Happy Halloween!

Claie, aka the scary cat, with a smile on her face

Now you can see her tail.

Here we are at Trunk or Treat last night.

Tonight Jordan is on call, and there's a high chance of rain, so we'll see if Claire does any more trick-or-treating. At this point, there's no guarantee. But she's had fun this week, and I'm glad.

Pumpkin Carving Time!

We actually carved a pumpkin this year! (I'm guessing that it's been at least 10 years since I've participated in this activity!) Claire was excited about it.

Dad got to work.

We all took turns emptying the pumpkin.

I love Claire's face! "Eewwww!"

After saving all the pumpkin seeds so we could toast and eat them, Dad got to work again.

We've lit a candle in our jack-o-lantern every night since we carved him. Claire loves to look at him all aglow when it's dark outside.

Halloween Fun

Claire has been busy getting ready for Halloween! Just look at all that art work, most of which is from school!

Here's a craft she and I did earlier this month.

One day she went to play with some friends, and they made caramel apples. She was soooo excited to be able to eat hers when she got home!

And she also got to help make her Halloween costume. She wanted to be a scary cat. I was envisioning a black cat, but she said she wanted it to be all different colors, so we went with her idea.

Hopefully the cat ears and whiskers help you see the cat a little better! (And I'm glad she's smiling in these pictures - instead of looking scary!) Her school Halloween party was a success.

Claire with her painting.

Claire and friends decorating pumpkins with glitter glue. They loved that!

Blue Bell Factory

Last week Brian, Kelly, and Macy came to visit us! Brian and Jordan went to nurse anesthesia school together, and Kelly and I became fast friends. When the guys graduated last December, Kelly was pregnant. Then they moved back to Michigan, and we moved back to Texas. Now, the next time we've seen each other, Kelly has a sweet little baby, and I'm the pregnant one!

We had a great time when they were here. - I hope they did, too! :-) One morning we went to the Blue Bell Factory in Brenham. I loved it! And the ice cream was great, too!

Ready to go!

Brian, Kelly, and little Macy

The girls

The little girls

Our scoop of free ice cream that comes with the price of a tour

And here's our second scoop of ice cream - Each scoop after the first is only one dollar!!!

I had cinnamon ice cream first, and then I had blueberry cheesecake ice cream. YUM!!!

Yes, I'm very pregnant! :-)

We couldn't take pictures during the tour, but I really enjoyed it! We learned some things, too. For instance, the top five Blue Bell flavors are 1) Homemade Vanilla, 2) Cookies & Cream, 3) Chocolate, 4) The Great Divide, 5) Neapolitan. Also, a slogan that we saw there said, "We eat all we can, and we sell the rest." And that's true! The employees have access to unlimited ice cream and other Blue Bell treats while they are at work. So what they can't eat, they sell! And finally, did you know that butter was the first product made by Brenham Creameries, which later had its name changed to Blue Bell Creameries? Pretty cool, huh?

I like this picture spot because the barn doors are actually elevator doors! 

We fully expected to see ice cream at the Blue Bell factory, but we had no idea we would see items from the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame!

Here's the pitching coach, Ernie Johnson, from Jordan's high school.

Macy wanted to stir up some trouble.

Jordan found some pictures of people he played baseball with - Laynce and Jayson Nix. Pretty cool!

For anyone else who wants to visit the Blue Bell factory when they come to visit us, I am totally happy to go again! And I'm so glad Kelly and Brian were able to enjoy Blue Bell, too!

Uncle Matt

Claire loves to play, so when Uncle Matt's around, she's quite happy that he's happy to play with her! Here, they were doing the crab walk - sometimes alone, sometimes Uncle Matt giving Claire a ride, and sometimes Claire trying to give Belton a ride, I think! Thanks for the fun, Uncle Matt!

Belton's Party

Claire and I went to Belton's birthday party a few weeks ago. Here are some pictures!


Matt wrote on the cake

Cousins played together

And we enjoyed the challenge of getting 5 children to at least look in the same direction at the same time and, if we're lucky, look like they were enjoying themselves!

Then it was party time! Laura did a shapes theme. The food was shaped like circles, squares, or triangles.

Belton didn't completely enjoy the opening of the presents!

But Claire did! She wanted to help and help and help.

Here, Laura is feigning surprise over the toy we got for Belton, since Claire had already told her it was a car. After that conversation, she and I talked about surprises and how sometimes we have to keep things a secret. We'll see how well that worked sometime in the future!

And I got to hold sweet little Lillian!

The party was hopping, and we had a good little getaway to visit family!