Halloween Costumes 2013

Our theme for costumes this year was "inexpensive consignment shop costumes in my kids' sizes that my mom could find." Thankfully, there were no complaints and the kids had a blast tonight at a Halloween party/trick-or-treat event we attended! I snapped some quick pictures before we left so my mom could see how the kids looked all dressed up :)

Joshua as Harry Potter

(from the best book series ever) 

These $1 goofy glasses from

Michaels crack me up! 

Leah as a Hello Kitty Cowgirl...

this might be the most random

costume I've ever heard of, but

man, is she ever cute! 

Seriously...she is hamming it up

for the camera :) 

Work that catwalk, girl...

get it? Hello Kitty, catwalk...

humor me and giggle a little :) 

Big smiles! 

How are they 5 and 3 years old already?! 

Love them so much! 

And Hannah is our little bumblebee!

She's peeking around the corner

to see what Joshua and Leah are up to :) 

Smiley girl!

That lone little tooth on the bottom

cracks me up! 

I tried to get a group shot...

it is nearly impossible to get all

3 of them to look at the camera

at the same time! In this one,

Joshua and Hannah must be discussing

trick-or-treating strategies...

 And here, Hannah is showing off her

tongue (this is a common trick for her)

Out of a dozen, this was as good as it

gets--I tried! :) 

One of the lenses fell out of Joshua's

goofy glasses as we were getting ready

to leave (and wouldn't go back in), so

we just popped out the other one too :) 

If you go back and watch the Harry Potter movies,

you'll notice that Harry's glasses often didn't have

any lenses in them...so Joshua is in good company! 

Ready to go get some candy!! 

 And just a quick rear shot of Hannah's cute

costume--so, so precious!!

Afternoon perfection

David captured this picture on a sunny afternoon when the girls were sleeping...it was just too nice outside to spend our quiet time indoors, so Joshua and I took our camping chairs out to the end of our driveway (the rest of our yard was in the shade) and sat in the glorious fall sunshine. It was perfection :)

These kids love swings!

We spent some time this afternoon out on the swings. This made for 3 very happy kiddos!

 This is Hannah making her "scrunchy-face"

look that's her favorite new face to make

Check out those BLUE eyes! 

 I mean, SERIOUSLY!

(and I love the little curl right behind

her ear!!)

 That's a look that suggests to me

that she's plotting something...

"Who ME?!" 

"Oh, you caught me, Mommy!" 

My handsome, sweaty boy 

Those big brown eyes just melt my heart! 

My favorite little superhero!

Triangle Autism Run/Walk 5K

The Autism Society of North Carolina (ASNC) sponsors 5Ks all over the state each year to raise funds for the many services they provide to families, and their Triangle Run/Walk was the second Saturday in October this year. I set up a team (Joshua's Roadsters) in late April and invited friends and family to join our team and/or sponsor our team financially. We had a great group of friends and family join us for the race today and a lot of sweet, wonderful family and friends who chose to donate to our team--all together, we raised $1800! We are so, so, so thankful for everyone's kindness and generosity!

We had overcast skies this morning, but temps in the 60's and no rain (which after this gully-washer of a week was such a blessing!) They announced after the race today that over 3300 people participated and over $250,000 was raised all together--SO awesome!

This is the first race I've run since Hannah was born (my last race was actually the half-marathon I ran right before getting pregnant with her, way back in April of 2012!) I've been running for months, but this is the first competitive running I've done and I was pretty excited about getting back to it! My goal was 25 minutes, and my unofficial time was 24:44. There were a ton of hills and my watch took a good half mile to pick up the satellites, but I was really proud of my time. I'm really excited to be able to get back to doing something I enjoy--combining my love for running and the ability to raise money for good causes.

Here are a few pictures from today!

 Our wonderful team!

(Marya Wagner, Bernie & Martha Isgett,

Amanda & LaMont Council, Chris & Vicky

Thornton (my dad's taking the picture),

Katherine Peters, Julia Piszczak,

Jenny & Evan Holt, Erik Thornton,

Liz Maurer, David & me (along with

Joshua, Hannah, & Leah)

 Leah starting to get upset, which scares

Hannah--can you see her reaching out

for Uncle Erik to save her?

 And poor Leah and Hannah are DONE

with pictures!

 My awesome brother Erik and his

equally awesome girlfriend Liz

 She LOVES her Halloween shirt

from Grandma Martha

She wants to climb like her brother 

She's very intrigued with her pinwheel 

Pretty baby 

This little monkey loves climbing

trees...he's checking out all the

people down below :)