3rd Birthday

I started off our weekend with a baby shower for my good friend, Whitney.  Somehow the four pictures that were taken with my camera were fuzzy, so I don't have anything to share from it. Hopefully, someone will forward me a picture, and I'll post it on here.  She got TONS of good stuff and looks so cute.  We can't wait to welcome that precious baby girl to the world!

Sunday was William's third birthday.  We started out the day with a trip to the donut shop. William picked out a glazed donut with white icing and sprinkles.  It took him ONE HOUR to eat the whole thing, but it was his birthday, so I didn't push.  He opened presents from Mom and Dad that morning and played until nap time.  We had a family birthday party Sunday night, which might sound small, but our families are so big, we had 24 people.  It was fun but absolute chaos!  William was completely wound up and did not sit still for one millisecond.

Ardie and Tattoo were such sweet troopers to come.  Mom had a party at her house the night before and Dad had been duck hunting all weekend with the Tedfords, so I know they were tired!

No, she's not my child, but everyone tells me she could pass for it.  She's my precious niece, Arden Clare, who is Ellis' youngest.  I have to admit, she really does look a whole lot like I did at that age, but her Mom and I looked a lot alike at respective ages, too.  She is the daintiest, girliest little thing you've ever seen, I could just eat her up.

William's tractor cake (from Mickey's, of course, the best cake place EVER).

William loved it when everybody sang Happy Birthday to him.  He even managed to sing a good bit of the song to himself.

MiMi and Grandad were so sweet to drive up from Texas, even though MiMi has practically been on the road for the last three weeks.  I'm sure she loved being in the car for 5 hours, but we sure were glad she and Grandad were here!

William has the best cousins in the world.  Really.  On both sides of the family.  Just to give you an example...Christopher (the one behind William with the orange hat on) won a giant tiger at the State Fair a few weeks ago.  You know those things are a treasure to any kid, I don't care how old you are.  Christopher wrapped it up and gave it to William for his birthday...along with a few baby lions.  William was sooooo excited, and I'm just so impressed that an almost 11 year old is that thoughtful.     

The picture doesn't do justice, but when I said it was pinata time, William, Mary Ellis, and Arden Clare were literally jumping up and down they were so excited to get candy.

I tried to blow up this picture of John, but didn't have much luck without distorting it.  The expression on his face is priceless and hysterical-if you can see it well enough, it really speaks for itself.  I think he gets the award for the most damage done to the pinata.

Scrambling to pick up the candy.

Loving my new tricycle!

And here is where sweet little Tollie spent most of the night...hand, chips, whatever she could get in the spinach dip.

This picture was at the end of the night, can you tell??  By the time the last person left, William said, "Momma, can I have a piece of my tractor cake now?"  That's right.  I didn't even give my poor child a piece of birthday cake at his own  birthday party.  It's not as bad as it sounds, though.  While everyone else was being served cake, William was opening presents, so he was distracted.  He managed to gulp down about 4 bites of cake and ice cream at 8:00, and then he was back to playing with all his new goodies.  We finally got him down after 9:00, and we were all pooped to say the least.  It was the best 3 year old birthday ever.  He is such a joy to us and has set the bar pretty high for the baby coming in February.  They just don't get much better than you, William, you've sure made your Mom and Dad proud!  Happy Birthday, Peanut, we love you!

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

Boy, do I ever love this time of year!  It's getting cold, we are having fires in the fireplace, the leaves have turned........and then they all fall......in our yard.  Not only do we have loads of trees, but many of our neighbors' trees "hang" over into ours meaning we get everyone's leaves and then some.  Most days, it looks like it's raining leaves here.  In years past, it's been a two day job for both of us to get them all bagged.  We've finally gotten a method down and have managed to cut down on time, but it's still an exhausting job.  Little William loves to "swim" in the leaves and get lost in them.  He'll even put an occasional leaf or two in a bag to help Mom & Dad.  Today, every time he saw me with the camera, he would either turn his back to me or bury his face in the leaves, so I didn't get many pictures.  

At the end of a pretty long day, these are the sixty something bags we ended up with.  William insisted one of us be in the picture, but I assured him none of y'all wanted to see a tired old pregnant hag (nor do I want the proof).  So, he was the chosen one, though he looks like a little speck next to all those bags.  Sad thing is, we'll have to do it all again in another week or two.  :( Oh, the joys of home ownership.

Sheriff William

Whew, what a night!  This was William's first Halloween to really "get" the trick-or-treating thing.  It sure was fun, but am I ever pooped!  We were able to snap a few pictures at the beginning of the night, but between gear falling off, a Halloween party, trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, and eating our weight in candy, we didn't end up taking that many photos.

Ardie and Tattoo were in town for the occasion.

The three of us with William's rock-star Aunt Janie, Tattoo, great-grandmother A.E., and great Uncle Conner.

Give me some candy or I'll shoot.

We stopped to see Bowman early in the night.  I think William must have been experiencing a "sugar-low" at this point, based on his expressionless face.  I wanted to eat up that little owl...he is the cutest thing ever!  Wish I had gotten a better picture.

Then, it was off to a Halloween party at future girlfriend/Ladybug Gabriella's house.  I saw some hysterical costumes (mostly from the adults), but I didn't make it home with pictures of any of them.  We finished up the night trick-or-treating on our street.  By the time we got home, most of the trick-or-treaters had gone home....which means I still have a humongous bowl of candy (mostly chocolate) to mow through this week.  Any takers?