Gifts from the Heart

One night Blake and Dane gathered up a bunch of gifts for Brent and I. There are several reasons for this display of affection, one of which being that they love my giant bin of gift bags and tissue paper.

I received a couple of my favorite necklaces and the entire contents of my makeup bag. Don't they look so proud?

But Brent's present from the unsuspecting givers really takes the cake:

Choctoberfest

Choctoberfest provided its usual opportunity to get a little sick on chocolate, relax before the holidays and talk to some girlfriends without our kids interrupting every five words. We really don't ask for much, do we?

I told these girls I was going to take a picture and they all showed me their backsides. Hey, whatever makes you feel good.

I always have a prize for the person dressed the most chocolatey. Angie planned all year on wearing this chocolate shirt so she could win. However, her white chocolate peppermint bon bons won the best tasting dessert prize, so in an ironic twist, I had to give the Dressed the Most Chocolatey award to Ashley instead.

You decorating types might prefer seeing what my blogging friend the Hill Country Homebody has to say about the party. She certainly took better pictures, she explains how to make chocolate covered bacon, and if you look around you might get inspired to do some projects around your house.

The Rest of October Before its December

This Halloween was all about boxing. One of the best parts for me was being able to say, "Come here so I can give you a black eye."
For this pose Dane tried so hard to make a mean face that he forgot which way your palms face to punch.
Lots of neighbors unintentionally tricked my boys by letting them pick out their own treat. Its hard to grab candy with boxing gloves on.

Dane ran as fast he could back from each house. But by the end of our night, he was worn out and dragging his feet. Being the social girl I am, I told him we were going to two more neighbors I wanted to see and then we could go home. He dropped his shoulders and pitifully whined, "Mmooooommmm!" I know, I am so awful for making my kids get more candy.

And of course, we all had a great time hanging out at the Beard's costume party.

Sonogram Says

We're super excited to announce its a girl! I'm a little surprised because I am conditioned to think in boy terms, however, I've been catching on really quickly today. We are thrilled! We were thankful to see baby looked healthy and we'll be praying she keeps up the work. Thank you to our friends for caring about us and checking on us today!

Tomorrow's Our Big Day

We find out tomorrow whether this baby is a boy or a girl! I've been anxiously awaiting this day and now I can't believe its here. I'm wanting to savor our last few moments of not knowing. I'm prayerful and hopeful that everything is proceeding well for the baby physically since its the big evaluation appointment. I feel like the gender of this baby will significantly impact our family dynamic. The boys say they want a boy but have decided it will be fun if its a girl too. I'm truthfully not hoping for one or the other -- there are great aspects either way -- but I'm really looking forward to planning accordingly, thinking about names, getting Blake and Dane ready, and going through bins of boy stuff or buying new girl stuff!

I was at baby Gap recently and realized it would be my last chance to buy something for one gender or the other. These two shirts, both purchased on clearance ($1.50 for the boy shirt, $5.50 for the girl shirt, of course) have been making me smile every morning since.

Finding something to wear is a dreadful task at this stage, so I've left these two baby shirts in my closet. While I'm trying on four different pairs of pants in the morning, it makes me so happy to think there will be a little baby in them in 21 long weeks.

So, tonight I'm sharing my messy closet pic with you because its my last night to see these two shirts hanging up. Tomorrow I'll be super excited to find out how our lives are forever changed!

Hey Pumpkin

The annual trip to the pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things. I'll love these memories when my kids are grown.

I think their favorite part is this corn maze. Last year we never found the bell and I started getting a little anxious about being lost in there.

This year I was way more excited than them when we found it! They were looking at me like, "Geez mom, what's the big deal? Its a cow bell." Life's about the journey I guess.

So classic for central Texas -- cactus on the hayride.

We'll Make Our Own Breakfast

A few times lately Brent and I have let the kids take care of themselves while we try to sleep in.

One morning, Blake and Dane brought breakfast into their own room. They even brought in the DustBuster and plugged it in. Talk about preparedness!

Another morning they proudly made us a breakfast of peanut butter sandwiches, dry Golden Grahams and bottled water. I'm pretty excited about Blake's new interest in making sandwiches because we'll need all the help we can get when the baby comes.

My personal favorite though was when they brought cinnamon toast to us in bed. On a placemat, of course.

Today I should teach them how to make coffee.