Perkins Family Pumpkin Carving...

So, my brothers are pretty much pumpkin carving snobs. Andrew and Luke don't use stencils, or they make their own very intricate and detailed ones. Andrew is dating Cara, who is an art graduate, who decided to carve a 3-D portrait of Andrew into the skin of her pumpkin. They scoff at the rest of us who printed off simple stencils from the Internet - so uncreative! I have to say that last night Luke and Andrew did carve some awesome pumpkins, but they pale in compare to previous years. Jackson got really into carving his pumpkin and wouldn't stop even after cutting himself and bleeding all over it. I'm glad he has some artistic mentors to take him under their wing!

We hosted the party at our house and had Navajo tacos and caramel fondue. My mom made Mummy dogs, disgusting peanut butter fingers, and eyeballs. I couldn't bring myself to try them for a long time, then I closed my eyes and just tried to enjoy the peanut butter fudge like covering on the finger. The kids had way too much sugar, again. I guess I should get used to it with the Holidays coming up soon.

Again, we had the pie eating contest and donut on a string contest. Caleb proudly won both rounds of the pie eating contest, while Andrea only managed to take a single bite during that time. I think she was laughing too hard! Luke won the donut on a string contest, but Jackson was definitely the most entertaining to watch. It was like watching a puppy chase his tail - he couldn't quite ever get hold of the donut. Someone finally helped him out so he could eat his powdered sugar confection. We got it all on video for years of viewing pleasure, especially for his future girlfriends!

Williamson Halloween Party...

James's sister, Melissa, planned this fun Halloween party for the Williamson cousins. They loved decorating their own mini pumpkins - especially Alanna. Her pumpkin is the one on the end covered with everything available that would stick! We all watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, then the kids had an outdoor hunt for little pumpkins filled with candy. Needless to say, all the kids were pretty hopped up on sugar! Our boys are ghosts - minus the make-up and hair color they picked out. Mikayla is Tigger, because she loves to bounce. Little Bridgette was so cute in her mummy costume because she is just learning to walk and played the part well!

Gardening Woes...

I was so excited to FINALLY have our square foot garden going this summer. We planted several tomato plants, and then seeds for yellow squash, peas, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon, etc. Soon after we planted, the pesky neighborhood cat (who has moved - yeah!) came and pooped and dug up some of our seeds. James planted more, but they were not at all fruitful after that. We seem to have too many varmints in our neighborhood who can't keep out of our garden. We did put up a fence, but it only keeps the deer out. Anyhow - we still had the tomatoes, my favorite, and were very hopeful to have more than we could handle. Well, here it is the end of October and we have harvested a handful of tomatoes.

Our neighbors across the street however have had a grand harvest of squash and tomatoes. They have all enjoyed sharing their crops with us and rubbing their success into James's face ( just because he gets so mad that our garden failed). Anyhow, Maryann thought her garden was done, but looked out one day and saw this gigantic zucchini and just had to give us one last good laugh. As you can see, it's almost as big as our baby, and feels as though it weighs about the same as Blaze does! I already have 24 cups of grated zucchini in the freezer (not from our garden, but from excess of other's) and this will probably yield about the same! Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas - zucchini bread!

Pumpkin Patch...

Cornbelly's...

Last week Jackson had "fall recess", and James always has Friday's off, so we headed to Cornbelly's for some Halloween fun. We spent 8 hours there enjoying bouncy castles, carnival games, haunted houses, hay ride, train ride, and corn mazes. It was such a fun family day, and it was Blaze's first real outing. He was a champ and slept most of the day in between his feedings. The weather was awesome - it had to have gotten up to the low 70's, and we were hot and had to wear sunscreen and sunglasses. Alanna insists on wearing her sunglasses upside down - there is no convincing her otherwise!

September Catch-up...

Blaze at three weeks old...his stork bite on his forehead is still pretty prominent. He is wearing an outfit given to us when Jackson was born from James's grandma Glenna. She passed away from cancer shortly after Jackson was born. It's fun to have so many memories associated with our baby clothes collection. I can remember who gave us outfits, blankets, books, toys, etc. We are so lucky to have so many good friends and family who shower our kids with love!




My cute Beehives came over after one of their activities to meet Blaze. They are the group of 12-13 year old girls who I work with at church. Needless to say, they LOVE babies. They all ooed and awed over Blaze - how little and cute he is. They brought a warm cozy blanket and three blue helium balloons, one for each of the other kids. Jackson quickly and "accidentally" let one of them go up to our 20 ft ceiling. Then I heard him say to Paul "turn on the fan so the balloon gets caught in it." Thanks Jackson! I really don't have time to fish it out of the fan any time soon!



Jackson had an assignment for school to make a haunted house that will be part of the classes' "Haunted Town." I HATE projects like this, because I am not creative and I don't have the patience for crafty projects like this. I need to start taking Jackson over to visit one of his uncles when he has these kinds of assignments - they love stuff like this! Anyway, Jackson had fun and was proud of his creation. He seems to enjoy art projects and drawing, which I am pleased about.

Professional Photos...

My awesome friend Kristen, of Sweet Sassafras Photography, came to our home last Saturday to capture some precious moments of Blaze and our other kids. Blaze was only 10 days old, and he was a champion baby model. He tolerated all the posing well, and he didn't even poop or pee during the naked pictures! When we first saw the proofs online, James said, "that isn't our baby, those are out of a magazine". He thought I was trying to trick him. I was really hoping that Blaze would keep the dark hair that he was born with, but you can see in these pictures that he is quickly changing to blond. He really isn't looking too much like our other kids so far either. It's so fun to watch newborns change and develop so quickly! I love these photos, especially of the other kids holding and looking at Blaze - they are in love! I wish I had photo sessions like this of each of our kids as newborns.

Crazy Life!!!

I knew life would be crazy once Blaze came, and nothing could have prepared us for it. It's a good thing that he's such a content little guy, and I hope living in our crazy house doesn't change that! It's NEVER quiet because Alanna stays up playing with James and being loud until he goes to bed. I feel like I have a ticking time bomb that goes off every 2 hours - Blaze needing to be fed. We have a schedule of taking 3 kids to preschool/school, and homework, play group, and soccer etc. I am taking a little time off from YW, but in a few weeks I'll have that to add to the list as well. I'm a little sleep deprived, but hopefully that will improve in the upcoming weeks. Blaze does really well at night going back to sleep after he eats, but he eats every 2 hours just like during the day! They say you loose so many brain cells during pregnancy, and I hope to recover some of those as well. I sent James on a wild goose chase trying to find the right house for Alanna to go to preschool the other morning. I also sent him with soccer snacks when it wasn't even our turn. I'm sure I've done several things that I don't even realize I goofed up on, or I just don't remember.

It's all worth it to have my sweet little Blaze. I can't hold and kiss him enough. I love to watch his facial expressions while he is sleeping. I love how he nuzzles up to my neck when I hold him upright. I love to listen to his irregular breathing patterns. I love that when he finally wakes up an opens his eyes, he yawns as if he is so exhausted from his active life of eating and pooping, and he quickly goes back to sleep. I love to see my other kids get so excited to see Blaze in the morning or after they get home from one of their activities. They always give him a kiss and a hug and want to hold him. I guess the upside of being the 4th child is that you have more people to love you!