Med Group Fall Festival

Tonight was the Medical Groups Fall Festival for the children.  So we got our costumes on and headed over to meet daddy at work for a bunch of fun...

They did a wonderful job!  The kids had so much fun doing crafts, decorating pumpkins, playing games, winning awesome prizes, eating pizza and nuggets, scoring candy...

Dylan even won the prize for funniest costume!  He sure does make a cute clown if I do say so myself :)  He won the new Madagascar movie!

By the time the kids were done running around playing (or really by the time we made them be done and head home for bed) they were happy and worn out...

Cole Brothers Circus!

On Thursday the kids came home from school with free tickets to the circus.  I didn't even know the circus was in town?!  And seeing as we are being our own little circus for Halloween (and it had been a long while since we've been to one) I knew we had to go.  So we went Saturday!  I have to admit it wasn't my finest picture taking event but I tried to get a few...

Everyone had their favorites - PJ liked the motorcycles in the ball, I liked the baby elephant who skipped, Brynn liked the ladies that twirled in the air, Tyler liked the Tigers, Dylan liked the rocket, and Kate, well who knows what Kate thought.  She liked it, but she was also unsure and scared at times.  But overall I'd say her first circus was a hit!  Love that the circus rolled into town at the perfect time! 

So grown up...

I was cleaning off the text messages on my phone the other day when I ran across a long strand of texts between my older sister Lyndsay and I.  It was a conversation we had back in July while I was at my parents house one last time before our move.  I had seen a stack of my old Nancy Drew books in my mom's house and had questioned what she was doing with them and could I take them.  I learned she had plans to take them out to Lyndsay.   What?!  So we had the following interaction...

Lyndsay and I - Christmas 2009

ME:  Whoa! Hold ur horses... I just learned ur taking my nancy drew books.  I'm gonna b needing those back once madison reads them :)

Lyndsay:  YOUR Nancy drew?! I believe they were grandma wainwrights and she gave them to me.  Did you ever even read... Nancy Drew?

ME:  Yes MY nancy drew books.  Everyone knows that.  Jain even asked me permission to take them years ago and i lovingly had to say no.  Those r sentimental because they are prob the last books i ever read for fun ;) So ill share with madison but then i need them back.

Lyndsay:  Okay, they are NOT yours.  Does mom say they are yours?????

ME:  Shes the one that told jain i needed to be consulted on whether she could have them or not.

Lyndsay:  This is not right.  I will argue this one to the end.

ME:  Bring it sista!

Lyndsay:  You got it! :S

ME:  Big words from 1500 miles away :)  Especially when i have them here in my hands as we text ;)  whatcha gonna do now??

ME:  (after searching the front cover of the books to find only two had names in the front - one with my name and one with hers - but i didn't tell her that part)  How did we not put names in r books back then???

Lyndsay:  I have no idea about the names.  But mom promised them to me so they better be delivered.

ME:  Well maybe we should just split them nutso.

Lyndsay:  Nutso!  You're calling me nutso?!  You were the one challenging me from 1500 miles away.

(after a slight time lapse where i was out rooting around in my parents garage and located more books then mom had previously collected and set aside to take to Lyndsay)

ME:  Well I found all of the books... Mom hadn't.  And I'm gonna split them in half.  Good deal?

Lyndsay:  I guess. Seems fair.  Karen just got Madison the secret in the old clock so if you have that one don't give it to us.

ME:  So I found the Mandie books too.  Did u read those/want some of those?

Lyndsay:  Sure.  Those were actually mine.  I'm pretty sure.

ME:  Uh huh.  Just like the nancy drew ones were actually yours.

Lyndsay:  no, seriously.  But you can split them if you want.

ME:  Well since i have to split my nancy drew we also have to split ur mandie ;)

Lyndsay:  Fair enough.

ME:  And dad finally spoke up and quietly admitted he remembers back when mom called and asked my permission to give my books to jain.  Just an FYI.  But i'm totally dropping it now ;)

Lyndsay:  you people are completely crazy.  just because mom called you doesn't mean they are yours.  you take things remember.

ME:  below the belt :(

Lyndsay:  i know

***It should be noted that at some point I tried to drag our other sister Katy into the brawl by nonchalantly asking her what she remembered regarding the ownership of the Nancy Drew books.  No, she didn't claim they were hers ;)  She stayed true to her family role as the sweet peace maker and she kept her opinions neutral :{ No help there.

Sisters...  Love them!!!  And I guess when it comes to sisters maybe we never really grow up.  Such a mature conversation we had.  But at least we've learned to resolve our own conflicts ;)  And it was all for the sake of these two right?!
Our cutie pie girls, Madison and Brynn...

Not another visitor...

The one hang up for Preston about our new home in Florida is that it is so far from family.  And while we were hopeful people would come visit us, we weren't crossing our fingers.  But we have to admit that we've been pretty darn lucky so far when it comes to having our friends come visit  - we have the best friends and enjoy them so much - we are anxiously waiting for more to come.  However, this week we also got to have more family roll into town.  Only this time it was with a moving truck!...

On Monday Annette (Prestons Mom) arrived.  When she visited us back in August, not long after we moved in, she knew things at her work back in Virginia weren't going to last much longer so she turned in a few resumes around here but didn't do much follow up.  Well, as expected, she recently left her job in Virginia but had decided to move to Nashville.  Here is a brief description of what happened in her own words:

"An example of the Lord's tender mercies.....About two weeks ago I signed a lease on my cute cottage in the Nashville area, packed up and moved there, did two days of training for my new job and then headed to St. George, UT to run the marathon. When that was all done I was going to AZ to load my rental truck with all my things out of storage and move it to TN. As I was preparing to do this last step, I received a telephone call from TN telling me they wouldn't accept my education or experience and would not be granting me a license. I was devastated, confused and anxious. What do I do? Two days later I got a phone call from the company I had applied with back in early August that has the government contract for massage at Tyndall AFB (where my son is serving for the next 3 1/2 years). They had overlooked my resume and apologized. They definitely wanted me and when could I get there. So instead of driving to TN I headed south across the US to my new home in Mexico Beach, FL. I'm less than a mile from the white sand shores of the beach and about 15 miles to my son, daughter in law and grand children. It seemed as though a door was closing and yet it needed to in order to give me exactly what I asked for. I am truly blessed."

We are truly blessed as well.  We are very excited to have her close.  Yes, we spent this last week finding her a home and getting her settled in and ready at work.

And we squeezed in a little fun.  But there are now lots of chances for that so no rush...

So... no more hang ups for PJ :)  Life is good!

Just normal stuff...

Well its October.  And the weather is absolutely gorgeous here.  And the water that comes out of our hose is still warm and wonderful :)  Harlow our backyard alligator, who seemingly left for a while, has come back.  Our visitors didn't really believe us when we said we had a pet alligator out back - although I think Kara did catch a small glimpse of him not long before they left. 

And this past Saturday was as usual as the rest... we hung out on the beach to relax after a long week. 

Kate had fun playing football with our neighbor we hang out with (Blair)...

Brynn was pretty proud of herself for snorkeling with daddy and holding a crab...

And after many attempts (and lots of times trying) Dylan finally caught himself a lizard in our screened in porch...

 That kid.  He's almost fearless :[