Ben's Birthday, Visit, Halloween

We had a great time with Sarah and Evan this weekend. They got in about 8 pm on Ben's birthday and we just had some pizza and relaxed for the evening. We didn't wear ourselves out, we just spent time hanging out together over the weekend, and it was so nice to have them here. Saturday Ben made an awesome brisket while Sarah and I made twice baked potatoes and cupcakes. We served up Ben a cupcake with all of his candles. After he blew them out, we had to relight one for Lauren to blow out, too. We had a nice lunch on Sunday before we had to take them back to the airport.

This year Lauren was a ladybug for Halloween. We planned to just show her off to a couple friends and then pass out candy, but Ben took her out and she had a great time seeing all the other kids dressed up. She came back with a little bit of candy, but soon forgot all about it.

Lissa and Skipper are getting here on Friday.

And Happy Birthday to Jayna who celebrated her 23rd birthday yesterday.

Ben's Birthday

Happy Happy Birthday from Alicia and Lauren!

Butterfly, Free Movies, Dancing Girl

This picture is from the Waco Zoo. We went last month when Jayna and Kyle came to visit us.

I have four one month free trial codes for Netflix if anyone would like them. They have to be activated by October 31st, so email me and let me know if you'd like one.

This week finally cooled down a bit. We've been playing out in the front yard. Lauren really enjoys walking up and down the sidewalk and the driveway and collecting acorns in her pocket. In the evening I'll find them all over the house in random places, like shoes or just in a pile on the windowsill. Maybe she's trying to catch squirrels. She's been scooting around in her little car she got from her Grandma Lissa. She can't quite reach the pedals, but she can reach the ground, so she scoots around that way. Eventually she'll get the hang of steering.

Last night we went to Temple to BJ's Brewhouse and Restaurant to help a friend celebrate his promotion. Lauren was quite the dancing girl as dinner was winding down. She shook her groove thang much to the delight of the two tables nearby and the waitress. She can do the twist and pop lock and drop it.

I hope to have some time next week to edit our video from the Balloon Fiesta. Hopefully I'll be able to add some video of that soon. I added some other videos to the bottom of the front page of this blog, and a calendar of events on the left sidebar. You don't have to sign up to be able to leave comments on the blog.

Portraits, Pumpkins, Upcoming Visitors and T-Shirts!

Yesterday we had family portraits done at Sears. We're supposed to get them back on the 31st. I'll send out the ones I ordered when I get them.


Yesterday afternoon we went to a pumpkin patch and took some pictures. We met up with our friends, Katrina and Alton, and their three girls, Paige, Grace and Quinn. Lauren and Quinn had a great time running around the pumpkin patch together. They rode in a wagon and pushed around a toy lawnmower that was randomly there for the kids to play with. We went to dinner afterwards.





We're looking forward to Sarah and Evan coming to visit this weekend. They get here on Friday which is Ben's birthday and leave on Sunday, so it will be a short visit, but I"m sure it will be fun.


Also, I'm sure I've sent out tons of emails about the T-shirts we've been selling, and I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about them by now. I want to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who purchased one. I've managed to sell about 25 shirts, and it sounds like the other wives are selling a lot, too. I'm really proud of this project since I designed the artwork for the shirts. Plus, it's all going to some really fantastic families of some really fantastic soldiers. :)


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