Just some cute pics!

The football season is basically over now. J.J. and his daddy sure had fun going to the games together.

And it's no wonder! Look at that stash...hot chocolate and hot tamales. Plus, they both got to go with friends.

Is it my turn to go do something fun yet?

Yep, this is Ryan. He's such a goober and we love him for it. Jar and I laughed pretty hard when Ryan said he wanted to be a ninja when we went to Wal-Mart. I grabbed the camera cuz I thought it would be pretty funny to see Ryan (and other people's faces too for that matter) in a big shopping center with a swim diaper over his head. He took it off when we got out of the car to go inside, but he wore it the entire ride over! He's so funny!

I thought I'd catch this moment on film too (or memory card). Chase is beginning to stop taking naps during the day. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!) He's taking after J.J. - not even two yet! Sigh. However, if the house is quiet and I put on Baby Einstein, he'll fall asleep with his blankie that Aunt Kristen made (THANK YOU!!!) and one of his bears (either the one pictured from gma and gpa Armstrong or the one that his daddy had when he was little - thanks again!). I could just watch him sleep all day long, he's too cute! But then I remember that this is the only time I have to get things done, so I don't.

Don't you just love these little rugrats?! I sure do! Life is fun with them around.

J.J.'s 6th Birthday

J.J. had a Power Ranger Birthday party and had a really good time with his friends. When the boys first got to our house, we had their own power ranger pizzas for them to decorate. I can't believe how excited some of them were to put on their own toppings! They also chose their power ranger color of drink (just put food coloring of their choice in with their 7-up!). Kids are so easy to please! They had fun with that too.

Here are some of J.J.'s friends from school and his old pal Jonathon. They're sitting on part of the training course to become a real Power Ranger.

More friends from church. This was a fun ramp Jar put together as part of the training course too.

After they did a power stone hunt (easter eggs with candy in them), we had cupcakes. I wasn't up to decorating them, so I bought the frosting from the store that comes with a star tip spray. Didn't work that well, but they tasted good!

I decorated a cake for Sunday's family dinner and party. J.J. only really cared about the Power Ranger's on it, but I like to at least do a little decorating anyway! And Jaren has fun putting them on. :)

We were lucky enough to have lots of family here! We had Jordan and Kelly, Grandpa Clark, and Julie, and Jenny and her kiddos came and gave J.J. his own BIG bucket of licorice. Life doesn't get better than that!

Once again, J.J. got spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Ford. :) We've had lots of fun with the magnets, and the boys watched Jimmy Neutron three days in a row.

Can someone please tell me how to get your child to smile when he's the center of attention?

We had so much fun with J.J. He really is a sweetheart. He makes me so happy. I'm proud of the little guy he's becoming...kind and thoughtful. He really looks out for the people he loves.

P.S. Julie babysat for us last Saturday night so we could go Christmas shopping. When we told J.J. we were going to go get toys for him for Christmas, he told us that we shouldn't get him anything cuz he didn't want us to spend too much money on him. Besides, Santa would get him LOTS of presents! :) Just another way he shows his sweetness to us!

Two Weeks Later...

Happy Halloween! So, yes, it takes me a while to get to things done these days. But the wait is over! I know you've all been dying to see how we dressed up, but I'm sure (somehow) you made it through these last two weeks. :) We kept trying to get get J.J. to dress up as Dracula cuz you know he's got that great dark widows peak. Eventually he said he wanted to be him, so we shouted for joy and got some face paint.

Ryan has said for weeks that he wanted to be a tarantula, no a spitting spider, no a tarantula, spitting spider, etc........and on and on. We went with tarantula b/c who wants to figure out yellow spots?

Chase didn't have a choice in the matter. Although I think it's a bit obvious that he had some say in how much face paint we put on him. He got really good at wiping it the second I tried to put some on. He's such a cute little guy! He really got into it this year. At first he ran down the sidewalk in the other direction. Then he realized that he got candy at the houses and came faithfully. He even started saying tikoteet (trick or treat for those not affluent in toddler talk) and tantu (thank you).

This is J.J. in all his glory. He really started getting into the act!

Can anyone tell what I dressed up as? I'll give you a hint: that's a patch on my head. Pumpkin + patch = ? Not that I really expect anyone to get it. Jaren came up with it and I loved it. Nobody else seemed to get it. So, I'll tell you. A pumpkin patch! And believe me, I feel like one. It seems like it's one pumpkin after another these days.