Happy Halloween!

Several weeks ago Quinn chose to be a Pink Lady for Halloween. Tyndale made a great T-Bird! Brad and I decided to go as a German couple...I guess honoring our roots a bit...ha! We had such fun!

Check out this tough T-Bird with his number one Pink Lady!

Might be the best pic of this group of cousins yet! This is a hard crew to corral!

I just LOVE this time of year...and I love that we get so many trick-or-treaters. Check out our huge spider that we adopted (by the light). He is really very friendly.

Had to have a cheers with our steins. I didn't want to lug my camera the entire night, so I left it at home and missed many other great memories. We joined a hayride with our friends...where Quinn and Tyndale met up with their counterparts...Sara Rodgers and Hampton, who were a Pink Lady and a T-Bird too! Our friends Mark and Dorothy were Dat-Man and Dat-Girl...awesome outfits! Wish I had more pictures to show yall, but it was a super fun night with friends and family. 

Quinn's first horse show

I have to admit that "why does my child look like this?" went through my mind after we gathered all the apparel for the horse show. I grew up riding english and the clothing choices are way more attractive in my opinion. (I will have to dig up some old riding pics) Quinn will be riding english in the future, but for this age group apparently western is the way to go. Quinn was so excited about her first show, and it made it even better that two of her closest friends were in it too.

Sara Rodgers, Quinn and Georgia getting ready. Funny note: Q and I tucked her jeans into her boots since that is the style now...well Mrs. Linda about died! Evidently that is super tacky in the western world...who knew?

Mrs. Linda giving some last minute instructions.

Georgia and Quinn with Peanut



Quinn with her pony, Levi. She won second place in the halter ponies class! There were six ponies/riders in that class so that is really great!

Here is Quinn getting ready for the Lead-in class. They all won blue ribbons for this class and the ribbon is definitely a prized possession in our house!

It was a fun day. We have a lot (a LOT) to learn about this whole world of horses. Quinn loves everything about it...she would ride every day if she could. This is the first "extra-curricular" that she has really adored and I am happy that she is so excited.

Happy 2nd Birthday Tyndale!

Since May, we have been getting our milk from the Brookhaven Farmer's Market. Jamie Mauthe is a delightful lady who runs a Progress Milk Barn with her husband, family, and six milk cows. We return our bottles to her each week and pick up our new milk. Her milk is pasteurized, antibiotic-free (and organic...although she can't label it that way due to government regs) and SUPER fresh. They love their cows and what they do and it really shows. And our kids looooove the milk!

It was one Friday morning when I was picking up our milk when it hit me...I was planning to have a farm party for Tyndale's birthday party...so why not ask Jamie if we could have it there? Luckily she said yes and then had idea after idea of fun stuff that the kids could do while we were there!

Some of the decorations. The milk bottles are sentimental to me because my grandfather gave them to me several years ago, with many other antique bottles. They are Borden bottles from the New York/New Jersey area, and I thought they would be a perfect decoration.

Moo...a lucky finger got some icing off of the front cupcake..ha!

Tyndale blowing out his candle...2! Can't believe it!

 

Quinn and Hadley feeding the chickens.

Tyndale feeding the chickens.

Quinn gathering fresh eggs from the chicken coop.

...she found the biggest one!

And they all got to hold some baby chicks. We were laughing because Quinn's chick was a platinum blonde too...just like Quinn!

Here are Quinn, Hadley and Christian feeding one of the calves. They named him Brownie.

 

And here is Violet with the other calf. We also all got to watch the big cows get milked, but unfortunately none of my pictures turned out very good. It is really cool to be able to think of "our" cows when we are drinking milk at home!

We watched a beautiful sunset and made special family memories. We had a fantastic day on the farm!!

Pumpkin Patch

We visited the Pumpkin (or "pup-in," as Tyndale would say...) Patch on a beautiful day. It was Family Fun Day, so they had pony rides, face painting, hay rides, pumpkin painting, and so much more. Quinn's riding teacher, Mrs. Linda brought the ponies out and here is Quinn on Peanut.

 

Tyndale has been talking SO much lately! Instead of "sat?" ..now he says..."whassat?" or "what dat is?" Our favorite is when he walks around the house asking, "Where boo boy is?" He also likes to ask and answer his own question...he will ask, "Where Quinn-boo-boo is?" and then say, " She gone. "  (Quinn-boo-boo is his version of our Quinnaroo.)  He melts my heart when he says "I luh-loo Mama!" And he still loves to sing the "Behold" song...but now he knows more of the words. When you ask him "How are you doing?" he will answer "Doin' a-white" or "Doin' fine"...he is hilarious!

Quinn is growing up so fast! We have had a really great first 9 weeks in school. She made a 100 in both reading and math! She adores Mrs. Moak and loves to "teach her class" at home. She reads ALL the time...we love to encourage this and she is really proud of herself. Just like Tyndale, she cracks us up with things that she says. This week was Homecoming at BHS and they had dress up days each day. Yesterday was camoflage day and we (surprise!) didn't have a stitch of camo in the entire house! So I told her that surely Walmart would have something camo for her to wear and she says..."but Mama, you said that clothes from the grocery store were tacky!"  Did I really say that? Maybe...but only the Bratz or Hannah Montana or "Too Spoiled" or too glittery/trashy stuff...I am definitely NOT above Walmart...it just cracked me up that she said that! I immediately made a mental note to be more careful about what I say to/around her! We found a (pretty cute, actually) camo fleece in the boys section and she was ready to go!

The other day she was all excited to tell me that she saw Deuce (OK...she called him "Juice"...) McAllister on a video at school about healthy eating and exercise. She remembered that he was my favorite Saint and it is so cool to me that she can put all of that together. Sometimes it is bittersweet to me that she is not such a little girl anymore, but I love to hear what is on her mind and actually get to know and nurture her personality.

Charleston Trip

Kristy and I traveled to Charleston to meet Maylen and Gage and visit/help out Lindy and Eric and we had such fun!! The babies are beautiful and so sweet! Taking care of twins is definitely a challenge, though, and we were trying out some strategies during the week to help Lindy become more independent with them. We also whisked the babies away to fun locations such as Whole Foods, Walmart, and Folly Beach so that Lindy could SLEEP!

 family photo

 Gage on the left, Maylen on the right. This pic caught Gage making his Mr. Roper face...love it!

Maylen yawning...so sweet! We had a fun sister bonding time and taught Lindy all of our mama tricks. She is doing such a great job!

Matilda Gray Woodring

On the way to Charleston we stopped in to see Mary and Casey and meet their new baby, Matilda. She is a doll! They live in a gorgeous neighborhood in Birmingham, and they gave us the full house tour, including the winter garden! (I am a total garden/soil/compost/vermicompost/vegetable dork)

 But back to the real reason that we came by...to meet this sweet angel! Look at that little mouth - adorable!

Mary and Casey seem to be making an easy transition into parenthood and doing very well. Mary loves to joke that she doesn't know much about babies once they are in the world - she is an OB - but she is a natural! So glad we got to visit with them!

Welcome Fall!

We are really enjoying the cool weather recently...here are a few pictures of us welcoming Fall!