Labor Day at Blanco State Park

We enjoyed some time at Blanco State Park on Labor Day Weekend. The Schwartz family had a shelter there and camped that night, but we opted to drive the 30 minutes back to our AC and beds. Here's a link for more photos...

Camera Flirt Part 2

Elise flirting with Daddy and the camera in the backyard...

Pat's Birthday

Camera Flirt

Lots of Loisel Lovin'

JP and his *Great* (in more ways than one) Grandma

Elise and her *Great* (in more ways than one) Grandpa

We had a wonderful trip to DFW a month ago, and I'm finally getting some pictures on here! We spent a few days with my grandparents in Richardson and really enjoyed ourselves. It's surreal to have John Patrick play in the acorns in the backyard and at the park we always went to as children. And Elise, seeming to sense she was in fan-club country, couldn't stop flirting with Grandma and Grandpa.

At my favorite park (that seemed SO much bigger as a child!)

We headed to Fort Worth for the weekend and got to have more time with my mom and my brother's family. JP opened some birthday presents and was renewed in his love for the family :) Noah gave him some new cars and Mom a parking garage... it just doesn't get much better when you're a three-year-old boy.

Saturday we spent a little time at the McKays, feeding the ducks. The boys loved running down the hill (after their duck food had all been thrown).

My sweet sis-in-law, Sally

Elise clearly having a horrible time at Grandma's (you see a theme?)

These pictures are after church on Sunday at my brother Eric's place. They're darling! If only Baby Keira had made her appearance a few days sooner...

Date Night

'Til death do us part... Pat and I on Sea World's "STEEL EEL". I cannot look at this picture without laughing hysterically.

Halloween '08

This might be something I should keep to myself, but I LOVE costumes, costume parties, dress-up, the like. It's like a holdover from elementary school drama camp or college date parties or something. So, while I'm not a huge Halloween fan, this holiday is such fun for me, a cultural "OKAY" to indulge my little costume craving. I only wish my kids (namely, my 3-year-old son) liked dressing up as much. Our final costume for him was a neighbor's last-minute lend because the full costume (you might remember "Pablo") was just NOT HAPPENING. He's a little touchy about some things. So enough about me, we all know why you're here:

Our little Texas Aggie football player (the missing link in their team, obviously) I feel like he's saying "Put me in, Coach!":

Our super-cute bunny wabbit; eating grass, naturally:

Making their best bunny and mean football faces, respectively:

The whole family:

The baby girls on the block: Reese, Aubree and Elise:

After pictures with our neighbors, we headed to a fall festival with friends at the church where JP attends Mother's Day Out. They had bounce houses, games, food-- JP was in HEAVEN. Here's the very large slide he went down (that's me at the top!)

He had this grin plastered on his face the entire evening:

Elise's typical expression throughout the night. I believe the military calls it "shock and awe":

She really enjoyed chewing on this little party favor, which looks surprisingly like a carrot:

Pat keeping JP from "going 'gain!" for the one-hundred-trazillionth time on the bouncy-obstacle-course-thingy:

And, last but not least, the pumpkins we carved. Pat made an impressive redfish pumpkin, a "normal" one, and I did the cat. Sadly (*tear) someone destroyed them in the middle of the night, so they are no more. Good-bye pumpkins, we were so proud of you.

Pumpkin Patch

I'm really not sure how we managed to go to the pumpkin patch and walk away without ANY pictures of the kids IN the pumpkins, WITH the pumpkins, or even NEAR the pumpkins, but I was recovering from being sick, and the games and candy and costumes and hayride distracted us. (Part of it is also that Pat detests pumpkin patch pictures.) This remains a mystery to me; however, that being the case, I have only a few shots from the hayride. We (Pat and I) assumed because we were riding behind this:

that John Patrick would LOVE the idea of a hayride. Not so much... he needed lots of encouragment (like, say, a lollipop) to enjoy our ride, albeit with a permanent scowl:

Elise, on the other hand, loved the ride so much, she fell asleep-- hard! Even after the hayride, repositioned in her stroller (with a leg out!), she STILL managed to catch some Zzzzsss:

We saw lots of cute costumes and just had to send a shout-out to Cousin Noah... check out the Buzz Lightyear we saw!! I'm sure his mom was thrilled that a complete stranger took a picture of her child, but it was all for you, buddy:

Daddy, I'm Yours

I'm SEVEN Months!

Elise is just killing us lately with cuteness. I realize that I've been posting a lot, and {perhaps} it's overkill, but how can I choose? October has been a gangbuster month for good pics. Here's Elise at SEVEN months: