Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty uneventful Halloween this year because Parker has no clue what it was!  He just thinks it's a day that I lose my mind and make him wear a silly costume.  He did however enjoy the candy part of it.  All he wanted were suckers...he has no idea what candy bars are and I'd like to ride that as long as possible!  :)
We trick-or-treated up at James's law firm and then went home to carve a pumpkin together.  It ended up being just me and James doing all the work.  Parker was asking to go to bed at 7:00, so we put him down, made dinner and had a nice quiet evening to ourselves.  I know the days are coming when our Halloween will be full of activity, so for now, this is nice!
 I have the best memories of my dad helping us carve our pumpkin while mom was in the kitchen roasting the pumpkin seeds... I did the same and they were delish!

 My little monkey! 

(he's obsessed with Curious George)

The tail was my favorite part!

Happy boy with his sucker!

 Going office to office for candy!

The secretaries are the best, they just love these little ones and can't wait to hand out their candy!

 Parker and his princess, Maddie.

 Going in for a kiss!  These two are smitten!

 Stuffing his face with a sugar cookie while staring at the computer screen...the screensaver really caught his eye.

Playing on the computer.

 Time to go, he had had enough of the hat!

My sweet husband carving the pumpkin.  

Parker sat at the bar stool for all of a minute and then climbed down to play.  Maybe next year he'll get into it more!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Can you believe it?  We woke up to SNOW, yes, I said snow!!  It started snowing in the middle of the night and it's still going as I type this!  Amarillo got between 31/2 to 5 inches by this afternoon!
This is the first snow Parker has experienced since he's been talking. He keeps looking out the window and saying "no" for snow, and "cold outside".  We've had a fun, cozy day inside!  All these pics were taken with my iPhone not my real camera, not the best quality!

 Tree in the front yard still full of leaves and heavy with snow!

 We drove down to our neighborhood park/walking trails to see how pretty it was!

 Parker's playground.  He kept saying "swing, mommy, swing".  Not today son!  :)

 Knocking the snow off his slide.

 Wow!

 Watching it from inside.

 I'm hoping our Crepe Myrtle tree doesn't break from the weight!  My nice green fern on the table is history after today.  :(

 The flowers covered under the snow were our gorgeous Lantana out in front.  They were so pretty all summer, I'm sure they are nice and wilted after today.  James was cute last night...he knew it was going to freeze so he went outside and just stared at the front yard.  He was so proud of all his hard work all summer...as he should be!  It looked great!

Just because it felt like the right thing to do on a snowy afternoon, Parker and I made some pumpkin muffins!  Our house smells awesome!  I took my favorite pumpkin bread  recipe and poured into a muffin tin and baked on 375 for 25 minutes!

My little helper standing in my colander!

Fall at the ranch

Since moving to Amarillo three years ago, I have come to love the season Fall.  We actually have one up here in the Panhandle and it's just beautiful!  Mom and Dad came up to the ranch this weekend to play and enjoy the cooler temps and pretty colors with us!  The weather was absolutely picture perfect...fleece in the mornings and short sleeves by the afternoon.  Enjoy ALL the pics!  :)

 I love this sign, it's a neat entrance onto the ranch!

 My boy playing golf in the woods.

 Petting the horses.

 Love this.

 Looking for pumpkins in the patch!

(with golf club in hand)

 The Fall flowers are so pretty out there!

 Sadly, the very last harvest from the garden.

 Even more sad...the pool is closed for the winter.  It takes such a LONG time for it to warm back up around here.

 Friday evening, we went fishing in the creek.

 James caught a huge bass!  I had no idea there were fish that big in that creek!

 So, I decided to give it a whirl...no luck.

That's why I hate fishing, I never even get a bite and I completely lose patience and interest.

 My sweet first "child".

 Just chillin' watching everyone fish.

 Mule ride with Neesie and Grandad.

 Dad, James and I went hunting Friday night, this stinky little guy was our only casualty.

 Drawing in the dirt.

 Parker loves four wheeler rides!

 Dad and James filling the deer feeders.  I felt the need to go around warning the deer of their impending season.  :(  Run Bambi, run!

 This child would swing for hours and hours!

 So stinkin' cute!!

 Pretty trees beginning to turn.

And I'll leave you with these...pumpkin chocolate - chip cake cookies.

One word...AWESOME!!  Since mom and I are obsessed with dark chocolate, I used dark chocolate chips and they were fantastic!!!  A must make situation!  You can find the recipe here on a friend's blog.  

Fall fun in Dallas!

This past Thursday we loaded up and drove to Dallas at night...why haven't we been doing this all along?? It was fabulous!  We grabbed dinner on the way out, Parker watched a couple of Curious George episodes and then he was out!  The trip went by so much faster, we will be doing this again for sure!

Anyway, we had a great time with my family!  One of the highlights of the weekend was going to the Dallas Arboretum to see all the pumpkins, it was amazing!  Lindsey and I even snuck in a girls night out, we visited Papa in the hospital who is recovering from open heart surgery, and we did some fall clothes shopping!  Thanks mom and dad for always making our visits so much fun!

Arriving at the Arboretum.

"Mom, seriously?  Please tell me you're not going to follow me with that thing!"

There were beautiful pumpkins everywhere!

Getting these two to smile AND look at the camera at the same time was hard work!

This is the best pic I got of him where he is actually looking!  :)

They had these amazing "pumpkin houses"!

Neesie and Grandad with their grandkiddos!

It was a Cinderella theme, each house had a big storybook next to it.

Any pumpkins in there?

Parker loved running up and down this huge castle and then poking his head out the windows!

Aunt Sissy with her nephews!

Showing Grandad the water fall.

Bath time fun...they made the water green with these Elmo color tablets!

Uncle Ryan and Parker having fun!

While we were looking at pumpkins...James and Luke were at Texas Motor Speedway!  Luke's dream for his 30th birthday was to drive a Nascar race car and that's just what he did!  Look at him go!