halloween festivities...

the saturday before halloween we met up with our favorite emerson's for a fall festival.  the kids had a great time, and the adults ate bad for you great tasting food!

 

on sunday, we headed to the in-laws for a halloween cook out.  the kids had fun playing in the back yard!

 

--------------------------------------

 

we were so glad to finally be close to brad and sarah so that the kids could trick-or-treat together!  they were the cutest little pirates i've ever seen :)

 

 

 

 

 

we went to paulette & dave's house first, and dave was sure to give the kids a big trick-or-treat welcome :)

 

  

 

 

 

after circling the neighborhood, it was time to survey their loot!

 



preston sleeps over...

oh how these two kiddos love each other. When they first get together, you hardly know they are there because they just go off and play. 

we were so excited to have p-diddy come and stay the night with us over the summer.  he was in heaven with all of ava's toys and costumes!



they loved sitting at ava's little pink table for dinner and breakfast :)

and it only took about 20 minutes for a's room to look like this...

a sure sign they had a blast!

preston was in love with one of ava's dolls that he affectionately named "baby sarah".

i think he definitely needs a baby sister :)

they went to sleep in ava's bed, and did great all night.  the next morning after breakfast we headed to the playground for some morning fun.

we are looking forward to many more sleep overs!!!

family fun on the fourth...

we headed to the in-laws on the fourth of july for some swimming, football, and a cookout. 

preston was ready to go!

his obsession with "gobbles" has continued, and this time he sported these gigantic blue ones.  priceless!

even though he took a time out from swimming to play football, he insisted on wearing his puddle jumper and goggles.  silly boy!



i'm pretty sure ava's only time to get out of the pool was to scarf down a hot dog.  she is a little fish :)

preston was insistent that he could swim all by himself.  little stinker :)

it was hot, so i think everyone was grateful for the pool fun!

this picture of brad and preston cracks me up! like father, like son...

these two pictures are absolutely precious!

one more from our day....the effects of wearing goggles for too long!

it was a great day :)

a visit with peter cottontail...

we stuck with tradition this year, and woke up easter morning with brad, sarah, and preston to see what the easter bunny brought!

the lighting was pretty fantastic, and the kids got to work on finding eggs.  preston was more interested in what was inside the eggs.  he's find one, open it, and proceed to eat whatever it was :)  ava, on the other hand, was just wanting to get every egg outside!

we were able to get a photo of each family and the kiddos together :)

preston also wanted in our picture :)

after some relaxing and naps, the rest of the crew arrived for easter linner :)  too funny, all but one kiddo was in sear sucker -- NOT planned.  apparently, sear sucker really is an easter staple :)

** the shot of preston cracks me up.  clearly, he was over me taking his picture :)

as usual, it was a great day spent with friends and family!

easter weekend photo shoot...

we got fancied up on saturday afternoon and headed to the ranch for a little photo shoot.  sarah and i were a little bummed when we realized that we only got one photo of the kids from the shoot back in november, so we made sure we did theirs first this time!

a few months ago, sarah got some adorable sear sucker shorts for preston to wear on easter.  i was out shopping at the outlets a few weeks before easter and spotted a sear sucker dress for ava.  it was perfect.  this is the first time we have done matchy-matchy with p & a, and i must admit, i think it was pretty stinking adorable.  we really do have some good looking kids!

*the two photos above CRACK me up.  first, all smiles, then ava's face in the second photo is priceless.  i can hear her "reeallllyyyy" just from that look. ha!

*quite possibly my favorite from the day!

Sarah was able to capture some fun shots of our little family yet again! we manage to look like we kind of like each other in these photos [but i promise there are some bitchy images of yours truly in some of the outtakes!]

and here are a few from sarah, brad and preston.  i'm sure she will be posting more on her blog.