Happy Howl-oween!!

Happy Halloween....hope you all have a ghoulishly good time!!!

Halloween eve we were invited to a friends house to hang and gear up for the nights' activities. we had a great time, although the weather was more like july than october....nearly 90'!! the kids had fun, but nearly melted in their costumes.....it did not seem to dull the excitement of "hitting" the houses for treats though. it was so very cute to see all the kids get so into it. the joy on their faces just trying to pick which house to run up to was the best and their little legs could not move them fast enough.....what a very wonderful night!!

mommy and honey bee O

all the kiddos getting ready for trick or treating at the party

running up to their very first house of the night, attack!!!

the only shot of captain jack and little miss honey bee

jackson suckered nathan into dressing up with him, good sport, daddy!!

OPS Halloween Parade

this is my favorite time of year....changing of the season ( well, not really in jax lately..but the concept is a nice thought), halloween, fall smells and gearing up for all the holiday fun to come over the next few months!! yesterday was jackson's halloween parade and party at his school. I tell ya, it melts my heart and puts a smile on my face to see jackson dress up and march around. all the kiddos are too cute and it is so interesting to see what everyone "chooses" to wear. i say chooses, because this is the first year jackson and most kids his age are coming into their own little selves!! jackson decided he wanted to be a pirate after 2 dinosaur costumes did not work on his tall frame. i must say it was adorable and so meant to be this season. Olivia got a kick out of "people" watching and the look on her face when she caught a glimpse of jackson walking in the parade was just priceless....she adores him more than anything. we are so ready for round two tomorrow, hope everyone enjoys!

arghhh...

our little punkin

ms sharon's class party-OPS

jackson and his "girl"friend ellie

ms. janie and ms. gail- heads of OPS dressed for the festivities

jackson and some of his class walking the parade

27 years

27 years ago today, you chose one another......may you have so many more Happy anniversaries!! xoxo

aunt kathy and uncle joey

spooks

wishing everyone a spooktacular week of fun!!!

jman and miss o sporting their new halloween jammies, jackson's glow in the dark!

fall fun

friday was the annual stockton fall festivel down the street from us.....we went for the first time last year and had a ball, so jackson was even more pumped this time around. the only difference/problem this year was the temperature.....felt more like july than late october!!! nearly 90' outside, so unfortunately for jman, mommy and sissy barely lasted an hour before dragging him back home. he did get a pony ride, train ride, toys & treats and 3 trips down this crazy high slide in, in that short time. Jackson managed to have fun, but boy was it a scene when i told him we were hot, tired, out of money and going home....good thing it was happy friday.

jackson flying down the slide...it was like 40 ft tall!!

littleman climbing his way up...definitely does not take after me, i am terrified of heights!

choo choo...all aboard

ride-um cowboy

emsley and jackson waiting patiently for their turn on the ponies

a swingin' good time

do u think littleman is enjoying his new swingset???? you guessed right.....from the second the main tower in the middle was up, he was on it with a big ol' grin. never have i seen him more excited about something, too sweet. cooper and nathan worked very hard last weekend to get this assembled and by sunday evening most everything was complete....very impressive. if you could have seen what the set up looked like...parts and wood everywhere. it took us two hours just to sort the wood out, so i was thinking this was going to span a few weekends, not a few days. i guess beer and guy time made it go faster...funny though, because of that, you would have thought the guys would have made it take longer....i think nathan was almost as excited as jackson to get it up. it did take a few more nights this week to get the final parts, swings, handles, and steering wheel up...but it is pretty much done. i wake up to jackson asking to go out and play first thing every morning...mixed blessing i guess...nah, worth it just to see him smile. here are some snapshots of the process and happy man jack


peak...can u find me in the fort?

almost complete, minus one more truckload of mulch and the glider swing

jackson flew up the ladder the second nathan stood the tower up

ahoy mate

side view of the completed set

fall activities

its finally feeling a bit more like fall and we are just loving it!! on friday, just before the cooler weather set in, we joined a few friends from jackson's school for some fun at the zoo. we had not been in quite some time, so the kids had a ball. jackson really enjoyed it because his "girlfriend" joined us. yes, i did say girlfriend...he and a sweet little girl in his class are very enamored with one another....too cute, but a little early, no?

the rest of the weekend was consumed by daddy building a wonderful swingset for the kiddos. wow, what an undertaking, but he did manage to finish 95% of it within two days!! due, mostly in part by cooper and wayne's help! thank you guys for all the time and support. thank you nathan for doing so much! today, i took jackson and miss. o to meet emsley at the pumpkin patch..first of many trips there i am sure. here are a few highlights....


jackson doing his best smile for me, just not into pics today

olivia's first pumpkin patch adventure

my lil punkin tipped over during photo op....couldn't resist capturing it before picking her up.

jackson having some fun with ellie, his "girlfriend"

ellie, caleb and jackson riding the train at the zoo

hide & seek

look at where i find olivia these days....to funny. a new and very unique spot all the time

peak, i'm under my ultrasaucer

now i am under the side table..topless

jail-bird!

miss O has been on a learning journey lately...first it was figuring out how to get her hands and feet to move in sync to crawl, then it was trying to pull up or down on things and most recent was waving hello to everyone. ...she is changing and growing so fast and is such the little attention seeker, too adorable. so lately (as of last week), every time nathan or I go into get littlemama out of bed....this is how we find her....about to pull up all the way. it makes us crack up every time we find her...she is giving us the "get me outta here" or "how can I get myself out" kind of looks...so sweet and comical, i thought i would share a few moments with u!

swaying to the "jailbird" music

this is what i think of being trapped in baby jail!

the pose that we find her in so often

pressure washer & pearls

we had a fairly uneventful weekend due mostly in part to having two very sick little ones. miss.O came down with her first ear infection on friday and then jackson fell under the strep throat bug on saturday morning. no fun to watch them hurt so much, and it really kicked us in the butt to take care of both at the same time. felt like having newborn's all over again. I did get to have a brief bit of fun on sat preparing and celebrating our friend's son turn 2! great time baking and fun watching all the kiddos walk da plank. sunday was church, then a full day of "fall" cleaning....for me, i get the bug to clean and purge during the fall rather then spring. in doing so, i decided to pressure wash the patio while nathan mowed and cleared a spot for the new swingset. i must say, cleaning the bricks with the high-powered tool was actually quite therapeutic....it was a very dirty task, but i put my fashionable twist on it by wearing my pearl drops while working the tool!! (wink, a girl has to look pretty at all times, right?)

look at all the ickk that had to be cleaned off the brick...clean pic to follow

jackson using his "pressure washer" to help mommy

note the cute earrings!!

9 months

exactly 9 months to the day.....our beautiful olivia blessed us and our family with her presence and since that day, she has brought us joy, laughs and more smiles then we could ever ask for. we cannot remember life before her. the days have flown by and before we know it, we will be celebrating 1 year!! ok, enough i am about to cry myself. Happy 3/4 birthday miss O!!

Olivia- 9 months today!

our love with all her lovies

check out my two bottom teeth!!

mr lefty.....

jackson's new game is playing waiter...while Pretending along with him, i noticed that he is left-handed!! my heart melted....... grandpa lives on in him.

snuggle bugs

olivia has officially moved onto the "big kid" jammies....no more footies for her. time goes too fast....so in my need to find new pj's, i came across these cute ones that had coordinating styles for boys and girls at none other than (pause for excitement and surprise).....Targ'et, shocker. so i could not resist and bought miss o and jman their first matching set!! too cute. note, daddy was not as excited to see his little girl graduate to the two-piece jammies.....look at it this way, she might be getting bigger, but now mommy can accessorize with more...cute socks and bows to bed. a girl has to be ready for her "sweet dreams", right?

miss o and my sweet jackson...finally got mr. cheesey (smile) back for the camera.

no thanks, mom!

i have been worried that olivia might not be getting quite enough veggies since she has decided she has to have "adult" food just like her brother....she has been doing great with table foods, but i felt she gets more grains and fruits than veggies, so i tried to give her some "baby" food...an added supplement, big no-no. this is what olivia thought of mashed green beans.......

she spit more on herself and me than swallowed. guess we just have to make sure we get more with dinner food!!

now i lay me down to sleep....

it was another long and busy week...and with everyone in the house feeling quite drained, it felt like it was never going to end. funny how as busy you can be, and so "over" the daily grind...one look at a sweet, sleeping angel baby makes you instantly refreshed. it is a reminder of all that we are blessed with and why i can put my feet on the ground every single morning with no sleep, ready to see their sweet faces....the below pics are of littleman and miss O sound asleep last night.

olivia passed out...note the open mouth, "O'Brien style"

sweet dreams....dinosaurs, trucks and play....oh my