Cute stuff from the last week or so

Conversations with Reef:

Me: Do you like your dinner? (It was a new dish I was trying out)

Reef: It's ???

M: What?

R: It's gorgeous!

Me: I need a tissue. (We're all suffering with colds this week)

Reef: I'll get you one in just a second, Mommy.

Me: Did you like the dried pineapple in your lunch today?

Reef: Yes, it's my best. (He uses that instead of "favorite". I think it's so cute!)

I took the boys to the park one day last week because I was dying to get out of the house. It's the first time we've been to park alone since Jonas has been mobile. We had a great time! Reef made friends with another little boy who was 5 and they played together the whole time. I was amazed at how much more independent he was. Preschool is really helping in that area! Jonas wanted to do exactly what Reef was doing...Here he's trying to climb up after Reef.

When they got bored with the playground, we went walking in the trees. How cute is this! It's my new best.

Troy cleared out a big pile of junk in the backyard last week with a kid from the youth group and found this snake. It's kind of hard to see in Reef's hand.

My LSU boy.

Diapers are Jonas' favorite toy right now. He loves to pull them off the shelf and carry them around.

Jonas is 1!

It's hard for me to believe that my baby turned 1 on Saturday! I can't believe how fast time flies, especially with 2 kids.
We started the day off with an early (really too early for Mommy's liking) game of basketball. He was very excited about this new toy.

Reef was also excited about this new toy, and quickly took it over.

We had a special pancake breakfast that morning and went on a long walk, followed by a quick nap for the birthday boy. After that, we headed to the mall to look for a belt for Mommy and shoes for Jonas. I thought he wore maybe a size 4.5 but no...he wears a 6, extra wide of course! We didn't like anything we saw, so we left the mall empty-handed and went home to meet Gigi and Grandma. After the afternoon nap, it was time for the big party. Jonas was a little grumpy early on since his nap was a little short. I think all the excitement was getting to him.
Notice that he wasn't too in to the candle thing...

But he does look pretty excited about that cake! After this picture, he actually refused to eat the cake unless we gave him a fork.

Jonas wasn't sure he liked the cake, so he let Jayden try some of his to make sure it was good.

Then she gave him a "thank you" kiss.

After the kids had their fill of cake, we moved on to presents. Here's Jonas with his penguin from the Whartons. They were sweet enough to bring a dog for Reef too!

I think this ball popper toy was by far the favorite of the day. He squeals in delight when the balls come out! Thanks Gigi!

Reef took a break to read with Grandma.

Jonas and Archer really hit it off at the party. They didn't want to let go!

After all of our friends left, we went for a birthday dinner at Luby's (this was more for Mommy's birthday than Jonas'), but neither of the boys was very hungry after all that cake. Then we took our tired boys home to bed. I think it was a great day for the birthday boy!

I love these girls!

A couple of weeks ago, Jill and I took our NEON girls on our first ever camping trip! Jill is an expert camper and did a great job planning our trip. We only had 3 girls since Lindsey got sick at the last minute, but we still had a great time. The girls did a great job of roughing it! It was great to have a chance to reconnect with the girls since we've been so busy lately!

Emily, Rachel, and Katelin

At the river. Katelin, Emily, and Jill risked falling in to take this pic. Rachel and I were not interested in that!

In an effort to cross the river in a different spot, Emily lost her shoe and had to swim for it. What a good sport she was!

While Emily was swimming, we spotted a rope swing and decided she at least needed to try it since she was already wet. Rachel and Katelin joined in too. We definitely should have packed swimsuits.

A group shot in front of the tent.

Another group shot, in front a huge tree.

Halloween Fun

On Thursday, we carved our pumpkin. Jonas really loved this activity and would have played with the pumpkin guts all week if we let him. Reef, on the other hand, thought that this was way too messy.
This is the only picture of Reef during the carving. Once the guts came out, he was out of there!

Jonas dug right in! He took it out, put it in, and threw it around!

Reef thought Jack needed a little cleaning after he was carved. He still thought it was pretty yucky.

Reef was much happier with his mini pumpkin, which he decorated at preschool with stickers.

Reef currently is in love with these yellow mittens that were found in the pocket of his jacket. We had to wear them Michael Jackson style one day because Jonas also insisted on having one.

On Halloween, we went to Trunk or Treat at our church, which is where everyone parks their car and the kids go car to car for candy.

Here's our family pic as the Wiggles.

Reef was really not sure what was going on with Archer, and Archer just wanted to read Reef's shirt.

It did not take long for Jonas to figure out the trick or treating.

Finally a genuine smile in the bouncy castle! He kept climbing out, saying, "There's something going on in the castle."

One last super bounce before going home.

Overall, I think the boys had a great time, but we were ready to get them home and to bed. Of course, Reef thought it was time to eat the candy when we got home! We told him he could have 1 in the morning and spent a little time hiding all the stuff we didn't want him to have. He didn't notice and has been happy to just carry it around today. Jonas was a little fussy towards the end of the night; he's been fussy this week because he's cutting his top molars. He's also been pretty clumsy this week, with at least one bump on the head each day and 2 bloody lips! I hope this passes soon.