Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Zachary and Owen

"Hhhmmmm...how about this one?"

Yeh, I know I'm cute mommy!

"So many pumpkins...so little time."

Searching for the perfect pumpkin
"Mommy, look what I found!"

"This punkin is heavy mommy."

"Cheese"

Zachary cleaning out the pumpkin

Zachary carving "his" pumpkin

"This is really messy mommy."

Alas...a pumpkin face


We had a good weekend. It was pretty quiet on Saturday. We stayed in our pjs until about 4pm and then we got dressed and went to the mall for some shopping. Yesterday we went to church and afterwards we went to the pumpkin patch. Zachary was SO excited. When we got there he went running towards the pumpkin patch while yelling "bunkins". He was so cute! ;-) So we walked around and finally found what we considered the "perfect pumpkin". I got some pictures of him but in a lot of them he's looking at a plastic piggy bank that he found in the pumpkin patch. There were lots of them out there for the kids and Z was totally enthralled with the one he found. We finally found the pumpkin that we wanted and Zachary wanted to carry it. Well as you can imagine, that didn't go very well. ;-)

Tonight when we got home, we decided to carve the pumpkins. We had a great time! Zachary did a really good job and was very helpful. ;-) I swear he is so independent. He kept saying "let me", "my pumpkin" and "mommy's pumpkin". We had a little pumpkin and a big pumpkin. We carved both of them. I was going to stencil a pirate on the big pumpkin but that didn't work out. My fault! I wasn't paying attention like I should have been! Anyway, we finished carving the pumpkins and put candles in them. Z was SO excited!! He loves looking at them. So I put one in front of the window and one on the table. We went outside to look at the one in the window. He loved it!! Ok, so here are the pics.

We are going home this weekend to trick-or-treat. Should be a great time!! We'll take lots of pictures and post them soon!

Happy Halloween!!!

Special Memories from Guatoberfest

Nora and Z in the hotel atrium.

Z and his wild hair!

Making sandcastles on the beach.

One of my favorite pictures of us.

Z and Nora loved the pumpkins.

Here we are with our angels...

This one speaks for itself....

I love this picture!!!

Brian, Megan and 3 of their 6 kiddos

Time to fly the kite....

Pam with Nora and Zachary

A good night hug....

Can you put that camera away already?! ;-)

;-))

Mommy and Z

Mommy's angel

Nora with her mommy and daddy.

Nora wasn't so sure she wanted to sit by Z. ;-))

Mommy and Zachary in the acquarium. ;-))

Another picture from the acquarium.

A really cool picture of a fish at the acquarium.

The view from our hotel room.

Another good pic of the babies in the atrium.

We spent last weekend in Myrtle Beach for Guatoberfest. Our friends Del, Pam and Nora met us there. We had such a wonderful time!! For those of you who don't know, Zachary and Nora spent the first year of their lives together. They had the same foster mom in Guatemala and were "crib mates". They have so much in common, like brother and sister. They really played well together too. While we were there, we had fun playing on the beach, visited Ripley's Aquarium, ate A LOT and just spent time hanging out together. The kids had a great time chasing each other around, playing ball and just being silly and laughing.

While we were at the beach, we stayed at the Marriott Grand Dunes Resort and Spa. It's the only 4-star hotel in Myrtle Beach and let me tell you, it was awesome!! The view from our room was spectacular. I have pictures. ;-) There were 69 families there with their little guatemalan angels. They were all so beautiful! On Saturday, all of the families went to the Ripley's Acquarium. The organizers of Guatoberfest had t-shirts made for all of us so everywhere we looked, we saw the other families (not that it would have been hard to recognize them otherwise). The kids loved the acquarium and so did the parents. ;-) It was really fascinating and the fish were beautiful! The sharks weren't beautiful but they were interesting to look at. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to be in the tank with them. Yikes! We took SO many pictures over the weekend and trust me when I tell you that we had to work REALLY hard to get most of them. We did everything short of turning flips to get them to smile and pose together. ;-)) I have posted some of them so enjoy!

During our time at the beach, we were hooked at the hip with Nora and her family. It was so hard to say good-bye today. Pam and I are going to plan a trip so we can meet up again next year. We want the babies to grow up knowing each other and being close. We made so many special memories last weekend and they will stay with us forever.

So now it's back to reality....unpacking, washing clothes, cleaning out the car and so on. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bummer!!! My mom and step dad are coming home from their trip on Friday so we are really looking forward to seeing them. So at least we have something else to look forward too. ;-))

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

It's hard to believe that it's already October. Before we know it, we'll be out buying Christmas gifts. First things first though, I am TOTALLY loving this weather. It is in the 50s at night here. I have been sleeping with my windows up and makes me feel like I'm camping. I was so over the hot weather. Speaking of hot weather, Zachary and I had a great time at the beach. It was really hot when we were there. We had a fabulous time playing in the ocean and pools and walking on the beach at night. We went out to dinner every night and he did great. He got lots of attention from the servers so you know he was eating that up! I have lots of pictures to share but haven't had time to download them. It has been crazy busy at work the last week. I'll get them out here soon though...I promise.

So what else has been going on you ask?! I have been all wrapped up in this election. It's no secret that I am a McCain supporter. I find that my morals and values fall more in line with McCain's than Obama's. I am also a strong Christian and it terrifies me to think of Obama sitting in the highest seat in this country. His associations scare me the most..ACORN, allegedly receiving financial backings from terrorist organizations and don't even get me started on that so-called Rev. Wright. Anyway, I have spending a lot of time reading and listening to the news (ok, and debating with people online). I'm a member of a private mommies forum in Charlotte and we have gotten in to some VERY heated debates lately. For the sake of my blood pressure, it will be good when this election is O-V-E-R. I'll hush up about that now because I don't want to make this blog about the election.

Zachary and I are leaving next Friday to go to Guatoberfest at Myrtle Beach. We are so excited...mainly because our friends Del, Pam and Nora are meeting us there. They are flying in from Texas and we haven't seen them since we brought Zachary and Nora home. We are so looking forward to this time together. It will also be cool to meet other families who have adopted from Guatemala. If any of you are planning to go, let us know. We would love to say "hello".

Yesterday morning I took my mom and stepdad to the airport so they could start their vacation. They will be gone for almost three weeks. They flew to New York yesterday and tonight at 7:30 they will leave for Romania. Their friends from New Jersey are going with them. They are all hanging out at JFK right now waiting on the plane to leave (last I heard they were getting ready to hit the wine bar). While they're gone, in addition to Romania, they are going to visit Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. They are also going on an 8-day cruise on the Danube River. I just told them again to "have fun and be careful". Some of the places they are visiting make me a little nervous. They are world travelers though and know how to handle themselves. The four of them take a trip like this every year. They taking turns deciding where they are going to go. I believe next year it's my stepdad's turn to decide. My mom said that he really wants to go to Australia. Man, talk about a long flight!!!

Lastly I want to talk about gas or should I say the lack thereof. Ok, so we have been having a serious gas crisis in Charlotte. I hear that Atlanta is dealing with the same thing. We sat in line for almost two hours last Wednesday night to get gas. Thank goodness they didn't limit how much we could get. I filled my tank up and left there pretty happy. This was quite a change from earlier when I saw fights breaking out at gas stations and one woman almost hit me trying to break in line. People are crazy...let me tell ya. I will be glad when things get back to normal with the gas situation. We never knew how good we had it.

I hope everyone is having a great week!