Gingerbread Making!

Every year Topeka has a gingerbread house show, and in the back you get to make your own house to take home with you. This was our second year to go, and the kids loved it...again:)

This is Michayla and our neighbor Haley trying to make their houses stick together.
Blake had a really hard time wanting to use the candy to decorate the house, instead of just eating it all. Even the frosting was pretty tasty, and Blake was very good at doing a swipe of the frosting for the house, and two to his mouth....delicious.
This is part of the gingerbread crew. Stockton, Maya, Spencer, Madelyn and Michayla. We love our friends!!!! It was fun to get out and do something with them.

Bottom Dwellers

This is our basement:) Lovely, isnt it? But here in Kansas, we sure are greatful for it! You can see what it has become....our tornado safe haven....and our toy storage room:) Luckily the kids dont care that there are no walls, and nothing on the floor. All they care about is the toys, and the company. They LOVE to play!

Cody boy amoungst the toys:)

Thanksgiving

Ok, sorry if this is Extremely late, but since it is finals season, we save all the things we CAN do on Sunday, until Sunday, and since our pictures only download to Brents computer, I have to wait until I can snatch it from him to make a post. ANYWAY.......We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving, and are SOOOO glad that the Moores live so close and that we could have some great family time with them. We had a feast! and also had a great time together playing games and wathcing football, while the kids destroyed that basement:)

Heres Mariah just waiting for the "dig in" signal.
The kiddos (Amber, Michayla, Blake and Cody) actually sat down for almost 5 minutes of the meal. I'm pretty sure thats a record for them.:)
These were my helpers. They are growing up to be such great girls! I sure love them.

Playing Dress-up

Michayla got wrapped up like a mummy at our JRC Halloween Party. She's actually dressed up like a princess underneat all that toilet paper.

Allyson was really playing the part of the wicked witch that night. How did she learn to make that face???
Where has the innocence gone? She looks so suspicious here!

Blake was a happy Power Ranger Man (he refused to take off his Batman Cape). I love his big smile!

Jack-O-Lanterns

These are the pumpkins that we picked from the pumpkin patch to make Jack-O-Lanterns. Each of the kids picked their own pumpkin, and chose how to carve it. We also got one big one for the family.









I (Brent) helped do Blake's pumpkin & the family Jack-O-Lantern. Michayla chose the pattern for this pumpkin and I tried my best to make it work (I actually messed it up pretty bad)






Michayla wanted to carve a witch into her pumpkin. This one turned out pretty good (because Michelle did it)




You're going to have to use your imagination on this one. Believe it or not, that is a spider. Blake really wanted a spider, and it was hard to do on this small pumpkin. I actually broke off 2 of the legs and had to try to fix it with toothpicks.

Here's the family Jack-O-Lantern. We finished all of the pumpkins and then left them on our front porch to rot for 2 weeks. We finally threw them away yesterday!

Visitors in Kansas!

Blakester and Grandpa




Allyson playing in the corn.



Michayla and scarecrow friend.



My parents came to visit us!!!! Yeah!! We had so much fun with them. The first day they were here, we went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch here in Kansas called Gary's Berries. The kids loved the hay ride to the pumpkin patch, and picking out thier very own pumkins. We went with Blakes preschool group and had a great time.

Michayla Found a Friend

So, recently Michayla has taken to bug liking. I think its kinda weird because Blake really doesnt want to even touch them. This all started about a year ago when one of my friends showed Michayla how cool it was to hold worms. Thanks Sally! Just kidding, I'm glad she likes them. This praying mantis was pretty cool, other than we found it in our basement.:)