Pumpkins, Parties, Football...

all signs point to Fall!  We went to get our pumpkins at the Murphy Road Baptist Church again this year.  It's so close and the kids enjoy it much more than just picking them up at Kroger.

My three little pumpkins sitting on some hay.

Cami even got to take home a pumpkin that was just her size!

"Those big kids can't have this one--I'm planning on using the stem as a teether on the ride home."  And she did.

We got two five tiny pumpkins, two small and two medium ones.  All were pleased.
Great success!

 

When we got home that afternoon, there was a very exciting package on our front porch.  Lila's costume had arrived!  She insisted on trying it on and even had me do her an "Elsa braid," to complete the look.  This kid CANNOT wait for Halloween this year.

Saturday evening we went to dinner with the whole Hays crew to celebrate Uncle Scott's birthday.  Cami loved hanging out with him and Uncle Lyndsie.

And these two were pretty excited about singing happy birthday to him!

On Sunday, I took Lila to a birthday party at Metroplex Gymnastics.  It was such a cool gym and even had this zipline running through it!  Go Lila!  Thank goodness it was a fun place, because her brother was living the life of Reilly.

 

While Lila was partying down at the gym, Jackson was busy getting to watch the Cowboys game.  With his buddies.  On the front row!

These three goofballs cheered their heads off and helped the Cowboys beat the Giants.

Touchdown!  This kid was loving life.

 

 

He came home with a new Cowboys football and shirt.

He and his friends had planned to all wear their new Cowboys gear at school today.  Such a cool night for him.  Maybe next time he'll take me with him!

Baby Boom!

I love babies.  I have always loved babies.  So imagine my total elation when two of my very best friends had babies within a few days of each other!

Baby Colby was first and was born on Oct. 2nd.  I made it up to the hospital right after he was born and his sweet parents let Auntie Crystal hold him soon thereafter.  We were instant friends!

 

I took Colby and his family dinner a few nights later and got to have even more snuggles with this little cutie.  He is SO sweet.  I was in heaven.

 

 

A few weeks later, Baby Dylan made a surprise early arrival on Oct. 14th!  I was at Jackson's baseball game when Dylan's mama called to tell me that they were heading to the hospital.  So exciting!  I made it up there around 10:00 that night, right after he was born, and was beyond thrilled for my sweet friend.  She's such a great mommy!

A few days later I went back to visit him at the hospital and got to hold him for the first time.  More sweet baby snuggles!  Love it:)

As you can see, our baby isn't so tiny anymore.  Tear.

She's loving life, though, and getting to try so many new foods these days.  She's a big fan of cheerios and even got to try a bite of ice cream the other night, too.  Ice cream fan for life.

My babies are growing up too fast!  Thank goodness my friends are still in the middle of the Baby Boom.  It really is the best of both worlds.

9 Months!

This little girl turned 9 whole months today!  Before we know it, we're going to be watching her blow out her birthday candle.  Oh, my! 

She can chill with her feet up,

or sit down nice and sweet,

 

 

or she just might surprise everyone and STAND UP on her own for the very first time!

Who needs to crawl anyway when you can just go straight to standing and walking? 
This little gymnast is also working on her right legged splits.

She's no slacker, either.  Gotta get those middle splits down, too.

She's got two bottom teeth already, but Dr. Betty said she's about to get 3 more on top. 
"Did you tell 'em about my teeth, mom?"

Happiest baby on the block.  As long as her mama is around:)

 

And now for the stats: 

18 lbs. 11 oz. = 50th percentile
  She's still a great eater and has three solid meals a day in addition to her milk five times a day.

28 3/4 inches long = 90th percentile
She's grown almost 2 inches in the last 3 months! 
No wonder she's been outgrowing her clothes like crazy.

 

17 1/4 head circumference = 50th percentile
No big melon head for this baby girl:)

Cami, we think you are perfect in every single way.  You are babbling non-stop and we love it.  You can say bebe, mamama, dadadada and hi.  You love playing peek-a-boo, especially right after bath time, and will laugh right along whenever others are laughing.  Most of the time you start laughing, and then clapping very quickly follows.  You are just so happy!  You started drinking water from a sippy cup and really seem to like it.  Dr. Betty said we get to start giving you Yo Baby yogurt and cheese, too.  I'm sure you'll love both. 

We do need to work on your physical abilities a little bit, but I'm sure in no time at all you will master all of that.  We've got to teach you how to go from laying down, to sitting up, to pulling up to a stand, all on your own.  Lila said she will be your trainer!  I think you are probably planning a big surprise for us and going to hop up one day and run after your brother and sister.

TX-OU - Get your horns up!

 

The Longhorns can't say we didn't try!  We love the TX-OU game around our house.  It's my favorite game of the year.  There really is nothing else like it.  We made queso, taquitos and pigs in a blanket, then smores cookies for dessert.  It was a football feast!  I can't wait to be able to take these three to a game one day.  We'll eat a corny dog at 10am and get in the stadium in time to do plenty of TEXAS! FIGHT! and sing The Eyes of Texas, too.  Lila is a little cheerleader in the making and loved practicing UT cheers with me during the game.  She had the Sound Sack for school this week and it was the letter T.  She loaded up on T items, and wore her Texas Longhorns shirt and hair bow.  She even took the UT bobblehead football player and plans to play the Alma Mater for her class with her horns up.  Love that kid.  Hook 'em Horns!

 

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch

Family Fun Day with the Weismann's!  Instead of dinner at home, we met their sweet fam at the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch, despite many protests from the husbands.  It was the perfect weather for such an outing, but there were about 1000 too many people for our liking!  And it was during part of the Cowboy game.  (Who knew that they were going to actually start winning?  Not me!)

Oh well, live and learn.  At least we got some cute pictures of the kids, right?

 

Sweet girl got to sit on some hay for the first time and check out the pumpkins with Baby Elmo.  She loved it!

Big sister was still cranky from being woken up from her nap, but big brother was all smiles.

It's so fun to have these big brothers!

One of the main reasons we chose this pumpkin patch was because they had Fletcher's Corny Dogs.  As in, the real deal, just like at the State Fair of Texas.  You can't turn down one of these.  It's just un-American.  And if there's a funnel cake, that's a must, too. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the day for Jared.

The kids ran through a haybale maze and then took some funny pictures with the yard art.  Everyone was happy that Nice Lila decided to show up.

The boys thought this jail was fun and Sheriff Lila wasn't too hard on them.

Then they spotted the bouncy slide and made a bee-line for it.

All three big kids slid down and then were off to the next one.  Jackson and Lila also hopped in the pumpkin bounce house and acted like crazy bafoons for a few minutes before we made our way over to Haybale Hill.

It was so tall that only J man was able to climb up it.  "Look at me, mom!"

Sweet dismount, dude.

Next, we made our way over to the pumpkin patch.  This is sort of shocking.  All five kids, looking in the same general direction.  No one crawling away, no one crying.  Miracles do happen!

Cami was a little hesitant that she was about to be dropped on her face, but I had faith that Jackson wouldn't do that to her. He might do it to Lila, but never to Baby Cami!

I'm pretty sure that this will be Jared's first and last pumpkin patch, so we HAD to get a family picture with him. 

Lila had sustained an injury by this point and had to go shoeless, but she was trying to grin and bear it.  I am constantly amazed by the number of "injuries" our kids have on a daily basis.

As we were walking over to the train we encountered more large yard art.  It was everywhere!

Where's the train, dad?

After waiting a good 15 or 20 minutes, it was finally our turn.

Riley made sure to get in the orange barrel (his favorite color, so maybe we'll make a UT fan out of him yet!) and the rest of us hopped in behind them.

We waved to Matt and Jared as we went by--I think they were secretly jealous that they couldn't fit in the tiny barrels.  NOT!  They were hating life right about now, but enjoyed the solid people-watching show that was all around us.  People are so interesting.  Just go out to Flower Mound and you'll see what I mean!

Thank goodness we made it home by the end of the third quarter to watch the Cowboys beat the Seahawks.  Their big win got me out of the doghouse, I think.  Way to go, Cowboys!