It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!!

We carved pumpkins Monday night.

Even Brandi & Beckham wanted in on the pumpkin carving excitement!

Jon and Christen chose to actually carve and shape their pumpkins.

I'm not good at that. At all.

I can use stencils, but even then, I'm scared I'll cut something that I shouldn't or shave off too much. So I opted to paint a Halloween scene on my pumpkin. Jon did help me out though. I did need the pumpkin cut, but I was too nervous to do it myself.






Jon wasn't happy with his pumpkin. He's going for a Star Wars theme. He started with Chewbacca. He claims it doesn't look like Chewbacca, but I think it looks really good.

Christen carved Jack Skellington from "A Nightmare Before Christmas". She loves the movie. And what impressed me, is she didn't use a stencil!!! She just looked at one of her shirts that has his likeness on it and went from there.

I choose to do a scene from "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!". It's one of my all-time favorite movies. It reminds me of my childhood and all the excitement and anticipation that Halloween brought. We didn't have a neighborhood to go door-to-door. But we did make the rounds at my relatives homes. My aunts, grandmothers, etc. And by the end of the night, we would have a sack full of candy!! My Aunt (who Christen got her middle name from) LOVED Halloween. She would have our cousins waiting to jump out and scare us. She would even had Halloween music playing!! I've never been one for dressing up, but I do love to see people in their costumes.











After all was said and done, we had three fine Jack O' Lanterns! Can't wait to see them all lit up!

More Children? No Thank you...

People ask me all the time: "Are you going to have another baby?" Ummm... no. I get the not so subtle hints from my Dad and Aunt that we could sure use a little boy. No Thanks! My Mom finally sees things my way, so no more hints from her.

I'm still young enough (34), but my daughter will be graduating from High School next year... NEXT YEAR!!! Well... not 2011, but 2012.. so next SCHOOL year. I can not fathom having a baby the same year my daughter will graduate from high school. Nope, not gonna happen.

BUT, I do have little cravings for baby time. I LOVE babies! And toddlers. They are so much fun! So, I get my fix when I get to babysit. It doesn't happen often, so I soak it up whenever the opportunity arises. It's fun to spoil them and then send them home. To be the "fun" Aunt or Cousin. And not the disciplinarian.

I was able to babysit twice this weekend! On Friday night, I watched over my dear friend's 3yr old little boy. He is so much fun! He loves puzzles and coloring and pasting. I made up a little craft project for him to do and he had a lot of fun pasting the shapes. I should have made up more crafts because he wanted to keep on pasting!! I'll know better next time. He LOVES our boxer, Beckham. He giggled and tried to run to have Beckham chase after him. Unfortunately, Brandi is too possessive of little ones, so we had to keep her crated. She's a little Momma and thinks no one should be near a baby but her!

On Saturday, I kidnapped my baby cousin. He'll be two in a couple of weeks. He's visiting his grandparents (my Aunt and Uncle) and so I gave them a little break. He's such a ball of energy! He never stops! He loves Beckham too. He would literally stick both his hands in Beckham's jowls and tug on them. He loves every one he comes in contact with! Well, except Jon. He had to warm up to Jon. Jon is a little scary if you don't know him. It's the hair and beard. But after a quick game of fetch w/ Beckham, Jon was his friend.

Christen really enjoyed getting to know her little cousin again. She loved showing him the pond and the little fishies!!

He's ALL BOY!! Loves to hang from things, and LOVES anything that has an engine it too!

Babies are blessings from God above. I thank Him daily he gave me my baby. And I thank him for putting me in the lives of people who have awesome babies that I can play with!

~Halloween~

It's my husband's favorite time of year. Halloween!! He loves decorating the front porch, dressing up and going to haunted houses. He loves ghost stories and scary movies (even though they freak him out). And even though living in a neighborhood isn't his ideal "thing", I know he loves it this time of year because we get a lot of kids coming by to Trick~or~Treat on Halloween.

He has already started decorating the front porch. He just needs to add the Haunted Horse and Carriage and carve the pumpkins. He bought EIGHT pumpkins!! Christen gets one to carve and I get one to carve/paint (I haven't made up my mind yet). Jon will have the other SIX to carve. He's going with a Star Wars theme. I can't wait!! I would love to post the pumpkins he carved last year, but for some reason, I can't get them to save.

Here's what he's done so far: