Happy Halloween!

Halloween Day was spent at the Wings Over Houston air show. It was fun up until the kids got tired and cranky!

We were hoping to make it out of there in time to make it to the ward Trunk-or-Treat since we pretty much missed it last year. No luck! And by the time we got home we didn't think we would even take Cole around the neighborhood because we were so tired.

After we got some food in our belly's it gave us a little burst of energy and decided Cole couldn't miss another Halloween. Especially now that he is older it is more fun. Plus we had to get more use out of their costumes. Cole went as Santa with the costume we bought him last Christmas and Avery used the 18 month monkey costume Cole used last Halloween, when she was just 4 days old. It was a little big for him then but Avery fit into it perfectly. She is our big Texas sized baby for sure. They both looked so cute!

I am so glad we took him because he/we had such a great time. He would go to the door, put his bag down in front of the door, knock and then step to the side and wait for the candy to be dropped in before picking it back up. It was so dang cute! It got to the point he had so much candy the bag was dragging. I asked him a couple times if he wanted me to carry it for him but he insisted that he carry it. I also had to keep telling him to get it up off of the ground so it wouldn't get big holes in the bottom and have all of the candy fall out. He would use all of his might to lug that bag up off the ground. I'm tellin' ya, cutest thing ever!

Every now and then we would see some bigger kids dressed in scary costumes and Cole would get close to my side and say, "scary, scary." Poor kid but even that was kinda cute.

Every door we went to loved that he was dressed as Santa! I absolutely loved it! I can't wait until next year when both of our kids can enjoy it!

(unfortunately a bunch of our pictures from the air show and
trick-or-treating got erased so this is all we have. I am so sad)

Happy Birthday Avery!

A year ago, October 27th, I held a brand new baby girl in my arms and smiled with joy.

~~~

Avery had a fun special day!

That night, after Tom got home, we opened her presents then had the Vautier's over for cake and ice cream. Of course Avery got her own chocolate cake to dig into. Yummy! Nothing like a baby covered in chocolate!

She got a lot of great gifts. Thank you grandma's & grandpa's! She is so loved! Wish you could have been here but we took lots of video.

I can not believe our baby girl is ONE! Again I ask, "where has the time gone?"

Grandma Booth sent the kids some candy corn for Halloween
with Avery's birthday present and
Avery got a whole bunch of it in her mouth
and down her shirt (see video below)







She looks just so excited.
Notice the expression on her face doesn't change much.



*The cake*
It was getting late and she wasn't too happy at first about sitting in her highchair but once she got to eat cake she was happy. Who wouldn't be!

~~~

Happy Birthday AVERY!
Love~ Dad, Mom & Cole

Birthday girl

Being silly

Opening present from g-ma and pa Child &
g-ma and pa Booth

Opening present from g-ma and pa Greenhalgh

Pony from mom & dad

Home away from home

A year and a half and four office changes later I finally got to see where Tom spends a lot of his time.

His office is on sight at the Johnson Space Center which is a secure area but they had a ballunar festival that was open to the public Oct. 23-25 that we went to. While we were there, on the 24th, Tom took us to his office. It was fun to see where he works. Now I just wish I could have seen the last three.

Tom put the kids to work typing and answering phones.
It's about time they started earning their keep!

*****

We missed the hot air balloons but we did get to see some model rockets shot off, which Cole DID NOT LIKE, a Marine helicopter simulate a rescue and got to touch a moon rock. Really it was a pretty lame festival but it was nice spending the time as a family.

Our little astronaut

The end of the day left us two very exhausted kids.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Since our good friend Rachel is from Canada we had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving Canadian style on October 11th. They celebrate in pretty much the same way we do, with lots of good food!

After the meal the guys, and a couple girls, played some Wii. They even had their own cheering section.

Having two Thanksgivings in a year isn't a bad idea!
in fact...
We should do this every year!

Poo Poo go down the hole

Cole went poo poo for the first time on his "big boy" potty tonight.

While he was going Tom stayed with him while I ran down to get a treat. The only treat I could think of in a hurry was a Hershey Kiss. Horrible, I know but even worse I unwrapped it before I got back to Cole. Again...was not thinking! When I went to hand it to him he looked at it funny and started backing away. Poor kid thought I was giving him the same thing that was now sitting in his toilet. He did eventually eat it after we convinced him it was candy. We got a little bit of a laugh out of that. Now hopefully he doesn't think that is what his poo tastes like. NASTY! Why I didn't think of fruit snacks beats me.

Good Job Cole!
(Oh the things that make parents proud.)

(sorry no pictures)

Time for Sleep

Cole was upstairs playing with his toys and after a while I noticed it had got quiet. I went up to check on him and found him sleeping in the toy bin.

He even changed position a few times and just kept right on sleeping

Play Dough

I made play dough for the first time a couple days ago for Cole to play with.

I've always been hesitant to let him play with play dough because of how messy it could potentially be. To my surprise he actually did pretty well keeping it on his tray and he only tried eating it a couple times. Plus, it kept him busy for a quite a while too!

We'll have to do this more often!

What first started out as four different colors ended in one green blob

Hmm....

This morning I was in the other room when I heard Cole start to cry. I just figured that Avery was trying to take something from him so I didn't think much of it.

He didn't stop and it kept getting worse. Then I thought what could she be doing to him that is making him cry like that. It is usually the other way around.

I walked into the room to see Cole had some how got himself stuck in one of our TV trays and was in an awkward, uncomfortable position.

I tried to get the tray off but couldn't see how I was going to, his head was too big to go through. I had no idea how he had got himself into this mess.

I called Tom and told him we were in a little bit of a predicament. He thought we had got locked into a room. I told him what had happened and he asked if I wanted him to come home. At first I thought he was going to have to to cut him out or something but then I noticed a bar across the underside of the top that was only held on by two screws. That bar helps the table go in and out without it coming completely apart, which was just what I needed was for it to come completely apart.

Tom had me take pictures before I freed him. I then unscrewed the bar and broke Cole free. He was quite relieved. Cole then said, " mommy, you're my hero! " Not really but I can pretend right?

"Really mom, you're taking picture while I am in distress!"



Poor little boy!
The whole thing was kinda funny though

Eating & Playing

Last Friday we went to Olive Garden for dinner.

Cole is such a stinker any more when we go out. He was all over the place, playing under the table, laying on the dirty floor, going from one bench to the other, climbing the bench and bothering the poor people behind us even though they said it wasn't a bother, trying to eat the sugar packets. Fun night let me tell ya!

Even after all of this he was able to make us smile. Actually we were pretty much laughing. How could we stay mad after this:

I took these pictures with my phone so they are not the best but Cole started putting the onions from the salad on his arms! He likes doing this with my bracelets at home but this was too funny!

~~~~~

After dinner we had left overs that we took home in one of Olive Garden's big brown bags and Tom decided to have a little fun with it.

Our paper bag kids

I don't know who had more fun, Tom or the kids.

Oh goodness, the entertainment!

Land of the Free Home of the Brave

A few weeks ago two of our good friends, Mana & Rachel, became United State citizens. Mana is from New Zealand and Rachel is from Canada.

In celebration we had both of their family's over for a little "Welcome" party. We ate your all American hamburgers loaded with ALL the fixens including: Fried eggs, hot dogs and bacon! The kids had hot dogs. And for dessert, that's right hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream! Yummy! Thank you Mike!

We always have a great time when we get together so any excuse we can get we do.

CONGRATULATIONS Mana & Rachel!
and welcome to America!

Look at those HUGE hamburgers! Go ahead, take a closer look
(Mana, Michael, Annette & Benjamin)



Aww...
(Mike & Rachel)



Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

Our neighbour had these power machines out by his front curb to be taken with the trash because they don't run any more but Tom thought he could fix that so he went and asked if we could have them. Yeah, we are those kind of neighbours!(not usually) So embarrassing but the kids love them!

Cole on his pink 4 wheeler



Benjamin & Michael enjoying their ride

Watch Out For The............Stairs

Avery will be 1 at the end of this month! Seriously, where has the time gone.

She is learning and growing so quickly! For example:

We moved into our new house and this new house has stairs. Before we moved in and were just bringing some of our things over, a little at a time, she would climb up on the first step and just sit there and not go any higher. So the first night we were officially moved in she got up on that first step and we didn't think anything of it until we went to go check on Cole, who had gone up stairs. We turned the corner to head up and to our shocking amazement Avery had gone all the way to the top! Scary! We went and bought a gate that night.

We got the gate home but with the way the stairs are it wouldn't work! Tom went back and got another one but same thing, it just wouldn't work. So we figured the best thing now was to teach her how to come down safely.

Having an older brother to watch really helped. She learned quickly with only a couple of falls. Sad! :( but it helped her know what she could and could not do on the stairs.

She hasn't fallen since and is doing very well getting up and down on her own.

See for yourself.

Going Up

Coming down

~~~

She is also now crawling on her knees and getting so close to walking!

~~~~~

Bonus Clip!

I added this video because it makes me smile and thought I would share.

Silly girl

Did someone say car?

Over the Labor Day weekend Tom went to Utah to get his 67' GT convertible mustang project car that was left behind at his parents.

Tom rented a U-Hal truck and a trailer and packed every thing in. Then him, his dad and brother had a fun "little" road trip back to Houston.

By the time they made it the 1,668 miles, all three were very exhausted as you can imagine but they had a good time with the time they had together.

Unfortunately Steve and Jason were not able to stay too long because Jason had to get back to work but the time we did have with them was nice. We ALWAYS enjoy visitors no matter how long they are here.

~~~~~

Now that everything is here, and I mean everything, I have no room to park my car in the garage! Sheesh, I don't even have room to walk into the garage. Needless to say he brought more than just the parts he needs for his car but enough to do two full cars and then some! I need to take pictures just to show you how bad it really is! Actually, I am surprised they fit it ALL!

Oh hum...one day I will have a garage to park in again. It's just a good thing it doesn't snow here or Tom would be in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Here are picture of the car before everything else got cramed in.