Happy Halloween Y'all

I've been making some cute Halloween cards lately with my new favorite toy-- the CRICUT!! It's basically a cutting machine that makes scrapbooking and crafting a whole lot easier. I made this card and some variations for some friends and family and then put wallet photos of Avery inside. They were a hit!

So, like I said before, last weekend was really busy. After Mike finished his P.E. exam, we all breathed a big sigh of relief. Then Grandaddy came into town. He makes lil'bub giggle. A lot.

Then we traveled out into the country for the grand opening party of my Aunt Kay and Uncle Randy's brand new Barndominium. What in the world is that? you may be asking. Check out their blog about building it here. We were so excited about seeing it in person finally, and it lived up to all our expectations and more!! They designed it beautifully and Aunt Kay's decorations were just gorgeous. We are all looking forward to more visits in the future.

In all its glory

Avery saying hi to her little cousins Jack and Mackenzie

Enjoying a little party guacamole

I got to round out the weekend with a visit with one of my oldest friends, Christen (Williamson) Lowrey. We met in preschool and like most preschoolers, we partied a lot. Especially skating parties!

please don't ask about the outfit...
it was the '80's ya know!

Now we are both grown-up (well, not really, just way older) moms, and she even has her own pre-schooler. It's crazy.

do we look any different?

Christen's cute munchkin, Aidan

So, after a week that I would rather not discuss for the nightmare that it was, we had a little Halloween dinner party with our good friends Alla and Scott. I tried out this delicious recipe for Saltimbocca, but with mushroom ravioli instead of meat.

The very lovely Alla serves it up

What's a Halloween dinner party without snake breadsticks?

I think Scott enjoyed his dinner :)

Spider cupcake fun

I gotta run now, it's time for some trick-or-treating with my little fairy!

Swimming on Thursdays

This is a quick blog update on lil'bub's swim therapy. It's going fantastic! Although I rouse her extra early on Thursday mornings, (and she has to have her breakfast in the car as I drive across town) she really is a trooper and gets very excited when she sees the pool. Her favorite thing right now is the little apparatus in the photos below. She holds on to the handlebars and I guide her around the pool while her therapist and I sing songs to her and say, "kick-kick-kick!!" She responds with giggles and plenty of kicking!

Afterwards we rush back across town to take her to school and lately she has taken the opportunity for a catnap. Who can blame her? Swimming is tiring! Lord knows the whole thing tires me out.

This past weekend we attended a fun party, Avery's grandaddy stopped by for a rare visit, and I got to meet up with a good old friend. I have lots of photos to share, but they will have to wait for the next post because I need some rest. Lil'bub has been a bit under the weather and not sleeping well, but it looks like she's almost back to normal. Which means perhaps we will not all wake up at 3a.m. like the last three nights. If we're lucky.

Finally Some Fall

To Bubs, Fall means many things, like...

Pumpkin patches

Decorating the porch
(we added spiders this year!)

Decorating inside too!

Fresh autumn colored mums in the house

Cuddling up to read a Halloween book

Creamy, delicious squash soup

This year something else got added to our Fall list--Bub the hub's Professional Engineering exam. First he had to pass a smaller test after graduation from college. Then he had to work as an engineer in training for four years before applying to take this big exam. At the end of the summer he started studying and going to many, many prep classes to prepare. We missed him a whole lot when he was gone two nights a week and all day Saturday and Sunday for about 2 months. And then he had to really study on his own and create this intricate book tabbing system. Then he packed a suitcase--yep, A SUITCASE--full of materials to take to his test.

It all finally went down yesterday and such a weight has been lifted from all of our shoulders. Now we just need to cross every appendage we have that he passed! Probably only about 50-60% of the people who take the test pass. SO like I said, cross your fingers!!

A Fairy Pretty Princess

I saw this adorable fairy costume awhile back at Gymboree and I could hardly resist it. The price tag, however, was waaaaay more than I wanted to spend on a costume that my munchkin would grow out of in about 10 seconds. So, I went on eBAY and looked around and luckily they have been selling the same costume for a couple years. I stalked a few different sales and got one at about half the price! We tried it on last weekend and I must say that it fits perfectly :) and by some miracle, she doesn't mind wearing the cute little flower hat. Here is the debut of Fairy Avery.

Grammy's 60th Birthday

We've had a lot going on lately....when did October get so busy?? Every weekend is totally packed. I guess the beautiful weather helps! This past weekend we celebrated Bub the hub's mom's 60th birthday with family and friends. We were a bit worried about taking lil'bub out waaaaay past her bedtime (and with good reason). But she did calm down after, like, an hour! When she just got too tired to care about all the noise and crowd...but also when they brought out the CAKE! yes, I do believe that I've mentioned this before, but strangely enough, cake invigorates this child like you have never seen. You know who else loves cake??

it's lil'bub's adorable cousin, Mary Kate!

look at those beautiful blue eyes!

Grammy and Pops. I think Grammy had a good birthday.

The Bubs at dinner (monkey mid-chew)

Avery spots the cake...

and turns into cake zombie baby!!

I took some awesome photos of munchkin in her Halloween costume, so I will post those in a couple days. She makes the most adorable fairy you will ever see!!!

Holy Fried Guacamole

The State Fair was a blast! Sure, it was a bit chillier than usual, but we still had fun. Lil'bub did 100x better on this road trip than the last one. It helped that Nana was in the back seat to cater to her every need....sorry we squashed you Nana!!

lots of naps also help ;)

I have about a jillion photos to share. Here's lil'bub with her daddy, all ready to hop on DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) straight to the Fair. The rail was indeed rapid, but waiting for one to show up WAS NOT.

Our favorite thing at the Fair is definitely the corndogs!! Here we are with my dad and brother. Love how I have a mouth full....

Avery saw mine and just had to have some.

yum yum

She also loooooved seeing the animals. Especially the cows. This was to be expected as "Old MacDonald" is her favorite song and video right now. Some of these photos are blurry because she was bouncing around excited!

no photos please!

pointing and giggling


daddy showing her the right place to pet the sheep


I bought her an adorable cow pillow
to remember her new friends by :)

Bub the hub and I enjoyed trying our first "fried guacamole bites." They were fantastic!

Uncle Drew sampled the fried cheescake. Do you think he enjoyed it?

Bub the hub was the only game winner of the day! Here he is flipping chickens, which is what he mastered last year.

He won this cute walrus for Avery competing with Drew and I in the horserace game. Those games are so expensive! We still feel a little robbed.

Here's my girl driving a new hybrid version of my car in candy apple red. We love touring the automobile buildings.

Monkey really likes cuddling up to Uncle Drew

Here's our annual Big Tex photo. And that's a wrap!