Halloween festivities

We definitely live in the best neighborhood!

Our kids are surrounded by buddies which leaves us parents time to socialize!

It's a win-win!

On Sunday, we got to be a part of a neighborhood pumpkin carving party.

(Love these Mamas...and Noah, of course!)

When I told Matt we'd need to carve a pumpkin for the party's contest, he was oh-so-thrilled.  I searched high and low for an inspiring idea that would be creative, original, yet minimal work.  

See Matt & I compliment eachother in many ways in our relationship, but the way we do projects is very much different.  I like to keep it simple, keep it fun for the kids, and do more "eye balling it" than worrying about perfection.

Matt, on the other hand, likes to measure, use precise calculations, and has a harder time 'winging it.'

But we survived the family project!

And our 3rd place winning Whale was complete!

Seriously, doesn't every kid wish they had this many neighbor friends?!

Connor bobbed for apples for the first time & pulled one out with ease.

Then Monday after school, we all suited up for Trick or Treating!  My adorable Harry Potter let me tag along as his gal pal, Hermione.

And then there's these handsome boys.  With God willing, Noah kept his Gecko mask on all night.  Daddy wore his Catboy costume proudly with his sidekick.  I'm grateful to have a husband that goes along with my crazy ideas every Halloween.

The group we ventured around the neighborhood with this year.  This was mere seconds before Hell broke loose & the kids took off all over the neighborhood, while us parents tried desperately to keep up with our fun faces on.

We made it home before bedtime and the boys were thrilled with their earnings!!

My BABY...

is turning E-I-G-H-T!!

Make. it. stop.

I remember when he turned 5 and I thought it was painfully old.  What I wouldn't give to make him 5 again!

In a way to celebrate my sweet boy before his birthday, Connor voted on a family weekend trip to Universal/Islands of Adventure instead of a friend party this year.

Both boys had an amazing time, we well behaved, and even the adults enjoyed it all! 

We survived 3 hours in the car with two crazy boys in the backseat, Connor ordered his first meal from the adult menu at dinner, FSU rocked a nice win, and Noah smothered Bo like usual.  Our trip was off to a great start!

After wrangling all the family first thing in the morning, pushing through herds of people, and splurging for the Express passes to avoid waiting in lines all day, we were ready to go!

Noah was so easy to go to Auntie K and Uncle Eric, which is a huge compliment to them as he's usually hard to win over at first.

Our first stop was Seuss land!

We sweet talked the Universal workers to allow my 39 inch tall child to ride the 40" or taller ride!  Ironically, once we were on it, it broke down when we were half way done.

The best part of it all was that they gifted all of us free passes to any rides in the park, which was a huge score since there were a handful of rides our Express passes wouldn't work on.

We hopped off the broken ride and were greeted with this fun gang for a photo op!

It's amazing how much my two boys are different.  My Connor is big enough to go on almost every adult ride, yet I'm often holding his hand and reassuring him that the scary stuff on rides is just pretend & he can close his eyes if he's afraid.

Then there's Noah.  The kid who wants to ride every roller coaster over and over and over, without fear.

He was able to do mostly 3D rides, where me & Dad planted ourselves in the "Stationary rows" with our oh-so-cool motion sickness that adddddores those darn 3D motion rides.  We'd do the 3D rides & Noah would just beg to go on another roller coaster instead.  He did rock the 3D glasses like a champ though.

I was excited to explore the Harry Potter part of the parks for the first time with my cute Harry Potter fan.  Noah got on the roller coaster in this area without a problem & it was a big, full blown roller coaster.  As I held my breath on it as I watched my baby in the cart in front of me fly around on each wild turn, we got off the ride to see Noah cry begging to go on it again! Haha!

While Noah napped on Matt, we all hopped on a quick ride together.  When we got off, we happened to be in the right place at the right time and ran into Jimmy Fallon!

I don't get star-struck, but my sister, however, was THRILLED!

{He's currently waving at her as she says, "I love you Jimmy!"

He then gave her a high five and said he loves her too!

The boys did excellent during our marathon day at the parks!  We ended the day with supper at TGIFriday's.  Well, we had supper, while Noah had M & Ms.

{Side note: Here's a classic Noah face.  It's more like a "I'm a walking middle finger" face.}

Annnnd now...my baby turns 8 tomorrow.

Martial Arts!

Connor's school has a Martial Arts program financially supported from Korea.

So every Monday at PE, he was perfecting his adorable Martial Arts skills & we were asked to come see their "show" to see all he's learned.

It was something he'd never sign up for outside of school, but he loved it & did such a great job---with memorizing the words, moves, and the best part---

He 'ninja chopped' a board in half.

I usually show my happy mom face with just about everything with my kids, but when my 7 year old pounded a tiny board in my hands... my face said it all.

I love his face.

Not as thrilled with mine. Haha!

Not sure who was prouder.  I love him so!!

Photo therapy

It's truly amazing the emotions that you can feel when looking at a photo.

I don't have attachments to any objects that I can think of, but my photos.  They pull at my heart in so many ways.

Let's rewind just a bit.

The past few weeks I've been feeling anxious.  Feeling bitter.  Feeling fearful.  All those awesome emotions that overcome me as I prepare for yet another court hearing with Connor's dad.  Its comparable to preparing for the biggest, most important battle of your life.  You have documented every event needed, written down your thoughts, taken photographs, organized it all, and are forced to relive it all to keep it fresh in your head to present it to a judge.  It's so unfair on every level.  You're fearful of what lies will surface, how I'll prove myself, etc etc etc.  It's impossible to know exactly how it will play out, but you prepare for every single scenario in your head.  It keeps me up at night.  It has me sneaking into Connor's room to snuggle him a little more when he's sleeping.  The horrible feelings can just eat you alive, especially when you have to remain 'friendly' when you see the 'other party' on a weekly basis & all you can do is prepare in every possible way.  Its recommended that I print out a few photos to show my bond with my child before hearings, so I'm always sifting through my external hard drive looking for some.

That's where I found myself sifting through photos from 7-8 years ago.  The time in my life where it was the most beautiful, yet fell apart all around the same time.  My way of healing was more like amnesia--just not remembering that time in my life to help move on.  With that amnesia, I tucked away a lot of photos of my sweet first born all because they triggered painful memories or caught angles where you could see a wedding ring on my finger or wedding photo blown up on the wall.

That's where I had a brilliant idea.  I can't erase the past.  I don't want to feel like my precious first baby's photos were something painful to look back at.  I took the amazing power of Photoshop and used it for my own personal therapy.  As I try to fight off the lingering fears of court approaching, I found an outlet that helped me feel a bit better today.

I took some of my favorite photos of Connor and I from when he was a baby and edited out any glimpses of a wedding ring.  It helped me see the joy in the photo and I love looking at these memories again.

Take that, sucky memories.

Annnnnnd my favorite.

So I hired someone...

As much as I think it's crazy to pay someone to take our pictures when I could very well rig a tripod & remote to take my own family photos, I opted to do it!  Just once a year I'll try to get in some nice family photos instead of being behind the camera.  I waited a looooooooong 4 weeks to get them back, but am very happy with the outcome.

Lucky for Matt, I was able to go through and edit his thinning hair area on the top of his head after we got the photos back.  Shhhhh.... don't tell anyone. :)

I'll set the tone for the session first.

We arrive at new beach location just before sunset.  Walk right onto the beach from the parking area to find a gentleman reeling in a very large shark.  Yep.  That's right.  A massive shark.

We trek a good 3/4 mile down the beach to our photo spot, which felt like forever as Noah wanted to walk, Connor wanted to ask every 5 steps if we were almost there, and gave Matt time to sweat out his lovely shirt.

We arrive at the spot and over the course of 1 hour, we were in the water as well as sitting/lying on the sand.  I planned ahead with a change of clothes and towels, but it still feels pretty yuck to be sloshing around on the beach in your nice clothes you just purchased for pictures.  At one point, I held Noah and we walked out to about thigh deep water.  At sunset.  Just an hour after we saw Mr. Fisherman reel in his beast shark.  That was about as much of living-on-the-edge as I will ever do!

I'm happy to report we finished the session with all limbs intact.

So without further adieu, here are our family photos for 2016.

(Connor 7 years old and Noah just 3 weeks shy of turning 3)

We started out slow to get Noah passed the "I don't want to say hi to the lady with the camera--grumpy eyebrows--straight face--faze."

(Noah still easing out of the turd phase)

(Still trying to crack the beast...insert: fun mom face)

It took me lying awkwardly on the sand to get Noah to finally come out of his shell.

Once Noah was smiley, I'm pretty sure this was the time Connor decided to moan & groan about pictures taking too long.

Insert: Fun mom face with tickles

Once Noah grasped that it was, in fact, okay to get his clothes wet in the water, he went for it!

My goobs.

My children tickle in the most awkward kind of way.

This session was quite the messy, fun, yet exhausting adventure all at once.

How to get toddler to smile: just keep tickling.

My grown up, still whiney, soggy britches, sweet boy

Did I think this pose felt odd at the time? Yes.

Was I reassured that we looked cute? Yes.

Do I still think Connor looks crazy weird squatting behind me? Yes.

Is it the only smiling shot with just me & my boys from the session? Yes.

 I shall cherish it anyway.

Was Matt's shirt water splashed or sweated out?  You decide.

Was the wet, sandy mess worth it for these last final family shots? Definitely.

We got our pictures back just in time for our anniversary tomorrow.

I ended the night in the water with this crazy.

He learned the art of the Eskimo kiss.

Annnnnnd that's it!

Quite the adventure, but worth the memories!