Hubers Pumpkin Picking

I LOVE this time of the year and always look forward to our annual trip to Hubers to find the perfect pumpkin. I also love having traditions to do with my family. Each time I get on the wagon and head out to the field I realize how much bigger Braden is and now having Ethan with us. :) I can vividly remember each year watching Braden tromp through the vines to find the perfect one. Next year Ethan won't have to "ride" on my back and he'll be cracking me up with his search for the best pumpkin. Today was such a great trip with perfect weather and the boys were just so fun to watch! And since I love this trip so much, you get to see way too many pumpkin pictures! :)

The wagon ride...this is the first time I've used the Moby wrap since Ethan was a newborn but I had to think of something for this trip. It worked out pretty well...except for the fact that I had it way too tight and it was cutting off my circulation a bit, but hey that's ok :)

Trying the first one out

OH, maybe it's this one!

Errrrr, or it could be this one....

Just a little break from all the lifting

Ethan had a nice ride and enjoyed watching.

Seriously!!!! Would you look at ALL the people in the background!!! This place is nuts!! Why didn't Chris and I buy some land in the middle of nowhere and throw down some pumpkin seeds? They are making a killing out there!

Our attempted family shot-ha!

This is it! This is the one he picked out! He searched and searched and then was adamant this was it and he pulled and pulled until he got the vine loose and then carried it all around with the loooooonnng vine trailing behind him. It was really cute! Everyone else walks out with these huge, big orange pumpkins and Braden knew this was his perfect pumpkin. :) Everyone kept commenting on it and saying we'd never forget this trip. :) When we went to pay the checkout people got a kick out of it too. Don't you love the minds of 3 year olds? :)

Pulling his long vine

He looks little here to me.

Ethan checking out the new pumpkin

Our two new prizes :)

I always love posing the kids in the big wagon of pumpkins

After pumpkins, we stuffed ourselves at the buffet, played on the playground and then headed out. We stopped for one last picture by the pretty flowers. Yeah for an awesome trip to Hubers!

Soccer Action

Today was another soccer game for the mighty maroon team. :) After the last two games of Braden not really wanting to play, I wasn't sure how this week would go but was pleasantly surprised. He played the whole time, happily and even scored a goal at the end! Good job buddy! We are proud of you! :)

Tyler, Carson & Braden "warming up."

Goals are easier to make during practice time. :)

CRACK ME UP!!! Ethan was throwing a major fit because he wanted out of the stroller. Check our that hair. :) Logan is wondering what in the world is going on next door.

Braden & Carson waiting on the sideline for their turn-too cute!

Ethan had a blast with Papa T. He loved feeding him cheerios.

Preschool Trike-a-thon

Friday night was our annual preschool trike-a-thon. This is always such a blast for the kids each year. We had a bouncer, face painting, popcorn, book fair, and of course the track to ride bikes. Braden had a ball!! He didn't ride his bike much (well his front tire was flat :) but spent most of the night in the bouncer-big surprise.

Pop & Gma Cindy made their famous yummy popcorn for the kiddos and their families.

Some of the bikers

Braden's front tire was flat so he didn't ride very long-oops!

We always have fun on the big trikes!

Playdate w/ college pals :)

Last Thursday Michelle and Stacey drove down from Indy w/ their little ones so we could have one big playdate. It was so nice to catch up and see how much the kids have grown! We definitely need to get together more often girls. :)

Hayley is a mini-Stacey to the T!

Jackson was so good at looking at the camera and saying "cheeseburger!"

Baby Adalyn and Anna...I got to get in my baby girl fix while they were here. SOOOO cute!!

Baby Crawl

On Saturday we entered Ethan into the Harvest Homecoming baby crawl contest. The description said it was for babies between 6 and 13 months of age. Saturday was literally the day before Ethan was 13 months old so I felt like we had to enter! :) I wasn't sure how technical it would be so I even had his birth certificate in my purse in case they took one look at him and said, "that baby is HUGE." ha! Well the actual "crawl" part of the race was sooooooooo short, I mean really? Crack me up! But on the other hand, most babies got so distracted by everything going on that they just sat there so maybe the short distance was good. Our crawling champ got 3rd place! He won a big ugly green ribbon that's now hanging in his room. :) Way to go Ethan!

Ethan's cheering crowd

Betsy's little girl Becca was also in the contest...Chris gave then a pep talk before the race

Almost our turn-Ethan was SOOO tired-this was right during his a.m. nap

Pop offers some strategies....

Getting ready! Is this not hilarious!?!? Look how short the track was. ha! We are in the fourth spot...you can see Chris on the left and me on the right.

My camera stopped working during the crawl for my mom, so I'll have to get the pics later off of hers. Here is Ethan at the end...he crawled for a bottle and the remote :)

Big winner! He had to drink a bottle after all of that hard work. Way to go Buddy!

Best birthday ever!

Who knew turning 33 (ouch) could be so fun?!?! Chris was full of surprises this birthday. :) On Thursday, my actual birthday he arranged for me to have a surprise with girlfriends. Jen & Christy picked me up and we went and got massages in Louisville which was fabulous and well needed! Then I had a few presents from Chris and the boys when I got home. On Friday my mom was coming down to watch the boys so we could have a date night. We saved my super fattening, yummy cookie cake for Friday so she could be here too. Shortly after stuffing my face with cake, Chris said, "come on, now it's time for your other surprise." I was totally confused, because I thought the surprise massage was the surprise and my bday was basically over. So we go outside and there's a limo in my street (Chris' friend Steve owns a limo) and Chris tells me to go open the door???? So I do, and out pops my dad! Ha! So my dad was supposed to be on a "blind date" and was coming down Saturday but I guess that was part of the trick. So Chris said hurry and get ready let's go. Of course I have pony tail hair, cookie cake residue, and have no clue where we're going but I went with it and hurried up. We got in and the adventure began....it was so fun because I didn't know where we were going or who we were picking up. We picked up Jen & Nick, then Jennifer, then headed over to Matt & Carrie's. Then we all went to Huber's Winery and sat outside and and enjoyed a few drinks. A teacher friend joined us there and then we all piled back in and headed to New Albany. The rest of the night included River City Winery, a little of the amphitheatre and finally some dancing at Steinert's. Several more teacher friends came out with their husbands too so it was a blast to have so many friends out for my bday. It was an awesome night and Chris really did a good job planning and surprising me. I had no clue and can't believe one of my friends didn't spill the beans. :)Thanks to my mom for watching the kiddos, thanks to Dad for coming and going out with us, and thank you SO much to everyone that could make it out and a big thanks to my wonderful hubby for putting in so much effort for my bday. Love you guys!

This is when Chris said there was another surprise outside????

This is when I first looked in and saw my dad in the limo with a beer already!! ha

Heading to Hubers....My dad was enjoying the jokes with Jennifer. hee hee

Jen & Nick

Chris & I

Oh yeah, Chris brought these GRANNY panties and said if I acted like a granny, he'd make me wear them!!! I gave them a whirl. :)

Chris was having a bit TOO much fun on the night and borrowed a guy's guitar on the street to play a completely inappropriate song!! :)

More friends join up at River City Winery

Carrie dancing with my dad :)

Uh....can we say 1 too many drinks here!

Cutie Boys

Just lounging out with a good book. :)

Big stuff

Braden LOVES books and he will sit and read forever....so sweet.

Sweet brothers....for the moment :)

Saturday...

Today was soccer picture day before the game. The little team looked so cute in their uniforms cheesing it up. Thank goodness we are finally at a place where Braden looks at the camera and smiles! It only took 3 1/2 years to get there. :) He did great for pictures, had a ton of fun during warm-ups and then something definitely changed when the game started. He ran and kicked the ball once and then when someone else got it he just started crying and ran off the field defeated. Where does this stuff come from? He did that a little the first game and then was fine the last few, but today decided that "soccer was hard" and he really never went back in. Of course we were getting mad at him because he was acting ridiculous and we kept saying get back out there or you don't get the treat today (we are parents of the year) but he didn't care. He was already convinced that he couldn't do it today and it was too hard. You'd think we are drilling him at home or something on soccer....uh no. I hate to say he probably gets the emotional, being hard on yourself stuff from me. :( Once the game was over and things settled down, I tried to remind Chris and even me that he is 3 and sports can be a little unpredictable. :) Hopefully next week will go better.

Ethan had fun standing and cheering for the team with Papa T

This is not soccer, but my boys were dressed alike tonight for church and they just looked SO cute by each other. :) When they are getting along, they sure look sweet together!

Support Vigil

If you live local, well really even if you don't, you've probably heard about our friends Christy and Jason and their fight to keep their son Grayson home. It is just a terrible story and absolutely makes my heart ache for them. I won't go into all of the details here but if you're interested, you can look on facebook on "Keeping Grayson Home" which will tell you all about their story (I created the FB page by the way :). They also have been on every local newstation and even national on GMA and CBS morning shows. They are close friends of ours and it's really hard to watch what they are going through. Last night a few friends and I organized a prayer vigil at our church for them. It turned out great! I'm guessing we had about 300 supporters and it really showed a community of love and support! We had a little band, a few speakers (I had to speak for a tiny minute but actually didn't freak out or get hives-woo hoo for me!), we had petitions to sign, tshirts to give out, and collected donations. It was a very successful night!!! Much love to The Vaughns!! We love you guys and are praying hard for you and your family!!

Jason & Christy thanking everyone

Our candles lit up for Grayson

My mini speech-not sure why I look constipated in all of the pictures I've seen of myself-ha! If you know me at all, you know I hate public speaking so just glad I got through my 30 seconds and didn't pass out. :)

Braden & Chris singing some songs

This is the group of girls that worked hard to put this thing together...none of us had ever planned a prayer vigil before (really?) but I think we did a pretty good job!