Halloween Portrait

Today, two of my dear friends and I took our sweet little boys to have their portrait made in their Halloween costumes. I am so lucky to have found two best friends here in Macon who happen to have boys the same age as Jackson (kind of the chicken or the egg dilemma...were we friends first or our kids friends first?). Nathan is just 4 days younger than Jackson, and Catch, just 4 months younger. They are such a cute little threesome and it has been so neat to watch their friendships and love for one another grow. The picture thing was my friend Annette's idea, and it was so much fun. I don't have a scanner, so this is a picture of a picture and not great quality, but I wanted to post anyway.



Jackson(Elmo), Nathan(Tigger), Catch(Matthew Stafford)

Arrrggg...computers!

Our computer is broken...my life has come to a hault. Isn't that sad? Well, not really a hault, but it has been considerably slowed down. I am using Brad's laptop from work, but do not have access to my pictures, my songs, my...STUFF!(the laptop will not recognize our external hard drive where all of this info is kept for whatever reason)
So I will blog what I can, with the pics that I have on my camera. Hopefully my genious younger brother can save me from this technilogical disaster by fixing it this weekend :)

Pumpkin carving...and pegging?



Brad, pulling the goop out of the mommydaddy pumpkin. He carved a really cool pirate ship on it, but we were unable to get a picture before it rotted into our front stoop. Gross, I might add.


Jackson, with his peg pumpkin. We used this little kit that is basically like turning your pumpkin into a light bright. Pretty neat.

Jackson loves animals. We have oodles and oodles of them at our house (alive and toys). Every week, he gets the toy ones out, and lines as many as will fit around the edge of the coffee table...our weekly animal parade.



I'd like to add that they are in a very specific order. The same order, every time. And Lord help the person that tries to 'change up' that order.


We have a bug issue at our house every spring and fall. Not inside, but out. It is gross, I hate it, and the box elder bug has become public enemy number one in my book. If you're not familar with the box elder bug, please, check it out. If you are, please contact me and you can join the support group I found online. I'm not kidding...they are the bane of my existence. The time that is not spent caring for my children, husband, and pets, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills, putting children in time out, changing diapers, etc., is spent killing box elder bugs. They come in great numbers. I kill them, and more are there the next day. This fall their area of choice has been Jackson's playhouse, sandbox, and swing set. I say all of that to tell you this.
On Friday it rained. It rained, and rained, and rained. Jackson insisted on going outside. Finally, I agreed. I suited him up in his raincoat and puddle boots, and out he went, on a mission. Here is what I captured.






The poor child went out to kill bugs. Marched down the steps, straight to his house, picked up a stick, and began to kill bugs. I guess he sees me do it every day and was thinking, "I know it's raining, but there are bugs out there on my property, and we need to do some bug killin' " I'm glad he's for my cause, but I did feel a little bad.

And here is just a cute picture of my cute little boys, just lying on the floor...being cute.

Daddy and Luke...Mommy and Jackson

I love the difference in energy and temperment in my little boys....Luke is calm and laid back and Jackson is wild and full of energy...just as it is in these pictures :)

Our litte dawg and his first big game...

October 18, 2008 will go down in history in the Dennis family. For on this beautiful day, Jackson attended his first UGA football game. It could have been stressful, it could have been hard, it could have been raining, it could have been hot, he could have been whiny, there could have been tears, we could have said 'never again'...but it was none of those things. It was....absolutely perfect. All of the expectations Brad and I had bulit up in our minds were completely and totally exceeded. I know many of you are probably thinking..."Is she kidding? It was just the kid's first football game and she's making it sound like his college graduation or something." If you're thinking that, you're right, you're sane, and you don't know my husband :) His love for Georgia football is something I cannot explain or even understand...all I can do is support it because it is so important to him. And as a father, he longs for his sons to have the same love (can someone please find me another word?...this doesn't even begin to describe it) for these Georgia Bulldogs as he does. And so, on Saturday, Jackson went to his first game with Mommy, Daddy, Chief, and Kikye. Hope you enjoy this selection of the near 100 pictures from the day's events.

The cake to commemorate the event (Brad had a similar cake for his first game)

Tailgating







Headed to the stadium...

FIRST QUARTER

Playing with the field glasses kept us entertained...


SECOND QUARTER
A sucker to keep us sitting still for a little while

Meeting Hairy Dawg...doesn't Jackson look thrilled?

THIRD QUARTER
We're over the game, and much more interested in Mommy's compact hairbrush


FOURTH QUARTER
We're back in the game (but still have the hairbrush)...

...and we're over it again

One exhausted little bulldog :)

Too bad this little bulldog couldn't go...he would have been the cutest fan there :)

Happy Happy Halloween!

Jackson cracks me up. He is all about MORE. He always wants more juice, just one more cookie, pour the water in the water wheel in the bathtub one more time, hey why don't I yell more than that kid, add one more generation to his already great grandparents...thus calling them great great grandma and great great grandpa, and now he says Happy Happy Halloween. Not just one happy, but two...MORE.
October has been hard (and is it really only half way over?) at the Dennis house. So I have not been able to blog like I have wanted. There's a lot you have missed, but for now, we'll just go with our trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend (yikes, it didn't turn out as I had it planned in my mind!) and the other Happy Happy Halloween festivities.

Jackson picking out his pumpkin


Luke hanging out, trying to stay awake (5 seconds beofe he puked EVERYWHERE)


He thought the pumpkin was better used as a pacifier...maybe why he puked?


Me with my boys after getting the pumpkins in their spot..big one is Mommydaddy's, medium one is J's, and the small one is Luke's (and yes, my photographer husband had the fan all set up to get that wind-blown look)


Showing Luke his pumpkin (last year he called pumpkins "cockies"...I miss that)
Now pay close attention to the next 3 pictures...keeping an eye on Jackson's pumpkin.




I don't know if he was afraid Luke was going to take his pumpkin, or what. But he hides that thing in the pumpkin basket every time we go outside. Too funny...

Results from our annual Halloween cookie-making extravaganza...


Hope everyone is enjoying their October :)

Family Movie Night

pajamas, popcorn, m&ms...
cherry coke for mommy, dr. pepper for daddy, sprite for our little man..
snuggled under mickey 'cubbers'...
sweet angel nesteled between us...
littlest angel snoozing upstairs...
lights out...
flicker of finding nemo on the tv...
life doesn't get any sweeter...

Home again

After travelling across the country and back...TWICE...we are finally home. I won't bore you with too many details, and so I don't become long-winded (which may not be possible), I thought just some little nuggets of information might work better...
~arizona is hot, humidity or not, it's still just plain hot
~away games are awesome, especially when they are far away, there are TONS of fans there, and we win :)
~if you happen to be landing in phoenix and you suddenly fear that terrorists are trying to take down the plane with rockets, do not be alarmed...it's just a sun devil home game and they have just scored, thus shooting fireworks off of their little mountain into the arriving planes
~i still don't understand my husband's desperate need to have our picture taken with a cactus...one of the most awkward moments of my life...see picture
~i could have had gasoline in my bottles instead of breast milk and no one would have been the wiser
~don't ever check your luggage at the phoenix airport...ever
~there needs to be a universal, strictly enforced, definition of a carry-on bag
~maui is one of the most beautiful places on earth...it takes a long time to get there, but it is well worth it
~if you have the chance to take a second honeymoon with your husband, do it...even if the thought of leaving your babies at home makes you sad...sipping a mai tai by the pool takes the edge off of the sadness :)
~you can swing from a rope like tarzan into a plunge pool, even if you're 29
~6 dudes wearing matching bathing suits and beer bottle sunglasses is never cute or cool...even if you are part of a wedding party
~my little boy would have loved the pool...9 water slides, rope swing, baby beach, water elevator, lazy river, volcano, waterfalls...LOVED it
~there is no way a hamburger should cost $18
~brad and i make a pretty awesome kayaking team
~those underwater cameras are crap...not one of our snorkeling pictures were usable
~the only thing that made the miserable performance by the dawgs against the roll tide any better was the fact that we were watching it in our bathing suits from a tiki bar above the pool
~i think the security guy at honolulu airport thought my breast pump was a bomb...he tested the entire thing for gun powder
~did i mention maui was beautiful?
~don't fall for it when they say they are "upgrading" you to bulkhead seats...in exchange for more leg room, they also "upgrade" you to a metal seat
~i don't ever want to see my breast pump again
...enjoy the pics!