arkansas, st.louis & halloween!

the milk and cookie train....sounds silly, but Will loved it. The stroller turned out to be his freight car due to the long lost cookie... :)

There's that crazy cookie girl!

yummmy! come over and eat some of our candy please!

Here's our trip to grandpa and gg's house- sam had some work trips so we drove over for a 6 day visit!

While papa and gg were at work, I checked out the st.louis science center kids area....I'd been there lots of times before but never to explore the toddler/kid stuff. Of course, with all the creative toys and experiments around him, Will still played mostly with the trains!

This is what we did all weekend with papa and gg- built truck walls to crash over and over again:) Will loves his grandparents.

I visited many friends. Visited Caroline Hemmings site with her family and friends, and hiked Castlewood with an old friend. Beth is pictured with me below (a good friend of my moms).

yes, we did manage to do some chores in the last few weeks...like clean Nemo's Tank:)

And Below.......The Natalie & Josh Hite Wedding! This is mom's best high school friend, my "aunt"Cindy, and Natalie is her daughter. I didn't get to hang out much with natalie growing up...but I saw TONS of pictures of her and her brother. It was a beyond beautiful wedding.

Cindy:)

Love this pic...all the kids (will and ellie..see them?) watched Natalie and Josh in their first dance as husband and wife. ....what a gorgeous couple!

sam was a trooper! 13 hour drive one way. It was just one of those things you just do, because mom loved cindy and natalie and taylor and don so much.

isn't that too cute? a kid table! There were snacks for the kids and an adorable coloring page all about natalie and josh that natalie drew....so cute.

and of course, I had to visit the infamous periwinkle place! Cindy's Store. Cindy knows how to let mom's shop....provide a huge train table and hands on toys for kids!

Extreme Bubble Bath!

Step 1 - Fill tub with warm water

Step 2 - While tub is filling, add 1/2 bottle of bubble bath

Step 3 - Turn on jacuzzi jets for 5 minutes

Step 4 - Add children

Step 5 - Forcibly remove 3-yr old boy after 1 hour

In a word, awesome.

Giant Pumpkins + Delicious Carrots

While I was slaving away at work designing chemical plants Jenny went with some other kids and moms to a Pumpkin Festival in Milton, WV.

There were giant pumpkins there :) Will told me he saw big pumpkins and milked a cow (it wasn't a real cow). But he was disappointed to report that "Mama forgot to go to hay maazzzze!" (the hay maze cost money and mom didn't have cash). To make it up to him, Jen built him a cushion/pillow maze that took up the entire living room. Very cute!

None of our pumpkins grew this year but our garden yielded quite a few tomatoes and a TON of carrots. A few went straight from the dirt into Ellie's mouth. "Mmm" said Ellie. Even with a mouthful of garden dirt, they were pretty good. Now that all of our vegetable plants are out of the ground the garden has become our sandbox! (Dirtbox?) Elle loves pick up dirt with a shovel and dump it on her brother. Hilarious :)

Fantasy Football - The Best Kind of Football

With my beloved Cougars in rebuilding mode and the Broncos dropping to 2-3 this week, I can devote all of my football attentions to what has become one of my favorite "hobbies". Fantasy football, baby!

If you don't know how fantasy football works... you need to know. Click here for an excellent wikipedia article: Fantasy Football. More than 27 million people are playing this year.

This year I have 3 teams, 1 in a 16-team work league and 2 with college buddies. My team names: Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy), Team Bright, and Shenanigan Samb's. Everyone talks up fantasy football at work, its awesome. We have a trophy that goes from office to office when you're in first place. At the end of the year, the winner's name is engraved on the trophy. Glory. And the draft with college buddies is one of the highlights of the year. We chat it up on instant messenger and talk trash about the season to come. Good times.

Fantasy really changes the way you watch games. I certainly don't watch all the NFL games and rarely even catch more than a quarter or two on Sunday, but when I do there's a good chance that there's a player from one of my fantasy teams out there. So as I watched the Broncos get destroyed (predictably) by the Colts I still had reason to cheer, because Austin Collie was catching touchdowns and leading Team Bright to a victory in my work league. And Monday night football can turn into must see TV. "Why are you so into this? The Patriots are winning by like 30 points?" asks my wife. "If Randy Moss gets held to less than 30 yards receiving, team "Bobby Boucher" beats Jason's "Chuck Norris Squad" and I stay undefeated!" (PS - Bobby Boucher is still undefeated. That's right, Jason. You've officially been trash talked on my blog.)

Fantasy football, America's new national pastime.
"Rawrrr. Why did I draft Aaron Rodgers over Peyton Manning? C'mon man!"

"Grrrfrr. Dude, you think you've got problems... I took Reggie Bush in the third round. What was I thinking?"

the cougs, the broncos....

Yes, we are in the heart of football season. The byu cougars aren't looking too hot, so we figured they could use a new cute cheerleader: Presenting Elena Rebecca Bright.

I'll leave it to Sam to add some thoughts on his fav football hightlights thus far....he'll probably get this done tomorrow at work while things are running slow:)