10 years ago today...

...I met the love of my life.

Sean brought a college friend home for the July 4th weekend.  I walked through the back door of my parents' house as he was coming out of one of the bedrooms inside.  We introduced ourselves, proceeded into the kitchen to talk and eighteen months later, we were married.

I love you Andrew Shull.

And I love you Sean Lowe...for bringing that boy home 10 years ago.

  

Labor-ing

On Labor Day, we had a family party at my aunt and uncle's house.  It's our official "last swim" of the summer (which was odd for my kids because our house is already decorated for fall and they thought summer was long over...).

 

Yes...best pic of me and my kids.  Pitiful.  K is eating chips in the background and Smith is hiding behind me.  Oh well.  Love them!

 

This is his "it's too hot to pose for pictures, Mom" face.

 

But it's not too hot to play volleyball with Uncle Seanie.  These two had the best time playing together (as usual).

 

My family always plays volleyball at a swim party.  I'm pretty sure everyone secretly talks behind my back about not having me on their team.  I don't mind though :).

 

Our Sweet P!

 

The grandparents (love them!)

 

 

Silly, splashing girls

 

What a tough boy he is!  He's showing you his knee where a big old bee stung him.  He was such a trooper...the best medicine for a bee sting...a chocolate chip cookie.

 

Sweet boy!

 

That's it!  Uneventful pictures but a great Labor Day weekend!

 

 



Boo!

This was our best Halloween to date!  The kiddos were at the perfect age for trick-or-treating, they were totally in love with their costumes, they were fascinated by the spooky decorations...they were a complete delight!

 

For school, Smith's class had a Halloween breakfast party...so he wore his Halloween jammies and house shoes.  Kensington's class had a traditional costume party, so she wore her unicorn costume.

 

 

And here they are on Halloween night ready to trick-or-treat!  A unicorn and Iron Man! 

 

{Side Note: Smith is really skinny and tall...thus the high-water costume...to make the muscles fit, the length had to be short...what's a mom to do??!!}

 

 

 

Off to trick-or-treat with their giant buckets!  Those babies held some major candy!

 

 

 

We stopped by one of our favorite babysitter's houses...Joanna was a surfer girl for Halloween!

 

 

This pic cracks me up...the man came to the door wearing a full werewolf costume...did it scare my kids away?  Nope.  My kids just backed up a few inches, braced each other and waited for their candy.  Note to self: my kids will go to any nasty looking werewolf stranger that has candy.

 

We met up with our sweet friends Maggie and Molly and trick-or-treated with them too!

 

 

 

Maggie the lion is precious!

 

Then Luke the lion joined the fun!  We loved spending time with our friends!

 

He's fierce people!

 

Sarah and Me :)

 

At home, we dumped out our loot and dug in!  Why is he eating the dum dum sucker instead of all of that chocolate?!?!

 

 

A very successful Halloween!  Boo!

 

 



Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family this year.  My family of 4 slept in and then watched the parade before heading to my grandparents' house for lunch and dinner (yes, we eat twice!).

 

 

Casey and Paisley

 

My little turkey!

 

Me and Paisley!  (Oh...and who is that stranger in the background???)

 

It's my little brother Sean :).  He's home and we're all so happy!  We had a lot of Uncle Seanie time this Thanksgiving weekend.

 

Three kids and two puppies: we had so much fun!

 

 

 

 

Me and my girl

 

 

We don't normally do this but we celebrated both Sean and Brandon's birthdays along with Thanksgiving (Sean turned 29 on the 16th and Brandon turned 27 on the 21st...they were both out of town on their actual birthdays, so we had a Thanksgiving combo party this year).

Just for the record, they both stated that they were too old to blow out candles at the same time.  My mom didn't care and insisted...so here they are.  Cute boys!

 

Me and my cousins

 

Two peas in a pod.  Smith helped Sean open his presents.

 

She's not exactly happy to be posing for her 874th picture but she's thankful.  We all are.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 



Christmas with the Lowes

Every other year, we spend Christmas with my family on Christmas and with Andrew's family on another weekend (and vice versa).  This year, we spent the weekend before Christmas with my family.  Papa Jay and Lovie spoiled everyone as usual :).

My mom bought Smith these shoes.  They're hideous.  They're the ugliest shoes I've ever seen. 

And they were his absolute favorite gift (sigh).  When you see my child in them in the future...please understand...I hate the sight of them.  But my sweet boy is absolutely in love...so, he'll be wearing them.  I'm praying for a huge growth spurt soon so that they'll no longer fit ;).

The only picture of me from this weekend! 

Kensington was madly in love with her new robe.

But then the biggest surprise of all was that Lovie and Papa Jay bought them not one...

...but two cars.  Spoiled rotten.

One Christmas down and one to go.  Such a fun weekend!