rub a dub dub...11.11

an afternoon at the park...11.7

[baby jake was there as well...he was just hangin' in his stroller the whole time!]

sarah's preschool fall program...11.6

sweet church friends...11.4

L to R: drew, ava, cole, aiden, eva claire (triplets!), alli, and selah

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one wednesday after mops, all of the kiddos were running around crazy so one [brilliant] mom suggested they all pile onto this bench! these sweet little friends are all in the three year old class together and spend sunday and wednesday mornings together along with sunday and wednesday nights! [well, except for selah's little sister alli who is hiding behind her in the picture!] how special to think of these kids growing up together at church!

jake's hiding spot...11.4

guess you have to find a private spot where you can around our house...

official pictures from the pumpkin party...10.31

happy halloween!...10.31

my little knight in shining armor, frog, and princess...

the kids were so excited to run into the yorks in the parking lot on our way into the pumpkin party at church...

enjoying the inflatables...

chelsea and baby jake...

g.g and sarah concentrating hard on fishing...

drew takes his turn...

aunt josette helps drew play a game...

jacob and his friend jonah discussing life...

we met up with the littles to leave and go trick or treating in their neighborhood. mr. jason had BIG plans for us!

our first stop was at "the candy man's house"...this guy in their neighborhood sets up a table with tons of full size candy bars! a treat-or-treaters dream come true!!!

then we hit a few more houses...we had gone over all the etiquette with the kids. you know, say please and thank you, etc...DIDN'T realize we needed to specify that you do not enter any one's house NOR go chasing their dog into the living room! all of our kids were first time trick or treaters!!!

THIS huge thing is how we travelled the neighborhood. mr. jason strung up lights around the top of it and all 10 of us piled in! we were definitely a sight to behold!!!

a very hopped up on sugar little boy!!!
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[side note: last year i didn't get to attend any halloween festivities as i was in the hospital having jacob at about 5pm!!! i was so happy to see my big kids enjoy halloween this year!!!]

baby jacob's 1st birthday party...10.31 (get a cup of coffee, this might take a while!)

the birthday cakes...

oh my goodness...the highlight of the party! who would have thought it?!? the kids LOVED the bobbing for apples...

all the girls had a great time getting their nails and faces painted...

sweet mcintosh sisters...kathryn and lauren...

the herrington kids...

nana sat with baby jacob in the driveway and he played with dice :) he was totally unimpressed with all of the carnival games his daddy built for his party!!!

sarah and ava. both of them had freshly painted nails...thus the pretty hands in their laps!

drew lovin' on one of his many lady friends...this time its sarah katherine...

the kids decorating their treat bags...

more apple bobbing...

drew and kate throwing bean bags with all of their might...

this is where baby jake spent the majority of his party. poor little guy. can't even catch a break on his own birthday!!!

hudson and maddox enjoyed their lunch together. so cute...

the higginbothams attempting the football toss...

yea for baby jacob!!! my 3rd child who has no tricks learned to clap about 3 days before his party! i would highly recommend delaying the teaching of clapping until then. makes for some precious 1st birthday party pics!!!

sweet little guy just sat there in the middle of a mob while all the kids sang. i was so surprised he didn't start crying! it was a little overwhelming to say the least!!!

g.g. making sure jacob was enjoying his cake!

sarah, baby jake, and drew...

obligatory cake pictures. he's an ole pro at sweets!!!

kids decided the bean bag toss made a great fort!

drew and his bff ava...

didn't i just post a picture exactly like this?!?

all the kiddos enjoying the candy walk...dancing to the monster mash...

moved the candy walk into the garage after the wind started blowing the place markers around!

drew the fireman carrying his spiderman costume...

miss alison grabbing some jacob sugar...

it took us a while to realize mary mcrae was sneaking gumballs the whole time she was quietly sitting on the couch!!!

annabeth and nina...

mary mcrae and anna leigh...

family pic...minus mac...

what was left of the apple bobbing station. the kids were hilarious. we were bribing them away from the apples with candy! isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!?

after the party, the family stayed to watch baby jacob open his presents. [after jacob's mid-party bath, tim asked what to dress jake in. i told him to grab anything. i thought it was self explanatory to grab an outfit that actually fit and was appropriate for the weather...i guess i was assuming too much!]

an attempt at a family picture...
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i had a really really really hard time deciding what to do for jake's 1st birthday party. i wanted to avoid "halloween" as we will probably be having birthday/halloween bashes for the next 17 years...i finally settled on a carnival theme. i figured with 4 kids, 1 with a halloween birthday, we would get a LOT of use out of carnival games! so, i put handy daddy to work...he built a football toss, a bean bag toss, and ring toss, and a grand prize game...we had those "booths" along with a candy walk, soccer kick, face and nail painting, apple bobbing, and duck picking game. we were going to have sack races, but the yard was still really soggy from the 49 inches of rain we received in september and october :( the kids all had a great time and i think the parents did too! i couldn't have gotten the whole party together without the help of my grandmother, uncle rob, aunt josette, and cousin chelsea who came over early on saturday and let me boss them around all morning :) the weather could NOT have been more perfect...i know a lot of people were praying for the beautiful day we received! i am so thankful for all of our family and friends who spent part of their halloween to celebrate jake's 1st birthday!!!

drew's preschool harvest party...10.27

i ended up not being able to attend drew's harvest party because of an orientation at work, so sweet mary took my place...and took lots of pictures for me! LOVE the first one of little drew wholeheartedly praying!!!

halloween week at gymnastics...10.26

sarah AND drew take gymnastics at SEGA gym this fall. they were in the same class on monday mornings...we hit up gymnastics and headed straight over for sarah's dance class afterwards. it was a busy monday morning, but then we had no other activities for either kid the rest of the week (excluding church stuff!)...but, then miss sarah graduated to the "hot shots" class from the "gym-mini crickets" so we had to switch to monday nights so that both kids could take at the same time...it actually hasn't been too bad. we have dance in the morning, come home for lunch and naps, and then head out the door again...little jake is just along for the ride as always!!!
anyways...

halloween week is a big deal at SEGA...the kids were supposed to dress up in their costumes for warm up and then they got to go through the haunted house! THEN, the kiddos took off their costumes for their regular gym class. sarah and drew were in heaven! and of course we put baby jake in his new costume from aunt annie so he could be a part too!!!

it was a fun night and a great way to kick off halloween week!!!

ugh!...10.25

how can one sweet little baby make such a gigantic mess while eating breakfast?!?

mops playdate at priddy farms...10.24

sarah's preschool harvest party...10.22

aren't you glad you don't teach this class?!? 31 students 3 days/week!!!

sarah's class had their harvest party in the middle of the memphis monsoon season (aka all of september and october), so the party was held inside...but we still had lots of fun!!!

the kids got to play lots of games and burn off lots of energy!

it was all hilarious to watch! and overwhelming!

the only downside of the whole event was MY fault...just before going to sarah's party, i had my ultrasound to check out everything on the baby and find out if it was a boy or a girl...sarah had been so so excited for me to be able to tell her at her party...

ever since we finally remembered to tell sarah that she was going to be a big sister again, she has NEVER mentioned wanting one gender or the other. her usual response to that question was that she wanted 1 more brother and then 3 sisters! SO, i was dumbfounded when i told her it was a boy and she burst into tears! it was terrible! poor little thing. sarah is an extremely happy go lucky child. she is excited if you tell her anything! if i say it in the right tone, she would get pumped up about going grocery shopping! it broke my heart for her!!!

thankfully, the drama was short lived...and she was able to enjoy the rest of the party.

i really enjoyed getting to watch all the little 5 year olds interact...such little people trying so hard to figure out how to be big!

a little dinner out...10.16

while we were endlessly waiting for our dinner at mcalister's after we took our fall pics, we let sarah and drew command the diaper bag camera for some cheap entertainment...the results weren't too shabby!!!

fall pictures on the square...10.16

check out the past 3 years of collierville square pics...2008, 2007, 2006...

brothers...10.16

we don't know why jake does it all the time, but it totally totally totally cracks us up! he pushes his head into our heads or shoulders or necks...over and over and over again. i know we are just reinforcing it when we laugh so hard, but its so weird! oh, well...who knows!?!

love the little monsters on their little matching feet!!!

sweet boys!!!

sarah's big day...10.15

have i mentioned on here before about my "agreement" with sarah about 5T? last year, sarah asked MANY times to wear skirts and headbands to school like her friends. i told her that she could do those things when she was in 5T...i wasn't ready to let her "grow up" yet!!!

well, i have let her wear a few skirts here and there, and she thought she was BIG STUFF, but i had yet to let her wear her headbands...something about ratty, messy end-of-the-day hair that kept me putting it off. plus, she's never ever expressed any dissatisfaction at me sticking a huge bow in her hair every day, so i thought i should ride that train as long as i could!!!

anyway...so, one day last week, mimi was subbing in sarah's class, so i thought that was the perfect opportunity to try out the headband. oh. my. goodness! the excitement at our house that morning was out of control! she asked me to take her picture before school to document the big occasion! what a sassy girl!!!

and, her hair actually looked okay when she got home from school!

a few pics after church...10.11

(just fyi, THIS is what usually happens when i try to get a pic of all three kids...i'm tellin' ya, it was a MIRACLE when i took the pic at the top of this page!!!)

brothers...10.10

these pictures are so sweet. but they completely crack me up!!!
a. drew is wearing the same clothes he had on the day before! he slept in his clothes!
b. the boys are sitting in maggie's dog bed.

c. drew's hair is shaggy shaggy shaggy!
love 'em both to pieces!!!

community helper day...10.8

i was doing something or another up at the church after dropping the big kids off at preschool and when jake and i left the church, we happened upon drew's class visiting the firemen and firetruck!!! what excellent timing!!! (can you tell drew was a little confused to see us there!?!)

little monkey that he is, drew was NOT interested in posing nicely in front of the truck with a handsome smile on his face!!!

the sweet fireman in the background "encouraged" drew to smile and thankfully drew at least listened to the man in uniform! yet, NO ONE was able to convince him to take his silly little fingers out of his mouth...grrr!!!

once the kiddos bored of the firetruck and firemen, all the attention turned to drew's baby brother! drew was so proud to show his little brother off to his friends!!! what a sweet surprise to be able to watch drew and his class for a few minutes!!!