Pumpkin Carving: 2013 edition

Keeping the tradition alive and well here, folks. The Mathews had our annual pumpkin carving night yesterday, and I have a few beauties to show you. The Denton's joined us this year (on Brittany's birthday!), so we had plenty of pumpkin guts to go around, which is fitting since the Tide had stomped all over Tennessee's arse just minutes earlier. Seems appropriate to stick knives into something orange, yes?

I kid.

Here are a few pics from our evening as well as our finished products, AND, I've added our pumpkin hall of fame from years gone by at the end of this post so we can look back and get all nostalgic. Or not. Your call.

 

Oliver did the Captain America all by himself, y'all. We have an 8-year old carver in the hizzie.

 

Brittany's Barbie Halloween Cat-

 

My Shrek-

 

And the hubs Ron Swanson-

(Any Parks and Rec fans out there? HOLLA) 

 

The hubs also grabbed these kits at Target so the kids could decorate the pumpkins themselves, but it took some real elbow grease to stick those pieces in there, which means they didn't get to do any of it themselves. Awesome. Nevermind though... Mommy got a great arm workout jabbing those pieces in until they stuck...

 

And here are our pumpkins from the last EIGHT years. Enjoy.

My 2012 Pumpkin

Ursula

Hubs 2012 Pumpkin

Mona Lisa

...and since we had an extra,

Hubs other 2012 Pumpkin

Angry Bird

The hubs 2011 pumpkin:

Ironman

My 2011 pumpkin:

Barbie

complete with eyelashes.

do you see them?

I worked hard.

Here's the hubs 2010 Death Star Pumpkin-

and my 2010 Storm Trooper Helmet-

I think we skipped over 2009.

Probably due to lack of sleep from a little girl.

Her name rhymes with Schmeliza.

2008-

hubs is Darth Vader, mine is Thespians.

obviously

2007-

hubs Transformers symbol thingy

and my sweet lil' Nemo

2006-

hubs Star Wars

and my Charlie Brown and Snoopy

I also carved this Blues Clues punkin' that year for my preschool classroom-

And, I just so happened to have dug up a pic of my musical pumpkin from 2005.

So there ya have it! Our pumpkin carving history in one post.

So tell me...

do you carve pumpkins?

Are you as competitive as we are?

Is this your first time to see the Mona Lisa on the side of a pumpkin?

Hmmm??

Do tell...

eight years

My sweet boy turned 8 years old yesterday.

To Oliver, on turning eight:

You love love love to read. You never go anywhere without a book, and your backpack is weighed down every morning with books to take to school.

I hope you never lose this love of books and reading. It makes my heart happy.

Legos are still a close second to books. Your happy place is in the floor of your room with a new lego set and instructions spread in front of you. You never have a set for long before ripping it from the box and putting it together, and you love to share with us what you're making.

You are anxious to get home from school everyday so that you can play with your friends who live across the street. We've never had neighbors with kids your age before, so the fact that there are now three living right in front of us is pretty awesome. I love the fact that these new friends have given you a new desire to play and run and explore outside.  You always have so much fun together and it's been a blessing.

You are a wonderful big brother, and you help us tremendously with your little sisters. This does not change the fact, however, that they still drive you insane. That's what 2 and 3 year-olds do. And really, who could blame you.

I wouldn't want folks breaking my legos either.

You excel at school and don't mind doing your homework- especially when it means that you get to play outside as soon as you're finished. You currently have spelling and vocabulary tests every Friday, and we study these words each night of the week and I quiz you Friday mornings on the way to school. You get extremely frustrated when you miss one. Extremely. You don't like to fail, in any capacity. You are your momma's child.

You love hot sauce.

Again, you are your momma's child.

You picked the Angry Birds theme for your party this year and loved every second of helping me plan it. I will never forget the look on your face when you saw the pig lanterns, and the clouds, and the TNT boxes, and your own angry birds artwork on display. You love party prep just as much as I do.

And my son, I love you more than words can say. I am blessed beyond measure to be your mom, and my prayer is that you will continue to grow and do mighty things while keeping Christ first in your life.

2.24.13

unplugged

So I unplugged for a while. Completely enjoyed my time off with my family and soaked up every. single. minute. It was glorious. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year as well!

Since I stayed away from the blog and posted very little on facebook/twitter during our break, I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures with you from our Christmas. We kept things super simple this year. I didn't decorate the perfect Christmas tree, and I didn't even post a Christmas home tour. We DID, however, manage to get our rooftop lights from last year on the Today Show. Yup. THAT Today Show.

Crazy.

I'll be back this week with an update on Project Life and some goodies I've been working on for the shop, but in the meantime, here's a glimpse at Christmas 2012:

Hubs and I went to a Madrigal Dinner. No forks, head in stocks...that kinda thing.

Loved watching our girls play.

Also loved adding cards to our cabinets each day. Sweet faces.

Oliver's Christmas party at school.

 Got to hang out with Dylan Riley Snyder from Disney XD's Kickin' It! Such an awesome guy!

Pure silliness...

Dusted off my Battleship skillz.

Watched this amazing lights display that was set to music. If you're in T-town, add this to your list of places to visit next year.

Wrapped gifts. The paper is from the dollar spot at Target and the tulle is leftover from mah WEDDIN' Y'ALL.

Dressed like a modern-day Dorothy,

while my bro-in-law dressed like this.

#Legos

#Batmansnuggie

Sister was SO excited to open some Barbies. That's mah girl.

MM was just happy to play with the bags...

Outside toys!

that were NOT for him. #120lbweightlimit

He wastes no time. #done

Beautiful service.

A crazy last-minute search for one of these on Dec 22. (Long story short, we found ONE)

Thug Princess.

Angry birds abound.

This girl loves her some Walter. (and nope- still not living inside. Just came in for a quick visit)

MM was even kind enough to share her little people Cinderella. That's big.

Got an awesome shirt. Thanks Mum.

Little People Empire! At last, the Ark can visit the Circus, the Jungle, AND the Princess castle.

More Legos.

And a massive purge. Turns out I still had every.single. program/playbill to EVERY show I'd ever been to in my life. Every. Single. One.

Does anyone really need 28 playbills to Urinetown or Millie? Cause that's how many I had, y'all. (no worries. I totally kept the signed ones)

And probably the biggest news of all:
THIS ONE GOES IN THE POTTY NOW.
Hasn't mastered number two in the loo, but she's mighty close.

So that's pretty much all the news that is the news.

Feels good to be back.

Happy Monday!