Fall Festival

For Halloween Night we decided to go with Lance, Nyx and Jude to a Fall Festival at a local church.

Madison decided to be a ballerina tonight.

(We were hoping it would be cool enough to wear are ladybug costumes, but it was 82 degrees today.)

Bumblebee Jocelyn put her pumpkins by the front door with...

the BIG pumpkin full of candy for our trick or treaters before we left for the Fall Festival.

Jude was looking handsome in the Pirate costume we bought him yesterday for $2.oo at Old Navy.

The kids had a great time on the bouncy houses and slides.

We played tons of games and...

even fished for some candy.

We ended our night with a hayride.

Jocelyn LOVES Mrs. Nyx!

FREE Halloween!

The girls got dressed up in some costumes this morning and we headed to...

Krispy Kreme for FREE donuts. YUMMY!

Krispy Kreme is giving away a FREE donut to any child that is dressed in a costume.

Then we headed to Sears because they are giving away a FREE Matel toy to any child that is dressed in a costume.

Much to our surprise the FREE toy was a Hot Wheels car. Madison was not very happy that they didn't have any girl toys. :( Oh well, we got our FREE cars and decided to give them to Jude.

Next we headed to Macy's because they were giving away $10.00 gift cards to the first 100 customers in the store today. I was thrilled to get my FREE $10.00, but then once we were there they told us that they were having a costume contest and the winner would get a $50.00 gift card. We stayed for the costume contest and...

Jocelyn the bumblebee WON!!!!

Needless to say we stayed and did some shopping with our FREE $60.00 from Macy's. We took advantage of the clearance rack and ended up getting 2 pairs of jeans, a dress, a jacket, 4 top/legging outfits and a 3 pack of Ariel underwear for the Costume Contest WINNER and we didn't have to pay anything for it all.

We finished our exciting morning with a stop at Chick-fil-A for a FREE lunch. If you buy an adult meal today any child in a costume gets a FREE kid's meal.

Deals!

I had seen online that Old Navy was going to be having ALL of their Halloween stuff on sale for $2.oo. The girls and I headed their and were the first ones in the store.

We bought our costumes for next Halloween. We bought two pink and white Kitty Cat costumes, a Monkey costume, and a Pirate costume for Jude. We also got Halloween underwear and shirts for next year.

I also printed out a coupon online for 50% off all shoes at Payless Shoe Store. So we went and picked out shoes to send in our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes that we are making to donate to Samaritan's Purse. The girls can't wait to finish filling their shoe boxes and send them off to two needy little girls their age.

A little early this year

We are going to be celebrating Christmas early this year due to Clay's deployment. The girls and I dropped Clay off at the airport this morning, so that he could fly to San Antonio for some training. He will be gone all weekend, so the girls are I are surprising him by decorating the house for Christmas.

Madison's favorite Christmas decoration is this wooden reindeer that Granddaddy made when I was a little girl.

We love Christmas so much that we are going to be celebrating it for the next two months.

Fun with Fall Leaves!

The girls have enjoyed making me "leaf bouquets" each day as we wait for the school bus.

Madison likes for me to toss the "leaf bouquet" in the air and see if we can catch any of the leaves as they fall.

After school today, Clay raked up a big leaf pile in the front yard and let the girls jump and play in it.

Madison loved getting to play and lay in the leaves.

Our happy girl!

Jocelyn loved getting right in the middle of the pile and...

throwing the leaves up in the air!

Jocelyn got tired and decided to take a nap in the big bed of leaves.

We finished our leaf fun with a parachute full of Fall leaves. What FUN!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

It is "K Week" so we decided to go fly a kite.

Daddy got home a little early today, so he was able to walk with us to...

a nice kite flying area near our house.

Madison named her kite "Silver Mist."

First, Daddy taught us how to fly a kite.

Madison flying her kite!

K is for Kite!

MOPS

This morning the girls and I went to a local MOPS group that meets at New Covenant Church. We had visited the church when we first moved here. A nice couple invited us to lunch after church. We enjoyed meeting them, but did not feel like the church was a good fit for our family. The mother did email Nyx and let her know that their church has a MOPS group that we could come visit. Nyx has joined the MOPS group and has been going for two months now. She invited me to visit the group. Today was our second time going. The first time there was a speaker, but today was a Game and Craft Day. We had a car scavenger hunt, which was fun. We were given a list of 35 items and had to go out to our cars and try to see how many of the items we could find in our car. My team won with 31 items. For the craft today, we made picture frames. I decided to make a ladybug frame for Jocelyn's bedroom.

Although the girls and I have enjoyed visiting the MOPS group, I am still not sure if we will join or not. They meet on Tuesdays, which makes for a very long day for the girls. I had to wake them up to get them ready to go to MOPS. After MOPS they had to eat their lunches in the car on the way to school. Then once they get home from school we get changed and head straight to ballet. Plus to be honest it is still very difficult for me to be around so many pregnant moms and infants. The majority of the conversation is about having kids and being pregnant. I know what did I expect going to a Mother's Of PreSchoolers group. Needless to say I am praying that the Lord will give me wisdom about whether or not to continue going. It would be a great way to meet other mothers and create a support system while Clay is deployed.

Daddy Dolls

During my search of things to help the girls deal with Daddy's deployment, I came across this amazing company started by military moms.

Hug-A-Hero

www.daddydolls.com

Our Daddy Dolls arrived today! We ordered the 12" dolls with Daddy's picture on it. We also got the 10 second voice recorder so that Daddy can record them a message and put it in the little pouch on the back of the doll. We had "Dad loves Madison!" and "Dad loves Jocelyn!" put on the bottom of their dolls so that they will be able to tell them apart.

Now the girls can snuggle Daddy while he is away.

We are looking forward to giving the girls their Daddy Dolls right before Clay leaves.

Halloween Package from Grandma Cathy

The girls were so excited to come home from school and find a Halloween package waiting for them from Grandma Cathy and Brittani Ann (Jocelyn's birth grandmother and half sister).

Jocelyn loved ALL of the candy! Madison liked the hat, gloves and Halloween socks and necklace that they sent.

Playground FUN!

The girls and I took Jude to the playground this evening while Lance and Nyx went out to dinner.

We had tons of FUN with our little buddy!