Pumpkin Carving

On Monday we took our little family to Grams and Pops house to carve our pumpkins (better to make a mess at someone else house :) It was a lot of fun and very productive!! Johnny got a chance to have Grams and Pops all to him self and play in the inners of a pumpkin.

It was his favorite part, taking out the seeds and mush from the pumpkin

Then trying to put them back in.



When Daddy started to remove the gunk and seeds from his pumpkin Johnny thought it was very amusing and said, laughing, "Yuck Daddy"

He could have played in the gunk all day!

And got it all over the floor and even in his hair

Mommy and Daddy very much enjoyed carving pumpkins! As Johnny cleaned up

Mommy tried to convince Johnny that is was fun to draw his face on his little pumpkin, but he was not convinced, after we done with the gunk he was done with us.

Instead he thought it was necessary to take the gords from the front table

And carry them to Papa!

Then as he was eating lunch he thought that his little pumpkin must be hungry too! So he feed his pumpkin


And there we are as pumpkins!!! Daddy's has glasses on, lot of teeth and one eyebrow raised. Mommy's has a large belly hole through which you can see a little green pumpkin holding a candle, for the peanut. And Johnny's has a HUGE smile!!! We loved carving our pumpkins!!

Global Fluffy Bum

About 2 weeks ago we where happily involved in a wonderful program called Global Fluffy Bum.
Families from all over pass along this embroidered diaper cover, use in for a few days, and take it around their lives, then pass it along to the next family. I was so excited to get to use this diaper and we had a blast.

The first day we had it we just played around the house, nothing special, but it is our life, Johnny getting into trouble mostly.


Begging for a cup of juice.

Throwing all of the cushions off the couches so they can jump on them.

Surveying the mess and holding tight onto Elmo.

and climbing on the dinning room table.

The next day we had the diaper, we went to visit Grams and Pops. Johnny always has so much fun there, and it is crazy how big he looks without pants while Papa is holding him.

Here Johnny's 2 month old cousin Samantha wore the diaper too, why not?

Isn't she cute?

Then to the wash, this is our diaper basket!

Momma hand washed this cover to make sure nothing happened to it.

And hung it to dry.

Momma held onto the diaper longer then she should have, waiting for a sunny day to take Johnny to the tanks here on post and do some pictures. Perfect to come from the military family.

We really LOVED being involved in this program!! It got Momma more dedicated to doing the cloth diapers and even knitting some new covers!

Papa's Surgery, and then Home

Most of our family know now that Papa had a very invasive back surgery on Monday the 28th. Back in September of 2005 Papa had 6 screws and 2 steel rods put in his back to fuse his spine. Well that surgery never took, so for four years he has been in intense pain. Recently upon discovering the the failure of the first fusion, the Dr and Papa decided to re due it. So this time they did the largest back fusion possible. Some of the screws where so loose they just came out! and holes had to be redrilled and larger screws had to be used! Gram's blog has much more details. Papa's surgery was on Monday and he was released today. Mommy spent Monday and Tuesday going back and forth from the hospital and Wednesday and Thursday taking care of Sam and Ella and preparing Grams and Pop's house for Papa's return.

Though this week has meant a lot of early mornings for Mommy and Johnny, Johnny has LOVED getting to spend so much time with his cousins.

Giving Sam kisses! He can't help himself when it comes to Sam, he RUNS to her every time he sees her and hugs her and kisses her and brings her a binky when she cries.

Isn't she a big girl? Three months old now, where does the time go?

Johnny thought Sam needed shoes, and what better shoes then Cinderella dress up slippers...he was her prince :)

The following pictures are from today as me and the kids prepared for Papa to come home!!!

Johnny and Ella did this A LOT!! Sitting close next to each other to read or watch TV. Actually every morning Ella would bring Johnny up to her room to read books on her bed, very cute!

We wanted Papa to know how much we missed him and how much we love him, so we made him some signs to come home to.

Johnny is finally getting into coloring and went crazy here! A beautiful work of art!

I think they turned out pretty good :)

It was such a relief to have Papa home! We all spent the last 4 days on the edge of our seats, needing to know Papa was going to be okay and praying that his pain would finally go away! He still has a whole lot of healing to do, but the Dr has been very informative and very positive so far! He will be unable to pick up Johnny (or even Sam) for a couple months, and we know that Papa will miss that, but after he is all healing up he will be able to do a lot more that he couldn't before and feel a lot less pain!


When Papa walked in the door leaning on the walker, Johnny ran toward him not understanding that Papa wasn't able to pick him up or anything, but Johnny was just so happy to see him that nothing else mattered!

Family Togetherness for Aunt Chel's Birthday

Aunt Chel turned 28 on Thursday and Uncle Chuckles got her a plane ticket to come home and see her family and all of us. Yesterday we all got together at Grams and Pops house for crabs and cheesecake...it was a lot of fun!!! Johnny really loves his cousins!

As soon as we walked in the door he found Sam and ran to her and hugged her!

And when she got sad he gave her her binky.

And shared his cookie with Daddy, for some reason feeding adults is very funny.

Johnny became the carrier of corn, taking the corn from the shucking place to the cooking place...and only eating a little in between.


Johnny now has TWO baby cousins, so the big boy sat and ate at the table with the grown ups...look at that big boy.


Momma made her home made mac and cheese again, not as good this time :( But Johnny still really loved it!


In fact he thought that everyone should "share"with him, so if your plate was with in reach of him, he was eating off of it...thanks Aunt Natnie :)

Cleaning up his mess, he used the pan to sweep.

Time for some pictures and Ella loves her cousins too :)


Look at that FOUR grand kids!!! That is a pretty cute bunch.


"Little" Sam, now 7 weeks old...holy crap that girl is big! and cute and sweet!


Wyatt now almost 9 months old, in the hat Aunt Nenni made for him, he was a sweet heart all night, and very happy to see everyone.


Look at the look on Johnny's face, he was so excited that he was really being handed Sam!!!


Uncle Shawn making "kissy" faces at Wyatt and having him laughing.


Some Uncle of Johnny's let him play in a piece of cheesecake :) Johnny loved it...of course.


After cake and presents we are sat around and let the kids play, Johnny hopped around to make sure maximum playage with everyone, he started on the chalkboard.


They roughhoused "with" Wyatt. They played with his door for a while, opening the door back and forth.


Then Johnny decided he wanted a hug...after this Johnny climbed over Wyatt and tried to wreste with him :)


After Wyatt, Johnny found Ella and Aunt Natnie building. Johnny inevitedily knocked over the towers and then tried to help rebulid them, Godzilla toddler.


But Aunt Natnie forgave him :)

It was really nice to see Michele and Wyatt again, since now they live in Ohio, and to have all the kids together. They where all very well behaved! and sweet and loved to play with each other.

I think I took something like 86 pictures last night, so here are the rest of them