{rainy days and mondays...}

...never get Dean down! (Poor Eli missed all the fun during his nap.)



P.S. Don't you love how he's holding his pants up in some of the photos? Good job, buddy - you wouldn't want those pant legs getting all wet. :o)

{i heart moccasins}

Thank you Airwalk for making these awesomely adorable moccasins. Most of all, thanks for making them SHOES and not slippers (I know, right?) so I can wear them out and about all winter long. And even more thanks for the fuzzy wuzzy lining to keep my feet toasty warm without having to cramp my style with socks. {SwOOn}

Oh, and the biggest thanks of all to my sweet (and understanding) hubby for letting me have them early since they are supposed to be one of my Christmas presents. Good man. He just knows I can't hardly wait for anything. Don't worry, babe. You can pry them off of my feet and wrap them when the time comes. Better yet, you can wrap them while they're still ON my feet. :o)

{first day}

Here's our sweet boy in his favorite monster shirt on his first day of preschool. I'm not sure if he was nervous, but he chewed on his little lip the night before while he was sleeping. When I asked him what happened, he said, "I bited my wip in my dream." Poor baby ... I mean, poor big boy.

(Random, but don't you just adore how kids his age replace "L" sounds with a "w"?)

See the lip? I love this little humor-Mom smile he does.

Telling me about his "cool shirt". Look how excited my baby is. (sob)

"Seeeeeee, Mom?"

"Here's a monster riiiiiiiight here."

You may be both happy and surprised to know that I did not cry when I dropped him off. I didn't think to actually. I was looking forward to hanging out with my buddy Eli at Target for the next few hours. (But I still missed this little punk.)

{off to preschool he goes}

I can't believe my baby boy is a preschooler now (sob).

We started a tradition that I've been waiting to do once Dean finally started school (yes, preschool counts as school). We had a back-to-school dinner party the night before Dean's first day and since he was the preschooler of honor he got to wear a felt crown made by Mommy and he also got to choose everything about his feast.

To my surprise, of all the delicious foods we discussed, he chose pizza and breadsticks with dipping sauce (not discussed at all). I also made his favorite fruit salad which is one of my Mom's recipes from when I was growing up, except we added cherries because that's what Dean wanted to do. Devin made his yummy homemade strawberry lemonade with real strawberry chunks and I bought some cupcakes with crayons on them that Dean picked out. Next year everything will be homemade, I've decided, because that just feels more special to me. But I just didn't have time to make a crown, clean the house, take care of the kids, blow up tuns of blue balloons (which Dean chose for his dinner party decor), AND bake cupcakes - so sue me. I'll plan better next year.

After the food and dessert Daddy gave Dean a special blessing for his upcoming preschool year. It's fun to think of doing this every year, and soon enough I'll have THREE crowns to make and three menus to consider! (I'm thinking everyone will have a particular course that they can choose because I'm not making three whole feasts!)

{hooray...}

It's October! I LOVE October for many reasons:

(1) It's when the leaves finally start to change to the most beautiful colors.
(2) It's when the weather starts to cool down - even if only a little here in Texas.
(3) It's the month that kicks off the holiday season.
(4) I get to conjure up some costumes and take my rugrats trick-or-treating which always seems so magical.
(5) I get to start making soups.
(6) I get to start burning fall candle scents like pumpkin, apple crisp and cinnamon.
(7) I can start wearing my sweaters (rarely here, but I'm still going to).
(8) I can start dressing Ava in her little legwarmers that I have made for her (and check out this tutu I made, too).