Pumpkin Carving and meltdowns

(aren't their shirts cute!? My aunt Pat sent them to the girls. They wore them to school and go so many compliments...THANKS Pat!- we love you!)

We carved our pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch! We colored them to kill time before Daddy was ready to join us. I was really looking forward to doing our pumpkins b/c I remembered how much Christian LOVED doing our first pumpkin (yet another reason not to compare our kids!)
Emory hated EVERY SINGLE SECOND! I'm not sure if she was running-on-empty or what! But she just cried and cried and cried. She started as soon as Bryan started cutting, she became devastated!

She hated all the gooey stuff!

It must have been an 'off' night b/c nothing made her happy. She finally decided that we weren't getting the hint and walked herself to her room and waited for us to put her to bed!

Maybe next year will go a little better!

The finished products-- cute, huh?!

STAR student

Christian is the star student this week!

We (I) made this fabulous poster to show off her life to her class. She also gets to bring in her favorite book to read, 2 things of her choice to show off (1. pennies that she has flattened with a design on them from Gatlinburg and Disney World), wear her favorite color one day, and bring a special snack that begins with the letter of the week (Fig Newtons). She loves it!

Safari ride

We headed home for the weekend to visit with my cousin, Courtney, who flew in from Texas. We were all excited to see her!
We headed to the pine mountain aimal safari . It's a fun, dirty time! You drive in this old, gross, zebra painted van that moves 5 mph.

This was the first thing that we saw driving in!!!!

and instantly Emory did this! She was not too fond of this whole experience. I was sort of bummed b/c I thought she would love it! I am slowly realizing why they say to never compare your kids! My two couldn't be more different. When we took Christian at 18 months, she loved EVERY SECOND of it! Not Emory. She just wasn't in to it at all and wanted nothing to do with the animals.

She finally loosened up, sat with Gran and looked at hte animals.

Christian copying the animals.

Emory copying CC.

Hello!

Then we went to dinner with Courtney, March, Sam, and Andrew. We had such a fun weekend!

Devastated......absolutely DEVASTATED!

A spur of the moment decision to get CC's hair cut....

told the lady 'just a little above the shoulders, so that it will not flip out" AND ...................................

this is what she did...

She can barely wear a bow. HOW CAN A 4 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL WALK AROUND WITHOUT A BOW????????
I think I took the wrong one in for a haircut!!!

Happy Birthdays!

Baby Kate turned ONE Sept. 26th and we celebrated with her this past weekend.
She is the cutest, most petite little girl with the best smile!

We all had a fun time and Emory loved hanging out with her friend!

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside.....great day for a first birthday

We love you baby KATE!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Bryan and I took CC, Emory, and our nephews to the pumpkin patch for the day. We all had the best time
Everyone got to pick their own pumpkin. Before we began, I told them they had to be able to CARRY the pumpkin they chose. I looked over and sweet Gaines was trying his HARDEST to pick up a big pumpkin. I walked over to him and he said "I can't get it. Can Uncle Bryan get it?" I couldn't say no to that sweet face!

Carter is the funniest thing around! I couldn't stop laughing at his little 'one-liners'!
Mason picked a nice big pumpkin and knew his was better than the others. While on the hayride back he asked if we could write our names on the pumpkins. He's no dummy....he took his time picking the perfect pumpkin and wanted to make sure he KEPT his perfect pumpkin!

This little one decided to pick up and throw EVERY pumpkin she could get her hands on!

CC was bound and determined to have a big pumpkin- no matter how difficult it was to carry!

While I took the little ones on a tractor ride, Bryan took the big ones to the bounce house area! While we were riding around, I would point to hay and say 'hay'. Every time I did Emory would start waving:)

We played in tee-pees, got our face painted,

ran around playing, got cotton candy and fried snickers

Then .....we left!

Everyone was pooped and fell asleep 2 minutes after getting in the car.

We headed home for more playing, dinner, football and bed! All 5 in bed and asleep by 9:00! It was a fun day with family-doesn't get any better than that. And Bryan and I survived an outing with 5 kiddos!

UGH......sick days

Our weekend started off GREAT! It felt wonderful outside, so we immediately went outside to play while Daddy grilled out steaks.

Then this little love bug came inside BURNING UP! We took her temperture...103.2!!!!!!!!!!!! This momma FREAKED OUT! It just came out of the blue. She was completely fine when we got home around 4:00. But by 6:00, she was on fire. We pumped her with off-brand motrin and she went to bed. Bryan had to talk me into being patient and letting the medicine work before I called 911 b/c our daughter might catch on fire. Luckily, her temp went down. But still 102.1 in the morning. After a doctor visit, catheter to check for UTI, and a finger prick (which, of all thing....the band-aid made her cry hysterically. She couldn't STAND it being on her finger...weird- CC would cover her entire body in band-aids if we let her!), they determined it was just a virus. She was fine by 3:00 that afternoon!
Then CC and I headed to a costume birthday party with all of her school friends!

We had the best time bowling, face painting, and dancing!

By Sunday morning, CC was complaining of her tummy hurting and even wanted to go lay in her bed at 10:00 am(uh-oh....I knew it was going to be a rough day!). Around 11:30, it began....CC throwing up (both ends- gross, huh!). But she was such a big girl and let us know she was going to throw up while running to the bathroom. She even asked me to hold her hair back (reminded me of a few nights in college!!). Well....around 6:00 that night, MY tummy started hurting AND the stomach bug was passed on to me (I'll spare ya the details!) Rough night at the Congleton house, so CC and I stayed home Monday to get better. She was pretty much well by Monday, but not me! I slept ALL day while moaning and groaning. But my little CC might be the best nurse ever! She would rub my cheek, then kiss it, and whisper I love you in my ear. She even offered to turn my pillow "so it will feel cold on your head", put a pillow under my feet so my feet would feel better, and told me she would hold my hair. At one point I was leaning over a bucket thinking I was about to throw up with CC's face right in the bucket. When I asked her what she was doing, she said "Mom. Just throw up, okay. Just do it. I want to watch" GROSS but somehow cute!

Hopefully next weekend will be better for everyone! Unless Bryan gets it.......we all know how men handle being sick!!!):):): Love ya Bryan!!!!