I'm smiling b/c it's been a really good weekend here. The weather wasn't miserably hot, Brandon was finally home, I got to take a 2 1/2 nap and sleep in this morning. The house is a wreck, but I don't care. It was so nice to have my family together and having fun. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for us with Brandon's schedule and having to go out of town. Yesterday we played in the backyard, filled up the pool for the kids, took Brick to swim in the bay, let the kids swim in the bay, came home for lunch, took great naps, went to the commissary, watched the kids ride their bikes, gilled kabobs for supper, watched football, went to bed. Today we made muffins for breakfast, played Wii with Christopher, got ready for church, went to Sunday School, went to a reception at the church, Brandon and Christopher went straight to bed for naps, Sophie and I played with her baby doll and the laundry basket, Sophie went down for a nap, I relaxed on the couch, the boys woke up, we called the Newells about dinner, will soon go to dinner and then to their house to play afterwards. Don't you just love days that make you truly love your life?

That's what we are going to be for halloween this year. Yes, I've already gotten their costumes. We waited longer last year and couldn't find anything in Christopher's size, so I wanted to be prepared. Sophie's came first. I had no clue what to get her b/c your options for a girl out there are either a fairy, a princess, Dorothy or a witch. She knows nothing about any of those, so I decided to go with the fairy. It's adorable! And today i found the perfect goody bucket for her at Old Navy, a flower.

Now, Christopher was going to be more of a challenge. He's been saying for a long time that he wanted to be a dump truck. We are going to visit our families 2 weeks before halloween and I talked to my Dad and we were going to make it together with a styrofoam cooler and some suspenders. BUT, last night, Christopher squatted down on the floor like Spidey does, jumped up and said, "Mommy, I want to be Spiderman for Halloween!" I told him, "Done!" He then told me he wanted Grammie and I to make it for him. To which I quickly replied, "They don't made Spiderman fabric." So we headed to Target to buy him one. He's wearing it for the second time today and I have a feeling he will most likely be sleeping in it. That's what he did last year when he got his Incredibles costume.

Now, for those of you who are the parents and dress up with your kids, good for you. I did last year, but I feel like I cheated a little b/c I just wore black and bought the little cat ears/tail combo. Which is a big deal b/c I hate cats, but it was cheap. Unless we have a party we have to go to, I plan on wearing my jeans and a sweatshirt (fingers crossed!!). Of course at this rate I'll probably need to dress like a Hooster's waitress reject b/c it'll still be too hot for jeans and well, those poor girls just look cold and I'll do just about anything to be cold right now!

but i just couldn't resist! We went up to the BX to get out of the house today and I found this adorable dress. I showed it to Sophie and she loved it. She actually carried dragged it, through the entire store and refused to let me carry it for her. She loves it and that makes me love it. It's a little louder of a pink than I typically lean towards, but like I said, it makes her happy. It will be a perfect little party dress for her when she turns 2 in January. Oh, and here's a pic of her taking one of her baby dolls for a ride in an empty diaper box. The kids love doing this! Them in the boxes, not toys. She's really becoming quite the little girl. Right?

Seriously, it's fall? Maybe everywhere else in the country, but not down here in the deep south. (Ok, I know FL isn't considered "southern" by the rest of the south, but I'm going to as long as I live here.) Do you want to know what the weather is going to be like this week here? Let's start with today, 88 degrees. Tomorrow 89 degrees. Thursday, 90 degrees. Friday, 88 degrees. (Whoa! We're cooling off that day!) And don't forget the humidity we have on top of all of that. Some days it's not as humid, but most days it is. It doesn't slow the kids down at all, but I feel like I need a shower at lunch and dinner and bedtime. Ok, I DO need a shower that often, but who has time? I just want one day, night, afternoon, any time to bring us a cold snap and kills all those "stinkin' bugs" as Christopher says. That's the worst part! My children look like they have scab covered chicken pox b/c they won't stay in the house and are eaten alive. I keep covering them with bandaids, but they just pull them off to scratch some more.

And these are just a fraction of the trucks we own. They are just the larger ones. Yup, we love us some trucks around here!

Saturday we planned to spend the day in Pensacola with our friends who's dad/husband is in TX with Brandon. Anyone who has had a spouse that has to work on weekends knows how incredibly long a weekend day is when they are gone. It rained here and there on the drive, but thankfully it stopped once we arrived at the mall. We shopped just a little and then went to Red Robin for lunch. After that we headed over to the Naval Air Museum for the afternoon. If you are ever at the beach and it's a rainy day, you have to go here. It's free and very cool!!! Now, I have to admit, normally this kind of thing would be an automatic no for me just from hearing about it. I'm picturing some boring museum with lots of things you have to read and yelling at the kids, "Don't touch! Get down! Stop running!" But our friends the Ramages have been several times and brag about this place, so when Melissa mentioned going to Pen. for the day, I told her we had to go here. It's totally worth the drive! There are all kinds of colorful planes there and they are on the floor, hanging from the ceiling, spinning over your head. They have a second level that is a loop above the first, b/c remember there are planes hanging from the ceiling, and they have probably 10-12 cockpits that you can climb into. They are just lined up along the walls and facing each other. It's really, really cool! Christopher can't wait to go back and I told him we would very soon. The older kids crashed as soon as we got in the car, while the younger ones took a little longer. It was a wonderful day to spend with the kids.