Trick-or-Treat

Last night, we got Will all dressed up in his costume and took him to "trick-tree" (trick-or-treat).  He is absolutely adorable in his costume. 

 We got his costume at Pottery Barn Kids and I was in love with it from the very beginning.  Clay wasn't so sure about it, and we were afraid he wouldn't wear the head part. But he did so good!

We went to two of our neighbor's homes and then we went to "Bobby" and "Rob"'s (Robby and Robbin) house.

I had to be at a wedding earlier in the afternoon, so Ashley came over and handed out candy while the Auburn game. Then when I got home, she handed out candy while we took Will trick-or-treating and went with me and Will to Robby and Robbin's house. I am so thankful for her friendship.  She really is like family!

We had a fun night!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins tonight and it was fun that Will could participate a little bit. We got our pumpkins at Wal-Mart this year since we didn't get a chance to go to the pumpkin patch. I decided to carve a pumpkin for Will and Clay carved one for the family.

The pumpkins before

Will "helping"

He was in the middle of all the pumpkin carving action!

Helping daddy clean the pumpkin out.

Will's pumpkin.

WILL

Seriously, this boy cracks me up!

Finished pumpkins and this boy is ready for bed!

After we got Will in bed, Clay and I finished the treat bags we made for Truck-or-Treat.  Now we are ready to face our busy Saturday!

Rough Start to the Day and a Busy Weekend

We had a rough morning this morning at our house. We were all moving a little slow, so we got a late start. Of course this snowballed into everything else going wrong and just set a bad tone for the day. 

I took Will into daycare this morning and that just added to the rough morning. Clay is now on daycare drop-off for the rest of Will's lifetime. I really had a change of heart with the whole daycare situation recently and was really happy with how things were going, but this morning changed things.  I am just choosing to remove myself from the equation.  So Will and Clay will face the daycare-world together, and honestly, Will does better when Clay drops him off.

Then we had to stop for gas, and then traffic was little heavier because we were running behind. By the time I got to work, I was ready to head home. Work has been okay, but I feel a little behind.

It is now 11 o'clock and things are looking up. I am going to put my bad attitude aside, finish up at work, and then get ready for our fun weekend.

Tonight, we are going to eat hamburgers and carve pumpkins.  A nice lazy Friday night.

Tomorrow, we have a couple of places we have to be, including a 5K, a funeral, and a wedding.  Then tomorrow night, we have trick-or-treating in our town. We will hand out candy while we watch Auburn play and we plan on taking Will to a couple of our neighbor's houses.  I can't wait to see him in his costume!

Sunday, we have church and then a fall festival at church in the afternoon.  It is always fun and I love seeing all of our little church friends in their cute costumes.  We will end the day with truck-or-treating!

It is going to be busy busy, but we will get to spend the entire weekend as a family and I always look forward to that!

I hope you all are having a good Friday and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Gavin Turns 2

Saturday, Will got to attend Gavin's birthday party!  It was a train themed party and Will was obsessed as soon as the invitation came in the mail. He carried the invite around calling it the "choo-choo book".

We arrived at the party and all the kids were playing outside. Will joined right in.  The kids had a good time running around and then we headed in to eat cake.

As soon as we got inside, Will heard the word cookie and that is all he could talk about.  He said "tookie" a thousand times, and finally I was able to make my way over and get him a "tookie".

After cake, it was time for presents.  Gavin got lots of train gifts! I am glad we got him some puzzles that weren't trained themed. 

Birthday parties are difficult with toddlers and this proved to be no different. Gavin didn't want to wear his little train hat and Will was all up in Gavin's space while he was trying to open presents. 

It was a fun party and Tabitha did a great job putting everything together!

The Fair

Here in our town, a local fair comes every so often and sets up near the entrance of our neighborhood. We live near city hall and the local park so it is the ideal place.

 I think last time I visited the local fair, I was probably 12 years old.  But last night we decided to take Will just to see what he thought about it. 

We were sure there wouldn't be any rides he could ride, so we just planned to walk around and people watch.  This little fair has about 10 rides, 3 or 4 carnival-type games, and a food stand. 

Will loved looking at all the rides lit up.

There was a game you could play to try and win a bunny.  That's the first time I had ever seen a game like that.  We didn't play, but Will loved looking at the bunnies.  He called them "cats" at first and then he called them "cat buns".  He cracks me up.

Once he saw the merry-go-round, he had to ride. He even tried to go in the little gate without us.  We had to wait a few minutes because Clay had to go get us a ticket to ride.  He couldn't wait to get on.

Of course, once we started moving, he had a death-grip on my shirt and he looked like he had seen a ghost.  He was a little petrified and tried to get off a couple of times.  I just kept telling him how fun it was and to look for daddy, and after a couple of rounds, he started to enjoy himself.  Then it stopped, and then he had a meltdown. Fun times! 

We finally dragged him away from there and then he saw the Super Slide. The Super Slide is a huge slide probably 20 or 30 feet off the ground.  I didn't think they would let Will go on it, so I was banking on that, but we soon found out he could go down it if I went with him. I was not a happy camper.  First of all, I am not a fan of heights.  Second, I am not a fan of rickety old carnvial rides. Finally, I am not a fan of hauling my child up roughly 3 flights of stairs that are attached to the side of the Super Slide!  But I did it for Will. 

HE LOVED THE SUPER SLIDE.  Clay got a video of it, but it is really poor quality and I have a terrible look on my face, so I won't be sharing that.  Will wanted to go again, but that wasn't going to happen. One time was my limit. He was mad we had to head home.

On the way out, Clay got a corndog and I got a funnel cake.  Clay said he had to eat a corndog since we are playing the corndogs (LSU) this weekend. I haven't had a funnel cake in YEARS so I thought why not, you only live once! HA! Will had a couple of bites of funnel cake and loved it!

It was an interesting experience and another first for Will!

How We Spent Our Weekend and LOTS of Pictures

We had a great weekend and spent time with great people!  This post is going to be long and will have lots of pictures!

Friday, Clay and I only worked half a day so we headed to pick up Will early.  He was excited to see me.  I got the chance to talk to a few of his teachers and was really encouraged by the things they told me.  They said Will was doing really well in his new class and Miss Diane got him to show me how he can count to three!  I was so impressed.  He is learning so much and he is talking so much now and repeating us more and more.

After we picked him up, we grabbed some lunch and headed over to the church so that we could watch our local homecoming parade. It is a very small town thing to do and we love it.  Will had a good time and even got to hang out with some of our favorite people!

Will with Ashley.

Will and Jameson playing while we waited for the parade to start.

Here it comes!

Watching the parade and enjoying a juice box.

Once the parade was over, we ran a few errands and then headed home to pack up for Auburn.

Saturday morning, we left to enjoy a beautiful day in Auburn.  We had a great time tailgating with family and friends.

I look at this picture and all I see is Clay!

Playing cornhole with Daddy and Kyle.

Standing on the board is not part of the game but Will thought it was fun.

Serious tailgaters!

Our little family.

We made the decision before hand that Will would not go in the game.  About an hour before game time everyone headed to the stadium and Will and I stayed behind at the "spot" and watched the game on tv.

Watching the game.

Elmo came by to watch the game with us.  Will greeted him with a hug.

He let Elmo sit in his chair and then offered him a drink. 

This is Will eating candy corn that he stole from Ann and Charlie's tailgate.  They tailgate next to us, and I looked over and Will was helping himself to their snacks. HA!

And then he crashed at the beginning of the third quarter.

He slept on the ground for about 30 minutes, then he wanted me to hold him the rest of the time. He slept through the entire second half.

It was a great day on The Plains and of course when your team beats Arkansas that makes the day even better!

Will is saying "GO TEAM!" He can't say War Eagle yet, but we are working on it.

We were all pretty exhausted on Sunday. We went to church, ate with Mom and Dad, and then took nap. That night after the evening service, we went to Milo's with some of our friends and had fun talking and laughing. it was  a nice way to end the weekend.

I hope everyone else had a fun weekend.  Hopefully this week will fly by!

Talladega Super Speedway

For Clay's birthday last year, Dan got him a Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure Package.  October 3rd was the big day.  Clay and Dan headed to Talladega to race in real race cars! Will and I went at the beginning to see what it was all about. 

When we first arrived, the let us walk around pit road and we got to see some of the people race who were there for the morning session. There were 4 cars out on the track and it was pretty loud. I wasn't sure what Will would think about it, but HE LOVED IT! He kept pointing to the cars when they came by and would say "WOW". I shouldn't have been too surprised. He has been watching Nascar races on TV with Pop since he was born. 

We stayed for a while and watched the race cars and took a couple of pictures. We wanted to stay to watch Dan and Clay race. They had to take a class first and we were getting pretty close to nap time, so Will and I headed home.

 When Clay got home, we got to hear all about it.  He had a really good time.  He said he got to pass someone on the track and his fastest lap speed was 165 MPH!  He is already wanting to do it again.

It was a great birthday gift!

Will - An Update

Nothing to exciting has been going on with us so I thought I would do a little general update.

We have settled into a nice routine around our house recently.  We get up every weekday and Will eats his breakfast while Clay and I get ready. We head off to daycare and work, then we spend our afternoons playing and eating dinner together.  After dinner we hang out and play some more, and then we get ready for bed.  On the weekends we pretty much hang out as a family whether it's going to football games, shopping, or just being at the house. It's pretty normal.  And this momma likes normal.

Will has been eating so much better these days.  He is eating chicken so that makes me happy. His favorite foods right now are animal crackers, goldfish, bananas, french fries and pizza.  We are doing our best to sneak some vegetables in there. He also decided that he really likes ketchup. The daycare serves a pretty good variety of foods and they say he does pretty well at lunch.  There are things he still won't eat and there are still times when he refuses to eat anything, but meal times are definitely a lot less stressful. 

Eating cereal for breakfast. 

Dinner time. Pizza and yogurt. 

Will loves being outside!  As soon as we get home he wants to go outside.  He like playing in the grass with Winnie. He loves picking up sticks and running around. I am glad he likes being outdoors.  Winnie is currently living on the back porch, so he always wants to go out there with her.  He also likes feeding her and filling up her water bowl.  Last week he helped himself to her water and dog food.  I love raising a boy! He keeps things interesting.

Playing ball with Daddy.

Daddy let him drink from the water hose one afternoon when they were filling up Winnie's water bowl.

He has entered some form of the "terrible 2s".  He doesn't like to hear the word "no" and he cries when he doesn't get his way. We are working with him on those things.  We are still doing time-out and that seems to be effective.  We also try to explain to him why we are doing something and not just saying "no". I don't know how much he comprehends, but he seems to calm down faster when we sit down and talk about why we are doing something.  He definitely challenges us!

Letting us know he is not happy!

Overall, he is learning new things everyday. He is talking all the time and learning new words. He is growing up so fast and we are loving every minute we spend with him!