Happy Fall!

I love fall! As soon as we get a fall-like day I start baking anything with pumpkin in it. Our favorite the past few years are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! I also love a trip to the pumpkin patch.  I'm not sure at what age kids stop liking the pumpkin patch but thankfully Matt and Marlie still think it's fun!! We searched the entire patch for the perfect pumpkins!! I begged them to take some sweet pictures and then let them be themselves. Of course my sweet smiling pumpkins turned into crazy ninjas.  I'm sure the other people there thought they were crazy but they had fun being silly. 

I also love carving pumpkins! Since the kids are now able to do most of it themselves (ok "most" probably isn't quite accurate) I'm going to get my own pumpkin next year to carve!! My cousin JP was with us and he had never carved a pumpkin so we made him participate too!!

The kids were excited about Halloween.  Again, not sure when Matt will decide he's too cool to put on a costume but this year we were good. How else am I going to get a good candy stash if both of my kids don't trick-or-treat? LOL Right now Matt's loving the scary side of Halloween so maybe next year I'll let him dress up and scare kids when they come to the door!!

The King's came over and the kids made monster cupcakes. Khloe was super creative and taught my kids a few things about decorating cupcakes!!

Matt decided he wanted to be a Soul Taker and Marlie decided on Maleficent. I guess I should have asked the boys to take off their masks because in no picture can you see who they are!! Although we got rained on a bit, everyone had fun! We saw so many good costumes and I was impressed at some of the fun ideas the Moms and Dads had too. Maybe next year Doug and I will dress up?? Don't hold your breath!

Baylor Homecoming!

Ok so it technically wasn't the official homecoming but it was our homecoming! The boys did a great job planning a great weekend in Waco to hang out with friends, watch our Baylor football team and roam a little around a campus that is even more beautiful than it was when we were there. The Scott's came in from Phoenix, the Hatter's from San Antonio and us from H-town!

Doug, Shawn and Andy all played football together in high school and were roommates in college.  They pledged the same fraternity and they all married girls from high school!!  So all of us went to high school together and most of us went to Baylor too! In all, we have 8 pretty cool kids that had a blast together too! 

The boys found a nice home that we rented for the weekend out in the country.  The kids played and we stayed up late reminiscing about the good ole days! Saturday morning we were excited about the game. Our first stop was to try to get a picture of the group at Ridin' High Cowboy Church! This super cute little church was near the house we rented.  This was the old church and they had built a new one right next door.  I'm so curious what a service is like at Ridin' High! 

Then it was off to the game. This was only our second time at the new stadium so it's still new to us and so awesome!

It was difficult to find 14 seats together so we sat in the berm.  This is the grassy area near the end zone.  I was a little uncertain about sitting on the ground for the entire game but this spot worked out perfect! There was a little area behind us with turf where the kids could play and we were shaded the whole time so it wasn't crazy hot.  Periodically the kids would make their way down to the front and I'm surprised they didn't jump over and go onto the field! They had a lot of fun.

We decided to try some family pics and a few selfies!  I love the pic where Marlie photo bombs the picture of Doug and I!

Thanks to the Dads for planning this trip.  I hope we can do it again next year!!

 

Soccer Saturdays Return

I loved last Saturday...we got to watch both of the kids play soccer! It was Matt's first game and well...Marlie is not playing soccer this year but her old team needed an extra player so she was excited to help!

Matt is playing again with the Texans Academy.  Last year he was the youngest on his team and all of those kids have moved up.  So he has a whole new team this year which he is excited about, but his team last year was amazing and it challenged Matt so much that I miss him playing with those boys.

They lost their first game Saturday 3-1 but they played well and the other team was really good. Most of these boys play soccer year round so Matt always struggles the first month trying to catch up and get back in soccer shape.  But he played right-mid the entire game and although he was exhausted, he made it through!! He had a beautiful cross to his teammate that scored and he had another perfect cross that should have been a goal but we didn't quite get it in. I got lots of great action shots...I love the faces he makes as he's trying to win the ball or beat someone to the ball.  This kid plays hard!!

Then it was off to watch the good ole Fairy Ponies!! Marlie got to play forward and she looked like she'd been practicing with the team since the start of the season. She had so fun much being out there with her friends. She was out of soccer shape too but managed to play hard for almost the whole game. She feel asleep on the way home!! I hope we get to help the Fairy Ponies again! So fun to watch!!

First Day of School

As always, summer went by way too fast.  But the kids were excited to get back to school, find out what teacher they are going to love and harass for the next year and see what friends are in their class. Matt starts 4th grade this year and Marlie is in 3rd.  Doug took this picture on their first day of school...it might be my new favorite picture.  You can see the slight bit of nervousness in Matt's face and the pure excitement in Marlie's.  So cute how every year Matt is always just a tad nervous on the first day and Marlie can't wait!

Matt has 2 teachers this year. This is his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Alfred and he'll be with Mrs. Alfred for Math & Science. Mrs. Alfred said she loves sports so hopefully these two will hit it off.  Matt has Mrs. Whetzel for RELA (reading & language arts).  The 4th graders are in portables this year...or as the school says "cabins" and I'm not sure Matt or Mrs. Alfred are super excited about the "cabins".   

We are thrilled that Marlie has Mrs. Smith, Matt's teacher from last year. We love Mrs. Smith and it gives us such peace to know Marlie will be well taken care of this year. 

Marlie is also super excited that she has tons of friends in her class (the class is mostly all girls...yikes!).  Khloe and Marlie are in class together again for the 3rd year in a row.  We all love Khloe and I'm glad they will be able to spend their days together. 

We'll be praying for our teachers all year!  Looking forward to another great year at FCE!