Ruffy!

Some pictures from this morning of Christian with his new friend "Ruffy". Shane won him out of a vending machine game yesterday and brought him home for Christian last night just as I was tucking him in bed. He slept with him in a headlock all night last night, ate breakfast with him, had to have him sitting on the sink while he brushed his teeth... I've never seen a child get so excited about a stuffed toy.

No New Pics!

I forgot my camera at my in-laws on Sunday so I have no new pictures to share. I thought I'd just post a few of my favorites from this past summer. I should be getting my camera back this evening.

With cousins Connor & Josh at the beach

With baby cousin Connor in Michigan

Climbing the tire tunnel at the playground on our trip to Michigan

Crazy Hair Day at school!

In the ocean with Daddy

Happy Halloween!!!

Is is time to go yet?

With some of his trick or treat buddies!

Sorting through and inspecting the bounty!

Having a healthy breakfast the next morning to counter all the candy goodness from the night before!

We had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood and Christian loved hanging out with all the other kids.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night when we got home Christian's friend Michelle met us when we were pulling into our driveway wanting to know if he could play for awhile before it got dark. Since we had plans to carve our pumpkin we invited her to join us. They had a blast digging out the "gunk" from inside.

When Michelle's dad and little sister Jasmine arrived to let Michelle know it was time to come home we were just finishing up. Here is a picture of the finished project.

Christian (aka Mr. GooleyGong) also got a little surprise in the mail yesterday -- a Halloween card from Aunt Mikki, Uncle Gary, Jack and Olivia. He loves getting mail!!!!

We're looking forward to trick or treating tonight. Our weather is supposed to be perfect. We'll fill you in and share our pictures in our next post.

Flat Stanley -- California or Bust!

Christian and I finally read Flat Stanley. In the story, Flat Stanley gets mailed to California to visit relatives. Christian knows that we also have relatives in California because we've talked often about going to visit them some day. So, when I suggested we make our own Flat Stanley to mail to our relatives in California his response was, "that's a great idea Mommy!" So, last night we set about creating our very own little traveler.

Red shirt, blue pants, black shoes...

Our finished fellow and our inspiration...

Getting a good nights sleep before his big trip...

Almost packed and ready to go...

Our friendly neighborhood postman.

Very soon Flat Stanley will arrive in Hollywood. He'll be visiting his cousins Jennifer, Peter and Autry. We're sure he'll have a great time and we'll be sure to let you all know how his trip turns out!

Happy Birthday Madeline/Visiting the Hughes Family/Welcome Baby Paul!

Today was Christian's friend Madeline's Birthday party and they had a great time!

Christian and Madeline outside the moonbounce

Playing Party Games

Taking a whack at the "indestructable" pinata!

Two wild and crazy guys!

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After the birthday party, Christian and I headed over to Ed, Kristin, Grace and Eddie's to drop off Eddie's way over due birthday present and visit for a while. When we arrived we found them all in their back yard painting Halloween costumes and carving pumpkins. It wasn't long before Christian joined in on the action and helped Grace clean out one of the pumpkins.

After the pumpkin fun we all walked over to the neighborhood playground. The kids had a great time playing and especially enjoyed climbing onto the roof of one of the play houses.

We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the park and ran into our friends Rich, his daughter CC and their dog Larry. Rich's wife is my good friend Elizabeth and they live in the same neighborhood.

CC, Rich and Larry

Rich and Elizabeth were just blessed with a new addition to their family two weeks ago when they adopted their son Paul. Baby Paul was just getting ready to eat when they were heading out to the park so he stayed home with Mom. After we left the playground and got back to Ed and Kristin's I found I had a message on my cell phone. It was a message from Elizabeth inviting us over to meet the baby so we said our good byes and headed over for a quick visit. Baby Paul is beautiful and Christian loved him.

What a busy day we had. We left our house at 10:45 a.m. and didn't get home until after 5:00 p.m. Christian was conked out in the car 5 minutes after we left Rich and Elizabeth's house. It's a good thing that Sunday's are days of rest!!!!!!

Reading is Fun!

Christian's new Scholastic book order arrived at school yesterday and he was very excited about it. Especially the Scooby Doo Halloween one. We read it three times before bed last night!!! I'm most excited about Flat Stanley. It's actually a pretty long story so after reading Scooby three times we didn't have time to read it last night but it's definitely on tonight's reading list. The other five books are beginning readers that he is reading to us. Last night he read The Pet and Hop In! to me while I fixed dinner.



He also brought a book home from school to read to us. These are the phonics books he learns from at school and once he can read it all by himself, his teacher sends it home for him to read to us. I always get very excited when I pick him up and see his special book bag hanging on the hook for us to take home.

He also brought home this picture he worked on with his teacher Miss Amy. It's of a castle complete with a moat and a slide that goes over the moat. I think this combination of things is from his trip to Cox's farm with all the great slides and the Halloween party and his Aunt and Uncles's house.

I took this picture this morning before he left for school so his Grandma Bailey could see how nice he looks in the new rain coat she bought him. It fits perfectly and he loves that the hood has a little hidden compartment snapped up around the collar.

Shane is working late tonight so I told Christian that we could stop and get a Happy Meal on the way home and put on our pjs when we get home and then spend the evening playing board games, which he loves. Our weather is so rainy it's a perfect night for it. I also plan on surprising him with a new pair of Spiderman pjs complete with the web/wings under the arms. They are exactly like his old pair that he has outgrown and actually wore for the last time a few nights ago. When we were taking them off in the morning, I explained to him that they were just getting too short and tight and were too uncomfortable. It made him very sad but when I told him that we'd be sending them to his cousin Connor in Michigan that made him feel a bit better.