The Spider Pumpkin

Tonight was the official night in the Allee house to do pumpkin carving. Braden is the only one who carved a pumpkin in our house, and that is because his carving took about 3 hours...a perfectionist he is :) He picked out his pattern from the carving kit...no regular ol' jack-o-lantern faces on this pumpkin! He even helped gut the pumpkin, and we also saved the seeds to bake tomorrow night. He had to have a little help from dad getting the top off the pumpkin, and then after placing all the "dots" on the pumpkin with the tool while the stencil was on, I went over the dots with a marker to outline for him what he was cutting out. Otherwise, he did the cutting to make his spider. I think for his pumpkin carving on his own...the actual cutting out the design...he did a really good job :)

The beginning, and the only help dad provided in the carving process

Did I get it all?

I had to hold the pumpkin still while he did the carving...at some points in the carving time, I felt really sorry for the poor pumpkin ;)

Look at the face, he thinks he is such a big kid doing his own carving, he just kept saying "this is so much fun" and "I cannot believe I am carving the pumpkin all by myself!" too cute!

Braden and his prize Spider Pumpkin - he is a very proud kiddo!

The finished product!

Can You Find Patch

Last night I went in to Braden's room before I went to bed to give him one more kiss goodnight and to check on him and make sure all in the world was right for his good night's sleep :) Patch has taken a liking to sleeping with Braden, and we don't mind it, better Braden's bed than Josh and I's - ha! When I went in to give Braden a kiss goodnight, at first glance I couldn't find Patch...looking closer this is what I found - too cute not to snap some pictures of!

Finally Bought A House

WOW! Josh and I have finally done it, we are all grown up now...married and a kiddo didn't officially make us grown-ups - ha! Friday we put a contract down on our first house, and we are very excited about it. The house is move in ready, but we still have big plans...too bad the pocket book isn't as deep as our plans would like for it to be =P We close and take possession of the home on November 20th, which is a Thursday. The big move date is Saturday, November 22nd, so if you aren't busy - come one, come all -ha! I pulled a couple of pictures off of the agent's website, I cannot wait to get some pictures taken of our own :) I have linked the title of this post to the website if you are interested in more info on the house.

Family Pictures

They are finally posted, our family pictures. As I mentioned in a previous post, we went and had family pictures taken weekend before last. The photographer has tweeked them and placed them up for us all to see. If you click on the tile of this post, it will take you to the webpage with all of the family pictures. Josh, Braden, and I had several taken, as well as Heather and her boys, Quintin and his clan, and mom and John. Connie even took pictures of our four legged family members. The whole family pictures and the pictures of the grandkids turned out really good, as did Quintin and Heather's family pictures in the fall scene, but I am not crazy about the Allee family pictures with the fall background, I wish my legs were closer together and my fat rolls weren't showing, but the black and white ones of us all turned out pretty good. Here is a couple of shots just to give you a sneak peak of the pics.

The whole crew together!

I think this is my favorite one of us

I know these are the same pretty much, but we have a collage going on and I wanted the pose with both the white and the black :)

We cannot forget our newest member of the family

This is the best picture taken of the entire shoot, I love this one of my boys! A few years back, Braden and I had a mother-son shoot taken for me for Mother's Day, and we have a similar picture taken with this pose, this picture will go perfect next to the one of Braden and I :)

Family, Fun, and Popcorn Balls

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST...YOU CANNOT ROLL-UP THIS MUCH FUN INTO A SHORT ONE :)

Today we spent the afternoon at Granny's house for the big fall tradition of making popcorn balls. We gather to eat chili, give out boo bags to the kiddos, eat more food, enjoy family, eat some more, and make popcorn balls! Braden wanted to make boo bags for all of his cousins, so we spent time online picking out fun Halloween candies and items from the Internet and went to Wal-Mart to finalize the boo bag...the kiddos seemed to enjoy the fun things it contained. Stephanie even had to have her own boo bag...she thinks she still qualifies as one of the kids since she hasn't multiplied herself yet - ha! One of the favorites was the pumpkin balloon bopper, as you can see.

Braden had a blast playing with his cousins!

Now onto making the popcorn balls. There is a precise science to the activity. It takes special skill, let me demonstrate in pictures :)

First, you must sift through the popped popcorn...that is to make sure all coronals are eliminated so you don't crack a tooth on the finished product. By the way, this has to be freshly popped popcorn in a popcorn maker...not microwave bags of popcorn - doesn't work that way

Second, after Granny has slaved over the stove making the ooey-gooey goodness that makes the popcorn ball a popcorn ball, she pours it over the full bag of popcorn

Next it must be mixed up really good to make sure that all of the popcorn gets coated in the yummy goodness

Then after you have lathered up your hands with butter to keep them from burning from the molasses, you must start rolling the yumminess into balls

...and roll it...

Just keep rolling, just keep rolling, just keep rolling!

Then, WHAAALAAA, you have the finished product...the popcorn balls of 2008 have been created!

The only thing left to do at this point, is EAT IT!

As you can tell by the illustrations above, each part of the process takes LOTS of supervision -ha! What a blast we have together! This is an activity enjoyed by all ages in the family. Shoot, any excuse to get together, tell funny stories, laugh our butts off, and eat is a great time for us! Happy Halloween to all!

My Wreath

Last weekend while we were in Jefferson City, one of my goals, other than the family pictures, was to get my mom to Hobby Lobby and get the materials picked out to make MY fall wreath :) Mom and Heather made theirs together a year or so back, but I wasn't involved in the craft day, so I had decided that this year was my year. Mom and I spent quite a bit of time in Hobby Lobby picking out all the materials to make the wreath...I considered just buying one, but GEEZE those things are expensive, the one I liked was $159.99 - WOW!!! Anyway, we gathered fall pumpkins and gourds and other fall looking items to piece together the wreath. Easier said than done, especially since we were just trying to imagine what we were attempting to make in our heads with what was in the aisles. After an hour or so of shopping, and only $50 later, we had our stuff. Mom had a big hand in how the wreath turned out, she was tons of help in placing the pieces, but the end result is AMAZING! I just love my fall wreath! I will even be able to display it on my new house for a week -ha! I guess my next trip to JC will have to result in a Christmas wreath now!

Weekend at Mom's House

Today we had a big family day at my mom's house. We started off the afternoon with a big lunch - baked turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, noodles, green beans, and rolls - yummy! Then Connie Martin, my photographer, came over to take tons of family pictures. We had a big "fall" scene set up with hay bales, and mums, and pumpkins outside and took pictures there, and then a Christmas setup downtairs by the fire place and took pictures there too...we are getting ready for the upcoming holidays :) When the pictures are up on Connie's website to view I will add the link to a new post for all to view if they want too. All of the kiddos had a blast playing at Grandma Jancey and Papa John's house, they just couldn't get enough of each other. They all climbed the tree out front of the house so we snapped some pictures since they were so cute!

Kindergarten Picture

As you all know, Braden started school this year...yeah remember the post, me following the bus to school so I could take more pictures :) Anyway, I am getting off point here -ha! We finally received the first "official" school picture for his kindergarten year. Braden calls it "official" school, I guess all the preschool pictures didn't count =P We have our annual family pictures taken this weekend in Jefferson City, so we will have another set of pictures to share with everyone soon, but I thought I would post his cute little face from his "official" school picture to show off to everyone who comes and visits our blog :)

My Guys, Talkin 'bout My Guys!

So, last night I got home from work at a decent time and went upstairs to start making dinner. Braden had been with me at the grocery store earlier that evening, but once we got home I lost track of him...he generally entertains himself these days :) Once I got a break and could leave the kitchen I decided to go downstairs and talk to my husband, who is no doubtably behind his computer ;) So, I wrap things up and went downstairs and this is what I find:

It was just so cute seeing them together that I had to grab the camera and snap some pictures!

After dinner was over I decided to do the dishes right away rather than waiting until Braden went to bed. So, I clean up the kitchen and did my "mom" thing of putting everything back in order so that I can enjoy my evening once Braden went to bed. As soon as I exited the kitchen and walked into the living room, guess what I see...my son on my laptop :)

Look at that intense face, as if he doesn't already look enough like his dad, right!

So, what I am wanting to know...is will this be my son in 25 years - ha!!! (By the way, this picture was taken tonight =P)

Pumpkin Patch Fun

After Braden's soccer game Saturday, we went and picked up Diana and headed out to my friend, Cari & Scott's, house for an afternoon of fall fun :) We met up just in time for lunch (I was so hungry I was about to eat my arm off!), so we headed to Pizza Hut for a quick bite to eat, Scott went up to pay for the food, so I just got shots of Diana and Braden, and Cari and Teryn (Cari & Scott's daughter). We joked later that Scott and I should have a picture taken together. After lunch it was off to the pumpkin patch to pick out our prize winning pumpkins. Okay, so maybe there were no prizes given out, but the kids did a great job of picking out their pumpkins. Here are some pics of the afternoon and the fun all of the kids had at the pumpkin patch enjoying hay bale mazes, a train ride, a hay ride, and pumpkin pickin' :)

Soccer Game #6 - Sat., Oct. 11th

Braden loves being the one chosen to kick the ball back into play!

No, he isn't pushing the kid on the other team...and he isn't a head and a half taller either - ha!

Such a cutie, he has already asked if he gets to play soccer again in the spring ;)

Another Soccer Practice

Last week was Braden's second to last soccer practice, so I thought I should take the camera out again and snap some pictures. Patch accompanied me to the practice to keep me company since Josh was out of town :) Patch was a big hit by the adults and kids alike. Nothing really special happened at practice, but I thought I better get some new pics and add them to the blog.