Trunk -Or-Treat!

Friday night was our wards "Trunk-or-Treat" and Halloween Carnival. Katie had not been feeling well but there was no way that she was gonna miss that. They all had fun, and are loving their bags full of candy.
Indiana Jones was there (I made his shoulder bag).
Watch out or she'll cast a spell on you (I made her cape).

I even ran into the Little Mermaid.

The kids favorite game at the carnival was a donut eating contest where they tied the donuts to strings from the basketball hoops and then it was a race to see who could eat the most in a minute.

Austin and Katie each got a pair of green teeth and walked around growling at each other and everyone else.

Woodson Homecoming Hair

The HS here had homecoming last weekend and a couple of the girls from church asked me to do their hair. Molly was my favorite so I thought I would post some pics.

Sunday she went on and on about how much she loved her hair and how well it stood up through the whole night. Needless to say I was a bit proud.

She is really tall, so special thanks again goes out to Lewis for the pics.

Go Sidewinders!

We took a few more pics of Austin last weekend and thought that I would share some of my favorites. Lewis took them while I kept score.

Austin the Catcher.
Austin the batter.

Austin on first. He made it to 3rd before the inning ended. He is having a lot of fun and really enjoys getting to go with Lewis and play catch in the front too.

"Mommy there are too many wrinkles!!!"

Katie is my master bed maker and if I didn't see her doing it I would think that Ashley was doing it for her. She is such a perfectionist that it sometimes frustrates her. About once a month she breaks down and starts screaming. It breaks my heart to see so much frustration over covers. On one such day I thought that I would take her mind off the stress by documenting her steps.

First she smooths all the wrinkles out of the sheets.
Next comes the comforter. It all has to line up just right or she has to start over.
Then the pillow and a sign of triumph.

The finished product (try to ignore the mess under the bed).

Justin

By popular demand....

Lewis and Justin grew up together and the two of them basically shared families. Went to school together all the way till graduation, they were best of friends. Even though we don't get to see him much it is as if there weren't years between visits. We love Justin and hope that we can continue this friendship always.

Buble & More...

Last night Lewis and I had the privilege to see Lewis' "Brother from another Mother", Justin Ray. He has been touring with Michael Buble for the last 5 years, playing the trumpet. It is always great to catch up with him. And the floor seats were great too (great big THANKS, Justin)! Once I got home I was horrified to realize that I had not gotten a pic with Lewis and Justin so these from the concert will have to do.

Okay, so Justin is the one top row far right, with the spikie hair. In the picture below, from the jumbo tron, he is the one with a trumpet in front of his face.

This is Buble singing with his opening act, Naturally 7. They are totally awesome!!!! I put a link to a you tube video on my side bar but is only half of the picture, but worth the listen.
This is where Buble wanted everyone to know he was a man and macho. So he started singing Elvis that went into "YMCA". Justin is the one in sunglasses next to him.
After the show we tried to find somewhere to hang out and get some pie or something and realized that everything in walking distance was closed. So we, reluctantly, said 'good-bye' and went our separate ways. So to summarize: Great Dinner! Great Company! Great Show! Boo, No Pie.

The rest of these pics are just misc. from dumping the card on my camera. This was the new pyramid the girls did last Sat.

Here the kiddos are with Grandpa the day they got in at Chili's.

Thought that this was funny. I love how intent Lewis is at his coloring.

About a month ago we were in charge of cleaning the chapel. After it was all done the boys played a little ball.

A while back we took the kiddos to see that new Star Wars animated movie. We wanted to make it a special outing so we went to the dollar store and let them pic a candy. They were so proud of their choices that I snapped a pic.

Weekend Fun!

Well it was a busy time to say the least! Ashley had a game at 9:30, Austin had pics at 11:30 and then a game at 1:00. We didn't even make it home till about dinner time. So after long last here are a few pics.

I loved Ashley's face in the above pic.
This is their cool formation that they do at the beginning and half time.

A pic with "poms".

This is Ashley's favorite cheer. At the point of the pic they are saying "We're R-E-D Red Hot!"

She is having a lot of fun with cheer!!!

So from lack of parents and coaches I was "dug-out Mom" and "line-up Lady" at the game and Lewis was on the field. So the only pics I have are from warm up. And yes that is right...he wears the same # his Dad did, 21.

While closing his eyes in the 4th inning Austin caught the ball, ran to 2nd (unassisted double) and then threw to 1st for a triple play that saved the team. It was amazing because he caught the ball in the first place with his eyes squeezed shut and his glove in the air.

This isn't from the weekend, but the week. I just thought that it was a nice pic.

Busy, Busy, Bees...

We had the bright idea to sign the kids up for sports this fall. Austin chose baseball, and Ashley wanted cheer leading. Well we quickly became very involved and I am sort of turning into Austin's Team Mom, and am the official score keeper for the team. Ashley seems to always have practice and games to cheer at, at the same time as Austin so we haven't taken any pictures. Good news is that their schedules finally line up so that we don't have to divide and go our separate ways. There will be pics after Saturday so no worries.

Austin has had two games and here are the stats.

Last Sat was 14:2 go us!!!!

Last night was 6:2 not us... the boys just all looked so tired but they got into the swing of things right as the game had to be called because it was getting dark.

Baby News

Well Monday I had my first baby appointment. It took forever to fill out all the paperwork (way to go AF) and then I lucked out and actually got to see a midwife. They had a new ultrasound machine and I was able to see the baby tumble all over and its' little arms and legs. The official due date is April 14th and everything looks fine for now. I am not supposed to go in until the middle of October and then after that we have the big ultrasound (it will be pretty in depth to make sure that there are not any complications that Katie had). We are excited but Katie is very disappointed that there are no twins.

First Day of School!!!

Today was the first day of school here in VA. I was totally amazed at how excited they all (yes even Katie) were that school was back in.

Both Ashley and Austin are proud to show off their new backpacks.

I really love capturing the sweet moments between these two. They have such a great bond.

The Three Musketeers back together again.

(Rebecca, Ashley, & Ally)

Austin and Alex

The bus seemed to take forever to get here.

Off to school...

Catch me if you can Mommy.

Red 4

Just a quick post to let you all know that we will be welcoming our 4th baby in early April of 2009! I am about 8 weeks and doing the hurry up and wait that the military offers in order to get an OB appointment. We will let you all know when we know more.

Red 1, Red 2, and Red 3 (Ashley, Austin and Katie) are so excited!

Daring Bakers: August Challenge - Eclairs

This month was my first challenge and in my crazy life I waited till the last minute to complete it. I was really excited to make the cream puff dough since Andrea has made it many times and then stuffed it with chicken salad (so yummy!).
I was way worried about the puffs since my dough looked nothing like it was supposed to but they really puffed up. I even made them (well sort of) round.

I made vanilla pastry cream since Lewis loves it and then drizzled them with a simple chocolate butter cream frosting. It was really just leftover from Ashley's party.

They were totally yummy and a big hit here. Katie insisted to be in one picture (she is wearing a magnetic chip clip in her hair).

Loads of fun, and a big hit all around.