My parents came out for a week and we loved every second of it! My kids are spoiled with the best of the best for grandparents. We wish we lived closer to them and could see them more often. Hallie cried three times on the way home from the airport after dropping them off. We really really love them!!

Here is a sample of what we did while they were here:

My dad and I did the Trapeze.

We ate at Serendipity in Georgetown.

Then we walked across the street to Georgetown Cupcake.

Hallie got her ears pierced. She has wanted them for awhile but has chickened out. I really wanted it to be her decision so I never pushed. After seeing one of her friends with freshly pierced ears she decided to be brave. My little girl was a trooper! She didn’t cry or even wince. She was awesome and now she loves her earrings!!

The kids spent lots of time playing and snuggling with Nana and Papa.

We went and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

They ask for silence while the guards are changing and that is quite a feat for my two kids. The following pictures are while we waited. Mind you it was only like 10 minutes but it felt like eternity to the kids. lol

We loved having my parents come and can’t wait for them to come again!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Thursday was just a normal day for us. In fact I even taught at the gym that morning. I mowed the lawn, we worked in the yard etc etc. It was a great day filled with family time. My parents flew out the next day so we decided to have Thanksgiving on Sunday instead. We had the missionaries over and our friend Samuel. We came home from church and cooked everything. It was really rushed but it ended up being yummy and what thanksgiving isn’t rushed. 🙂 As we ate we did our tradition of sharing what we are grateful for. This year I was grateful my parents were in town. It had been a year and a half since they had visited so we were blessed to have them come and stay for a week!

After dinner the kids made a gingerbread house with Nana and Papa.

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

This year Hallie decided she wanted to be a princess for halloween. Surprise. surprise!! haha At first she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty and then it changed to Belle. This made my life really easy because she already had the dress and the shoes. I ordered a crown on amazon.com but because of the hurricane it didn’t make it here on time. She didn’t seem to mind. Thank goodness! Kyle was Prince Charming. And a handsome Prince Charming at that! I doubted my choice for him because he has recently become obsessed with Buzz Lightyear but I figured this was the last year he would let me choose for him so I stuck with the prince. My amazing mom made his costume. She is so good at everything she does. The costume was so awesome and he looked like a handsome handsome prince! I’m seriously obsessed with this boy!! 🙂

We love living in Virginia. One of the many reasons is the beautiful fall we get each year. This was my 6th fall out here and I love it every time.

With a big yard comes lots of work year round. In the fall we have a million leaves to rake. Good thing we also get to play in them.

I love making memories.

A few weeks ago we went on a preschool field trip to a nature center. The kids had a great time exploring on a walk and then inside the nature center. They were able to see animals and bones and old snake skin. So cool!

My mom bought Hallie some ridiculously beautiful dresses so one Sunday I tried taking some pictures of my princess. This is what I got.

The fall is the perfect time to go to the Zoo. Kyle didn’t know what Zoo meant so we told him it was where the animals lived. All morning he kept saying “anmal” because he was so excited. I think the favorites of the day were the monkeys, elephants, and farm animals. They talked about them all day!

We started another co-op preschool this year. It was actually a huge answer to my prayers. Hallie really enjoys preschool and I wanted her do it but we can’t afford the crazy prices that a drop of preschool costs. A mom I knew from my mission emailed me asking if I wanted to join their preschool. (They only live about 10-15 min away) I was so grateful!

The first two weeks of preschool were at our house and things were so crazy that I didn’t take an official photo of Hallie. Since last week was her first week going to someone else’s house I figured it still counted as her first day. 🙂 She loved it and Kyle cried when we dropped her off. He finally calmed down once we got to the gym. When I picked him up after my workout the first thing he said was “Hallie, Joe Joe’s house. Get Hallie!” haha He really missed her.

Ben cut Kyle’s hair again yesterday. We LOVED the curls but it was getting so long on the top back that we had to trim it. We gave Kyle some food and Ben tried his best. Kyle was moving all over the place. Ben kept saying it was the most difficult hair cut he had ever done. 🙂 Kyle’s hair ended up a lot shorter than we were expecting but he still looks handsome and Ben did a great job regardless of the circumstances.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

He’s just like his daddy and you couldn’t make him look bad. Although, I am looking forward to the curls growing back!