Eight Years on Halloween!!

This year a round of bad, stormy, tornadoish weather caused trick-or-treating to be postponed a day, which in turn meant that running through the neighborhood collecting candy was the main event at Rhett's sleepover birthday party! Everyone actually thought it was pretty awesome!

Elaina, after an entire year of saying she was going to be a skeleton, pulled a switch on me and about two weeks before Halloween insisted that she was going to be Sophia the First. So, Sophia it was!

Rhett was a boxer.....

along with his bud Silas. 

Sophia was so cute that I had to put another picture of her here:)

And, even though this picture doesn't do it justice (it just looks like a bunch of dandruff) her bun was drenched in sparkle spray. She LOVED it (and has asked to have sparkle hair at least 10 times since then!)

Cade and his friends decided to be Presidents. Cade chose Ronald Reagan. 

He had one line, "Mr. Gorbechev, Mr. Gorbechev, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!". He spoke it well. And his mask creeped me out...big time. In fact, Bobby stood on the stairs in the house with the dumb thing on and waited for me in the dark. I collapsed into a heap a few stairs down and nearly wet myself. Ronald Reagan face in the dark when you're not expecting it is no bueno. 

Here's the rest of his crew: Abe Lincoln and Richard "I'm not a crook" Nixon. 

Grant went as this blue man. What is this costume you say? To which I'd answer two things: Strange and I don't know. 

Callan was his purple cohort and the colors complimented our neighborhood friend quite well! 

 This is where Halloween gets all precious. I love cute little costumes on cute little kids. These three fit the bill. 

 Elaina turned in earlier than everyone else. Her little princess feet just couldn't take running to another house. And they were probably like little ice cubes since she insisted wearing sandals even though it was quite chilly. She got a huge (to her) bag of loot! 

Once the treating was over it was time to head in for Rhett's birthday fun. I put a "no candy tonight" rule on (I know....I know...It's Halloween! But I didn't want folks getting bellyaches over too much junk!). 

We did some singing and brought out the requested chocolate cake. 

Candles were lit....

 and blown out. Now, let's just talk about this cake for one second. Rhett had requested my mom's chocolate cake. However, my mom was going out of town and I didn't want to bother her with it. SO, I decided I'd try to make it myself (her's is from scratch you know.) I did pretty good until it came to getting the cakes out of the pan and that's when it all came tumbling down....literally. So, while Rhett's cake may have looked a total disaster (as you can see clearly below) it was actually very tasty! I giggle because Rhett patted me on the back and said, "It's okay Mommy. You did your best." Thanks for the encouragement Little Buddy:) 

I love you Rhettiboo and I'll love you for 8x80 more years to come! 

Spooky Spooktacular Monster's Ball

This year for our yearly friend party we decided to bring back the costumes and host a Halloween party. I had plans for a scavenger hunt but freezing outside temperatures made us change our minds. Instead, everyone showed up in costume, we ate, and we played a game that had us all crying with laughter. I love spending quality time with the friends I love! 

Bobby and I were Mr. and Mrs. Bone Jangles. 

 Followed by Fifty Shades of Gray

Angela and Ashley teamed up to be a very large, ahem, in a bikini. 

We had Britney Spears from the 90's paired up with Uncle Si. Not sure how that pairing ever came to be. 

What I am sure of is that this is an image that I unfortunately will never be able to erase from my memory! 

Ashlee had a sick kid but came anyway and she came as.......Ashlee. Carrying french bread. 

And, oh, have mercy. Jeremy showed up later as a Barbie gone horribly wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong.

Looks like the Gilley's and Angela and Ashley were like minds. What are the odds? Two bikinis!

Super Bat heros, Mike and Kelly.

The Hills totally cracked me up with their "old people" costume. The wheelchair just made the entire thing. I have to give Allison props. She wheeled herself around in that thing all night! 

 Pharaoh and Queen of Persia.

 Oh mi gah! You won! You totally won!!! Publisher's Clearing House is alive and well!

The Shakes rolled up in a costume you had to think about: dressed up as KISS and carrying french bread= french kiss! What a clever duo! 

The Tedders rounded out the party as Bonnie and Clyde. Complete with guns in her purse and wads of cash! 

We had a great night of laughter and good company. You can't ask for anything better when you have a mixture of those two. We love partying with our friends! 

Window Drawings

I saw these window crayons in Kroger the other day and thought it would be a great pass time for Elaina. I was right! She loved them! I was really impressed at her first drawing a "yittle ol' man" :) Maybe my lefty will be an artist! 

Luke Bryan!

Bobby and I had a super fun date night crashing Luke Bryan's party! Much to my surprise (as I wasn't a true Luke Bryan fan) he put on a GREAT show. There's nothing I love more than a great concert with my man! 

Fall Break Fun!

This year we packed up with some of our friends and headed to the beach for fall break. I'll be honest..... I had my doubts about trying to relax even one iota with the crew of kids that we were going to have. It actually turned out to be really great though.....kids playing and adults chatting beachside/poolside. 

Elaina chillaxed and checked her email:)

The kids got the nets out and went fishing....

and they came across some really fun things! 

Samantha and I decided we needed to do our mandatory planking picture to send back to our workout class. 

Then Ashlee decided she needed to get in on the plank business. It's a good thing Samantha is one strong cookie and Ashlee isn't any bigger than a minute! 

It was decided that Samantha really needed to be on her hands instead of her elbows so we gave a whirl again the next day. 

Then there were beach handstands...

and an attempt to do some "couples sit-ups" that someone had seen online and it went terribly wrong ending with me flopping around in the surf:/ 

The gals had some good tan time sitting in the water discussing all sorts of topics. 

 We did go out to eat and in our sun induced haze we tried to get a table for all of us to sit together. What? No table for 14 kids and 10 adults? Well, I declare. 

 Beach days pics:

And out for another evening of trying not to lose anyone in the crowd. This part of the trip was definitely NOT relaxing. 

Elaina had so much fun playing with her friends at the beach and to this day she has not stopped asking to go back. (I'm always late in blogging and it's been a few months ago!)

 Bobby and I thought the trip was a breeze since we were down 2 kids. When you go from 4 to 2 you realize, "Hey! Two wasn't as bad as we thought it was!" Cade and Grant made the choice to head to Gatlinburg with Grandma and Granpa for some fall break fun. They went to the Titanic Museum and Ziplining. 

They had a great time spending time with their grandparents making memories. They came back bearing all sorts of souvenirs. Good times! 

We had a super fall break. Now back to the grind!