To begin, the kids decorated their paper bags that they would take their donuts home in.

Once all of the guests arrived, we headed back to the kitchen to get to work.  Each child got their own piece of dough and we worked to knead them and fold them and add in yeast and roll them out and cut donuts.  

It was really cool to get to see the big machines work to roll out the dough and then cut it into perfect nut-shaped doughNUTs.  

While our host got the donuts ready to cook (read: switched out the germy kid ones for fresh ones), we went out to the lobby for pizza. 

We also got to sing to the birthday boy and enjoy a giant donut cake!  His big donut with candle was the hole from the giant donut cake.  :)

Finally, we got to watch the donuts cook.  It was fun seeing them float in the fryer and then be flipped over midway through.

The last steps in donut making are adding chocolate icing and sprinkles, lots of sprinkles!

It was the best way to celebrate our sweets-loving little boy.  I still can't believe he's FOUR!  

Here's to many more years celebrating him!

For the third year in a row, we invited our friends, the Rikards, to join us.  Our kids play so well together and we've gotten in the groove of how to vacation together.  I think this year was probably our best one yet!

I know I've said it before, but it's so much easier when we leave on Friday and drive a little more than half way.  Plus, the kids think staying at a hotel is the best.  We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel and had to do some porch rockin'. 

I bought the kids each a pair of headphones for the trip and they wouldn't take them off.  They carried around their "ipads" (Leap Frog Tablets) so they could listen to music.  Teenagers already, I tell ya.

Our vacation is getting predictable.  When getting close to the beach house, we first stop in Seaside for pizza and our first beach sighting.  And then we always take a picture in this cutout board!

Our biggest goal for the trip was just to really get into vacation mode.  So we tossed any kind of schedule out the window, ate ice cream or candy every night, didn't force naps, and generally said yes to most things.  It was fun!

One pineapple, four straws!

Beach Bums

This year, Matt and Laura dug two really deep holes in the sand and then connected them with a tunnel.  It terrified this mama, but Katie Wynn and Levi loved crawling from one hole to the other!  We let them do it a few times before collapsing the hole so no one else could go in it.

Pool Sharks

Coordinating Cuteness

If you know me at all, then you know it wouldn't be vacation without plenty of matching outfits!

I don't know where they get all of their "coolness" from.

Here is our family picture from the evening we spent at The Hub.

And this is the "goodbye" photo taken on the front steps of the beach house before we drove away after a super fun week.  Might be my favorite picture of all four kids...even if they don't all match!

The only bad thing about vacationing the week before Memorial Day is that it's over too early in the summer!  We really have to figure out a way to spend another week at the beach at the end of the summer too.  Not too much to ask, right?

The return from Christmas break was kicked off with a Grandparents Luncheon.  Our kids were lucky enough to have 3 of their 4 grandparents attend.  Katie Wynn had actually stayed home for the day thanks to a fever the day before (darn 24 hour rule) - that's why she's in "civilian" clothes. 

Still learning the proper way to wear the uniform headband...

In February, the kids had a free dress day and got to play bingo with the big kids.

The kids got to take confetti eggs to their classes on Easter Monday.  Looks like Katie Wynn's class enjoyed cracking them on their heads!

Mr. Scott always captures cute faces on Thomas, no matter what he's doing!

Katie Wynn is much more serious and stingier with her smiles.  Sometimes I wonder if she hides from him and his camera because days will pass with no pictures of her.  Wouldn't surprise me!

I enjoyed seeing Katie Wynn on her bike for the St. Jude Trikathon.

My sweet boy doing his hand motions during music class!

I have learned that on Wednesdays - ice cream day - Thomas always picks a popsicle, while Katie Wynn chooses an ice cream cone.

Fun on field day!

The kids (and teachers) treated us Mamas to a Mother's Day Tea.  It was a fun way to spend my afternoon!

The last day of school for us was a family fun day at a family farm.  The kids climbed tractors, jumped in bounce houses, rode horses (not my kids), ran in sprinklers, slid down water slides (also not my kids), and gobbled up pizza.  It was a fun end to the semester!

His graduation was on a Saturday afternoon at an enormous church.  He had to rent his cap and gown and would only have it (and be available for pictures) for about 45 minutes before the ceremony started.  So we took some quick pictures with him before heading inside to get seats.

Katie Wynn recently lost her first tooth and saved one of her dollars to give to Wyatt as a graduation present.  She was mostly excited about getting to wrap it up by herself.  Of course, that morning Thomas needed a dollar so he could do it too.  Wyatt was really good sport opening his two dollars and thanking them.  :)

After securing a row of seats, the littles and I killed time in the lobby.  They can only sit still and quiet for so long and I didn't want to waste any of it on waiting for the service to start!

Wyatt was one of six graduates that got to sit on stage for the whole ceremony.  He and two other boys (twin brothers!) tied for salutatorian so they were all included in the order of events.  Wyatt was the second student to speak and he introduced the president of the school to come speak. 

Thank goodness for the big screens since the students sat in the very front section and we couldn't get very close.  From where we were sitting behind the sound booth, we got to watch him on the big screens, live on stage, and through the little screen in the booth.  Here he is accepting his diploma and perfect attendance award. 

We are so very proud of Wyatt and all that he has achieved thus far.  If you noticed in the pictures above, he was wearing a Georgia Tech tie - the school he has committed to attending in the fall.  With his fun personality, sharp thinking skills, and incredible work ethic, we know he will do great things there over the next four years.  We can't wait to visit him in Atlanta too!

I'm not sure if Wyatt was tired by the end of the day, but graduation sure wore these two out.

Now with one child out of school, we have one (Katie Wynn) who will be starting in the fall.  Next year, just the girls will be in regular school!  

This time around, I decided to take Thomas with me on my checkup day so that I could take pictures of him getting his teeth cleaned to show Katie Wynn.  This was his first official time getting his teeth cleaned and he was SUCH a champ.  He was scared at first and wouldn't go at the same time as me (in a different room), but they were able to wait and do him after I finished and he was perfectly fine as long as I could be in the room.  Coming from my experiences with Katie Wynn, I was blown away by how good he was and how EASY the visit was. 

He was not a big fan of the fluoride being painted on at the end and I totally get it - it's sticky and texture-y and tastes weird.  I had to really work to get half a smile after the dentist, but toys from the prize chest and a trip to McDonald's before going back to school definitely helped.

Katie Wynn's appointment was scheduled for the next week, also at my dentist's office.  (We ditched the pediatric dentist in town after two visits, hoping that going with me would be better.)  Leading up to the visit, we practiced playing dentist every night.  We looked at all of the pictures of Thomas and watched the videos I had taken.  We prayed about it and really talked through every step of it.  And still, this face shows how the visit went down:

There were so many tears.  So much fighting and bribing and begging just to get her halfway into the seat.  She did let the hygienist and dentist both look at her teeth and count them, but girlfriend hopped out of that chair and hid in the corner as soon as she saw that spinning toothbrush come out.  I can't even begin to really describe how frustrating and stressful and embarrassing and sweaty these visits are for me.  And I feel so helpless because nothing I say makes her feel less afraid.  It frustrates me and breaks my heart all at the same time.

We have known for a while that she has two teeth where the enamel didn't form correctly in utero.  They will definitely have to be fixed at some point but we've just been watching them as best we can for now.  During his very short peek into her mouth, the dentist noticed a cavity in a back molar and thought it might be good to have it looked at as well as the two with bad enamel.  He referred us to a different pediatric dentist that would have the tools and equipment to work on a terrified child.  The idea was tossed around that she may need to be put to sleep and this mama nearly lost sleep from worrying over it.

Two days later, we made our way to Katie Wynn's new pediatric dentist.  This was the first time ever that Matt has accompanied us to the dentist - we were all hopeful he would be the magic trick to taking her fear away!  

Sadly, she was still terrified so I don't have any action pictures since it was an all-hands-on-deck situation to get her to open her mouth (without scarring her for life), but here is a big smile after her teeth had officially been cleaned for the first time ever!

We learned after these last two visits that part of her fear was coming from what the toothpaste would taste like - and this dentist office won her over with flavorless toothpaste.  Hallelujah! The hygienist was incredibly patient and sweet with her.  Matt and I did have to go through all of our bag of tricks, but I think now that the first time is behind us, she'll hopefully do much better!

After the cleaning she was feeling brave enough to do one of the xrays.

Not quite brave enough to do the other one, but that's ok.  Baby steps!

The best part of the whole visit was that after the dentist examined her, he said we could wait a while on fixing the bad enamel teeth and we could just watch the cavity a little longer.  YAY!  This was such a huge answered prayer.  It is still something that will have to be addressed eventually, but I'll put it off as long as we can!

I know this has become a long post for a silly trip to the dentist - something everyone does twice a year! - but I'm just so proud (and relieved!) of my girl for finally getting through that fear.  I think she was pretty proud of herself too.  She couldn't wait to tell Thomas all about her new dentist and how it's where she goes now.  :)

I can't even begin to tell you how many pecans there were...SO many!  Lots and lots of pecan trees, all that had dropped piles and piles of yummy pecans.  The kids were super excited to find them and pick them up.

Surprisingly, both kids really liked eating the pecans right out of the shell!  I expected them to turn their noses up to the idea, but they loved cracking them and picking the fresh nut out.  

I'm not sure what official pecan pickers use to hold their haul, but we brought a car wash bucket and a sand pail with us and they both worked just fine.  Filled 'em right up!

After collecting pecans, we threw sticks onto the existing stick pile and then the kids had fun climbing up this fallen tree branch.  

This pecan grove is situated near the river, just on the other side of a levee.  We climbed to the top of the levee hill to the gravel road and something about the time of day and the sunshine and the quietness made it all just so peaceful.  

We didn't last too long because of the cold, but I sure hope it's something we can do again sometime.  I love making these kinds of memories with my family!

Anyway, whether you've ever done it before or not, I have a book to show you that might make you want to brush up on your skills (or learn how to do it!).  It's called Do-It-Yourself Stitch People by Elizabeth Dabczynski-Bean.  I discovered it on Instagram around the first of December and showed it to my Mom and we both agreed we had to order it.  We found it on Amazon for $49.

So the book is filled with tons and tons of different bodies and faces and clothes and hairstyles and you pick and choose which ones together to create a cross-stitched portrait.  I told my Mom she needed to do each of her kids' families and give them to us for Christmas and sure enough, she did!  Here is how she stitched our family of six.  I had to really zoom in to avoid the glare of the frame.  I love that KW and Thomas are in matching gingham and that she included Lolli!

While Mom was busy stitching all of us, I borrowed the book and made patterns of two of my friends and their families to stitch as their Christmas gifts.  When we got together to celebrate the holiday with them, I had only finished stitching the Cooks!  I scribbled out a stand-in for the Earls since I didn't have it ready yet. 

But I did end up getting the Earls done and I added their cat, Sophie.  I love how she turned out!

While making these, I stalked all their pictures on Instagram trying to determine the correct shades of hair and eyes.  I tried to make their outfits match something they actually owned too.  

As a surprise, I stitched out my Mom and Dad with their dog, Charlie, to give to them for Christmas.  She had no idea she was going to get to unwrap a stitched portrait with the rest of us!

Then, as another surprise, I stitched out Matt's parents too!  

It's hard to get good pictures of them because of the glares and reflections from the glass, but they really look so stinking cute framed up and sitting on a shelf.  I love passing by ours in the living room, and seeing both of our parents' in their houses too.

There is really no point to this post except to maybe show you this cute craft if you need a good gift idea for someone!  If you've never cross-stitched, it's super easy to do and you could order the book and learn.  She walks through all the steps in the first few pages of the book.  

And since I've done those, I've discovered that she has also put out books for occupations and farm animals.  In the book I have she also includes lots of different ways to do wedding dresses - wouldn't a stitched wedding portrait be an awesome gift for newlyweds?!  Now I have to think of more people I can stitch out...it's nice to have something to sit on the couch and do at night while watching tv! 

I started out the month by joining three friends to complete a 10K for St. Jude!  We raised our money, did absolutely NO training, and showed up ready to walk.  Or at least that's what I was ready to do.  I had absolutely no intentions of doing anything other than walking, until the took off running and left me!  I jogged to keep up but I was not prepared for that!  They didn't run the whole time - thank the Lord! - and I somehow managed to A) keep up with them and B) not die, so I call it a success!

Somewhere along the route...

And, finally, past the finish line!

The kids and I joined friends one evening on a trip to see the Christmas lights at the zoo.  It was cold but we had fun!

A few days later we joined most of the town to watch the Christmas parade.  Our church serves chili and cinnamon rolls beforehand so it's like dinner and an event! :)

We had our annual Christmas dinner with the Cooks and Earls where I introduced them to a staple snack from my childhood - Chicken In A Biscuit crackers with potted meat (yes, you read that correctly) and squeeze cheese.  Gotta be honest, I didn't know if I would be able to stomach it as an adult.   Matt refused to try it but everyone else was brave.  

Final verdict?  Not as awful as it sounds.  Not like scrumptiously delicious by any means, but something you could eat if you had to.  

As I mentioned in my Christmas post, my brother's kids received a new puppy - miniature dachshund - for Christmas.  My parents kept Stella for a week before they received her, and we even got to babysit her for a little while one night! 

This year, we had two cuties in the Christmas program at school and we had 50% actual participation in singing the songs.  Katie Wynn rocked it out and Thomas took her job from last year of just standing there. 

There's a new hospital being built in our town and we got to sign the beam that will be placed on top.  So cool to know our signatures will always be up there!

These kiddos were excited to be out of school after their Christmas parties wrapped up!

To wrap up this post, here are a bunch of snapshots from our two weeks at home together!

I love that they both popped a foot in these pictures!  That's all them - I didn't tell them to do it at all.  Such little models! :)

Now, onward to 2018!

I also lit candles in these luminaries on our front steps.  I've had these for YEARS and was so glad to finally have an excuse to use them. 

In the living room, we once again put up and decorated our 12-foot tree (an all-day activity) and had our forest of twinkle trees on the mantel.  

I added some new Christmas decor around the house this year but forgot to take pictures of most of it.  One of my favorite things that I added, though, were mini Santa and Elf hats to the decor in each of the kid's rooms.  Aren't they cute?!

And since I mentioned us hosting part of our Sunday School party, here's a picture that I took that night of most of the group.  We really love this group of people!

Moving on to other Christmas events, we wore our matching Christmas jammies to see Santa Claus at a friend's house.  Yes, we wore this to a party with friends.  No shame in our game.  

And then we donned our jammies again with Wyatt and Anna on the morning of Christmas Eve.  

Later that day, we attended the Christmas Eve service at church.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that the candles during Silent Night are always my favorite part (especially when I don't catch my hair on fire).  

Just like every other year, we gathered at my parents' house after church for dinner and presents.  Mom shooed us into the living room to take pictures while she finished up dinner.  Behold...7 grandkids and one new granddog, all eyes open and somewhat looking at the camera, and no tears.  A Christmas miracle!

Stella is the newest granddog, and she was a gift to Parker, Ramer, and Lilli Greer from their parents.  They received her for Christmas right when they got out of school for break and she's just the tiniest, cutest little thing!

For the kids, Christmas morning was great.  For me, it was awful.  Possibly the worst one yet.  I can't even write all the details because I am still not over it, but basically I shot up from where I was sleeping on the couch (not sleeping, rather) before 6am with the realization that when I had filled the kids' stockings, I hadn't put in the green yo-yo that Thomas specifically requested from every Santa he talked to.  I dug through the box I'd brought all the Santa gifts in and couldn't find it.  I threw on my house shoes and hopped in the car to grab it before the kids woke up.  Couldn't find it at home.  Drove to three truck stop gas stations looking for one.  No luck.  Finally found an orange one at Walgreens.  (Also, I had on no bra, or coat, or makeup, or brushed hair.  Didn't have my phone. Just shopping on Christmas morning in a panic.)  I did make it back to the house with the not-green yo-yo right before they woke up and snuck it into his stocking.  He was happy.  I fought back tears.  It was one of the first gifts purchased and I failed to deliver it.  I did finally find the green yo-yo when cleaning up the Christmas decor...at the bottom of a shopping bag.  

The rest of the day was great.  We had breakfast at Nick and Beth's and dinner at my Aunt Vicki's house.  The kids played with ALL their new toys and were exhausted by the end of the night. 

Matt's sister, Jill, and her boys didn't come into town until later in the week and then we all gathered at Lala and Poppa's house to have Christmas with them.  We opened gifts that morning and had a big, delicious lunch.  In between the two, I brought all the supplies to play Minute-To-Win-It games.  We divided up into two teams - this group was Team Awesome.  

And these goofballs were Team Not Aweome.  (Spoiler: they were actually more awesome.)

Everyone had a blast playing the silly games - everything from transferring M&M's with a straw to stacking pennies, pulling out kleenexes, building cup towers, knocking over water bottles and more. 

Despite the Christmas morning snafu, we really had a great holiday.  We are so lucky to get to celebrate Jesus's birth with so many of our friends and family.  And our kids were completely spoiled, as always.  Now we have to find homes for all these new toys!

Our Elf, Coffee, doesn't do crazy things around the house but on the first morning they were out for Christmas break, Coffee had big news for the kids.  He had written them a note telling them he had gotten them tickets to ride the train! 

I took the pictures below of them with their fake tickets from my bed because they woke me up to show me.  Notice there is no light coming in through the windows.  It's Christmas break!  Why aren't we sleeping in!?!

So we packed our bags, hit the road for a long drive, and checked into our hotel room later that afternoon.

Our train departure time was 5:00 so we changed the kids into their Christmas jammies and went to check in and get our official tickets.  

We had a fair amount of time to kill before the train left the station, so we walked around and looked at the fountains and decorations.  The kids thought this car was really cool.

Eventually, it was time to board the train and go!

Katie Wynn was super excited about getting her ticket punched, "just like in the movie!" and about getting hot chocolate.  And she got both of those things!  On the hour-long trip, they read the Polar Express story to us, served hot chocolate and cookies, sang Christmas carols, and we got to see lots of Christmas light displays out the window.  Both kids really enjoyed all of it!

Santa came on board to visit with the kids and take pictures and, well, I think we all know how Katie Wynn felt about that.

Super excited about having "real bells from Santa's sleigh!!"

So, there was a "homeless man" sitting on top of the train when we boarded that called Katie Wynn "Polka Dots" as we walked by.  Near the end of the trip he came onto the train and was hiding from the conductors and they tried to kick him off, yadda yadda.  (All just some fun acting and entertainment.)  Well, he recognized Katie Wynn's polka dots and sat down in our booth after "escaping" from the conductor and she was scared to death.  The conductor came back and caught him and threw him off the train, but he grabbed our bag of souvenir mugs on his way out and poor baby girl just boo-hooed.  The conductor brought them back and we had to explain that it was all just pretend.  You can see the homeless man's hand in the picture below.

We highly recommend taking your kids on a ride if they are fans of the Polar Express movie or book!  Definitely fun to experience with them at least once.  

We had booked two nights in our hotel room but really hadn't decided what we would do the next day or if we would even stay the extra night.  Our plan was to play it by ear, which is not something Matt and I are very good at.  First thing the next morning, Katie Wynn and I found a place to get our nails done while Matt took Thomas with him to find a place to get a hair cut.  

If Matt was writing this post, his advice to you would be to never get your hair cut while on vacation, especially by an old, possibly ex-military, man.  That's how he ended up with a buzz cut for Christmas 2017.  

We spent the rest of the morning walking around a little shopping area.  We shopped and played arcade games and ate and rode up in this really tall balloon thing to get a view of the town.

We made it through lunch and then didn't know how to spend the afternoon.  Find an attraction or hop in the car and start the drive home?  We knew Silver Dollar City was nearby but we had heard it was kind of a full-day type of park and we'd already wasted half of ours.  We went to a ticket store with the thoughts that if we could get tickets to some kind of afternoon show or event we would do that and if not, we would just head back.  After talking to the man working the ticket counter, he convinced us that for our age kids, Silver Dollar City was where we needed to go.  Plus, it didn't even open til 1:00 in the afternoon so it's not like we could have gone earlier even if we'd wanted to.  We were still kinda hesitant because rain clouds were moving in and the tickets would be expensive, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

As we walked up to the front gates of Silver Dollar City and headed towards the line to buy tickets, we were approached by a couple and their kids.  They asked if we already had tickets and we told them no.  They happened to have an extra ticket that they weren't using that they graciously gave to Matt.  And then, they told me they had family passes and that technically one more person could go in on their passes if I wanted to tag along.  Isn't that the nicest thing ever?! Since Thomas was three, he got in free, so the only ticket we had to buy was one for Katie Wynn!  What a little blessing that family was - I wish we'd taken a picture with them!  We didn't necessarily need help buying tickets, but it was nice to know that if it started raining soon, we hadn't sunk a lot of money into the theme park for a short amount of time.  

The weather had really dropped since the day before so our first stop in the park was to buy gloves for everyone and hats for me and Matt.  Souvenirs for everyone!  From there, we rode carousels and climbed in big tree houses and played carnival games and watched weavers and ate snacks.  

When we made it to the kids' amusement rides, I could not believe Katie Wynn...for someone that was terrified of Santa Claus and even the nail technician when we were getting manicures that morning, this girl wanted to ride very single ride!  And she was disappointed that a grown up had to ride with her! 

You may be able to tell from those pictures that by then, the rain had come.  It started out as a light drizzle and then turned to heavier sprinkles.  It was picking up though to the point that the seats to the rides were soaking wet when we sat down and we occasionally had to stand under a steady drip while waiting in line.  Our clothes were getting pretty soaked through and it was COLD!  

Matt and I held out as long as we could but when it finally turned dark, we gave up.  We had given the kids as much time at the park as we could and now we just wanted to be warm!  We took one last picture under the Christmas lights and then hopped on the tram to get to our car.  

Everyone slept good that night after a full day's worth of activities.  The next morning we left for home, but not before getting breakfast at Hurts Donuts.  They had some of the craziest flavored donuts we'd ever seen!

It was a really fun quick trip for our family of four (wish the big kids could've come!).  We returned home on the 23rd, just one day to spare before Santa could come! 

Anyway, this post is all [most] of the pictures Mr. Scott took of our kids during the fall semester this year.  I wanted to post them here so I would be able to have them somewhere other than just on his Facebook page.  

Katie Wynn

This picture below has been one of my favorites - I just love those big grins on the girls' faces! 

This is Katie Wynn's class, taught by Mrs. Kim, on Halloween.  For my memory's sake, the students are (left to right) Alex, Pacey, Gabe, Genesis, Katie Wynn, Addi Clare, Benton, Anna Sofia, Juan, Mason, Levi, and Lexi Claire.  

Thomas

And here is Thomas's class, taught by Mrs. Gladys, on Halloween.  The students are Matiana, Reed, Eli, Urban, Ava, Rileigh, Gates, Liam, Macie, and Thomas.  

Together

The last week of school before the holiday break, Santa came to visit.  They let each class come and take pictures with him and then they call all siblings to come and have their picture made together.  Thomas did great with his class!  

And this was the best picture of Katie Wynn with her class.  There are actual several where her teacher is trying to push her towards Santa because she wouldn't walk up on her own. 

I just happened to be at the school dropping something off when they were doing the sibling pictures, so I got to see them take theirs.  She only did this well because I was standing behind the camera man telling her to be a big girl!

That's all the pictures from the first semester of school.  I'll keep collecting them to do another post at the end of the school year!

Here is a family picture we took 6 years ago.  Ramer was the baby of the family and our two small kids weren't even on the scene yet!

Now that our family is finished growing in numbers (knock on wood), we met back at this same old house to recreate the photo.  Except, when we arrived, we realized someone had started sprucing up the house and cutting down the trees and it just didn't look as...interesting...anymore.  Whomp, whomp.  Still fun for a comparison, but this new picture won't be replacing the old one as one of my favorite family pictures.  

Mom did get another winner for her card, though, with this picture of her and Dad with all the grandkids.  

I was pretty pleased with the ones we got of our family.  I love this one and if I hadn't already ordered my Christmas cards, I would've used this one for our card!

All of these pictures were taken by Meghan Fowler Photography.  She got some good ones of everyone in the family!

I have been wanting a photo of me and Mom together to use for Mint Tulip and I love this one she took of us. 

As busy as everyone is getting, we should probably go ahead and start trying to pick a date for next year's family pictures now...

And apparently I'm a sucker because he totally convinced me to bring him home with me after the party, so I had a little helper at the Mint Tulip headquarters all day.

I didn't get a picture with Katie Wynn at her party that afternoon.  Since Matt and I were their "patients" for Halloween, I had ordered an ace bandage.  Suddenly, we had lots of "injuries" at our house that required a bandage.  Exhibit A:

Matt's parents' kept the kids one night while we went out and gave them fun new pjs.  Katie Wynn received some fairy pjs complete with a flower head band and tutu skirt while Thomas's green ones came with dragon wings and ears. 

When you have new wings, you gotta do some flying.

Last year for Christmas, I received a gift card to Von Jet Silhouettes and I finally got around to spending it this fall.  In November, I finally received my silhouettes and I LOVE them!  Here are the pictures that I submitted:

And here are the wooden sihouettes I received! 

I carried them all around the house for about a week before settling on the entry hall.  I love that I can see them through the dining room when I'm in the kitchen.  Can't believe I took so long to get them ordered!

One weekday, we had a really BIG agenda - doctor and dentist appointments for both kids!  For most parents, this probably isn't a big deal.  And the doctor part wasn't really for us either.  But the dentist.  OH, the dentist.  This was Thomas's first time to go so I didn't know how he would do, but his sister?  She is absolutely TERRIFIED of the dentist.  I have taken her 4-5 times already and every time ends in tears.  For both of us.  And her teeth have never actually been cleaned.  So this time, I had a plan.  Mimi was coming with us and we had promised them they would get to go to Build-A-Bear if they had their teeth cleaned.  

I just can't really put into words how the visit went.  Thomas let the dentist look in his mouth but that's it.  Katie Wynn melted down again before even making it to the chair.  We have tried EVERYTHING.  After lots of coaxing and begging and tear-wiping, I finally was able to make her open her mouth enough for the dentist to barely peek inside.  No cleaning or polishing or flossing.

And again, I'm a sucker because I still let them go to Build-A-Bear.  Truthfully, Mom and I were kinda excited to go to Build-A-Bear ourselves!  I had only been once years and years ago and she had never been.  And I didn't realize until that day that the kids had never been to a mall before.  "You mean there's a whole bunch of stores we can go to without getting back in the car?"  Yup.  

After such a hard morning (these trips to the dentist really are so exhausting and gut-wrenching and frustrating and wear us all out) that it was nice to have an afternoon of just saying YES.  We said yes to unnecessary Build-A-Bear accessories...

We said yes to the little mall ride...

And we said yes to the big carousel.  

Do you know what a scary morning followed by a super fun afternoon does to two kids?  This:

It was a quiet car ride home, to say the least.  

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we took our annual long weekend trip down to the beach with my parents.  The kids are getting to be champs at the long car ride.  

I didn't take many pictures - these are from an afternoon we spent in Seaside after painting pottery.  

Here are some from one evening at the Hub.

Since this is Matt's parents' first year to live here, we had our first (hopefully annual) Thanksgiving brunch at their house.  It was delicious!

I bought the game Guess Who for the little kids.  Matt and Wyatt couldn't put it down one night, even after the little kids went to bed...

Here are more random pictures from throughout the month.

Since November was kinda early in the month this year, our first Christmas event fell in November.  This was our first year to actually get to attend Christmas on the Square and we loved it!  The kids both loved getting to ride the train, and Thomas talked to Santa!

Check back soon; I can't wait to tell you about our trip to Branson where we got to ride on the Polar Express!  

All picture credits in this post go to Kristen Catt Photography.

This one is my favorite except for Thomas hiding in Matt's legs.  I like that it's different from our usual go-to pose of me and Matt holding the kids.

Katie Wynn did great taking pictures by herself!

Thomas, on the other hand, needed a little support from his Daddy.

I love these of the two of them together. 

I don't hate these either.

Kristen is always so good at getting smiles from everyone!

The older we get, the more I love this guy of mine.  So glad to get to do life with him.

One day I picked my favorite girl up early from school so that we could get a treat and a hair cut.  I wonder how I got so lucky to be her mama!  We had fun walking the downtown streets together and you know I was thrilled when she asked me to take her picture.  :)

Is there anything better than a nice Saturday morning with breakfast on the back patio?

The first weekend of the month, I jetted out of town for a girls' weekend.  I had the best time with some of my favorite girlfriends in Little Rock.  Allison graciously hosted us at her parents' place, and it did not disappoint!

We ended our weekend with brunch and mimosas and it was so good! I had cinnamon toast crunch encrusted french toast.  Yes.  It was delicious!

Thomas got a boo-boo on his middle finger and he really liked showing it to me. 

Red-ribbon week at school meant the kids had to wear crazy socks.  Katie Wynn and Addi Clare shared the same socks they wore last year! 

Take a look at these muscles!  No wonder no one ever messes with us when we're out and about.

My little loves did some modeling for me.  I think they're getting better and better at it!

Now, on to November!

All that being said, my kids really loved Halloween this year!  Our first event was the Halloween carnival at their school.  Thankfully we got to skip the costumes for this one.  The kids both enjoyed playing games with their friends.

The Sunday before Halloween every year, our neighborhood has a big parade!  It consists of trailers full of kids in costume...not parade floats.  Our kids always ride with their friends (and their Daddy).  I have learned that it's more fun to sit on the side of the road and watch the parade (and collect the candy thrown at me!) than to actually be in it. 

We never get to stay for the parade after party because the Sunday before Halloween is also when our church has Trunk or Treat.  We rush over to the church parking lot to get our trunk decorated and ready for trick or treaters.  I only took one picture from Trunk or Treat!  This is the game we had our trunk - the kids got to drop a penny into the big jar of water and see if they could get it to land in the smaller jar in the bottom.  

From there, we rushed to a friend's house for a Halloween party, which I sadly took no pictures at! :(

Halloween fell on a Tuesday this year so we rushed home from work to get dressed up for the night.  Matt and I were both injured so it was a good thing we found some good doctors that make house calls.

In our neighborhood, the houses are a little spaced out so kids ride on trailers or four-wheelers or golf carts to go from house to house.  We piled back onto the parade trailer and go ready to go!

We were pulling up to the first house when the sprinkles started and the temperature dropped!  Our doctors added raincoats and hats to their ensembles and kept knocking on doors. 

We called it quits early this year since we were all cold and wet, but the kids had candy so they didn't seem to mind.  I immediately threw their costumes into the washing machine so they could wear them again to school the next day for All Saints Day.  One more day of costumes and then we could say goodbye to Halloween for a year! :)

The first pig races were getting ready to start when we arrived so we made our way there to get a seat with our buddies.

After the pig races, the kids jumped in line to be in the front of the tractor ride.

For tradition's sake, we had to take photos by the pumpkin growth chart.  Thomas couldn't even stand on his own his first time here!

With all the pumpkins and animals that the farm has to offer, my kids always love the play area the best.  I don't blame them...huge tunnel slides, tire swings, tether ball, zip line...I enjoy it all too!  We have learned that bringing a picnic lunch is the way to go and we set up at a table right by the play area so the kids can play and eat, play and eat.

We save the pumpkin patch for the end of our visit so we don't have to lug pumpkins around all day.  The kids get to pick a pie pumpkin to take with the price of their admission.

Near the pumpkin patch is also a really cool wooden pirate ship play area that the kids like to climb on.  

The weather warmed up after lunch so I was glad when we finally hopped on the trailer for a ride back to our car.  The kids and I were all ready to head home for naps!

Both of our main coaches were out of town for the first game so Matt got to be head coach.  I think he probably sweated more than the kids did as he was having to constantly put them back in place.  Luckily at this age, they play with just three players from each team at a time. 

I was really impressed with Katie Wynn's skills and aggression.  She knew to stay with the ball when she had it!

Thomas really wanted to be a part of the team too. 

But he settled for watching the games from the sidelines with his Daddy.

Towards the end of the season, I think Katie Wynn really got good at playing defense.  She knew to get in front of the goal when the other team had the ball and she was so good at blocking the ball with her body.  Maybe she'll be a goalie when she's older?

Just like with t-ball, the highlight for Katie Wynn was getting that participation trophy at the end of the season.  Or, in this case, a medal that she had to take for show and tell at school the following day.

Somehow I never got a picture of the whole team of six!  The picture below includes Levi but now Roston is missing.

Overall I think she really enjoyed getting to play soccer.  Next year we may have two kiddos playing...hopefully on the same team!

We told the kids about three weeks out that we were going to get to go on an airplane ride and say a final goodbye to Granddaddy.  They were excited and we counted down the days until we got to head to the airport!

We had a pretty full morning of traveling.  We met Wyatt at the airport for the first leg (sadly, Anna didn't get to join us since it was Homecoming weekend and she had cheerleading obligations) and hooked up with Matt's parents on our layover for the second flight.  By the time we made it to DC, we had a quick lunch and then it was time for a nap for our kiddos.

This may look like just a pile of pictures on a bed to you, but there's a Thomas hidden underneath them.  Yes, that's where he actually took his nap.  He was playing under the pillows and fell right to sleep.

That night we had a nice dinner out with just our side of the family.  We enjoyed a nice walk back to the hotel that was made a little bit longer by getting slightly lost for a while.  The kids enjoyed getting to be out late!

Friday morning we got dressed up and ready for Granddaddy's service. 

We rented a limo and a bus for all of us to travel to the Arlington in.  Our family got to ride in the limo!

I am not a wordsmith by any means so there's no way I could do justice to describing how amazing the service was for Granddaddy.  We left the lobby where we had been waiting and all rode in the bus to the service.  First, though, we stopped to let the urn be transferred into a casket.  I took the picture below from the window before we got out of the bus to watch the transfer.

From there, we caravanned to the location of Granddaddy's actual service.  The Arlington performs 27-30 burials a day but you wouldn't know it.  Before we got there, I expected that we would be able to see other services going on in other parts of the cemetery around us, but we didn't see any others.  They made us feel like we were the only ones there that day.  

I tried to discreetly take pictures throughout the service.  This was the first funeral for Katie Wynn and Thomas to attend and they did a pretty good job of being quiet and taking it all in.  

There was a 21 gun salute for Granddaddy, which is actually three rounds of seven shots.  The shells were given to Matt's Mom, the patriarch of the family, at the end of the service.

My favorite part was probably when Taps was played by a trumpet (or bugle?) soloist.  The full band played 2 or 3 other songs too.  

Katie Wynn was a little weepy at the end of the service.  We had been telling her that we were going to get to say goodbye to Granddaddy and I think she thought she was going to get to see him.  I tried to explain that we just picked something that reminded us of him to bury - I didn't think she was ready to learn about cremation just yet.  

We walked to see Granddaddy's headstone where his two wives that preceded him in death had already been buried.  His new stone will have his name on the front and their names will move to the back. 

After the service, most everyone was going to stay to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It happens every hour and since we were just a few minutes past the hour, we knew it was going to be too long of a wait for the next one for our two littles to handle.  So the four of us hopped back in the limo to go change clothes and get lunch.  

The weather was nice enough for us to eat outside and the kids enjoyed playing in this little tube thing.  

That evening, we had a big dinner for everyone that had traveled in for the service to attend.  We had a private room at an Italian restaurant and they served us SO much delicious food.  It was nice to visit with all of Matt's family and even meet some that I'd never seen before.  A lot of them had not ever met our little kids either so we were glad to have them with us. 

We got to sit at a table with one of Granddaddy's good friends, Howard Piercy, and it was great hearing stories about them and their wives from back in the day!

Saturday was our last day in DC.  Wyatt's flight left early in the morning but ours wasn't until late afternoon.  We spent the morning doing some sight-seeing and visiting the National Air and Space Museum.  

There were food tucks lined up at the National Mall and I'm not one to say no to food truck food.  Everyone got to pick which truck their lunch came from and then we tried to look extra tourist-y while eating on the benches.  

Soon after lunch we grabbed a cab to get our stuff from the hotel and then headed straight for the airport and our flight back home.  It was a quick trip to DC but one that was special and will always be remembered! 

This first picture is one of my favorites.  As I've already shared, we had family pictures taken on Labor Day weekend.  I was trying to plan out each of our outfits before picture day and needed to try Thomas's new shorts on him to make sure they fit.  It was his idea to lay down with the other outfits to make sure he looked okay with them.  :)  Sure do love this little guy.

We went to a Friday night football game to root for the home team!  This was our first time taking the kids to see a game at my alma mater.  Pretty sure they were just there for the popcorn. 

How is it that every month I wind up with Katie Wynn and her chocolatey mouth on my phone?  She is so neat eating except when it comes to chocolate!

I got to have a mid-week morning date with my favorite little guy.  Unfortunately for him, it was because he had a doctor's appointment.  And we squeezed in a big boy haircut too.  

Speaking of mid-week dates, my Mom and I got to have one too!  We hit the road midday one Wednesday to drive to Little Rock for a little shopping and then a cookie decorating class!

I was so busy playing with icing that the picture above is the only one I took.  Everyone in the class got to decorate six cookies.  Ours don't look so bad from a distance.  :)  Notice they are not shown next to the instructor's set! 

Our kids go to Mass every Friday morning at the Catholic preschool they attend.  And for whatever reason, after Mass Father Charles draws pictures on the kids' hands and arms...with sharpie.  Every mother's nightmare.  He's known for drawing Snoopy.  One Friday I picked Katie Wynn up and asked her what she had drawn that morning and she told me all about her Snoopy, heart, and "S in jail."  What?!  I had to look at her arm to see what she was talking about.  A dollar sign, y'all.  $  "S in jail." Ha!

Speaking of preschool, Matt and I got to join the kids for a pizza lunch in the cafeteria the day before Katie Wynn's birthday.  I love having the flexibility to do this now that I'm not tied to my desk job! 

Later that night, we had Katie Wynn's birthday dinner where she got to blow out her first set of candles.  We put her to bed one last time as a four year old!

The tradition at our house is that on the morning of your birthday, you wake up to balloons!  The number of balloons equals the age that you're turning.  The kids have definitely caught on to this tradition and LOVE seeing the balloons when they wake up!

We also provided the sanctuary flowers on the Sunday of KW's birthday weekend in her honor.  I told the florist to do a colorful bouquet with lots of orange since it's her favorite color.  They came through!  (Photo taken after church when we were taking the flowers to our car.)

We showed up to our church's fall festival one Saturday and go figure that all the kids were in matching Hogs shirts with red gingham shorts!  

We spent lots of time during the month visiting different playgrounds too.  

And that's a wrap on another fun month!