Halloween 2015

Friday night was the fall festival at Caleb's school.

Amelia didn't want to dress up as her Halloween costume, so she chose to be a cheetah.

Batman being mean to the cute little kitty cat!

 Showing off his big muscles.

 Those blue eyes!

 For Halloween, Elsa showed up!

 Elsa freezing us.  Batman is one serious dude.

 More freezing and showing off muscles.

 Our friends, Emma and Sophie came over to trick or treat with us. Their mom makes costumes for the entire family.  Liz and Joe were the green and blue crayons.

 Then we all walked down the street to a Halloween Potluck.

 We had a great time, with perfect weather.

 As soon as it got dark, we ALL hit the streets to fill our bags full of candy.  

Happy Halloween!

Life Group Pumpkin Carving

We hosted Life Group tonight and decided to paint/carve pumpkins.  All of the kids are waiting patiently to get started.

 Working hard.

 Notice Caleb's face and he's pulling out the nasty stuff.

 After we cut the top off Amelia's, she decided she wanted to just paint it.

 He's still not having fun scooping out the inside.

 Getting a little help from dad.

 After they were done, it was off to get some wagon rides in.

We love getting together with this group every week.  Some weeks we just eat and chat.  Sometimes, we eat and actually get in a Bible study or discussion.  And sometimes, we plan fun events like this one.  No matter what we do, we always look forward to Thursdays and are thankful we get to do life with this group!

Picture Day

Tomorrow is picture day at school.

I realized this morning, as we walked out to the bus, that it would be too dark for me to take picture.  So, I did what most moms would do.  I made him put his clothes on as soon as he got home from school today, so I could get some.  

I'm glad he played along.

He looks like every other teenager on Facebook right now;o).  

 Attempting a handstand.

I don't usually notice my kids growing up right before my eyes. 

But, I notice it in these.  I can't believe he'll be 7 in a few short weeks!

Christmas Getaway

I am so excited to be able to see the Biltmore at Christmas!

Before we head to Indiana, we will be stopping in Asheville for a couple of days and will be experiencing their Candlelight Christmas Evening.

This is their description…

Explore Biltmore house during holiday evenings when candles and 

fireplaces fill the grand home with a warm glow, accenting

 delicate ornaments and priceless treasures with metallic shine and 

sparkle, and music warms the heart.

I'm pretty sure this will be really cool for everyone, but I'm especially excited!  Maybe there'll even be a bit of snow to make it that much more magical!

 We thought that some sort of fun activity or experience at Christmas could replace toys, from us, since the kids get lots of great things from everyone else.  Last year we went to the Great Wolf Lodge and, we hope, this years experience will be just as memorable.  Not only that, our hotel has a heated pool and there's lots of cute, quaint shops outside of the Biltmore too.

Now that I'm writing this out, I'm pretty sure this trip is just for me:o)

California Dreaming…..

The word is……

we're headed to CALIFORNIA!

We're not sure when they'd like for Shawn to arrive yet, but it may be in the spring.  If that's the case, he will head out early and the kids and I will stay to finish out the school year before we make the move cross country once again.

Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

The city of Oxnard, where the base is located, is about 1 hour and 45 minutes north of Los Angeles.  

We will be right next to Point Mugu State Park, which has 70 miles of hiking trails!

View from one of the hikes.

 Sunset picture at the state park beach.

We picked this place solely for the outdoor activities!

We will only be 20 minutes away from Malibu and just over an hour to Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

 Only 4 hours to Sequoia National Park.

 And, 6 and a half hours to San Francisco.

(And if you're a kid, you'll be excited to know that we're only 2 hours from Disneyland and Legoland!) 

We are really excited to make this move to California!  We know it's much farther from our family, but this place will be totally new to us and we think it'll offer a lot of great family memories.  Shawn and I are researching areas to live, where the schools are good and are hoping to travel out there, alone, in early spring to get a look at the area.  

The only question is…..who's coming for a visit?!?

Fall Break Fun

Drew, Holly and Elliott came to visit us for the long weekend.  

We had such a great time and we are so glad they made the long drive!  And since we won't be able to make it home for their gender reveal party, they brought the gender reveal to us.

But, we won't tell!!!!

On Sunday, we headed downtown New Bern for the annual Mum Fest.  Amelia got to pet one of the K9 dogs.

 Trying to get Elliott to pet him too.

 We got to see lots of big trucks and helicopters.

 Getting some instruction in the cockpit.

 Caleb even got to rope a steer.

 After walking through all of the vendors, we made it back in time to watch the K9 dogs in action.  They are pretty amazing!

 They all got to pet another dog after the show.

 When we got home, Elliott got his first backseat bike ride.

 While the boys went for a bike ride, the girls painted our fingernails.

 After that, we headed to the turtle park to play and feed the turtles.  

 Since we had the park all to ourselves, the big boys decided to get a little work out in.

 Feeding the turtles.

 This picture doesn't quite show how big this turtle was.  There were two giants sneaking up from below to grab the big pieces of bread.

 After our bread was all out, we went back to playing.

 Not really setting a good example for the little kids.

 Our kids were supposed to be off on Monday since it was Columbus Day.  But since we had a half day and full day off due to the flooding last week, they used Monday as a make up day.  We decided that since Caleb got a good report at his Parent Teacher conference, to just let them skip that day. 

We headed to base first to get a look at the jets.

Holly trying out the ejection seat.

Then we headed outside to get a few pictures.

 After a little Mexican for lunch, we headed to Fort Macon.

Because of all of the flooding, there was actually a moat around the fort.  It was really cool!

 After the fort, we headed over to the beach to play for a little bit.

 Not too long after this, Amelia accidentally fell in the water.

We didn't plan on getting in the water, so there were no dry clothes to put her in, so she was stripped and rode home in her rain jacket with a beach towel over her.

 Chasing the birds.

 We had a great weekend with Drew, Holly and Elliott!  

Thank you so much for coming to visit us!!!