Happy Halloween!

We had a great year for Halloween! 

I finally feel like the boys are old enough that they really enjoy the fun of Halloween

but they aren't old enough to understand the scary stuff.

(Although we did run into some scary older kids trick-or-treating and Tyson was more than a little bothered by it. So was I. But I have an issue with kids over the age of 12/13 trick-or-treating anyway.)

Our night began with a quick run over to grandma's house to say hi and show her the boys' costumes.

HJ (the boy's 2nd cousin) was not too happy with Tucker's mask. 

Poor thing started crying when Tucker came to him. As soon as he took it off, HJ was ok.

But as you can see, when it came time for pictures, HJ still was weary.

He was much happier when mommy picked him up!

Mimi came over to trick-or-treat with us!

Spider Man and Darth Vader

(I love that Tucker has his arm around Tyson!)

 Tucker literally ran everywhere. He was SO EXCITED.

Let's see what they got!

Hard workin' night. :)

Just for fun, here's a look at Halloweens of past:

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

It's tough

it's tough to be a kid sometimes

especially when you're hardest task

is pulling the blanket over your head

Yukon

This weekend we loaded up and made the quaint drive to Yukon, Oklahoma. And yes I understand that there are a lot worse things than being trapped in a vehicle with your children and husband for 10.5 hours (one way and the reason for the extra hours? traffic. painful, bumper-to-bumper, stand-still traffic), but golly that was a long drive.

We headed up north for a family reunion of sorts. Stuart's mom's cousin (and fabulous family) live in Yukon and invited several family members to come and celebrate his brother's birthday. And really, does anyone need a reason to get together and eat? I think not.

It was so good to see everyone and meet some new people.

I managed to only take one picture the entire weekend. I chalk it up to having fun and socializing (and eating).

the boys and their oldest cousin, G

But here some quotes from the weekend that are quite interesting:

"Are we in Uncle-Homa yet?"
"Uncle Boma lives in Uncle-Homa"
"Are we still in Texas?"
"I'm  really hungry."
"That's the biggest Chesapeake Energy sign I have ever seen in my whole life!"
"Look! There's another Chesapeake Energy truck!"
"So Uncle Steven in really daddy's brother? Just like Tyson is my brother?"
"Can I have more candy corn?"
"We get to sleep in a hotel!!!!!"
"Aunt Harriett was so nice to give us a bag of candy corn to take home."
"There's a GIANT deer on the WALL!"
"I don't want to drive ALL THE WAY home."
"My bottom needs a rest from sitting."
"Mommy, I just love my bed."

Tucker did manage to steal my phone on the drive home and took a few action shots:

No more training wheels

Last week (wow, has it only been a week?), Tyson has his bike rodeo at school. When the flyer was first sent home, I asked Tyson if he wanted to participate. He thought about it for a minute then told me no. He had been working on riding with no training wheels but he wasn't super confident and then he thought he would be embarrassed if he took Tucker's bike with training wheels still attached.

Stuart was super smart and took his bike up to school on the day of the rodeo anyway. Tyson ended up having a blast and on Friday, came home with this around his neck:

He won 1st place!! I can not tell you how much this child was beaming. It was adorable.

Immediately Stuart set out to really teach Tyson how to ride two-wheel style. The kid is amazing and has now been transformed.

Untitled from Clarissa Doss on Vimeo.

**can I just tell you that it took forever to type out this post. Working with only one and a half hands is quite tedious**

Franken Hand

What a difference a year makes

Last year at this time our house looked like this:

We were frantically trying to pack up our house, finish the renovations that we began more than a year prior, move AND put our house on the market. No biggie. Thankfully we had the best realtor ever (thank you Tanya Ruff!) and my parents were more than gracious in letting us live with them while all the "dust settled" in our world.

It's amazing what a difference a year makes.

Interestingly enough, Stuart mentioned to me last night that he was starting to get the moving itch again. That'll happen when you move 7 times in 8 years (thank you Air Force). And, no you're not Stuart. No you're not.

Candles

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!

I hope to spend 99 more birthdays with you!

Love you!

Old Pictures

Yesterday while I was scanning in Tyson's school picture (oh my word, it was so stinkin' cute), I decided to scan in some old pictures that my grandmother (Meemaw) had at her house and we then boxed up and given to my family when she passed away. I've been meaning to scan them in for a while but it hasn't been on the top of my to do list.

So without further ado, here are some really old pictures of my family:

I'm sure the only people that will really enjoy these are my sisters and my mother, but I laughed when I saw them, so they made it here :)

Chisholm Family 1985

Chisholm Family 1988

Chisholm Family 1990

Clarence H Chisholm, my grandfather

Marci and Me 1985

Me and Marci 1987

Marion M Chisholm, my grandmother

My parent's wedding :)

L-R: My uncle, my aunt, my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my grandfather

My father

Be still my heart

I picked Tyson up from school yesterday 

and he had this

y'all

my baby is NOT a baby anymore!

Oh my gracious,

and he is the spitting image of his father.

Be still my heart.

Nothing in particular

I really wish Chick-fil-A would add the chicken sandwich to their kid's menu. My boys love the sandwich (more than the nuggets) and some stores will charge us more to "make" it into a kid's meal but some don't.

My current musical line-up in the van is as follows: 1) Rascal Flats, 2) Jack Johnson, 3) FFH, 4) Veggie Tales, 5) Veggie Tales, 6) Veggie Tales.

Thanks to Chick-fil-A for numbers 4-6.

Stuart come home today from his fishing trip weekend! Woo hoo! I am so ready to see him and bonus: I don't have to do everything by myself tonight!

The boys are on a Veggie Tales kick. The only movies they are watching are Veggie Tales. The only music we listen to in the van is Veggie Tales. I may or may not have dreamed of King Duke last night.

Grocery shopping with one child is exponentially easier than two. Just sayin'.

We awake to temperatures in the 50's this morning! HALLELUJAH!

Being that it was chilly, I dressed the boys in jeans. Unfortunately this meant that I immediately noticed that Tucker only has ONE pair of jeans that fit. (April, you're gonna have some clothes coming your way!)

I turned the fan down one click in the bedroom last night. That was monumental.

Oh the Giggles

Octobers

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010