Halloween

Our neighborhood had a big shindig at the clubhouse (thanks to Kevin & Brenda Hair!) and we joined in on the festivities. That was probably the most fun we have had in our neighborhood since we moved in here over 2 years ago. They had freaky food (see pics below), fun games for the kids, and a hayride! Abby even got an original (face) painting from a local artist & neighbor, Sandy Philips.

Several of our good friends were there. Lee & Martha Ann stopped by for a while and helped us corral the kids. Having an extra set of hands helping with the kids is awesome!

I left a bunch of apples on our front porch with a sign to "please take an apple"....amazingly enough, they were all gone by the time we got back home!

The last two pictures are from the party at school earlier in the day. Cody didn't want to be a shepherd, so he was Tom Cruise from Top Gun. He loved wearing his sunglasses in school.

Cody's Firestation

I know....this is one of those posts you read where the mom says..."Here is Olivia blinking for the first time..." or "Look at our little Philip, trying to poop in his diaper" Yeah, yeah....everybody's kid does amazing things (at least in the parents' eyes), so here's my "look what my kid can do" post:

Here is a picture of Cody with his homemade "fire station" that he made on his own tonight. Look how he even made a bay to park his trucks in by using a cooler....very creative! Notice how he also picked out cars that were "firetruck-looking" or red. I may have a genius on my hands!

Boys, Birthdays and a cute Baby

Here are some random pics from the last week or so...just now able to get caught up on stuff. I love this one of me and "my boys".













Clay turned 38 last week and we went to Myiabi's with a small group of friends to celebrate. I think we each gained 10 lbs that night.















Abby is getting cuter everyday. Here are a couple of recent pics. The one of the toilet paper is what she did while Mommy was at church and she was home with Daddy. We ended up putting the big pile next to the toilet and ripping off what we needed instead of throwing it away or trying to re-roll it back onto the tube. (Plus, we are saving tubes for craft projects, so Abby was just helping out!)

Ohio Trip - East River Mountain Tunnel

I love this tunnel...here is the view as we were leaving West Virginia. I like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (who doesn't?) and then we opened up to a beautiful Virginia mountain line.

Ohio Trip - goodbye pics

Before we left Ohio, we had to say good-bye to everybody. Here are a few good-byes and things we did on the way out of town:

• Posed for a picture with the beautiful foliage in the background
• Clay picked out a couple of pumpkins
• Visited with mom one last time - she got a little sad
• Clay wrangled an alligator at a bookstore
• went by Frostop with the giant rotating rootbeer on top - a Huntington landmark!
  

Trick or Treat!

Ohio Trip - Visit with Poppy

• Here is my dad's "spreadsheet" of the vegetables from his garden this year. I also took a picture of the huge sunflowers in the garden. (He didn't track those on his sheet.)
• Notice Cody has a shoestring tied around his waist to hold up his pants...true country style!
• Dad had a big bonfire and hayride one night. Once we were way out into the woods, some of the guys jumped out wearing white sheets tied over their heads. Most of the women screamed, but it didn't even phase the kids though!
• Abby loved picking up the walnuts and throwing them back down on the ground. We slept under that walnut tree and at night they would fall onto the tin roof...bang! bang! thump! thump! We thought we were back in North Charleston for a minute.
• Clay and Cody got to ride in one of my dad's Chevelles (while other people pushed it into the barn!) Cody also sat up on the lawnmower for a quick shot...he loves stuff like that.
  
• The kids loved hanging out with Poppy and Tanna. The cat was a hoot...one night dad went to check on the kids and the cat was in the crib sleeping with Abby! Most days, she brought random dead animals to the front door as a gift..oh, how sweet...a ground mole!