Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween. It started with a great service at our church, Gateway Community Church, about Halloween and "turning the light on". Then we spent the afternoon watching football and playing around before heading out for a wagon ride to the park. This was Audrey's 2nd wagon ride, and she really enjoys it.

More pictures of our adorable kiddos.

As usual, all Jackson wanted to do was swing, so Ross tried to convince him to play on the slide by sending Bailey down...

It didn't work...

After playing at the park, we quickly got JD and Audrey changed into their costumes for a neighborhood party. It was great to meet the folks that live around us. There were several kids Jackson and Audrey's ages, so we're looking forward to meeting up with them more often.

Last on the "to do" list today was Trick or Treating! Jackson didn't care about getting the candy, but he LOVED knocking on the doors and saying "trick or treat".

Someone was even nice enough to offer to take a picture of all of us at their house!

It was a great Halloween. Jackson really enjoyed his first trick or treating adventure, and at the rate our doorbell is ringing tonight, I have a feeling we won't have any candy left soon. There are more pictures of everything in the various folders (The Taylor Family, Audrey, Jackson, and Halloween) in the album.

Lazy Morning

We all spent the entire morning in our pajamas today. It was wonderful! There was no reason to get dressed or rush off to do anything today, so we enjoyed it. I pulled out the camera and played around...enough that Jackson eventually said, "Mommy, you stop, and take pictures again tomorrow." Of course, I put away the camera at that point and just enjoyed my adorable family. That didn't keep him from giving me some great silly shots before that though!

Here's a morning with Jackson...

Everyday involves trains of some sort.

And no day is complete without a little time in the swing.

Recently, Jackson has learned to count on his fingers, so at some point everyday he's practicing.

Lunch time is always filled with fun. You never know what Jackson's going to do next!

The morning ended with a little play time in Mommy and Daddy's bed before going upstairs for a nap.

Audrey was right in the midst of the fun too when she wasn't napping. She was either crawling all over the place, playing with somebody's face, or simply looking adorable.

Check out the 3 teeth that have broken through! A 4th is on its way!

Isn't she adorable!!!

There are more pictures of Jackson in his album, and there are more of Audrey in her album.

Ballunar Festival

Today we made our way to the Ballunar Festival with our friends, The Newmans. We never actually got to see any hot air balloons while we were there, but we still had a lot of fun.

Jackson got to pose for a picture in a space suit!

Then we watched some model rockets launch. Neither Audrey nor Jace were too excited about the blast off noises. Jackson was okay for the most part and was curious about everything.

After the rockets we watched some remote control planes flying around.

We spent a good bit of time camped out in the grass taking everything in. Jackson also got to do a bouncy obstacle course a couple of times and loved it!

The other exciting event was the skydivers floating down. It was impressive to see so many of them at once.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and we were thankful for beautiful weather and temperatures! There are more pictures in the album if you're interested.

Costume Parade

Thursday was the costume parade at day care. Jackson is a dinosaur for Halloween this year. He has worn the costume almost every day since it arrived. He runs around and ROARS! The costume also has a button in the tummy that will roar for him when his voice isn't enough. He's got to be the cutest dinosaur I've ever seen! His entire class was so cute. There was a kitty cat, a cowboy, a couple of baseball players and lady bugs and more. They were adorable!

Audrey's class got to ride in the costume parade. Audrey got the prime spot in the bye-bye buggy for showing off her LA Tech Cheerleader outfit!

After the parade, Jackson's class sat together for a snack before their candy was taken away.

Jackson was NOT happy about the candy being taken away...

There are a few more pictures in the album.

Pumpkin Time

We definitely kept busy this weekend. Friday afternoon was the Fall Festival at Jackson and Audrey's daycare. They had lots of fun games and prizes. Audrey enjoyed taking in all of the action. Jackson, on the other hand, was the source of lots of action as he checked out every game, but in the end, he was still more interested in the swings than anything else.

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch at Clear Lake United Methodist. Jackson and Audrey both had fun checking out all of the pumpkins. Ross had actually taken them on Thursday after going to the doctor for their flu shots, but they were only allowed to get little pumpkins that day. Saturday we picked out a big pumpkin to carve together. Here they are checking things out.

Jackson couldn't carry enough little pumpkins...

When we finally decided on a big pumpkin, Jackson wanted to help carry it to the car, so we found a wheel barrow he could help load it into. This way he got to go for a ride too!

From there we went to an Oktoberfest Party at Evan's house. Evan is a friend of Jackson's from daycare. They had an awesome set up with a jumping castle for the kids and a huge tent covering most of the backyard where they had tables and chairs. We had a blast visiting with everyone, and Jackson couldn't get enough of the jumping castle. He came home with a few new bumps and bruises as proof of all the fun he had.

Today we cleaned out and carved the pumpkin! Jackson spent most of the time swinging, but occasionally he'd come over to give his approval and to see if he could fit pieces back in. I think he was pretty pleased with the final product though. He's all about smiley faces right now, and this one reminds me of the face he makes when he says PLEEEAAASE.

While we were sitting outside carving pumpkins, we had a beautiful butterfly visiting our flowers.

On a developmental note, Audrey is now between an army crawl and on all fours. She can get just about anywhere and quickly too when she's motivated! She's pretty close to figuring out how to get back to a sitting position too. It's amazing! She has three teeth now and is working on the fourth. She started eating cheerios and puffs last week, and we were shocked to discover that her pincer grasp (index finger and thumb) is pretty advanced. She constantly amazes us. She's babbling a lot too, and her teachers think she'll be an early talker...I guess we'll see. This is all going by WAY too fast!

There are a few more pictures from the weekend in the album.