Genius

Two year olds are, well, terrible. And cute. That's to offset the terrible. Our genius toddler has a new cute trick up his sleeve. When he can sense that he's just about driven one of us totally to the brink, he says, "I need a hug." And proceeds to give one.

Heart melts.

Family Portrait

Costumed for a family-themed costume party. Who are we?



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Scary, Sweet, Dressed Up Fun

Our Karate Kid

I dressed up as Carter.
(Yes, I can totally wear his shirt, hoodie and hat. Jeans and shoes are mine. Bracelets and necklace also belong to him, but are one size fits all.)

After a lot of work, about half the kids were wrangled for a photo op

John's very first trick-or-treat!
He REALLY turned on the cute with his "Thank you!" and "See you tomorrow!"s. AT the very first house, there was a dog, and after he got his candy he said, "Thank you, dog. Woof! Woof!"

Carter insists that he is NOT TIRED

Thomas wants you to think that he feels like this. But John's first trick-or-treat totally melted his soul. 

Homemade Halloween

This is actually Carter's secondary Halloween costume. On Halloween night, he'll be playing karate kid (the original). But since he also needs to dress up for afterschool on Wednesday, and because his school usually does book character dress-up day sometime in the fall, we created this additional costume.

Afterwards, I took a ballpoint pen and wrote Anaklusmos on it for him to carry in his pocket. He was excited until he realized that it did not, in fact, turn into a sword. (This probably only makes sense to you if you're familiar with the books).

We are currently reading book 3, having finished book 2 recently and having just seen the second movie this weekend.

Given that my natural interest in books aligns very closely with that of tween boys and teen girls, this is my second time through them, but it's fun to be enjoying them together!

Recent John Video

Boy Photos

Some photos of the boys from the summer and fall that I hadn't gotten around to posting. 

Baseball 2013

It was a pretty good summer for baseball, all things considered. 

T was invited to sit in the Sun Trust seats twice!

At Minor League Braves game

Carter played coach-pitch baseball, and T was the coach! Sadly, MANY games were rained out, so we don't have many pictures.

Pumpkin Patching 2013

Get your scare on...

Get your scare on.
Scream.
Get scared.
Happy Halloween!

Rock Climbing!

C still loves the rock climbing, I see more gym time in our future!

And one artistic shot...

New Bike!

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He can ride a bike!

He can do it! 

(Yes, we know he needs a bigger bike.)

Family Vacation

The same week that students in some parts of the country were just starting back to school, we were enjoying Fall Break. It is the one-week break we get off of school after the first six weeks of the school year (we get at least a one week break every six weeks). During the break, we took a short trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I think this may be our first ever family vacation during which we didn't have a plan to meet up with anyone else. Just us, traveling, for the purpose of enjoyment. I'm using that "first" as an excuse to not really cull down the pictures very much!

Headed to the tram that would take us up the hill to Ober Gatlinburg, winter (mini) ski resort, summer amusement park.

A rare picture of the parentals together (thanks, C).

John actually did NOT like the ball pit, so this was a pretty lucky photo!

John's first chairlift ride. Terrifying. For us. It was a lot more terrifying when we were up higher, but I was too nervous to take pictures at that point. didn't want to turn around to take a photo, for fear that John would get excited and leap out of T's arms...

Baby on skates! I got him all the way around the rink once by anchoring his skates between my feet and using my arms to pull us around the rink! (he was done after that).

Headed back down the mountain on the tram. John called it a "boat", so we declared it a "sky boat".

Pancake breakfast. We were cursed with terrible service for almost the entire trip. 

The bad service drove us to the free moonshine tasting. You can now taste some moonshine at our house. 

Incline train to the top of Hillbilly Golf, in which you play mini golf down the hill.

At Ripley's Aquarium

The last restaurant meal of the trip (also the first good service of the trip). Thank you, local brewery, for your decent service, tasty beer, trivia game and food that does not pretend to be fancier than it is. Plus, look closely. That's SANTA at the bar. Yes, Santa. He came over and talked to the boys. Carter has been talking about it for days. 

Nature.

At the top of Clingman's Dome. Highest point in TN. Third highest east of the Mississippi. We have now been to the top of the highest point in TN and GA. Time to start counting, I think...

Notes: 1) I have carried John up to the top of the highest points in both GA and TN. 2) John and I are wearing the same ugly facial expression in this picture. 3) Thomas doesn't feel the need to take multiple shots of a picture in order to reduce the likelihood of ugly face. 4) The background here somehow looks totally fake, but I can promise you that it is real, and it was high up! 5) John is pretty much at the weight limit for this backpack, so he's on his own next time.