Halloween 2009

This entire week been a whirlwind of fun parties! In addition to all the fun school events, we've had several weekend Halloween festivities. On Friday afternoon, we went trick or treating at Scare on the Square in downtown McKinney. The entire downtown area was blocked-off to traffic, and the shopkeepers all handed out candy on the sidewalks. Thousands of kids and adults paraded around, filling up their bags with candy. The first piece of candy Reagan was given was a lollipop (her favorite!). For at least 5 minutes she walked around with a big smile on her face saying "I got lollipop!" Both kids collected an absurd amount of candy, so much so that their bags were overflowing before we made it all the way around!

That night we went to a Halloween party that some friends' hosted. We decided to all dress up as "A Family of Aggies" or, as Dustin decided, "Red Raider Killers." We all wore our Aggie attire and even did some Aggie face painting. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics that night. At the party, there was a bounce house in the backyard, and both kids bounced for at least 2 hours!

Peyton's last soccer game of the season was Saturday afternoon. He's made some good progress this season, and the team is looking forward to returning together next Spring.

Before we headed to our church's annual Fall Festival this evening, we kept our family tradition of going to Sonic for 50 cent corn dogs for dinner (we seem to remember the corn dogs being only 25 cents when we started the tradition just a few years ago!) Peyton asked how many Fall Festivals he has been to at our church, and, for the first time, I realized that this year was his fifth Fall Festival! We got to the Festival just as it was starting, and Peyton and Daddy raced to get in line at the bungee jump. Reagan and Mommy went inside to play a few little kid games. Finally, after a 45 minute wait, Peyton finally got to jump! He loved it! Reagan and Mommy went back inside to find a little kid bounce house, and Peyton and Daddy went to the World's Tallest Slide. Peyton refused to let Daddy go up with him this year. He did it all on his own! As he made it to the bottom, he said the words he says every year, "I want to do it again!" So they did! After running through bounce house maize, it was time to go. Daddy brought Mommy and the kids home and then went back to church to help out during the final hour of the Festival.

Peyton's Fall Party & A "Yellow" Day

Peyton's class Fall Party was today. The kids had a great time decorating pumpkins with a baseball cap and a bubble gum bubble (balloon) coming our of the mouths! They also made fall trees with hand prints and played a pumpkin bingo game. Peyton's big news of the day was that he ended his day on "Yellow" - the highest color on the behavior chart! "Yellow" means "A totally awesome day!" Peyton has really been trying very hard the last few weeks to achieve this and finally succeeded today! A few times, he has gotten up to yellow during the day but then had a incident that caused him to have to move his clip back down a color or two. He is so proud of his accomplishment! It's really cute, and we're soooooo glad he is motivated to make good choices about his behavior at school! :) (Which is no easy job for a boy as busy and energetic as Peyton!)

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Today was Kid Care's annual Great Pumpkin Hunt. Class by class, the kids got to go to the gym (it was too wet to go outside - once again!) and run through an obstacle course before racing to get their pumpkin. Both Peyton and Reagan loved the hunt. After we got home, Reagan pointed to her pumpkin and said, "I find it." Peyton loved the Pumpkin Hunt so much that he made his own pumpkin hunt in our living room for his animals. It was really cute!

A Visit From Granmommy & Grandaddy

Granmommy and Grandaddy were here on Saturday for a brief, but fun, visit. They came in late Friday night, after the kids were already asleep. We spent a lazy Saturday morning at home. The kids played in the yard. Peyton enjoyed showing Granmommy and Grandaddy all the words he can make on his Word Whammer. That afternoon, we all went to Peyton's soccer game. Reagan had fun watching the game from Granmommy's lap and playing soccer with Grandaddy and her ball. Next, we tried to play at Peyton's favorite park (the rocket park), but, unfortunately, wasps had invaded the rocket. So instead we headed to The Village Playarea in Allen for a few minutes. For dinner, we went to Cheddar's near The Village. Peyton tried to convince Granmommy and Grandaddy to spend another night, but it was time for them to head to Greenville. A fun day that went by way too fast!

Just Call Me Pumpkin Head

One of our nicknames for Peyton has always been "Pumpkin Head". A few weeks ago, the kids and I were driving down Preston Road in Frisco. Since Peyton has been trying to learn the names of all the roads around here lately, he was asking me about the name of that one. I told him that the name of that road is Preston and that, before he was born, Mommy and Daddy had thought about naming him Preston. I explained that we liked both names for a boy, but we finally picked the name Peyton to be his name. "Which name do you like better?" I asked him, "Peyton or Preston?" He thought for a moment and then said, "I like Pumpkin Head better."

Teacher's Comments

Reagan has gotten a glowing report every single day since school has started. Today here teacher wrote: "Another awesome day! She is becoming such the little helper and leader!" On Sunday, when Dustin picked her up from her Sunday School class, the teacher told him she was being a great helper. Yea! She is also napping much better at school now, too!

The State Fair and Pumpkin Party

On Wednesday, we took advantage of the weekly dollar day at the State Fair. Peyton was so excited to get to experience the Fair for the second time. Reagan just happily goes along with whatever the family is doing!

Dustin took the afternoon off from work, and we picked up the kids from school at 2:00. We were concerned about the scattered showers in the forecast, but, apparently, we should have been more concerned about bringing sunscreen. It turned out to be a hot and muggy day, but we had a great time anyway! Our plan was to go by the Ferris Wheel (or "Steering Wheel" as Peyton kept calling it) first, to see if Peyton was tall enough to ride it with Dustin. However, on our way over, we found out that it was closed for a maintenance issue. So instead, we let Peyton pick a different Midway ride. He chose the fire truck ride, where he got to go up and down on the ladder, spraying water on a "fire". Then we decided to visit Big Tex. Peyton was mildly interested in the State Fair symbol. Reagan enjoyed it until he started talking. Then she decided she didn't like it anymore. "I skeered," she kept saying! So then we headed for the $4 corn dogs - that's $16 for a family of 4 to each get a corn dog! :) Since it was still miserably muggy outside, we decided to spend some time at the indoor auto show. I think that was the kids' favorite part of the day! They got to play in and "drive" many, many cars. They didn't want to leave! We finally tore them away and headed towards the animals. We watched a few minutes of a pig show and then went to the petting zoo. Next, we visited the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit, where the kids got to pretend to be farmers. We then got dessert - cotton candy for the kids and a funnel cake for us (we decided our stomach's couldn't tollerate the fried butter!) - and found a good spot to watch the parade. By then it was 8:00 and time to go home. Reagan finally realized we were leaving as we started putting her into her carseat, and she started crying about having to leave. We had such a great time! At one point, while we were walking through the Fair together, Peyton said (as if it was just occurring to him that we were all together), "This is OUR family!" Overall, the kids did amazingly well while we were there, and we all had a wonderful time!

On Saturday, Peyton had another soccer game. He still hasn't scored a goal yet, but he did have one assist! He has some focused moments and some moments where he is more interested in determining how high he can pull the waistband of his shorts up to his chest!

That evening, our Sunday School class had our annual Pumpkin Party. The highlight of the evening for Peyton was being the kid who busted open the pinata! Way to go Peyton!

Reagan has discovered what "too loud" means. She was awakened from her nap today as a neighbor started mowing. When Daddy went in her room to get her our of be, she complained, "Dat too loud!" She has also asked, "What's dat noise?" if she doesn't recognize a sound. She is full of questions! She find me doing something the house and ask, "What doin', Mommy?" She also asks, "What dat?" several times a day about an item. And she can count 5 items successfully! She loves her nursery rhyme book. She has a book called "Stories for Girls" that she calls her "Stories". "I want read Stories," she says.

Peyton's project for the weekend was to make a "Behavior Chart" for his animals like the one they have at school. He woke up Friday morning with the idea and insisted we make one before breakfast. He glued several pieces of construction paper together - from top to bottom - yellow, purple, green, orange, and blue. Then he had me find 5 clothes pins and write 5 of his animals names on them. He then clipped the clothes pins onto the green paper. "Everyone starts on green every day," he told us. Throughout the day, I would hear him tell his animals, "Good job, Bunny. Go move you clip up" or "Oh no, that was not a good choice, Big Brother Bear. Go move your clip down." Big Brother Bear had a very hard weekend. He spent most of the weekend on orange or blue (the 2 colors which mean "You need to make better choices.") At one point, Peyton even sent Big Brother Bear to the office. Unfortunately, that didn't help things and Big Brother Bear's mommy had to be called to come pick him up. (In case you are wondering - Peyton is pretending that Big Brother Bear is behaving like a kid in Peyton's class at school who will remain nameless - not Peyton! We questioned him about that!) The entire game was very cute!

It's Fall, Y'all!

Actually, true to Texas weather, we've gone straight from deathly hot summer to a cold & rainy season (the leaves on the trees haven't even changed color yet) that's too miserable to be out it! So far, we haven't had many days of "perfect" fall weather. It's either too hot or too rainy and cold!

And we've attempted twice to go to the Dallas Arboretum with friends, only to have both times rained out. Peyton has even started praying that God will not let it rain on the next day we are scheduled to go. He says, "Thank you, God, for not letting it rain on (Friday)." He is definitely bold with his prayers!

We did get one weekend of great weather! The first weekend of October was great! Grandma and Grandpa came up on Thursday night and stayed through Sunday. Brett and Stephanie came up on Friday night and stayed until Sunday as well. We had a fun-filled, super busy weekend! The main purpose of the trip was so Brett, Stephanie, Mommy and Daddy could go to the A&M/Arkansas game at the Cowboys Stadium (and so Grandma and Grandpa could get some grandkid time!).

On Saturday morning, all eight of us went to The Great Orange Pumpkin Farm. We had fun feeding the animals, searching for pumpkins, taking the hay ride, riding the little train and hanging out together. Reagan really loved the sheep! Peyton really loved trying to pick up the biggest pumpkins he possibly could! Pictures of the outing can be found under "Fall 09".

That afternoon, Brett, Stephanie, Dustin and I headed out to the new Cowboys Stadium for some tailgating and then the game. The stadium is really impressive! Of course, the Aggie band was awesome! The first five minutes of the game were great - the rest, not so much! We did have a really great time, despite the Aggies getting handed our first loss of the season.

Grandma and Grandpa spent the night with the kids, giving Mommy and Daddy the chance to have a quiet and restful Sunday morning in a hotel!

Over the weekend, Reagan made two new BFFs. As long as Grandma was around, Reagan wanted nothing to do with Mommy or Daddy. When I tried to put Reagan to bed, she went running out of the room and insisted, "Noooooo! I want Maw-Maw read! Maw-Maw do it!" Grandma was only too happy to! Then Stephanie arrived, and Reagan insisted that Stephanie ride in our car on the way to lunch. Reagan insisted on Stephanie holding her hand as she crossed the parking lot.

Peyton and Grandpa had fun playing together and going for their traditional walk down to the creek. When it was time for them to leave, Peyton said, "Grandpa, you're funny!"

Peyton is impressing us with his reading! He now has a stack of "star word cards" that we read every night. He can find those same star words on a page. He has even found the "is" in "Francis".

Reagan finally learned how to crawl out of her crib. She's only done it once so far. Last Friday, she was not happy about being put in bed for a nap. So I walk out, shut the door and head for the office. A couple of minutes later, in addition to the crying, I hear her door open, shut, then the pitter patter of little feet running down the hall. Reagan was promptly returned to her bed, where she did stay after that. She actually crawled out of her pack-n-play at Grandma & Grandpa's during her birthday week. One afternoon, we were all in the kitchen (thinking Reagan was napping in a bedroom), when Reagan suddenly showed up with a big smile on her face.

Peyton, Reagan, and I are enjoying a couple of days of Fall Break this week. We're mostly taking it easy at home - staying away from too many Piggy Flu infested places!

Daddy has some big news, too! He has a new job! Same company, just a new position. The move is considered lateral at first, but he is going to a more high-profile group to work on a new system for encrypting credit card info. We are all so proud of him! :) Way to go, Daddy!

Comments of the Week

Peyton: "Hey, Mommy. Am I going to the 'Sneeze Doctor' tomorrow?" (referring to the allergist, "Sneeze Doctor" was all Peyton!)

Peyton: "Did God give the construction workers a bag of parts to make our house?"

Peyton: "Hey, Mommy. Do you want to be 33 so, so bad? I want to be 6 so, so bad so I can go in the 4 feet deep water.!"

Peyton: "Will I be grown up in 10,000 days?"

Reagan (after I requesting that I put Peyton's headphones on her so she could listen to his music and then taking them off immediately): "Noooo..... I don't like it!"

Peyton: "Is my Francis the same as Daddy's Francis?"

Reagan: "I needa wite wida pen!"

Peyton: "I need to lose some money on the toll road." (he meant to say use some money!)