Thanksgiving Weekend

My little tech geek loved Auntie Kristen's iPhone! He quickly learned that the point was to make and then pop the bubbles!

Colin has a book about a tiger prowling through the jungle. We have been making the tiger sound at the end for the past two months, but today it was funny! *shrug* kids...

Here are the words so the sound Michael is making makes sense:

A rumble in the jungle, a whooping in the trees. Who is that creeping and prowling through the leaves? The parrots squawk and flap their wings. The monkeys climb up high. The zebras hide, the hippos shake to spy this passer-by. All except a tiny bird as brave as brave can be. The tiger smiles, "I am your friend, and you're a friend to me."

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had several friends over for lunch on Thanksgiving along with Michael's family (Joe, Laura, Jon and Kristen). We also volunteered to host a couple Basic Military Trainees (BMT's) who are here for boot camp. The Hartleges brought two more with them and the Townsends and D'Avinos also joined us. 21 counting the babies (Colin, Lily, and Natalie) - wow! We had a ton of food including turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, homemade yeast rolls, homemade noodles, sweet potato casserole, 7 layer salad, deviled eggs and a veggie tray. Desserts were ginger and sugar cookies, pumpkin roll, blackberry cobbler and lots of pie - pecan, pumpkin, and apple! Yum!

It was so great to see Jon and Kristen and to have Joe and Laura here. Laura took some pumpkins I had sitting around and made awesome flower vases for the centerpieces! She's so creative!

Yesterday we got family portraits done with all the Seal bunch here and last night Michael and I went out with Jon and Kristen while the grandparents babysat. That was so nice! We really miss having them around all the time...we definitely got spoiled with them so close when we were all stationed in Dayton!

Here are some pictures of the weekend:
Boys and lots of food!

The girls picked flowers from the garden and made their own arrangement for the table. :)

One of the four BMT's who had lunch with us. Colin playing with the extra flowers.This morning we were letting Colin play with one of the Roma tomatoes from our garden.

He liked it until he got a big squirt of tomato juice!

Joe brought Colin a Hogs hat that fits him perfectly. They watched football all afternoon today! Colin loves hanging out with his Papa.
And a random shot of us shopping with Colin. I just love the look on his face!

Baby Dedication

We had Colin's baby dedication this morning in church. He was fascinated to see his picture up on the screen and a crowd of people watching him...my little ham. He kept looking around wide-eyed and then would crane his neck back to try to see Michael! Afterwards back at his seat with us, he hammed it up with some more people and made it happily through most of the service. I finally took him to the nursery near the end when he started jabbering and laughing too loudly! Trying again next week and hoping for equally good results...

Before church started:

Too Much Estrogen!

Here's the photo Courtney was commenting about below. Poor guy doesn't have a chance!

Happy Birthday Shawn!

Shawn, Courtney, Lauren and I met for lunch today for Shawn's birthday! Courtney used the cake pan I got her last week for her birthday to make a cupcake cake. It turned out awesome!
Colin was a little more skeptical about going down the slide today than he was last week!

Lily seemed to love it though - this is her very first trip!

Ryleigh has decided that going down on her belly is the best thing ever! I can't get over her little fairy outfit today - such a cutie! She also had accessorized with a strand of pink beads, but they came off before she went to the playground.

Colin just loves to watch Brenna and Ryleigh. I wish they were here to entertain him every time he gets bored of me!

Colin was not as happy in the sea of pink as one might have guessed. I think he was mad at facing the sun and being made to sit still - not his favorite thing lately! Maybe one of the other girls got a better picture!

Long week...

This has been such a long week. All three of us have been sick, with us taking Colin to the doctor on Monday ("just an infection"), Michael coming down with it on Tuesday (his birthday no less) and me getting it yesterday (still feeling somewhat queasy today). Needless to say, birthday celebration was cancelled (although his powdered sugar doughnuts - his fav - have served our desire for carbs well) and we have not done much all week and are just now feeling like getting out and about. Shawn's birthday is tomorrow and I am looking forward to lunch with the girls!

Here are a few pictures over the past week:

Colin's new favorite "toy" - obviously they are all over the house and each time he sees a new one, there is a sharp intake of breath, a mad scurry toward it, and then a big grin as he whacks it into action.

Poor sleepy baby.

Eyeing the pears and apples I have in front of the fireplace. He likes both and is beginning to recognize edible things!

Playground!

Last week we took the kids to Double Dave's for lunch and so they could play on the playground. Courtney, Ryleigh, her mom and mom-in-law, Shawn, Brenna, and Natalie were all there! We had such a great time and Colin enjoyed playing at a playground for the first time. I didn't have my new camera though (what kind of mom doesn't take a camera?!), so I took these on Courtney's!

Brenna took Colin down the slide several times which he loved.

Ryan's mom, Joanne, let Colin jump on her lap for at least 15 minutes - I enjoyed the break! :)

So sweet!

Halloween Costumes

As promised, here are more pictures of the other two costumes...

Air Show

So we opted not to go to the Air Show on base this year since Colin has had enough of crowds lately. However, we were able to see some of it while we were hanging out outside this afternoon.

Harvest Festival and Hemperly Halloween

Michael and I helped with the church Harvest Festival this year. There were a lot of kids there and we were in charge of bowling! They had food, games, and inflatables. Colin slept at first and then enjoyed looking around. Once it got dark though, he seemed to not like the lights in the parking lot (we volunteered for an outside booth because he enjoys being out of doors so much).Michael and I helped with the church Harvest Festival this year. There were a lot of kids there and we were in charge of bowling! They had food, games, and inflatables. Colin slept at first and then enjoyed looking around. Once it got dark though, he seemed to not like the lights in the parking lot (we volunteered for an outside booth because he enjoys being out of doors so much).

I got my new camera on the way to the church. Colin wore orange and black until the sun went down and then we changed him into his seal costume. I will have pictures of that on here later...they are all on my friend's camera!

Saturday we had a post Halloween party at the Hemperlys'. Here's a picture of the three of us:

Courtney had a bean bag toss...Colin liked the bags, but not the tossing! :)

Ryleigh was cute, as always, in her kimono.

Colin put on his tiger pj's and crashed (for a while) soon after we arrived. Unsurprisingly, Brenna chose to be a princess for Halloween. She made a very cute Jasmine, while Shawn was Snow White and baby Natalie was an apple....

Ben has adjusted well to being a father of daughters and was brave enough to complete the ensemble of Disney princesses by dressing as Cinderella!