Play Date with Amelia

We let Amelia and her dad John come over and play Saturday so Amelia's mom could recover from 2 night shifts at the hospital and prepare for a 3rd! We got a tip from a neighbor that there is a playhouse with a mailbox, hardwood floors, and a ceiling fan just 2 doors down from us, so we went to check it out.

And here it is - mailbox and all!

Our neighbor built it for his granddaughters, but they are not in town very often. He said it took him a year to build and another year to trim it out.

It looked just like a real house on the inside!

It had a dining table,

a stove, a fridge, baby bed, and a piano!

And nicer accessories than our real house! And it was cleaner!

There were also steps going up to a slide and the girls went up and down over and over. Sometimes going down the slide, sometimes just going back down the stairs.

Delia wants to "dit down."

Just chillin' on the front porch.

It took forever for us to get Delia out of this chair!

After playing for a good while and getting pretty muddy, we went back to our house for lunch.

It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the sunshine!

Pumpkinpalooza!

This Friday was the first ever "Downtown Pumpkinpalooza" in Downtown Starkville. I was on the planning committee and the whole thing came together so well with the Convention & Visitors Bureau taking the lead with their big fat special events budget - woohoo! We blocked off Main Street and had a pumpkin patch, face painting, inflatable jumper, pumpkin painting contest, farmer's market, live music, pep rally, and trick or treating.

There was also a Scarecrow contest and that was my 3 interns' project on Friday. This is my marketing intern Becky Favre posing with our finished product. Yes, Favre, as in Brett's third cousin. Our scarecrow won the "Most Team Spirit" category!

Delia was Raggedy Ann, but wouldn't wear her bonnet w/red yarn hair. Most people still knew who she was though. Bryan and Christine got into town early for the MSU-FL game and they trick-or-treated with us!

Christine helped me get this picture - she snuck up behind Delia and put her bonnet on her!

We saw a lot of friends!

There were tons of people Downtown! We stayed and ate dinner and I took this photo from one of the restaurant balconies.

So many people! I was SO happy with the turnout, and so were all the other Downtown merchants I talked to that night.

One of my favorite windows in the window decorating contest. Didn't get too many pictures, because we were busy getting candy!

This was Delia's first time to really trick-or-treat. Last year, she just rode around our neighborhood in her stroller. In this picture she is a careful observer, trying to figure it all out.

It didn't take her long to get the hang of it.

Pretty soon she was running up and down the street saying "Candy! Candy!" That night she threw up 4 or 5 times (we lost count) - NOT due to too much candy (she only ate one pack of Smarties) - but due to a stomach bug going around our church and her day care. She had a little bit of fever, a puny Saturday, and was back to her sweet self Sunday afternoon.

Our sweet neighbors kept Delia while we went to the afternoon tailgate and 6:30pm game. Here is a picture of "the boys:" Jake, Grady, Truman, Bryan, and Scott. We hosting 6 this weekend! It was a good tailgate and a fun game. At least with our new coach, now when we lose, at least we have a good time at the game!

The Feeling is Not Mutual

Thanks to Erin Dixon for sending this picture she took in Atlanta! For more information on why "Grady Matters," see http://www.gradyhealthsystem.org/

Pumpkin Cutie Pie

Papa requested a picture of Delia with some pumpkins like we took last fall. I told him if the sun ever came out again, we'd do it. Lo and behold, today was beautiful!! And we had no pumpkins. Doh! So we borrowed the neighbors' pumpkins, plants, and front steps for a little Sunday afternoon photo shoot.

Mr. Tom, our snake-killing neighbor has said several times that purple is Delia's color!

I took 50 pictures while Delia sat in her mini-pumpkin patch. She was so cooperative!

"How cute am I?"

The chair is Grady's from when he was a baby!

Very serious about pumpkins.


Some pumpkin pics from last year!

WOAH! That's a roly poly baby! Grady said in this picture Delia is about to eat that pumpkin.

Friday Night Out

Friday night we went out to the Veranda for Brandy's surprise birthday party! Delia got to eat corn dog nuggets, stay up a little late, and skip her bath. Delia's hair is super long, while I just cut all mine off. There's nothing like a month straight of rain to make you hate your hair. It's much easier now!

Weekend with the Stevens(es)

Last weekend for the MSU-Houston game, our guests were the Stevens family from the Gulf Coast! I needed a break from rainy sloppy tailgates and babysitters keeping my baby 2 Saturdays in a row, so I skipped the 8am tailgate and the game to spend the day with Delia, Robin, and her kiddies and it was GREAT. Grady, Mark, and Sam did their Bulldog duty and cheered the Dawgs on.

We got up, had breakfast, played, got dressed, and ran Sam up to the game. Luckily Robin's vehicle has 3rd row seating because we had 4 babies in tow!

We went to City Bagel for lunch - Yummy and kid friendly.

It was a little cool for the goldfish to be swimming around the City Bagel goldfish pond, but the girls were looking.

Delia LOVED the pizza bagel.

Nathan loved the leaves and dirt!

Nathan and his mama! After lunch, we all went home and slept for 2 hours. Heaven!

On Sunday we got to play a little bit more before the Stevens crew headed out.

Grady played a swinging bouncing ball game with the girls.

Sweet girls.

Then Delia put her hood on and got serious... about acorns.

She likes to pick up acorns and put them in cups, bowls or her baby stroller.

The whole time, she says "AA-corns. AA-corns."

Making sure no one is coming after her acorns.

Sneaking away with them, incognito.