State Fair

On October 20th, we headed out to enjoy a day at the State fair.  I knew Reed would love riding the rides, so I thought it was worth a try!  Let me just say it did not disappoint!  We had the BEST day, minus Daddy because he was in the deer woods.  I am going to apologize now for the major picture overload, but we literally had such a fun day I can't leave anything out.  The joy of seeing your child have so much fun is the absolute best!

Me and my Big Boy before the fun filled day started, he was so excited!  

Graham loved watching all the action!

And we were all super excited that Gigi got to come!  Hopefully, you weren't thinking I was going to attempt the fair by myself! :)

Let the rides begin!  They told me when I was deciding whether to buy tickets or a wristband that Reed could ride 21 rides by himself, so obviously I went with the wristband and he rode and rode and rode some more!

First ride with Gigi!

Up high in the elephant!

Ready to race!

Reed was so funny on this ride and many others that seem to bore him.  Anything that just went around in a circle and didn't have any thrill factor to it, you would see him standing up to look around at the other rides trying to decide which one he wanted to try next, it was too funny!  My little dare devil!  Josh and I both LOVE roller coasters so I guess it is in his blood.

Going on a little boat ride!

And a train ride....this one was also boring to him and I kept having to tell him to sit down.  He kept standing up and turning around to look over the wall of the cart to see the other rides.

Even a helicopter ride!  I got to ride this one with Reed.  We were in the back window!  You can't really tell, but it was pretty high and spun pretty fast.  One of the little girls even started crying on the ride because it scared her and Reed just couldn't understand why she would be scared.

The roller coaster was Reed's absolute favorite!  You can see us in the second cart with our hands up! :)  He wanted right back on it for a second ride when it stopped!  Unfortunately, I told him we would come back because I wanted him to have a chance to ride other rides, and then they shut it down for some reason.  He was sad we couldn't ride again!

Nemo  ride!  This ride he could control it going up and down, so he thought that was cool!

The jet ski ride had horns that you could push!  Can you tell in the picture that he was pushing the horn?  The sounds coming from this ride were so funny, because all of the horns were going off non-stop.  Reed of course loved every minute of it.

This was more of an obstacle course and this was probably Reed's second favorite!

They started off by squeezing through the swinging bags and up a cargo net.

Then across two draw bridges.

Down a huge slide

To a very bouncy landing! 

Reed didn't even ask, he just immediately ran back to get in line and do it again!

Crazy School Bus ride! 

This was another one that went pretty high in the air and another one we got to enjoy with a screaming child that was scared!  Not my Reed he loved every second of riding high, we even picked the front for a little more thrill! :)

The Ferris Wheel

Our view!

I had a very hard time keeping this little dare devil on his bottom!  This was the only time all day I got a  little nervous.  He kept trying to stand in the seat and I didn't want to jump to fast across from my seat in fear that I would rock us to hard.  My heart jumps a little now just thinking about it!

Taking a rest.....or maybe a little pouting because Mommy want let him stand up!

This wasn't even everything he rode, but I think you get the point!  Fun, fun, fun!!

Of course you can't go to the fair without having a corn dog and this little boy not only had one, but two!! 

And before I move on, I have to say that this little man was AMAZING all day!  He drank his bottle and even took a nap in the stroller.  He didn't fuss one time for over 3 hours!!  Did I mention we had the perfect day?!

We took a little break from all the riding fun to enjoy the petting zoo.  It was perfect!  Right in the middle of the kid rides and all the animals were so friendly.

Well we started off trying to get a little food from the machine, but the goats could practically eat the food right from the machine, they were swarming it! :)

We quickly moved on to feeding carrots.  You had to buy them, but it was well worth the fun!  Thanks Gigi for not 1 but 2 bags of carrots!

Reed loved petting the animals

Not sure what this is, but he was friendly.

Gotta love some miniature donkeys!

And probably our favorite was the soft camel!

Eating right out of Reed's hand

This bird also ate right out of Reed's hand!  Just a little unexpected that he could reach that far! :)

You can see the surprise and excitement even from the side of his face! You can really tell how far the bird had to reach in this picture....it was crazy!

Some crazy long haired, friendly Llama type animal

More goats

Some sheep

And even cows

And we ended the petting zoo experience with a overpriced pony ride....thanks again Gigi!

Once we were done with the petting zoo we were ready to wrap up the day with a carousel ride....

and one or slllliiiiidddddeeee!

This smile says it all!

And so does this!  This is what 5 hours at the fair will do to you!  Both boys were out before we could get to the highway!

What a fun day with my boys!!  I am so glad we went, it will definitely be a yearly tradition! 

Worth every penny!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

On October 13th, we woke up and headed out for our annual Pumpkin Patch adventure.  This was our 4th year in a row to go to the same place and although it wasn't horrible they had made a lot of changes this year that made it pretty difficult to maneuver, not to mention the mud from all the rain.  Despite the changes we had a good time and made some fun memories.

I have learned that if you don't start with a group picture you won't get one at all, well unfortunately we still really didn't get one.  Both boys were to busy looking at all the people.

Then this one just cracks me up, Josh told me to look the same direction Graham was and then Graham decided to look at the camera.  Oh well, we tried!

I love looking back and comparing our trips to the pumpkin patch. It's so fun to see how much Reed has grown, then to see Graham's first tractor picture and both boys together!  Such precious memories!

   Reed in the hay, refusing to look at the camera! :)

Excited to get on the tractor

Daddy and Graham watching big brother!

I was hoping for a picture of the boys together in the picture below.  But Reed decided he needed to run around behind the photo wall and found a nail that he cut his finger on.  Needless to say he had a complete meltdown and the photo op was over.  Oh well, Graham had fun sitting there and he reminded me so much of Reed on our first trip to the pumpkin patch.  They both immediately started picking at the hay and put it in their mouth.

Here is the side by side of Reed and Graham chewing on the hay!  Reed was 6 months old and Graham was 10.5 months here.

And here is Reed 20 minutes later still having a complete meltdown over a little cut.  Let's just say we are in for it when he really actually gets hurt! :)

We made the best of it and got some really cute pictures of Graham on his first trip to the pumpkin patch!

Reed perked up when Papaw showed up, thank goodness!  Dad took him on the little train around the pumpkin patch and the day got much better! 

All in all we had a great family day and enjoyed making priceless memories!

Favorite time of day!

Every since Graham has been a little bity baby he gets so excited when you get him out of the bath tub and wrap him up in a towel.  I have always wanted to capture this moment, so finally a week or so ago (these were taken 10/4/12) I asked Josh to grab the camera.

He was playing peek-a-boo.

Sweet baby! 

The lashes are long, but when they get wet they are insane! You can tell his eyes are getting darker in this picture too.  I still don't know if they will stay hazel or turn completely brown. 

I cherish these moments every day and never want to forget the sweet times every night! 

Gigi turns 50!

On August 16th Josh's Mom turned 50!  We can not live without her, so we wanted to make sure she knew how special she is to us.  We put together a surprise party for her and invited all of her closes friends from over the years.

I thought her cake turned out great!

The birthday girl with her cake!

We tricked her and made her think we were just going out to eat and had her meet us at our house.  As soon as she walked in, Reed said, "Gigi Uncle B is here and it is a surprise I'm not suppose to tell you!"  So part of the surprise was already out of the bag!  Branden had traveled down from Missouri and had come over earlier in the day to see Josh and Reed.  I was out getting ready for the party, but when I found out I told Josh that was a horrible idea.  He said that he had had a talk with Reed and he felt like he wouldn't say anything.  Poor Reed he just couldn't hold it in, he literally lasted 2 minutes after Gigi got here.  So Jeannie just thought the surprise was Branden coming down.  Little did she know 15 more people were waiting to say, "Happy Birthday!"  

The whole gang! 

Reed brought Gigi a special piece of cake! 

There were also lots of great gifts! 

Of course Reed was right in the middle of the present opening! 

Jeannie/Gigi is the most giving person I know!  She is always there to watch Reed & Graham anytime we need her and even more just so Josh and I can have a date night.  I hope she always knows how special she is to us and that we literally could have never raised the two precious boys we have without her.