Fall wrap-up

We stayed quite busy this fall (but when are we not busy???) so here are some of the highlights of August-November.

August meant back to school for everyone.  Griffin started Kindergarten at Bearden Elementary, and Baylor & Hudson started in the 2-year old class at West Hills Baptist.

Griffin played soccer in the fall the past two years, but he decided that he'd rather play baseball this fall.  

We always had to take plastic bats and balls for Baylor & Hudson to play with during the games. When they didn't have Matt pitching to them or weren't busy throwing their balls and then chasing after them, they had fun climbing up and down on the bleachers.

 

 Is this not the sweetest picture of Baylor?  I just love the way his big blue eyes show up and that sweet little half-smile.

Here are a few pictures from a fun day at the zoo.

Hudson is typically my "wild child" but sometimes he is very timid.  Baylor was excited to ride on the big gorilla on the zoo carousel, but Hudson would only sit on the bench--he wanted nothing to do with any of the carousel animals, not even the ones that don't go up and down.

Pop and Chaz gave all three boys UT jerseys and helmets.  For several days, they barely took them off....especially Hudson.  Here they are after their baths one night--Griffin and Hudson had to put their jerseys back on one more time before bed.  It is rare for me to be able to catch all three boys together, being sweet to each other, and actually looking at the camera!  After a sweet picture snuggled up together in the rocking chair, we had to do some silly faces.

October proved to be very busy.  In early October, we celebrated cousin Hollins' 3rd birthday at The Little Gym.  Baylor & Hudson definitely enjoyed the birthday cupcakes and ice cream! 

 On October 14, we celebrated the boys' half birthday with cupcakes at home.  

 

We started fall break with a slumber party with Harper.

We also spent a day with Mimi at Oakes Farm. The slide was a favorite for all of them. The little boys enjoyed the sandbox while Mimi took Griffin to the giant jumping "pillow." We fed the goats a LOT!  

All three boys had a great time, and we picked out the pumpkin that would become our jack-o-lantern.

On October 26th, I ran the CrossKnox 15K.  This was the longest race I'd done since having kids so Matt brought all of the boys out to cheer me on.  Since the race ended at Bearden Elementary, we played on the playground for a little while afterwards.

It's always fun dressing the twins alike, but having twins at Halloween presents a fun opportunity for coordinating costumes.  For their first Halloween, Baylor & Hudson stayed in the stroller which I turned into Mater to go with Griffin's Lightning McQueen costume.  For their second Halloween, they were both pumpkins because I found a second one  exactly like the one I'd used for Griffin at that age.  So this year I really wanted to come up with two costumes that weren't exactly alike but that belonged together.  Griffin and I brainstormed together, ran several of our better ideas past Baylor & Hudson, and we finally settled on Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story.  Weezy had given Griffin a pair of cowboy boots when he was little, but he never really wanted to wear them.  I pulled them out one night a couple of weeks before Halloween to see if they were going to work for the Woody costume (at the time, we had not decided who would be Buzz and who would be Woody).  Both of the boys wanted to try them on, but Baylor was so excited about them that he couldn't even wait to get a diaper and jammies on!

For the next couple of weeks, I kept asking the boys which character they each wanted to be.  For a little while, they kept changing their answers.  I was afraid that we might end up having two Buzzes or two Woody's.  However, they finally settled on their costumes--Baylor would be Buzz and Hudson would be Woody.  Griffin had known for months what he wanted to be--Donnie from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first picture below is from our ride on the 3 Rivers Rambler a few days before Halloween.  The second is from Halloween night at Weezy's house, the starting point of our trick-or-treating.

 For Thanksgiving, as is tradition, we went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house for brunch and the parade.  We tried to get a cute picture of all 5 cousins together, but that is quite a feat.  We did manage to get them all in one shot, but as you can see they weren't all happy to sit and pose!

For Thanksgiving dinner, we went to Weezy's house and were joined by Bebe and Lacy.