Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween 2014

Halloween is such a fun holiday for the kiddo's.  The boys are still at a great age where they don't really care about the candy and are totally into the people watching.  Our evening started with picking out costumes...
Princess Avery and Knight Carter
Slaying the evil dragon to protect the princess
King Carter and Princess Avery
Parker the Bee
Little Pumpkin Avery
Cowboy Buzz
Cowboy Buzz needed a horse
Final Choices - King, Pumpkin and Cowboy Buzz
Then we headed to our neighborhood's Halloween party.
The boys played in the bouncy houses, got their faces painted, danced to the DJ, played football, ate pizza and hung out with their neighborhood pals.
Both boys got Pumpkins
Avery slept until it started getting cold
Best attempt at a family picture
Carter had to help Parker crawl up
Getting ready to go
The mad dash
Carter and Else Perin
The boys made it from the clubhouse to our house and decided that was enough.  So they both hung out and decided to hand out candy for the rest of the evening - and taste some as well!
Body part gummies
Candy patrol - Carter is a very firm enforcer of the 1 piece rule
Moving closer to the action
End of evening family selfie
Happy Halloween from the Holden Family.  Hope your evening was full of treats and light on tricks!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Halloween Fun

Halloween starts in our neighborhood with the Boo your Neighbors tradition.  We were Boo'd early this year and the boys had a blast with their loot and even more fun Booing their neighbors!
The boys had their Halloween party at school which includes a parade, special treats and art projects.  They boys picked out different costumes for the occasion.  Carter was a knight (shirt courtesy of Pops/Emme) and horse from two years ago (also worn last year).
Parker was cowboy Buzz with Carter's hand-me-down Buzz outfit and his cowboy hat from a summer birthday party.
The boys were so excited about their outfits, they decided to come with mom to drop off Avery so they could show her teachers their costumes.  After school, the boys drew dad pictures of how they wanted their pumpkins to look so he could carve them.
Parker's
Carter wanted a mustache and beard on his

October

Avery (2 months) - Sweet Avery spent most of the month soaking up her last few days at home napping in mom's arms.
Each week she spends some more time awake, alert and in a good mode.  Which means some playtime..
And lots of precious baby smiles!
And some cute baby stares ;)
The rest of the month was spent on fun adventures.
Sleeping at swim lessons
First dinner out - Sushi
Sleeping post-school
Hanging with dad after school
First breakfast out - Waffle House
First time in the basement
Dressing up to root on the Yellow Jackets
Watching football with dad
Afternoon walk with mom

Carter (4 years, 5 months) - Carter can sometime do and say the funniest things.  We wrote a few down so we didn't forget them this month:
- When discussing super hero powers, Carter decided he had the "Power to do Good".
- Carter has been spotted feeding his hungry stuffed animals a few times by lifting his shirt and nursing them
- The boys were writing their names on their snacks so no one would mix them up.  Carter asked mom to put an A on her "next to her milk buttons."
- He told his teacher the following story of how mom and dad decided to get married: "There was no one for daddy to marry at the baby school in Wisconsin so he got on a plane to the lion school.  He looked at all the girls and decided mom was the most beautiful."
Carter put the lovies down for a nap
Picture of the family (dad, Carter, mom, Parker, Avery) at the beach
Picture he drew for his teacher - it's Carter in an elevator

Parker (2 years, 11 months) - Parker is a fabulous mix of toddler sweetness, stubbornness, opinions and smiles.  We have been making a concerted effort to get him some one-on-one time over the past month and he really enjoys the attention despite always missing his brother.  Parker has become obsessed with the Yellow Jackets lately and football.  He wants to play at home all the time and apparently he plays at school too.  His best friend, Kieran's mom, had to give us a little talking to because Kieran came home and told his parents he didn't like the Bulldogs anymore (they are grads of UGA) because he wanted to be a Yellow Jacket like his best buddy Parker (they call each other best buddy).

Here are some recent Parker pics:
Parker is still a sleeping champ - goes down easy, sleeps in late and takes solid naps!
Enjoying the fish pond on a daddy date
Parker got his library card and immediately picked out 8 books
Warm weather = water table in October
And lunch on the back deck!
Watching Carter's soccer practice from Avery's seat
Parker has been very keen to play soccer on the sideline during Carter's practices and games.  There is a 3-year old league that starts in December, we will see if that enthusiasm continues in the next few weeks.

He now sleeps with a football
Parker's favorite things - family, teachers, yellow, orange, race cars, Frozen and Kieran
These next ones are from Emma's birthday party.  Best Buddy Kieran is next to Parker in the plaid shirt.

Siblings - All the siblings are absolutely obsessed with each other.  It's really adorable and we try to cement these days for when the teenage craziness happens!  They even did a week long trip together to Disney World with Grandma and Grandpa and never once missed Mom and Dad so long as they were with each other.

The boys favorite activity is football... all day/all night.
Both big brothers are wonderful with Avery.  She is very blessed to have such protective/sweet brothers in her life.  

Parker, mom and Avery had some time alone with the other boys were camping.  While mom was cleaning up dinner, Avery got a little fussy on the play mat.  So Parker got all the Halloween lovies for her.
Then he went upstairs to get her the pillow from his bed and sat next to her and held her hand.
Then he laid down to snuggle and sing her a few songs.
Before pulling out one of his library books to read her a story.
They are all just ridiculously adorable!