Reintroducing 'Stowie'

Our Elf on the Shelf has made it back around to us again this year. In honor of our street name (Stow Creek), he is named "Stowie". I am not sure how much Landon remembers him from last year, but Stowie is working like a charm this year!! He has made Landon share with his sister, eat vegetables, put on pjs, and many other things!!! Yesterday, Landon tried to tell Stowie that his daddy wasn't playing with him and that he needs to 'be nice'!!! ;) Kennedy likes to point to him and grunt and giggle!! I just wish we could have Stowie stay a little longer!!

Introducing Stowie the night after Thanksgiving

Kids playing on the rocking chair

Thanksgiving was fast and eventful. We spent most the time in Shreveport because we had our cousins from Arizona come to town. Landon sure missed all of them once they left!! Below are some pictures from that weekend!

Trevor and Caitlin playing one of the 5 'Turkey" games

Kennedy enjoying her Thanksgiving lunch

Giving thanks...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am thankful for soooo many things this Thanksgiving!! Here is a top 5 that I have limited myself to (otherwise i might bore you to death!):

1. An incredible, loving, and thoughtful husband who spoils me rotten! I am so grateful for all of his hard work that allows me to stay at home and raise our kids. We have been married for over 6 years and there still is no one else that I would rather spend my time with...he is truly my best friend!

2. Two beautiful, funny, and healthy kids that keep me young, tired, and on my toes!!

3. My parents, who I still turn to everyday for all my questions about life and parenthood

4. Normal in-laws that have got to be the most precious people in Ruston!

5. A great group of friends that make me laugh and let me lean on quite often

Landon's top 5 things to be thankful for:

1. His movies (Snow White, Peter Pan, and Sword in the Stone)

2. brownies

3. his grandparents

4. his sword, hook, and motorcycles

5. An icee

Kennedy's top 5 to be thankful for:

1. her mama (which drives me crazy...still trying to teach her independence!)

2. apple juice

3. Landon's toys

4. paci

5. strawberries

This month has definitely gone by way too fast. Not much went on, but below are some pics that I captured throughout the past few weeks. I took a photography workshop and I have been messing around with my camera (trying to get it off of 'auto'). Today, I was able to purchase a new lens for my camera with the gift card that Lance gave to me for my birthday. Yep, I had another birthday last weekend and I was able to share cake and ice cream with my parents and inlaws. Landon enjoyed opening my presents and blowing out my candles (as you can imagine). Afterwards, Lance and I went to dinner with some friends at Genusa's in Monroe and had a great time!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

The first several pictures are from Lincoln Parish Park...just messing around with the camera while the kids played...

here are some of Landon's buddies: Ava and Jake

Landon playing in the dirt with his motorcycles..

Also, we took Landon's 3 year old portraits with Kevin Beasley...he did an incredible job. You can go to his website to view them. Our password is 1515

Confession Time

I have to say that I consider myself as a good mom, but today, I was officially a rotten, lazy mommy! I need to make my confession and get over it.

good mommy moment: I took the kids to the library this morning

bad mommy moment: allowed Landon to watch tv the entire time Kennedy took her nap. I refused to fight Landon on his nap so he had "quiet time" and I can tell you that Kennedy took a record long nap today! Not to mention, he continued to watch tv even after she woke up!

bad mommy: food today consisted of nuggets, halloween candy, brownies and pizza

good mommy: there was some fruit involved and L ate all of his carrots before he even touched his pizza (which he only had two bites of pizza)...maybe a sign that he knew he had too much junk food

good mommy: outside play for about an hour (with no bug spray and they got ate up)

bad mommy: L is presently watching more tv while i finish my dinner and post this blog. And I probably wont give him a bath tonight and REALLY hope that he just falls asleep while watching tv so I don't have to fight him on his bedtime routine! But he has never done that, so I doubt THAT happens!

At least he will go to bed early and maybe I can catch up on my shows until Lance returns home later this evening!!!

Thank you for letting me vent and I am sure there will be more 'confessions' all my journey of motherhood!!! ;)

Halloween Happenings....

Our halloween was soooo much fun! Landon really got into this year and for an entire week, he kept going around the house saying, "I can't wait to go trick or treating!!" And boy did we!

Halloween eve, Lance and I attending a costume party as Dora and Diego and such a great time!! I will be the first to admit that I really didn't look too cute, but at least it was original! I really had to twist Lance's arm to even dress up, but he got into full character and was an absolute riot at the party!

Halloween day, I took Landon to the fire station for some games that turned out to be pretty fun. Then we rested up for our afternoon/evening. We attended the Fall Festival at our church and then attended a neighborhood party filled with a jumpy for the kids, hayride for trick or treating, and some yummy food. It was such a perfect night for trick or treating! Landon caught on really quick what to do and loaded up on some candy that we all have been enjoying!! ;)

This was on Friday when he wanted to wear his pirate costume all day

My pooped pirate

Dora and Diego

Temple Fall Festival

Ballerina getting ready for all the Halloween festivities

Neighborhood boys getting ready to go trick or treating

Trick or Treat!

Enjoying the hayride

Papa Simpson's farm

First of all, I wrote this post (below) last Monday and just forgot to post it!! ........and by the way, we had a great week. I had girls night "bunko" on Thursday and then on Friday night, Landon attended his first Kids Club night at Squire Creek. They have to be at least 3 and potty trained and I have been wanting to take him all summer. Well, he LOVED his first one! It also helped that it was a halloween themed night so he got to wear his dinosaur costume, jump in a jumpy, ride on a hayride, and play all kinds of games! Now, if we could just get Kennedy old enough and potty trained, we can have some free nights!!

And now back to the older news.....

This past Saturday (which now is over a week ago), we joined some friends, the Tylers, to visit Papa Simpson's farm in Arcadia. They have a monthly tour and this month they were able to pick pumpkins along with petting animals, milking cows, and going through mazes. The kids really enjoyed seeing all of the animals and Kennedy especially loved the cows! I will let the pictures do the talking...

jake and Landon picking out their pumpkins

Landon giving Kennedy her pumpkin

Riding the hayride to the farm

Landry Grace and kennedy hanging out

"If I bat my eyes, will you let me hold it. I can do it."

Landon saying "Bock Bock" to the chicken

Laughing with the cows

Milking the cow...no fear...I love it!

Kennedy laughing at the baby calf

And tomorrow (Sunday) we get to visit the farm again for our friend, Lander's, birthday party!!

Fall fun

Lance and I had a great getaway to Dallas last weekend and had an absolute blast! We got there on Saturday in time to watch the Ole Miss rebels (lose...yuck) on tv and had a fabulous dinner at Nick and Sam's in downtown Dallas. It was great to have some one on one time together. The following day we met my older brother and his family for lunch at PF Changs. After that, the shopping was on!! Lance's quote of the trip, "Well, that was a first... to shop from open to close at a mall." Yep, that's what we did at Northpark mall!!

Monday was more shopping and great eating before we attended the U2 concert that night with a group of friends of ours. It was an unbelievable time!


Here is a picture of Sara and me at the style show a couple of weeks ago. Sorry, no cat walk pictures!!! ;)
Lots of thanks go out to my mom and dad for watching the kids over the weekend! They are awesome! When I picked up Landon from MDO (after being gone all weekend), he was not happy when he realized that his KK was gone!! It was so sad (and sweet).

Here are some recent pictures of the kids...

Landon and Alec at Georgia's birthday party

Kennedy loves riding on Landon's toys

My lil ballerina

And here is a short video of Kennedy's first motorcycle ride with big brother. Landon was actually very sweet about this and loved holding on to her and trying to look at her face to see if she was smiling and enjoying the ride!!

Fly by...

Not really too much to report in the Hall household these days. We have just been busy with colds, Fall decorating, pumpkin pickin, birthdays, and playin! I have to admit, that I have really enjoyed the Halloween activities this year because it's just too much fun with Landon!

Sweet Kennedy is communicating much better, still crawling, and still getting tackled by Landon. She has also dropped to one nap a day and it's been kind of nice having them on the same nap schedule. But, I still haven't figured out how get her to sleep a little longer. I know she is exhausted, but at least she does go to bed early.

We took some pumpkin pictures at the Townsend House with Crystal Garcia. She did a fantastic job and I am so glad she had those sessions! You can go to her website to view more of her work, which is great!

Lance and I are leaving in the morning to head to Dallas for a long weekend getaway. I continue to thank my lucky stars for such great grandparents to help with the kids!! I can't wait to go shopping!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot my big night I had last night. I helped a friend of mine model some of her clothes at a style show and we had an absolute blast! Never thought I had the 'cat walk' in me, but I did my best. It was great to hang out with some sweet ladies and laugh A LOT!!! I will have to post pictures of that later.

Landon riding a pony at cousin chloe's birthday party last weekend

Painting with 'colored' yogurt...project really for landon, but Kennedy loved it way more!

Pumpkin patch pictures.....