Halloween Weekend

Halloween was an eventful day at our house. On Saturday we had a birthday party for one of my old friend's son, Luke. He was turning 4 and his grandma who lives her in FL was having a party. Gabriel had so much fun in the pool, kiddie pool, and bounce house. The party was filled with food, cake, and snow cones. A 4 year old kid's dream! Here is Gabriel with his new friend Brady who is older than Gabriel by a couple of weeks.
And here is Gabriel and William in the bounce house. Gabriel loved to bounce with us.

And here is the crew of Westminster Academy alumni. Quite a group came for Tyson's son, Luke's, birthday celebration!

And, all the kids, of course....

What would Halloween be without a little trick-or-treating? Gabriel got to go trick-or-treating for the first time. We went with Kristin and her daughter, Adriana. Adriana was a great teacher for Gabriel. Adriana the hippy and Gabriel the pirate.... The funniest part was Gabriel wanting to go inside everyone's house. Of course, what else do you do when someone opens the door...you go in! How silly to stand outside and wait for them to give you candy???

As you can see, he go the hand of it pretty quickly! It was lots of fun, as you can imagine!

Pumpkins and Fall Festivals

After uploading all the pictures to the blog, I realize I put them in reverse chronological order! Oops! I'm sure it doesn't matter.... Anyway, last weekend Gabriel and I carved a pumpkin for the first time. He seemed more interested in playing with the cut out top of the pumpkin than digging inside.
Here is what we ended up with. I had to throw it out Thursday because the heat really got to it. It was gross!!!

We also went to the Parkland Fall Festival. They had puppy adoptions. No, we didn't get one. But Gabriel loves dogs...he always grabs their nose!

He was so into the picture of the dog on this sign and even kised the dog on the sign.

The Fall Festival was complete with balloons.

The most exciting was Friday's Fall Festival at the JM Family Center. Below you can see Gabriel didn't want to wear his hat with the pirate costume. He looked so cute!

You can see that eventually he was okay with the hat. Maybe the cotton candy was distracting him. He loved the cotton candy!

What is a Fall Festival without cotton candy and pizza? A little boy's dream!

All in all, it was a great weekend! Gabriel had fun and we kept very busy!

Stay tuned for pictures from tomorrow (Friday's) halloween day at work and the Family Center!

Pumpkin Patch

Today, we went to a pumpkin patch. This is what we call a pumpkin patch in Florida! We had lots of fun even though Gabriel didn't want to pose for any pictures. We caught a few...

Kinda looks like he got caught doing something he shouldn't be doing???

No, this is not our cart of pumpkins! We did buy a pumpkin, but none of these.

I'm not sure what Gabriel is looking at here, but it almost looks supernatural!

Movin' on up to size 5

Gabriel is still fitting in his old shoes, but is getting close to the next size. So, we went today for new shoes and here is what we found. What else, but Stride Rite? I didn't even realize that company still existed! :)

This was my attempt to get another angle, but I had to nearly pin Gabriel down on the ground.

I couldn't resist this picture. How cute! Acting like such a compliant child...

Sedona & The Grand Canyon

What a fabulous trip. We spent Labor Day week in Sedona and the Grand Canyon and enjoyed every bit of it! Here are a few pictures of our time in starting in Sedona. Below is the view from the visitor center coming in from the south of Sedona.
Bell Rock...

Don't touch the cactus. Here we were at the rock Cathedral.

A spectacular view from the Sedona airport.

Shopping in Sedona, trying on a few cowboy hats!

Jumping from rocks at Grasshopper Point. Mommy & Daddy took turns since the water was way too cold for Gabriel.

Two horses lived at the bed & breakfast where we stayed about 25 miles outside of the Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim. Gabriel went to visit them every morning and every night! He loved Twister and Laredo!

Strolling at the Grand Canyon Village.

Another spectactular view from the Grand Canyon!

Love this picture!

Gabriel was dancing to the music of the Navajo Indians. They performed some traditional dances and Gabriel loved it! He was completely enamored by the Indian's dress.

Our cute little boy at the Navajo Indian performance, playing in the trees.

Jumping from the red rock at Slide Rock State Park...

William's turn.

Then we hit the slide, how fun it was!

Our family picture from Slide Rock State Park.

Daddy and Gabriel playing on the jeep tour stop in front of a beautiful Sedona sunset!

On the jeep...did I mention these jeeps go vertical???

And finally, the family in front of a beautiful Sedona sunset.

Week with Mops & Granddaddy

Last week Gabriel got to spend 3 days with Mops and Granddaddy all by himself! Mommy had to go to California for work and Daddy was spending lots of time at Jackson Memorial Hospital slaving away in his last year of residency (yipee!!!). Below are some pictures and a few captions...
Gabriel had so much fun with his cousins, Taylor and Chloe. T&C loved having their cousin in town to play with.

Mops took Gabriel to the poool nearly every day! As you can see they loved the kiddie pool.

Gabriel finally sat with Uncle Scott after a few days of seeing him.

You can't stay at Mops and Grandaddy's house without having ice cream every night! He loved it!

Gabriel was spoiled witha a great park (and pool) in the development.

Of course, we must mention Luna. Gabriel wasn't too sure of her at first, but here you can see everything turned out a-okay! Thank goodness for a calm dog that let Gabriel do whatever he wanted without hardly flinching! Gabriel loved to grab Luna's nose and lips.

Another day at the pool...Motor boat, motor boat go so slow; motor boat, motor boat go so fast; motor boat, motor boat step on the gassssss....

Lizard Chaser

Gabriel has become quite the lizard chaser. He sees lizards crawling all over the screen when he is looking through our sliding glass doors. Here he is pointing to and talking to lizards.
After church this past Sunday, we went out to the catwalk in front of our condo. This is one of his favorite places to chase lizards. As you can see he gets very interested in chasing them in the bushes...

There he goes...

He hasn't caught one yet, but I'm sure it will be soon enough. I just hope it isn't one of those huge, nasty dragon looking ones. It's probably a good thing he can't catch them now since he may try to eat it. Gross!!!