Oyster Roast 2016

Remember last fall when we did a little oyster roast? I went back and re-read that post and laughed because we decided to do one this year, too, and I did decide to pretty it up a little this time. It has finally gotten chilly in our neck of the woods, and while it wasn't too cold when the sun was out, as soon as that sun set, it was a good thing we had the fire pit going!

Peerys at the Oyster Roast

Mostly everyone is looking

The afternoon was beautiful and we had a fun group of friends that was able to come over. We had oysters outside along with our laptop and projector for football games and we had the Clemson/Pitt game on inside (let's not talk about it; I'm still hurt). We had a chili bar and a salad bar for the adults and hot dogs, fries and fruit for the kids and then s'mores for dessert!

Thanks to our friends that were able to make it. We missed those that couldn't come! I think we have decided that we might have to make this an annual event so we will probably make some improvements each year. This year was a pretty good one, though! ;)

Lisa playing with the kiddos

Grayson brought his karaoke machine!

The Pruetts spent the weekend with us!

Davis and Grayson

Tucker - sweetest baby!

Playing in the bounce house

Some of the dudes

One of the first batches of oysters

Plenty of oyster knives, crackers,
hot sauce and cocktail sauce!

Kids, dads, oysters, football and fire :)

After dinner we brought out the s'mores!

S'mores station

Thomas helping Stokes and William
roast their marshmallows

Plaid Pic!
Catherine, Stacey and me

Lots of little Tiger fans!
Stokes, William, Hayes and Brady

Brent and Thomas

The Youngs!
Heather, Caroline and Walker

Since Grayson's karaoke machine was
such a success, Stokes brought his little
one out and was serenading us. :)

Stokes and Caroline were hanging out

William on the real karaoke mic. He was saying, "Go
baby Tigers!" HAHAHA!

Ryan trying to get warm by the fire

Megan and Price - how cute is his hat?!?!?

Ryan and me before going back inside to the warmth!

Stokes and Landon

Close-up!
They were watching videos on Stacey's phone

Then William snuggled up to Landon!

Thomas with William and Stokes
before they had to go in to bed

We had a great time and had minimal clean up to do that night (thanks, ladies!!!). After we got all the tired kids to bed, Joey, Lisa, Thomas and I were hanging out and watching football and I think I may have been asleep in the living room chair by 10:30 PM. #momlife
Can't wait for our 2017 Oyster Roast!

Example of "prettying it up" from last year to this year:

Last year's patio set up

Last year's oyster table

This year's porch set up

This year's patio set up (with bounce house un-inflated in
the background)

This year's oyster table

I loved the addition of the white lights. It helped so much with being able to see outside after the sun set. Thanks to Joey for helping Thomas hang them!

Three years ago

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of William's NICU discharge, which officially made it the day that all 3 of my babies were home from the hospital.

My FB post the day after discharge

Can you guess who is who in the above picture? If you think you can, leave a comment...just for fun!

Three years has gone by in the blink of an eye, but when I look back at the post and pictures from that day, it seems like a lifetime ago.

I'm honestly quite glad to be out of the newborn stage, and while toddler-hood brings its own set of challenges, overall it seems easier and more manageable than the newborn stage.

Cheers to the last three years and many, many more years of fun (and tears, and stress, and worry, and more fun!).

Halloween mini session

One of the girls in my Moms Of Littles group at church does professional photography on the side. She announced to our group that she was doing a Halloween mini session in her neighborhood to benefit Townville Elementary School. She posted a picture of the adorable set up she had and I, a sucker for all kind of professional pictures, could not miss this! The props were adorable and I was so excited to get a real picture of the boys in their costumes. Her photography business is Kimberly Cabe Photography - check it out if you're looking for a photographer!

She had the session on the evening of Halloween so I snuck it in between school and our neighborhood Halloween festivities, with some help from MaSha. We were only there for about 10 minutes and I was keeping my fingers crossed that we got at least one decent picture. The boys were all over the place. No one, except Ryan, wanted to sit still...or stand still...they didn't want to wear their hats, or hold their horses. They were very interested in throwing pumpkins, however. That seemed to be a favorite pastime at their fall mini session from last year. Anyway, I got the pictures a few days ago and love them! This was totally worth our time and the donation to Townville Elementary School. 

 

Three Amigos - Halloween 2016

What a fun Halloween! Three years ago, the boys were in the NICU and dressed as little surfers. Two years ago, they were cute little bees. Last year, they dressed up as the three blind mice. 

This year, as you probably saw on the previous post, they dressed as The Three Amigos! I really, really liked these costumes. I love throw back ideas, although I realized that a lot of people either don't know or don't remember the Three Amigos. Those that understood it though, loved it! We got a lot of laughs, compliments and comments on social media.

Holidays and festivities continue to get better and better with the boys. They can (mostly) follow direction, and they're really starting to "get it" to some degree. They had a total blast trick-or-treating and the evening made us appreciate and love our little neighborhood even more. This Halloween, however, was ridiculously HOT. It was around 80 degrees, I think. It cooled down a little after the sun went down but it was not chilly by any means. Poor little guys had these black sweatsuits on (who knew back in mid-September that it would still be this hot at Halloween?!?!).

I picked the boys up from school a little early and went out to Fountain Inn for a mini photo sesh that one of my church friends was hosting. After a quick visit there - pics coming soon - we came back to our our house to try to get a sibling pic. MaSha, bless her heart, was running around putting hats back on, picking up horses that had fallen, trying to get everyone's attention, etc. I appreciated all of her effort, although we didn't end up getting a great shot. Bummer.

Here's {one of} the best ones we could manage.

Stokes, Ryan and William

After our picture taking extravaganza on the steps, we headed over to the neighborhood get together for the annual costume contest and pizza dinner. Our neighborhood, which used to just have a few kids, has exploded with littles! It's amazing to see! The houses are turning over and everyone moving in has kids. The turnout to the costume contest/get together was so great. We had it in a cul-de-sac near our house (very convenient!!!) and one of the houses in the cul-de-sac had these HUGE speakers that are used at weddings and they were playing all sorts of Halloween music, like Monster Mash, Ghostbusters and Thriller, to name a few. All the kids were eating pizza and running around and playing. It was total, complete, unabashed, unfiltered and fabulous mayhem. I loved it.

Ryan LOVED the music! He was cracking up and kicking
his legs so that his stroller would move.

Brothers checking out the scene and Ryan laughing
to the music.

Great turnout!

Kids playing in the cul-de-sac

William

Time for the costume contest
All the kids gathered for the contest to start

So many cuties!

First group - 2 years old and under

2nd Group - 3s and 4s
We didn't win this year, but the competition was steep
with this cute and creative jellyfish!

3rd group - 5 through 8

Although we didn't win the contest this year, we loved participating and were so impressed with the costumes (both kids and adults!) that we saw.

Right after the contest was over, trick-or-treating began. MaSha kindly went back to our house to pass out candy while we let the boys trick-or-treat. We just made our way back home from the cul-de-sac, so we only did about 10 houses or so before we got home.

First stop was Mrs Lee Ann's house!

Then we went by Hunter, Savannah & Lizzie's house

Trick-or-Treat!
Stokes actually opened the door to this
house before they made it to the door. I
had to try to close it quickly but the lady
that lives here and I had a good laugh. :) 

Hanging out at the neighbor's house for a little while

We made it back home to MaSha!

Once we got home, the boys ran around the yard and ate candy while we passed more candy out to the trick-or-treaters that were coming around. Our neighbors, Doug, Marlena and Gregory, came by to make our house a 2-for-1 stop for the trick-or-treaters and to hang out. We had such a good time talking and laughing with them. When the visitors became few and far between, we decided it was time to go in, turn the light out on the porch and get the boys in bed.

Eating Halloween candy
(every time I took a pic, the flash made
him shut his eyes!)

YUMMY

Not Tired!

William was helping Dada by blowing out the candles
in the jack-o-lanterns.

The boys told us that they had a great time and loved Halloween. I'm sure they will be loving this candy for some time, too, based on the sheer amount of it in our house right now. Paging willpower. All in all, it was a great Halloween. Can't wait for next year! If you have any clever ideas for costumes for the boys for next year, I'd love to hear it! :)

Don't forget.....

Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.

Wherever there is suffering, we'll be there.

Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find...

The Three Amigos!

Outtakes from our porch photo session. Y'all, I just wanted ONE good picture. That's all I ask for. I took 31 pictures in the same spot (this is not an exaggeration) and can't say that I'm impressed with any of them. #epicfail