Halloween 2009

We started our Halloween a week early with a little pumpkin carving and some trick-or-treating at the Trunk or Treat event at the girls' school. Gracie and Travis had a great time cleaning out the pumpkin and getting it ready for carving.

They left the hard part up to me, and if I may brag on myself I did an awesome job carving one classic jack o'lantern and one monogrammed pumpkin. Of course, I didn't get a picture of either one and they were pretty much rotten by Halloween (blame it on the rain).

For the Trunk or Treat, Gracie decided to wear her mermaid costume from last year, and Ella wore the kitten costume Gracie wore when she was nearly 2. It's nearly impossible to get them both to stand still at the same time, much less smile...

We were expecting them to be more excited about a candy free-for-all, but both girls were satisfied with the first lollipops (or as Ella calls them, "dollipops") they received.

Travis was proud of Sutton in his first set of scrubs. Like father, like son.

After dropping off some cookies at the McNeills, we headed home. Here's a look at the car ride...

I wish you could see the chocolate smeared all over her face :)

On Halloween night, Poppy, Dory, Grambi and Aunt Momo joined us for yummy dinner and trick-or-treating.

I wish we could have gotten a picture of all three kids together because their costumes complemented each other, but it just didn't happen. Gracie was a lily. Ella was a rose, and Sutton was a bumblebee. All three so precious.

Sutton only made it to one house, but the girls visited several houses and were happy with their stash of candy in the buckets I made them. They loved the giant spiders again this year, and Ella enjoyed the strobe light on the porch of one house (Gracie was afraid of it).

Such fun memories with such fun kids!

More Fall Fun

We visited the Dallas Farmers Market a couple of weekends ago to pick our pumpkins. It was a beautiful day and provided a perfect opportunity to try out my new fancy camera!

Sutton is 5 Months Old!

Our sweet boy just keeps getting bigger and sweeter! Time flies so quickly, and that is especially true with our third baby. We're savoring every moment because now we know how quickly they grow from babies to toddlers to preschoolers. It's so fun (and sometimes exhausting) to have one child in each of these categories. Sutton is really a good baby. He fits right in and most of the time, is just content to be included in our activities. He loves baths and recognizes the sound of the water when we start the girls' bath at night. Lucky for him, he can't sit up quite yet, so he gets his own bathtub.

I still think he looks like Travis. His eyes are still kind of gray/blue, and I'm not sure how they'll turn out. His hair is definitely blonder than the girls, and it's really started to come in the past couple of weeks. Since I missed posting his 4-month stats last month, here they are now:

Weight: 12 lbs 15 oz (10%)

Height: 25 1/4 in (55%)

Head: 16 1/2 in (40%)

These percentiles may seem low, but he's so much bigger than his sisters. My arms are definitely getting a workout these days. He's wearing mostly 6 month clothes, but many of his Polo outfits are 9 months. It's so different trying to dress a boy, but it's still fun. I think he has more clothes than his sisters, and Travis is definitely jealous of his wardrobe :) He's sleeping good and usually sleeps through the night (7:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.) at least 3 nights a week. The remaining nights he just wakes up once for a middle-of-the-night feeding. He his first cold this week, so that messed up his sleep schedule because he couldn't breathe well, but I'm hoping he'll get back on track soon.

Sutton takes a bottle every 3-4 hours, usually 6 ounces at a time. Because I'm gone all day, I usually only get to nurse him during the night and on weekends. He's also started solids, and so far, he's tried rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, pears, sweet potatoes and carrots. I'd say oatmeal, sweet potatoes and carrots are his favorites because he's literally gagged while eating everything else. These are pictures of the green bean experience, and you can tell how much he liked them from his expressions. Gracie loves to feed him and remains a great helper!

This month, he's really enjoyed exploring in his exersaucer and is content pushing buttons and pulling on everything. He also likes his floor mat, but instead of staying on his back, he quickly rolls over and props himself up on his elbows. Much to our amazement, he's almost crawling. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. I'm predicting he'll figure it out before he turns 6 months old and know that this will really change everything. A mobile baby is much harder to keep up with!

His various expressions crack us up, and we crack him up a lot, too. He laughs when he sees Gracie, and they love playing with each other. Ella is still enamored by him and calls him "Sut-ton Janes!" (her version of Sutton James). She's so sweet and loving, but is a little over-loving sometimes. We feel blessed that both girls have adjusted to him so well.

Here's to a wonderful five months! Just one more and our little man will be 1/2 a year old!

Five Months

Four Months

Three Months

Two Months

One Month

Fair Day 2009

We look forward to fall for many reasons, but one of the things we love best is the State Fair! This was the first time since 2006 that I haven't been pregnant at the fair (crazy, huh?), but that didn't stop me from indulging in all the delicious fair food. Between the four of us (sorry, Sutton), we ate: cotton candy, Dippin' Dots, a Fletcher's corn dog, a candy apple, Jack's Fries, a gyro, nachos, an ice cream bar and an orange push-up. All in about 3 hours and, no one got sick!

Besides the food, the highlight was the petting zoo. Poor Gracie was feeding a goat, and it took the whole cup out of her hand. Luckily, we ran into our buddy Greg, and he gave Gracie his super-sized cup of food. Ella was not afraid at all and liked touching all the animals. Good thing they had lots of hand sanitizer! Sutton was such a trooper and was content just hanging out with his daddy.

We've never done the rides before, but Grace was curious about several of them. I'm afraid she takes after me because she didn't want to try any of them. They were either too fast, too loud or too scary. She finally decided on one- an animal train, and she and I did it together. It was pretty slow, but she was proud of herself for not being afraid and just having fun. I'm sure we'll add more next year, and I have a feeling Ella will be more adventurous.

Annual Fall Trip to the Zoo (Attempt #1)

Travis hates weathermen. In no other profession is being wrong so acceptable. Take Saturday, for example. Yes, the weathermen predicted rain, but it wasn't supposed to roll in until around 6 p.m. Perfect. We planned our trip to the Fort Worth Zoo for early afternoon, in time to get in and out before the rain. Not so much.

We left here around 11. The girls were so excited because Chachi decided to come with us. Travis and I were grateful for the extra set of hands. First stop: the Railhead BBQ. Delicious food. Happy kids (who just don't know what to do with themselves when we let them feast on chips). Grace even made a game out of it, which she called, "Chips. Chicken. Water." Sounds like fun, right? She'd take a bite of chips, then chicken; finally, a drink of water. I didn't have to say, "Just please take a bite" even one time!

Ella tore up the Cheetos. It took innumerable wipees to get the orange goo off her face and hands, but it was totally worth it.

Sweet Sutton eyed all the food, which apparently made him so hungry, he tried to eat my face.

Next stop: the zoo. Lots of other families trusted the weathermen, too, because the parking lots were full. We all had such high hopes...Anyway, we busted out the double Maclarlan and the Buggy Board--yep, all three kids on one stroller. Very cool. This was Sutton's first time outside his infant carrier/stroller thing. He obviously enjoyed being about to stretch out. Check out his baby jeans. First time, and too cute.

Ella would much rather have walked or ridden on the Buggy Board, but we made her endure the first 10 minutes in this thing.

$46 dollars in tickets (yikes) and we were off. We saw the gorillas (which Chachi thought were just disgusting), the monkeys, other monkey-like creatures (baboons, etc.), the cheetahs, the warthog, the rhinos, and the flamingos.

Sutton was pretty much not interested and quickly fell asleep. You should have heard everyone "oohing" and "ahhing" over how cute he looked like this:

Ella was very excited the whole time. She'd talk to the animals and try to repeat their names, like "Hi, cheeto (cheetah)!" and, "Hi, stinky flingos (flamingos; stinky ones, almost enough to make you gag)!" When it was time to move to the next exhibit, she'd yell, "Bye, that one!" "That one" is code for "I can't remember what you're called" and she uses the phrase a lot these days.

After about thirty minutes of animal fun, it started sprinkling. We sat around while Travis checked various weather sources and decided what to do. Then, it started raining, even though the forecast was not predicting rain until the evening. The radar, however, showed a big storm that probably wasn't going to let up. So, Travis went to get the car in the pouring rain, and Chachi and I entertained the kids under a thatched roof hut. Grace and Ella enjoyed playing in the rain and didn't want to leave. We were so disappointed that out trip was cut short. Darn weathermen.

Ella had lots of energy in the car, at first. She went from this...

to this...

in about 20 minutes. Aside from the rain, it was a pleasant ride home :) Hopefully, we can make it back to the zoo before it gets too cold. Otherwise, we'll have to wait for the Annual Spring Trip to the Zoo.