The Remnants of Fall

A few more fun things I didn't post from the fall:

Some more random fun dressing up.

Lions and tigers (in a very small costume)

ACU Homecoming

This was my TEN year college reunion! That is unbelievable to me. I had a wonderful time visiting Abilene and so did the boys (JM stayed home to work on school stuff with some peace and quiet). Wesley and Curtis loved the carnival. They had bouncy houses, a petting zoo and Wesley went on a short horse ride.

With my sweet roomies at the reunion dinner

(Carolyn, Erika and Kate)

And at the 'after-party'

Roomies + Nadia

Making a Gas Pump

Wesley saw a picture of a gas pump in a toy magazine and asked, "Mom, what could we do to get that gas pump?" I said, "Let's make one!" That was a very exciting idea to him, so we whipped up a pretty cute gas pump out of a carpet cleaner box, a soaker hose that had broken and a water sprayer that was also biting the dust. It's perfect for their little pick-up and taxi car's fuel needs.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Mimi's in Austin this year. Lela and Colin came from California, Misha and Gin-Gin from Abilene, and my Uncle Fred and his family (Debbie, Kristen and Eric) live close by. We spent four nights there, so it was a nice long visit.

Lela made a 'Fort Kit' for the boys complete with sewn on hooks and a bag of clips and suction cup hooks for versatility. Colin helped them set that up the first morning we were there. They loved it, but Curtis is still in destructive mode when we set it up, so maybe it will be mostly used during his nap time. :)

We took an afternoon walk down to the lake after the big yummy meal on Thursday.

Colin and Wesley's post-Thanksgiving bellies

Kristen and Wesley watching ducks and turtles

On Friday, the Bullocks (Dad's sister and her family) were in town, so we met them down at the lake. I also got to see my dear friend Marilyn and her husband who were having a small get-away from Houston since they didn't have enough time off to travel far to see their families. Lela and I got to hang out with our friend Darby while we were in Austin, too! (Sadly, no pics.)

So good to see sweet Sarah

And now for the family pictures….

Our family

Notice pregnant Lela…due in February!

(and Owen Smedley in the background)

The Gustafson Family

Everyone!

Curtis' 2nd Birthday

Curtis turned two almost a month ago, so it's probably about time to blog about that. Curtis has been mimicking Cookie's famous, "Mmmmmm….Cookie!" line for awhile, so I tried to make some Cookie Monster cupcakes. They were kinda cute, but didn't look much like the real deal. My fingers were only blue for a few days from dyeing coconut. :) John Mark made some yummy cookies for the occasion, and we had a fun small family party. Both sets of grandparents and Uncle Paul & Aunt Christi (JM's brother and his wife) came.

Curtis and Wesley had fun playing with Granddad on the couch!

Curtis got some good stuff: puzzles, art supplies, toy cars and a little table and chairs that will be great for both boys.

Curtis is so fun and his personality is developing like crazy. He's loving naming off the animals in "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" while sitting on the potty. His favorite toys at the moment are a small Russian stacking doll and Lightening McQueen. His interest in Thomas the Train is deepening too. He especially seems to like Percy and loves dancing to the theme song.

October

Our October activities included some fun pumpkin painting. The boys got stripped down to their skivvies (no worries, we were in the backyard) and went to town!

This is actually almost two weeks before Halloween, but I made a little vest for Wesley's Woody costume (and it wasn't the night before!) and Wesley couldn't handle trying it on without the whole ensemble. Curtis decided to join in on the fun, too. I couldn't decide if he should re-use the old lion costume or wear a cute little tiger one that my cousin sent to us. The choice was easily made after he didn't stop screaming until the tiger one was taken off of him. Wesley has since stuffed himself into it a couple of times, so it is getting some use. :)

The next pictures are from Halloween night. Curtis had a small tantrum about getting into the lion costume, but we eased him into it throughout the evening and he ended up enjoying it.

Here's a good shot of Wesley's boots that Misha and Gin-Gin contributed to the costume. He loves them and wears them for all kinds of events around the house. They'll be great for the winter, too!

Curtis went up to a few houses, but he was mostly content to ride along in the stroller and take it all in.

An attempt of a group photo at our friends' house. Some families from church got together to trick-or-treat together. It was a little chaotic with all those kids running around as you might imagine!

Don't take Owen's picture much lately, but he sure looked pretty sunning in the yard a couple of days ago. He's a good ol' dog. Such a pretty day!

We put a chalkboard up in Curtis' room a few weeks ago, and the boys think it's pretty fun. Curtis had some awesome hair on this particular morning!

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, we got to join all of John Mark's side of the family in Oklahoma at Sequoyah State Park. It was a nice place on the lake with a big swimming pool (which was good since they had a swimming ban for the lake due to some kind of dangerous algae), splash park, animal exhibit and plenty of outdoor and indoor games available. Wesley and Curtis got to enjoy some time with their only first cousin (for now), Sadie. The boys REALLY enjoy having her around. Wesley seems to really latch on to her "mothering" tendencies. :) We had some good adult time during naps and after the kids went to bed as well.

On Saturday, Wesley and Sadie got to go to a 'snake show' where they got to touch a bull snake and even a water snake (i.e. moccasin…the man said it was always in a good mood so it was okay!). I'm sure there were others, but they all just seemed the same to me -- nasty. This picture is funny to me because Wesley is using his "one-finger" approach that we always encourage when touching possibly delicate or breakable things.

Sadie, Wesley and I also went swimming that afternoon while Curtis took a nap. After naps, we got to celebrate Sadie's and Wesley's birthdays together. Sadie turned 7 a couple of weeks before Wesley turned 4 in August.
We had a good time eating chocolate chip pudding cake that Golly had made on Cars or Disney Princess plates, depending on your gender. :) There were plenty of balloons to play with and pop, which never stopped scaring every one. All the kids got some great gifts. Curtis keeps making out like a bandit at Wesley's birthday parties!

On Sunday morning we gathered on some benches beside the lake for communion and a devotional. Very nice and peaceful. Granddad and Curtis looked pretty cute as I walked up. Looked like they were discussing some very important things.

Sunday night there was a fireworks show at the lodge where we were staying. We weren't expecting much, but it was actually an impressive show.

We took lots of pictures as we waited for it to get dark enough for the show to begin. Wesley ended up plopping himself down on a huge rock and cuddled up with some kids that were watching Cinderella on an iPad. They didn't seem to mind, and Wesley was captivated by the movie. The kids' dad told me we would probably need to pick up a copy of the movie for Wesley on the way home.

While Wesley sat on our tailgate watching the fireworks show, he said some pretty hilarious things:

"Wow, some of these are quite large!"

"I think ALL of these are MY favorite!" (after I mentioned that one was probably my favorite one so far)

And my favorite, "Ooooooooh!! That one had glitter in it! I wanna get INSIDE that glitter!"

He loved it.

Monday morning we all parted ways after breakfast and some time enjoying the outdoors.