Pirates and Chores

On the days that Korey and Hunter are together all day they try to make something fun.  On this day in particular they made pirate hats.

One afternoon I was in the grocery store with Hunter and we happened upon the toy aisle although I didn't realize it.  Hunter started yelling out for a yellow toy and when I finally saw what he wanted it was a $6 toy.  Now this is not that much money but it wasn't on my "list", I was in a different store so everything was backwards, and the store was crowded.  I was ready to go and did not feel like spending the money on this toy.  So I tried to compromise with Hunter by letting him get a $1 Hot Wheels car.  Well he was still complaining about the yellow toy after we walked away so I made the hard decision not to let him have any toy "just because."  I told him we would go home and talk to his daddy about it because it was time the boy started earning his toys.

So Korey drew up a chore chart for Hunter.  Sorry it's sideways but the chores are laundry (I hand him the wet clothes and he puts them in the dryer), coffee (he gets it out of the freezer), trash, behavior in general, and dinner time (not asking to get down before we are done).  These are all things that we already had him helping with around the house so we told him that he could get stickers whenever we saw him doing these chores and then he could get his yellow toy.  He was excited! He understands that when you go the store and get something you have to "pay for it." So we told him that when he got enough stickers he could use them to pay for his yellow toy.

And...Hunter earned enough stickers to go and get the yellow toy!  Although we didn't have a set numb he had to get but we waited until Daddy got back from Africa so we could all go together.

Smart kid that he is picked out the multipack of Hot Wheels so he could have many cars to play with.

We laughed at how he picked out the pack with the camper van and the truck carrying the boat.

He lined them up on the windowsill so he could play.

We've started a new chore chart.  Don't know what his prize will be for this second round but we like this method.  The other night we finished dinner without commotion and Hunter wanted a sticker but I told him no because he had been rude to me before dinner.  Well, he immediately apologized when he realized he wasn't getting the sticker (which we still didn't give him).  This boy has attitude some days so we have to keep that in check!

Mommy's Makeup

Ooops!  I must have gotten in a hurry one day when I came home and failed to put my purse in the closet.  I was working in the kitchen and turned around to find this little boy digging through my makeup case.

Thankfully he didn't try to put any on!

Christmas 2012

Well, I have a corrupt camera card so some of the pictures I took from Christmas I can't show.  That's ok because we spent all of our Christmas vacation sick from the flu.  Yep, that's right we had the gift that keeps on giving.

Here is one picture I did take off of a different camera card.  Hunter is playing with a remote control toy that he got.  This is a few days post-flu for me and Korey.  We're just thankful that Hunter didn't get it.

Our 4th Anniversary

Just over a month late in posting this!

In November Korey and I celebrated four years together.  We spent a weekend in Dallas doing a food tour.  There was a whole bunch of restaurants that we wanted to try, ok well me, really.  

Here's a quick list of all the places we went:

Cane Rosso

East Hampton Sandwich Company

The Grape

Crossroads Diner

I had also purchased a groupon to go and see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Ft. Worth.  Those were really neat to see and it was fun to be back on campus where I used to attend (only got ten hours credit though).

Happy Anniversary to my husband!  I love you!

Driveway Time

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I got to come home early from work so I got started on my pie baking.  I made 5 pies plus a batch of lasagna soup!

It was so nice to have the afternoon free that Hunter and I took advantage of the daylight and went outside in the driveway to play.

Be still my heart!

So cute!

He wanted to ride his scooter so he pulled it out and rode around for a few minutes.

When did he get to be so big?

Halloween 2012

This guy loves firetrucks and ambulances and things that go "woo woo woo."  When I found the fireman costume on sale at the consignment store I knew that it would be perfect for Hunter.  Plus, it was low maintenance.  Toss on the coat and pants.  Done.

This was our first Halloween to actually let Hunter dress up and participate.  His first year he was only a few months old so we put him in a costume for about five minutes just to take pictures.  Inside.  Last year he participated in a church fall festival but he wasn't dressed up.  And by participated I mean he ran around the gym and we chased him.

This year was the year.  We dressed him up and took him door to door to trick or treat.  He doesn't even eat candy (yes, I know).  But we did use it as an opportunity to meet our neighbors.

Thus, cuteness abounded before dark.

Hunter was joined by his cousin Levi.  He didn't last very long but he was so cute in his costume.

 Here's my sister and her husband.  And Levi the Giraffe.

 I love a man in uniform!

 Fireman Hunter patrolling the sidewalks...for stray candy.

 And Hunter and his daddy off to see more neighbors.

Triple Trouble

Korey has a cousin that was coming into town a couple of weeks ago and his mom wanted us to come down for a mini family reunion.  We packed up the car and headed south the weekend before Thanksgiving.  And of course Dallas traffic put us an hour and a half behind schedule due to two wrecks.  Sigh.

We ended up arriving at 10:30pm at night and Hunter and his cousin Brandon quickly reunited and started playing.  We didn't go to bed until 1am!

On Saturday we we were reunited with Korey's cousin.  They have a 2 year old also so we spent the weekend with 3 two year olds.  And it was seriously so much fun seeing them together.  (I'm just realizing in the middle of typing all of this that I don't have all of the pictures downloaded.  Guess I'll do another post later!)

We went to a pumpkin patch and Hunter climbed up on the pumpkins.  It was the last weekend before Halloween so it was very crowded.

Here are the three cousins!  Andrew, Hunter, and Brandon.  Nana bought them each a Halloween shirt so we dressed them up in them for our Saturday adventures.

This was at the pumpkin patch.  The three of us moms were crouched down behind the sign holding our kids up.

On Saturday night we put all 3 of them in the bathtub together and they were so cute.  We, of course, aren't posting those photos.

Here are the three cousins!  Becca, Korey and his brother Kevin and their kiddos.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.  I wish they lived closer.

Here are the ladies from our weekend.  Bekah, Corey, me, and Korey's mom "Nana."