We had such a nice Halloween this year! We have really really come to love our neighborhood over the years!  There is a real since of community here.  We went to  a little block party then Eugene and I took turns taking the kids around trick or treating.  The kids were just giddy they were so excited!  After they hit most the houses they came back and got a kick out of handing out candy.  Here are some pics of the kids!  

This next pic is the kids going up to Ms. Robin and Coach Bill's house!  They got TCCHS footballs from Coach Bill!  

Last night they both got to pick out three pieces of candy to eat before I locked it up.  Today Caroline somehow snuck candy into her bed at naptime!  When she woke up I found smarty wrappers and bits of sucker all around her!  I think the kids plot against me to somehow dirty their sheets up the day I change them!

And here's one more of my crazy child!  

I can't believe it's November already!  Christmas will be here before I know it!

Right now the kids are camped out in our room watching High School Musical for the second time this weekend!  They seem so young to already be into movies like that but they love it!  Yesterday while they watched it they enjoyed popcorn with M&M's, a favorite in our house.

The obsession with HSM started with Luke.  In his class at school they listen to the soundtrack sometimes.  We downloaded his favorite song "We're all in this together" a month ago and the kids listen to it on repeat in the car ALL THE TIME!  They love it, they both sing along.  Eugene got them the movie and now it's their favorite!  If that's not bad enough they love Taylor Swift and the new Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA!"  Luke is always wanting to watch music videos on youtube!  I'm not sure how I feel about this, I didn't expect to have to be monitoring their movie and music at such a young age.  Especially when Eugene and I don't even listen to secular music.  I guess Luke is picking it up at school.

On one hand I think that he just really likes music, but on the other hand I would rather him be listening to nice Bible songs instead of teeny pop music.  Then, I think about when I was his age and already singing along to the songs from Grease that were way worse and I turned out okay.  I worry that if we ban certain music and movies then the kids will want it more.  Eugene and I are going to have to decide soon what kind of rules we are going to have around music/movie choices.  

We've had a good week around here.  Wednesday Luke sang at church with his little choir!

Thursday night we carved pumpkins.  Neither one of the kids would help get out the guts.  They both were making gaging noises like it was the grossest thing they had ever seen.  

Oh yeah, I'm really rocking on restarting the blog!  Two posts in one day.  Actually, while I was typing the "Silly Sock" post Eugene fell asleep at 8:30!  I've had hours to keep myself busy, I've folded clothes, put up clothes, got out the ironing board (haven't gotten the will up to actually iron though), made a to do list for tomorrow, got my coupons together for publix shopping thursday.....now I've been pulling videos off the flip camera.  I'm so bad about actually doing anything with these clips!  Here are a couple I thought were worth sharing...

This one shows exactly how goofy Caroline is!

Silly Caroline from Mindy Pierce on Vimeo.

I finally got her to sing a little....the way she says L-M-N-O-P cracks me up!

Untitled from Mindy Pierce on Vimeo.

Luke rocking out with Guitar hero!  I have no idea what's up with the one sock and the undies thing, sometimes my kids just don't want to wear clothes.

This week at Luke's school it's Red Ribbon week which has something to do with saying no to drugs...not really sure. Each day the kids wear something different to school, today was wear silly sock day.  Last night Luke and I decided he'd wear one red sock and one blue sock today.  I didn't see the need in spending $5 on a pair of socks he'd wear one time so we went with something we already had on hand.  This morning I dressed him in high water pants and rolled them up a bit so you could see his socks.  He thought he looked pretty silly and headed off to school.  But apparently wearing two different socks is not silly enough for pre-k.  When I picked up Luke from school he got all upset and cried because "Whitt and Kenneth had on sillier socks, they were rainbow", someone else told him that there was nothing silly about two different socks.  Wow, shot to the heart, he made me feel really bad.  Luke was very upset with me, which made me upset with myself.  When I told my mom about it she just told me that wouldn't be the last time I disappoint him.  I guess she's right, so life goes on.  I'm sure he's already forgotten about it.  Tomorrow is wear your sunglasses day.  He's wearing his spiderman sunglasses, I hope those are cool enough for pre-k!   

Other than that little fiasco the day was great!  I had lunch with some friends while Caroline napped at Mimi's, I got my weekly home blessing hour in which is my Monday goal, and I got a box of Children's Place goodies from the UPS man!  This was the first time I've bought from there.  Actually we don't really buy the kids many clothes, they both get good hand me downs and their grandma's supply alot but I came across a good sale and had a free shipping code so I loaded them up on some fall and winter stuff.  I couldn't resist this hoodie sweater for Caroline.  If she's going to insist on wearing hoods she's going to have to look cute!  Here's a picture of them with their new digs on.  Luke got a new hat he really likes and Caroline loved her hoodie so much she's actually sleeping in it right now, I'm going to have to sneak in there later and take it off!

Tonight after supper the four of us played the longest game of Candy Lane ever!  I swear every time one of us got close to winning we got a bad card that sent us back to the beginning.  We went through the deck three times.  Caroline finally won and she was hardly even playing!  

Is it Sunday already?  This weekend has flown by!

Friday was just a fun day all around!  After Caroline and I picked up Luke from school we stopped by his best little bud Ayden's house for a visit.  Ayden is one of Luke's very best friends.  They were in First Baptist preschool last year together, and although they aren't in the same class this year, they are on the same hall so that means recess together!  The boys played together Friday afternoon and Caroline got to play with her buddy Spencer (Ayden's younger brother) and I got to chat with my buddy Andrea (Ayden's mommy)!   We are really all a play date match made in heaven!  

Long story short we ended up taking Ayden home with us for dinner!  While we were eating I realized that this was the first of Luke's friends, that wasn't related to us that we've had over for dinner all by themselves!!!!  Of course I had to take a picture!

I really hope over the years we have lots of the kids friends sitting at this very table for dinner.  After dinner it was game time!  We got the kids all dressed to go, I had wanted to take a picture of just Luke and Ayden but Ms. Caroline would have none of that, she was right up under them and refused to get out of the picture!  Ayden's family met us at the game and everyone had a great time despite the rain. 

After the game we got the kids ready for bed, buckled them in their car seats and headed for Savannah. My family had planned a work day at my grandma's house on Saturday.  The kids really do travel best late at night, and although that was a long trip it was a nice quiet ride with two sleeping kids.  

Saturday flew by, Eugene, along with several other men in the family cleaned up around my grandma's house while the women tended to the children.  We ate out at chilli's and spent some time at the soft play at the mall.  Saturday night we all ate together at my grandma's house then we headed back to Thomasville.  

Today we're just in recovery mode!  The kids are playing around the house, Eugene is catching up on his DVR football games from yesterday and I'm just getting things done around the house slowly.  I think I feel like baking some too :)  

Hope you have a great Sunday!

I really hate hate the fact that I haven't blogged about my wonderful family in so long!  I've really missed documenting so many things in our life over the last few months.  I've decided today to just move forward and forget the past and just take it day by day.  Restarting the blog has been on my personal goal list for the past two months so today I can scratch that one off!  

I just can't say enough how much I love being a stay at home mom.  Some days are a bit challenging, but most days are pure bliss!  This morning Eugene took Luke to school so Caroline and I have decided to take it easy today.  We snuggled a little extra this morning, enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast, played with the babies in the playroom and even got some cleaning done!  Caroline loves to clean, she is so good at helping me pick up the house, make the beds and even help with laundry, it's like a game to her!  

Caroline is going through a funny little stage right now that I thought I'd take the time to document it today. She wants a hoodie sweatshirt on constantly (with the hood on), she clings to her bathing suit and swim diaper!  We actually had to send her bathing suit in with her to church Sunday because she was clinging to it so much.  Eugene just explained to the nursery worker that it was like her security blanket right now.....crazy kid!  I guess she's still trying to hold onto summer. 

I just went to put her down for her nap a few minutes ago and had to snap a few pictures.  She's a great sleeper!  We are really blessed with two children who sleep good.  When it's nap time we just go to her room, she climbs up in bed and we must read Goodnight Moon.  She recites it with us now, I don't know what it is about that book that kids love!  It's kind of creepy to me....that rabbit looking women in the rocking chair kind of weirds me out....anyway, this is my sweet baby pretending to sleep....

Do you see the diaper and bathing suit?  So I tell her to open her eyes and smile at mommy!  This is what she does....typical Caroline

This one is a little better....notice the yellow jacket tattoo on her cheek!  She is so excited about the game tonight, she loves going to the Yellow Jacket games, we've been practicing our cheers today! 

But to show you how truly unique my little Caroline is.....she insisted on wearing these to bed!

She's sleeping away now and I've got to get moving and get some things done before it's time to pick up Luke from school!  Happy Friday!

A few weeks ago Eugene and I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for the evening.  That place is so much fun!  We went on a week night and there were maybe 10 people in the whole place.  We ate our pizza then played a bunch of games.  I'm not sure who played more games Eugene or Luke?  Their main goal was to get as many tickets as possible, they did pretty good but we still only walked away with a crazy straw and some little plastic spiders, what a rip off!  Here are some pics from our evening....

The kids enjoying a ride.....

Isn't this lovely, Caroline with her mouth pressed up against the glass on the playground.....

The counting of the tickets....I wish they would have had one of these nifty ticket counter machines when I was little....

One more.....

The weekend after Chuck E Cheese Eugene and I left the kids to go have some fun of our own!

We had a great time on our cruise!  The weather couldn't have been any better!  We had so much fun together, we jammed to Journey on the drive down to the boat, we ate lots of yummy food, we watched movies, played trivia, read books, played shuffleboard... but mostly just relaxed.  It was one of those vacations you come back from and really feel rested and rejuvenated! 

So it's been way over a month since I've posted and I'm having a hard time even knowing how to start again!   The last month seems like mush in my head now but I'm going to try and weed through it to pull out some fun things to share.  I really can't believe I didn't blog a day by day of our trip to Disney in November.  What an amazing trip that was, Disney World is really such a magical place!  I have so many pictures to share I decided to just make a photo album.

There were also alot of great times in December to be had!  Luke had his Christmas school program!

Luke is just right of the center of the picture on the front row.  If you notice, Luke's good friend Ayden is three kids to the left of him and wearing a matching sweater.  These two are peas in a pod.  Just last week we met Ayden and his Mommy and little brother at Chick fil a to eat and play.  Ayden's little brother Spencer is just a tad older than Caroline so all the kids play really well together.  We got there about noon and actually stayed til almost 2pm!  I think me and Andrea (Ayden's mommy) enjoyed the play date as well!

We also had my mom's daycares annual Christmas party to go to.  Luke loved seeing Santa, he was all about Santa Clause this year, Caroline....not so much....

Caroline and I also made a trip to Savannah to visit with my grandparents in December.  I think Caroline enjoyed being the center of everyone's attention.  Here's a picture of her playing with Tori, Lauren and Aunt Staci!

It was also nice for her to have one on one time with her Great Grandparents.  Caroline kept going up and down these stairs, here's Gigi (great grandma) helping her down.

Many of you know that right now my Granddad is going through treatments for colon cancer.  The last few months I've been trying to go to Savannah as much as possible to help out in anyway I can.  I really treasure the extra time I'm getting to spend with my grandparents lately. 

Luke and I also had the stomach flu in December, he was only sick for a day or so, I wasn't so lucky.  I actually was down for almost the whole week of Christmas.  We considered having Santa visit us a little later than Dec. 25th so I could get to feeling better but luckily I got to feeling well enough and we had a wonderful Christmas, I'll post more on that later.  I'll leave you with a picture I took of Eugene and Luke sleeping right outside the bathroom door.  Luke was so sick that night throwing up, poor thing.  This particular night Luke had messed his bed and our bed up!  At this point in the night the two of them had resorted to sleeping on the floor outside the bathroom.  Oh the joys of parenthood! 

That's about all I have time for right now, I am starting to feel my blog mojo come back so hopefully tonight I will post some more!  It's going to take me a few days but I am going to catch up, promise! 

    Today marks five years of marriage for me and Eugene!  It is hard to believe it's already been five years!  They have flown by, but things have certainly changed alot  in those 5 years, job changes, moving...but mainly adding 2 more to our family with Luke and Caroline.  I am more excited today to be married to Eugene than I was on our wedding day!!  He's a wonderful husband and father and a great best friend.  I will really try not to nauseate you while I talk about how wonderful he is but I thought to just give you an idea of how wonderful he is I'd make a list of just 5 things that he did today that made me love him more. 

1.  I woke up to the sound of him grinding coffee beans this morning.  I'm usually the first one up but today since it was our anniversary and since I have a pinched nerve in my neck he said he thought he'd let me sleep a little longer than usual.  When I walked in the kitchen he greeted me with a cup of coffee, a hug and a "Happy Anniversary!" 

2.  I ran a few errands this morning and what I thought would take about 30-45 min took me about 2 hours!  (I did score some fabulous new Euro pillows for our bed, but that's beside the point).  I called him a little before noon very apologetic, I told him I'd stop and get him and the kids something to eat but he said not to worry, he'd already fed the kids and they were getting geared up for nap time.  

3.  We hadn't discussed if we were getting each other anything for our anniversary but I really assumed not since we're going on a cruise next month to celebrate.   Well, this afternoon while the kids were napping Eugene gave me the cutest little ornament for the tree!  It was perfect, so suiting for me!  I presented him with my new drivers license with Pierce as my last name!  (Something he's been after me for awhile to do).  Then he pulls out a little jewelry store box.  I opened the box and there was a perfect little pair of white gold ball earrings!  It was probably one of the best things he's ever given me because it was exactly perfect for me.  I am the queen of ball earrings, I understand that they are not in style anymore but I love them.  I lost my pair a few weeks ago, they were just cheapy ones.  He said he figured I'd need a new pair now!  I know that seems so little but to me it's such a big deal.  It tells me he listens to me, he knows what I like, he just gets me!

4.  Tonight we went to dinner and a movie together.  Eugene and I have so much fun together still and he's my favorite person in the world to have a conversation wtih. 

5.  Tonight as I was making candy in the kitchen he walked in and just starting unloading/loading the dishwasher.  I asked him why he was doing it and he just said "Well I figured with your neck hurting it might be hard to bend down and load the dishwasher"

I hope I didn't bore you with the details of things.....but this is how my life is with him everyday!  He is my center, he grounds me and makes me calm.  When I met him when he was 18 all I knew then was that he was just alot of fun to be around!  Now, 9 years later having fun with him is the tip of the relationship iceberg! .....

okay, I'll stop now, I really could go on and on but I don't want to embarrass him anymore.....oh, and I made him an anniversary cake!  Like it?

I know I'm way, way behind on posting!  We've been having so much fun gearing up for Christmas this week, lots to share!  And I haven't even posted about Disney World!  I will get to it all, promise, but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures from tonight.

Caroline is "almost" off the bottle......we're trying really hard!  She has greatly reduced the number per day though, so that's good.  Anyway, she's really really started enjoying eating at meal time, she gets such a kick out of feeding herself!  Can you tell?  Could she get any cuter than this?

She's also officially out of her little bathtub chair, she loves the freedom now at bathtime!!

Disclaimer: Eugene just came in here and told me I cut Caroline's head off in the first picture....just FYI, I meant to do that!  And actually, according to the rule of thirds, I probably should have chopped it off a little more so her eyes were the focal point.....but that's a little too much info for you!  Just know I totally did it on purpose!