Can't help but share these

While my Grandma was visiting for Thanksgiving, I decided to spend my Grandma's Christmas money on matching shirts for a family picture. My Grandma was able to help me pick out the shirts and be with us for the picture taking.

I know Brett wants to play with the pictures in his photo software, clean them up and enhance colors and stuff, but I am SO excited with how well they turned out that I want to share a couple now. As you've seen before it is really challenging to get a good picture of our kids. And below we managed to get at least three that are pretty good - to include two pictures with our first "child" Barley-dog. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving

Isabella dressed as a pilgram for her school Thanksgiving Feast. I couldn't convince her that pilgrams didn't have such bright colors.
Brett and my brother, Mike, in the foreground. My grandma and Orioin in the background. We had a huge delicious feast. I made sure everyone helped make the meal.

Hunter, my Mom, Sabrina, Isabella, and my Dad.

Self Portraits

Aren't digital cameras wonderful? No worries about how much film the kids waste. They took about 200 pictures in two days, most of which I have since deleted.

Random November Pictures

Trick or Treating

Isabella as Ariel the mermaid, Hunter as a power ranger and our neighbor as Ironman. I don't think Hunter even knows who or what a power ranger is.


Sabrina as Tigger. She really enjoyed trick-or-treating this year. Because the weather was so warm we were out for a long time. After awhile, I was tired of walking up to every house with her, so I offered her a tootsie pop from her basket. She didn't go to a single house after that; she just wanted to eat her sucker.

Mommey with Tigger and the Power Ranger.

Tigger, Ariel and G.I. Joe

In typical Hunter-fashion, he took his costume off when we got home and refused to put it back on. I took a picture of him anyway.

Tigger was fascinated with all of her "loot".

The Finished Products

Pumkpin Carving, Wilson-style

Isabella and her friend carved this pumpin all by themselves. Brett enjoys carving pumpins a lot. He pulls his designs off the internet.

I was a bit surprised that Brett let Hunter carve his own pumpkin. I was also surprised that Hunter carved the pumpkin without loosing any fingers.

Orion cleaned out all of the pumpkins. He got way too much fun out of playing in the pumpkin guts.

Sabrina just walked around blowing bubbles and looking cute while everyone else carved pumpkins. She is really good at looking cute.

A momentous occasion for the Wilsons

For the first time EVER, we went to the movies as a family. We aren't big movie go-ers, but this is still an event to mark. We went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I have always loved that book and have read it to the kids for years. As well, Orion's class went on a field trip to see this movie while we were in Indiana. Everyone was excited to go today - including Sabrina.

The kids making funny faces.

Sabrina looks so little sitting in the movie theater seat. She was very excited to be there ... for about the first 10 minutes. Then she started asking me if we could go downstairs. (We climbed a few stairs to our seats.) Then as each preview ended Sabrina asked if it was over. Overall Sabrina did really well.
About halfway through the movie Sabrina fell asleep. We did go to see a movie right during her nap time, so it worked out nicely for everyone. One more "growing up" hurdle passed for the Wilson family.

No words are necessary

Look what I found in the kitchen ...

Sabrina's First Race

This past weekend was the first fall series race. I was sad because it was also reserve duty weekend, so I missed Sabrina's first race. What I am sharing is therefore a second-hand report of what Sabrina thought of the race. I think the pictures validate this story. Sabrina was very excited to get her race number and excited talking to her siblings about racing.

As Daddy and Sabrina walked towards the starting line, Sabrina started to get nervous. Brett said as they got closer, Sabrina got quieter.

Sabrina walked the entire race, but didn't cry or stop. She was very shy when she received her ribbon. Once the family was back at the car, Sabrina was restored to her excited state, like before the race. Brett reported that Sabrina asked for and clung to her ribbon.

Fall Series #1

Our kids have participated in the Pikes Peak Road Runners Kids' Fall Series for many years. This past Sunday kicked off the series with the first race at Monument Valley Park. This is Orion and Isabella at the starting line. Just FYI - Hunter refused to race. We can't figure out why, but he seems to get really unnerved by the crowd at the starting line.

Orion is somewhere in the middle of this picture.