What No Fudge???!!

It's not Christmas without Aunt Deb's fudge. Oh well. As you can see the boys were totally stoked to be getting a Christmas package in the mail. Lil B kept repeating "Oh Wow!" Maybe I should have had B put up a tree this year. It was sweet of Aunt Deb to remember our boys this year. Thanks Aunt Deb.

Holiday baking has now officially started. Meet my cookie tasters with their crumb covered faces. We started off with peanut butter cookies and is still deciding on what to bake next.

Big Brian took clippers to both his and Lil B's hair while I was on the phone. Granted it needed it but I just wish I got a before picture. He said the length of hair kept him warm. I decided not to post the picture of all his locks in the sink but it was a ton of hair.

Some Pirate Birthday fun

As soon as Big Brian got home from work we headed out the door for Ammon's Pirate Birthday Party. They are like extended family so it was great to visit and join in the festivities. Stacy had put together fun pirate goody bags that were both unique to fit the boys ages. Lil B got pirate dress up garb with army men and Lucas was given cars. So sweet. I hope she posts her invitations. She pulled off a great party. Ammon shared his new toys so nicely. We hope to visit again soon.

Saturday morning with my Lil Guys.

I bundled up the boys and took them over to down town Dothan while Brian worked over time. They were having a Christmas celebration with snow brought it from Georgia and vendors coming in from all over. The line for the snow was extremely long and we passed up seeing Santa. (We'll see him next week) I found some jalapeno jam for Grandpa Mitchell and nice to see all the goodies for sale. It made LB's morning when he was able to decorate a Christmas cookie. Red frosting was everywhere. I felt bad for the little guy when wiping it up with a wet wipe with it being absolutely freezing outside. They offered free roasted marshmallows but Lucas just munched on the non roasted kind.

We finished our Mommy and Son time off with a stop at Cinnabon. It's a blessing and a curse that they are new to Dothan. On our way out we saw there was train rides but the choo choo as Brian calls it was not stroller friendly. He whined alll the way back to the car. It didn't help that it was during the boys nap time.

I will never again look at a Mom with a screaming toddler and judge.

This has been how it's been over the past couple of weeks. Just really laid back. Everyone was healthy in time for Thanksgiving so we went out to Cracker Barrel and had Jerry and Kristy over for games later that evening.
I guess one big thing was that we started Lil B with Potty training. We had a really great start but went down hill from there. I'll make a chart with a treat at the end and see how that goes.

Thanksgiving cheer from Grandma Mitchell

The boys look forward to their holiday cards from Grandma Mitchell. Note to self: Turn off the cartoons when opening cards. LB had the tearing open the envelope down pretty well whereas Lucas wanted some help. Thanks Grandma.

Demo Derby at the Peanut Festival

We headed out to the Peanut Festival on Saturday night. We watched the motorcycles go around and around in the large metal dome, the lady hulahoop 100+ hulahoops at the same time, and the guy walk on top of the circle spinners. My favorite part of the night is always the demoliton derby. I usually can't stand the sound of car crashes. Maybe it's because you don't hear the high pitch screeching of the breaks. If you've never experienced the demo derby. I reccomend it. It's so fun. There was cars being pushed up on top of cement barriers and cars being tipped on their sides. Some cars would get entangled with each other and you can't tell who is winning. It's all in the process of elimination. The last car moving wins. It was a fun way to spend time with my boys.

Fallin in love with Autumn

These are some of the amazing photos that Stacy took. They are totally photo contest worthy at the peanut festival. She'll have turn em in next year and see what happens. The photos remind me of how much I love this time of year.
I'm grateful to Stacy for taking family and friends photos. They will always be treasured.

The newest Mitchell

Brian has always wanted a Basset hound for as long as I've known him. I found this lil guy on Craigslist. All they asked for was a small rehoming fee. He's not fixed and we have the papers if we want to register him. He's a 4 month old pure breed. He's a snuggler and such a sweetheart.

He does great with Padmae and Obiwan. The boys adore him. Brian is still working on a name for him. His old name was Chester Copperpot but we'll be sticking with the Star Wars theme. Any ideas?

A Lil' Sneak Peek.

The newest member of the family... We'll have to wait to formally introduce him since he doesn't have a name yet. I'll post more tomorrow.

Good bye October Hello November..

I thought I'd finish off October with some scenes from trick or treating. We hung out with Lil Red Riding hood and her parents. So fun. It started sprinkling so we all jumped in the van and went to drop in on more friends. The night ended with chatting over milk and cookies while the kids played.
The night before I served up lime and cherry jello filled with worms. It was fun, fruity, and festive. The kids loved it. I'll keep this idea for next year.

Trunk or Treat

Happy Trunk or Treating.

We got there late so I didn't have time to set up the lights and stuff. I was in such a hurry to get out of the house that I forgot our pumpkins. Oh well. There's always next year. There were some great costumes. ZZ Top, The cat in the Hat with thing 1 & thing 2. I wish I got pictures but I'm sure that they'll be posted on blogs that are linked to mine. We pulled in and poor LB didn't know what was going on. We didn't get a chance to practice saying Trick or Treat. He did say Thank you and hold out his bucket for candy. Maybe he'll have trick or treat down by Saturday. We'll work on it.

Things I learned tonight.

1. Get to the trunk or treat early to set up

2. Don't mess with a two year old and his candy.

3. Peter Pan can also be turned into Robin Hood.

Fall Festival at the Lewis's Dairy Farm 2009

We usually go every year except last year we didn't because Lucas was so brand new. You can't see them but there are baby cows behind us.
See.

We ate hot dogs, nachos, apples, cotton candy, and Bev's multi layered spice cake.
Mmmmm Good.

We went on the hayride twice. I think LB was scared that I'd leave him there. It was nice to visit with friends and get caught up. Boys were out past their bedtime so we left shortly after 8.

The picture is not centered but they were too cute to pass up. They kept themselves entertained by pulling the hay out.

Little B had a good time talking to the chickens.

I'm grateful that my prayers were answered and it didn't rain. It was a gorgeous day filled with friends and family.

I think he's happy about facing the same way as everyone else.

Brian dished out the homemade vanilla without the vanilla icecream.

The boys are still playing with the balloons to this day. I always make B in charge of the balloons cuz I am not very good with making the knots.

I can't believe he's ONE. Unbelieveable.

Good food. Two different soups, a crunchy pecan salad, deviled eggs, rolls, homestyle mac n cheese and applesauce for the kids, . The house smelled great.

This is me scrapping the favors. We formed little red velvet cakes into pumpkins. I've learned that icing is different than glaze. I wanted the glaze look but got confused and made the cream cheese icing for like cinnamon rolls kinda icing. No matter how I tried I couldn't get it to look I wanted. Cake wrecks would've been so proud. We gave out a sweet and crunchy trailmix instead. My friend Stacy helped with the favors, food name cards, and invitations. She is incredibly talented.



The party was awesome. Grateful to everyone that came. After Lucas opened gifts we headed out to the pumpkin patch and picked sunflowers. Those will be posted soon.

We dressed Lil B down so he wouldn't get covered in pumpkin guts. He was pretty grossed out at first but then warmed up to it after awhile. Grandma Mitchell baked pumpkin seeds which is must in the Mitchell household.