Little Pirates

Getting to say "aargh, matey!" over and over and eating lots of sugar was the best part of trick-or-treating this year. Ben and I got so much pleasure out of how much they were loving it!

Love our Daddy

Woo hoo!!! My husband finally caught his first deer!!! Go babe, I love you! To my surprise, carving the pumpkin this year was the biggest hit for Noah and Hudson since peanut butter. They had a blast! The last picture is of Noah flying us home from Northern California- it's amazing what a little 5 year old boy can do nowadays!

Visiting Family

What a great time we had last week while having the blessing of visiting some of my family in Northern California. The boys were especially delighted to see their great grandparents and I think they, my grandparents were equally delighted if not more by the boys' enthusiasm and energy.

Pumpkin Patch!

We enjoyed a crispy, fall Columbus Day at Hunter's Farm picking out pumpkins. The boys had a thrilling time running and tripping through the pumpkin patch.

Brave Little Hunter

Noah is becoming quite the little hunter these days. Dad took us out a couple weekends ago for some target practice (all of us took turns shooting minus Hudson who was a bit timid of course). This past weekend daddy took Noah and Winchester out for a pheasant hunt. Hard to believe that next fall Hudson will be out there with the boys too.

Grandma's Short Visit

Always great to have moms/grandmas around even though this visit was a quickie. Thanks mom for the extra help, all of the apple sauce you made, and for the latte outings. Thanks grandma (and grandpa!) for "Cranky the Crane", for playing ball in the yard, and for our Seattle Aquarium trip!

Noah turns 5!

We spent a happy weekend celebrating Noah's 5th birthday. Ben was able to come home in between some business trips out to sea for which we were thankful. We spent Saturday in Seattle picking up Grandma Howe at the airport and then poked around at the Italian Festival. On Sunday after a great morning at church we had our good friends over for some cake and presents.

Around the House

We had a pretty unsuccessful few days of potty training with Hudson at our house this past week. Call me crazy, but after last week I am happy to be buying Huggies size 5 again. We'll try round two maybe in a few months. Needless to say we had a nice few days of just staying put and finding creative things to do within a couple seconds of the toilet.

Rodeo Boys

A couple weekends ago we headed up the road to our cute little county fair and rodeo. The boys were dressed in their duds and feeling like real cowboys. Noah had his pistol in hand the whole time looking for some action (except of course when he was downing his corn dog).

Fruits of the Summer

The blackberries are one of the highlights of living here in Bremerton, WA. Can't get enough! Ben and Noah's garden has yielded some yummy goodness as well as some of the fruit trees on our property. Funny (but major bummer) story: Our peach tree this summer was filled with gorgeous peaches (a rare treat for the northwest). Noah comes to the back door eating a peach. I was wondering why he was eating it because I had told him that our peaches weren't ready to be picked until daddy returned from sea (about a week from that point). Keep in mind we never get peaches on that tree (except maybe one a year). At that point I looked out at the tree and saw just one lonely peach left! "Noah, what happened to all the peaches?!!?", I said. "I shook them all down so that Winchester and I could eat them", Noah said. Sure enough, that dog, my son, and possibly my youngest son ate every last peach. Needless to say, the boys have since been trained not to shake the fruit trees!

Major Changes

This is our neighbor friend Olivia. She and Noah have been friends since before Noah was 2 and she was only 6 weeks. Amazing how God grows these little ones so quickly! Hudson has made the change from crib to toddler bed. More recently, we moved his bed into Noah's room and they are really enjoying being together. This last shot is in need of a "major change". Although pretty, my attempts at making the famous la pizza margherita (Queen of pizzas) have failed. For any Naples fans out there who might have a recipe or a link for Naples pizza crust, please send it my way!