Lazy Sunday

We eased ourselves into Eastern Standard Time.

After seven weeks of teaching and driving and staying in Greenville even more than usual and being away from Jeremy an average of three days a week, I am WIPED.OUT. The house is a train wreck, and I don't even KNOW how to conquer the laundry that is backed up and sprawled all over our bathroom floor, so last nite, after our Halloween celebrations, I asked Jeremy if we could skip church to just stay home, rest, and be together on this Sunday.

He didn't love the idea, but he eventually agreed.

Bless him.

It's been an amazing day. None of us even got out of our pajamas. We ate ice cream and popcorn and Skittles and leftover chili and frozen pizza, and we watched "Spooky Mickey" and NASCAR pretty much all day long.

It.was.awesome.

Here are some pictures of what was TRULY a "lazy Sunday."

Early this morning,
the boys discovered that their punkin
buckets could be used for more than
just carrying treats! They marched
around the den for probably 20 minutes,
saying, "Hut-2-3-4" over and over. 

I thought the boys looked so cute
while eating their leftover chili for lunch
that I decided to take a picture (or ten).

Seeing my camera, Jones said to Freddie, "Shh!
She gonna take a cheese." 

Here, Jones is demonstrating what to do when Mama's
"gonna take a cheese."

Here's Jones teaching DADDY what to do when
Mama's gonna take a cheese.

Freddie woke up from his nap way before Jones did,
so he got some time alone with his Mama & Daddy.

I'm gonna miss those little pumpkins
on the mantle.

See how good Jones is getting at
"taking a cheese"?!!?

Late this afternoon, the boys piled the giant animals and some of the couch cushions on the floor and started jumping into them like their own personal ball pit.

Finally, one of the things that I'll remember most about this Halloween season is just how many times we watched the "Spooky Mickey" episode of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." Honestly. If we watched this thing once, we watched it ten thousand times. Today, I was able to catch Jones singing along with Pete the Werewolf. It kind of amazes me how he tries to copy him so exactly. Like, watch the pose he strikes when he howls. Mama's little mimic.



Grateful for this amazing day of wonderful rest.

Trick or Treat!

As we usually do, we spent Halloween nite celebrating with Jeremy's family. I love their tradition of a Halloween party, and last nite's was as much fun as it always is. Though Jones, inexplicably, wanted NO part of being in the "cousins" picture (see right), he did okay  trick or treating (and he ONLY did "okay," because I told him there'd BE no treats if he didn't act sweet and say, "Thank you" to everyone).

If he was a little stand-offish, as we walked around Academy Street, Freddie was Mr. Halloween, helping himself to hands full from any candy bowl someone stuck in his path. One of my favorite parts of watching him walk around with his daddy was seeing him drag - literally - his candy bucket beside him. Jones was also VERY concerned about keeping custody of his "punkin buckt."

Though we are admittedly still in the stage where the hustle and bustle of holidays can be a little bit of a headache, I can definitely see us turning the corner and getting to the point where the boys' joy WAY outweighs the hassle of trying so hard to make things happy.

A new (holi)day dawns!

Farmer Jones & Freddie Bear

This time last year, I read a blog post saying that, to get really good Halloween pictures, you should take your tiny tricksters to a location that's appropriate for the characters of their costumes. That's why Hoss & Little Jones Cartwright ended up at the Ponderosa-like Cataloochee Ranch last October.

This year, the "location" shoots were held at Riverview Farm & Garden and in the cabin area of the Lake Logan Episcopal Center.

"Farmer Jones" came from the fact that Jones is obsessed with tractors and farming AND from the fact that the Little Golden Book "The Animals of Farmer Jones" is one of his favorite books. I bought his copy at McKay's in Knoxville when Leslie and I went used book shopping a few months before Jones was born. It's a book that I had as a little girl. In fact, there's a picture of a 3 year old me sitting at our kitchen table in Greenup, KY, holding the book in front of my face and my VERY LARGE head of unkempt hair. Because of that, I've been wanting to get a picture of Jones reading it, too.

The origin of "Freddie Bear" is pretty obvious. I figure next year, he and Jones will have been around long enough to know what Halloween is all about, so I'm assuming this is my last chance to come up with their costumes for them. That's why I thought it'd be a good idea to squeeze in a Freddie Bear costume, just because it's too perfect for a little Bear named Freddie, and because there's NO WAY he'll ever pick it for himself. We also own a Little Golden Book called "Freddie Bear," and though I love the fact that there's a Little Golden Book link to go along with the fact that both of their costumes were plays on their names, the truth is that we hadn't even heard of the "Freddie Bear" book until AFTER we'd picked their costumes.

Speaking of which, here they are!

That harmonica in his pocket caused
something of a wardrobe malfunction at
a Fall Festival we went to on Friday nite.
A friend gave it to me for the boys,
and Jones fell in love with it. As we walked
out of the festival, he tried to put it in his
front pocket but ended up putting it
down the bib of his overalls instead,
so we had to basically do the
hokey pokey to get it to fall out
of his pant leg.

Hymn of the Month

"Psalm 103," by Kevin Inafuku