. Going outside always helps everyone cheer up, so out we went. Marshall set up the sprinkler to water the grass and the kids instantly migrated to it.

Jacob played for a few minutes & then spent the rest of the evening like this:

Cole and Owen played until we had to force them inside to eat & bathe.

Randomness

We attended Family Day for LSUPD last weekend. They did a great job making it fun for the whole family - good food, bounce houses, a water slide, lots of games, and they also had a clown come in to paint faces. Owen stood in line very patiently so he could have his face painted like Spiderman. He wore his new look out to dinner that evening and was not happy that he had to wash it off before bed.


The kids have been spending a lot of time outside this week. We're all enjoying the weather...93 degrees is much better than 103 degrees! They love digging for treasure and building castles in the sandbox.

Diego is enjoying the backyard a lot, too. He sneaks through the fence to play with Izzy and loves that he can escape right through the slats of the iron gate when he gets tired.

Every night (almost) Marshall and I have a "date" to watch Scrubs &/or CSI Miami reruns before bed. Diego takes the opportunity to nap under the couch. Oddly enough he doesn't get under there at all during the day - only when we're watching tv. He usually starts off laying like this:

Then a few minutes later he'll disappear almost completely:

Lookie what I made! I just love it...a collection of words that describe life with our 3 fabulous boys. I'd originally designed it to coordinate with Jacob & Cole's room since they have some old photos on their wall that need to be replaced, but for now it sits in our playroom. It's mounted on beveled wood so it's like a sign, not a picture. It looks small here but it's actually 15x30 inches. I wish I'd thought of doing this when they were babies...it'd have been so cool to hang over their cribs!

King of the Jungle!

Owen finished his first full week of kindergarten today and got off the bus with big news - he was voted King of the Jungle! Each week the kids nominate and vote based on good behavior. The king or queen gets to spend the weekend with the class monkey, Zoe, and write about their adventures in a journal. That's right folks...their good behavior is rewarded with weekend homework! Luckily Owen doesn't see it that way and is excited about hanging out with his new orange friend. :-)