Pumpkin Disembowelment

On the weekend before Halloween, James, Kristi, and Kayci decided to come spend some time out in the country and participate in the unholy ritual of sacrificing large gourds to appease the angry gods.



Come on kids! Reach in there and pull out those guts!



Here, let your old man show you how to really get in there and root around for the good stuff.



The result? A fully disemboweled lifeless gourd, lit up so that the angry gods will know how much we don't want them to punish us.



After a long day of gourd slaughter, nothing satisfies quite like dressing up in inexpensive, non-flammable reproductions of our favorite professions and icing cookies. MMMmmmm... Ms Kathy cookies.



It was a hard day, but a good one. Happy Halloween 2006.

Pumpkin Patch with Grace

Today Josh and Alicia came down to hang out and take the kids to the neighborhood pumpkin patch. The "patch" turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, but the company was good and it was great to see them.



In retrospect, getting a ride from a bald giant is probably not a happy thing for most small children, including Grace.



Grace wore her poodle skirt costume and Keely, Reagan and Gavin went as themselves.



Yes it was a happy day indeed for Baby Grace. That is until we realized that she was sitting in a mound of fire ants.



She wasn't too interested in the pumpkins for some reason, but she really seemed to be fascinated by the grass. This was disheartening because they have grass in Sugar Land.



Ah, memories. This was actually picture number 74. For the first 73, either Grace was distracted or Josh was - mostly Josh.



Wow - that's not a bad looking family (minus the guy in the gray shirt).

First Dance!

You know how I know you're old? 'Cuz your oldest daughter is going to her first dance.



Luckily from the house we can see the middle school from our bedroom window with a little help from Mr. Binoculars.