our halloween..

seems like halloween is turning into one of those holidays (like birthdays) that last a full week. we had a costume party last friday night and it was so much fun! the evening before kennedy and kyle carved pumpkins for decoration.. they had such a great bonding time! it was very cool to watch. and watch we did.. korb and i did not get our hands dirty! we did have a little dress up fun, tho. he tried on all of sisters old costumes.. well, i sortof made him try them on..but he had fun! he was a rainbow carebear.. a honey pot.. a pumpkin.. and next up was a princess. but daddy drew the line there. and he refused to let us take pics..not sure why. korb was an adorable carebear! anyway.. it was a fun night!

one pumpkin down and then the little man had to go night-night.

daddy and the little kid finished the second masterpiece..on friday, we all got our costumes on and got ready to "party, party, party" (thats a gracy reddick quote). there were 6 couples here and everyone played along with the costumes required theme. it was so much fun to see all the babies! i say we keep up the tradition!

the princess..and the frog

spartan cheerleaders..and the frog ???

ugly betty.. and the frog ?? the frog was in a 'hold me' mood for sure.

ugly betty.. I LOVE IT!!

the shrek's ..and the cutest little lady bug in town.

the carter family farmers!

what's gonna work? team work! kanuth's were awesome wonder pets!

the degele's!

doodle bop mo!! aka caden degele..

most of the babies.. except the frog. somebody was probably holding him. kennedy loved christy's wig.. and lipstick.. and flower.. and basically christy in general! thanks, christy, for being so good with her!

tonight we went to the fall festival at kennedys school.. but somehow i forgot my camera. loser! oh well.. tomorrow the kids will get dressed up yet again for trick or treating. ill take lots of pics. .. and of course kennedy will have on her real costume. just like last years chickens..the princess and the frog was the theme mommy chose for them. you'll just have to check back to see what she really wanted to be!

from unt to dallas and back..

this past saturday was north texas homecoming. kyle's mom kept the little kid and the little man and we drove up to denton around noon.. well, noon was the plan but i think we left about 12:45. we spent a couple of hours tailgating and watching the parade. btw..no elephant. kyle got to see a lot of old friends. then we drove to dallas for our new annual anniversary thing - a pat green concert! two years in a row..i hope he realizes that and keeps up the tradition. im sure that he plans the event just for us. more tailgating..an awesome rendition of galleywinter (nicole..you shouldve been there!) ..and then we were off to make an appearance at the tavern. its a long drive from dallas to denton. i was sleepy.. kyle dropped me off at the hotel and met up with the boys. i claimed a bed and got a few hours sleep before the crew made it in. we shared a room with the mincheys.. one-third of team cardwell.. and an arnold twin. dont know which one. it took me 3 years to realise there were 2. it will take me at least that long to figure out which is which. and has anyone ever really seen them in the same room.. i havent. maybe there's just one with multiple personalities? who knows.. a breakfast buffet and we were back to the real world. think we are going to stay in it for a while.

so..these are all the homecoming pics we took.

kanuths & cardwells imagine that!

our pat green crew. the couple in the middle are friends of kyles from work. the ultimate pat fans. and the chic? just some random from the parking lot.
pretty sure he was showing off the PG coozie..not his arm. but either way..honey - where'd you get those guns? pretty good seats.. evidently that little guy - pats son - has a birthday around our anniversary. how cool must it be to have daddy sing happy birthday to you on stage in front of a gazillion people every year?!

fight on..

the weekend of oct 20th the usc trojans marched into notre dame country ..and we were there to see the show. smell the smells.. enjoy the beautiful campus and the hospitality of the locals. we had been planning the trip for months. we were invited by mark and jen cusano. (you know mark is a trojan himself) and i must admit ~ except for the company ~ i was dreading it a little. i thought it was going to be miserably cold.. i dont like to be cold. that can wreck an entire trip for me. however..it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful weekend!

my mom arrived on thurs evening to stay with the munchkins.. we stayed up late packing.. and kyle got up even earlier on friday morning to ride to work with tyreece. after settling everyone in for a nap..i finished my packing and loaded the car. i left around 11am.. my mom was in charge of the crew! what a trooper! all the babies love her.. after doing a little last minute shopping i met kyle and his boss for lunch. then got to see sam's new bar, which is so awesome! cant wait to hang out there! we made our way to the airport around 2.. and our flight was right on time at 430. of course we had a little time to kill in the airport - but we were in total vacation mode and nothing was gonna get us down! after arriving in chicago and getting to our hotel..we met up with mark and jackie (aka the meyers) we shared a suite with them. the cusanos flight was delayed a bit so they met us at the restaurant for dinner straight from the airport. after an awesome meal we had a drink or two and took in the lights from a really cool bar overlooking downtown. then we called it a night.

the next morning we all loaded up in a brand new cadillac escalade and drove to south bend, indiana for the much anticipated football game. we all wore trojan colors-thats cardinal..not red- and played the part of supportive fans. honestly, we initially wore the colors to support mark..but we were proud to call ourselves trojan fans (altho temporary) by the end of the day. fight on.. has real meaning now. the notre dame campus was absolutely amazing! we did take lots of pics.. but im not even sure they do it justice. the weather was beautiful.. the final score was 38 to 0.. and the locals were still nice on our way out. pretty cool place. i would highly recommend adding it to your list of must see places in the united states. it was a long entertaining ride back to chicago after the game.. full of good laughs.. couple of crazy potty breaks.. and good conversation. thats easy for me to say..i did not have to use the bathroom. and kyle & i rode back in the center row. captains chairs. very nice. we made it back just in time to change clothes for our 1030pm reservations at the chicago chop house. (one FULL day..but it wasnt over yet..) then we hit the town.. until 5am. who knew bars in chicago stayed open that late! definitely a cool city. we will be back.

kyle, mark and mark passing a football around in the parking lot. hey, what happened to that football?

one really pretty tree.. kyle and jen were big fans!

i dont know what makes me smile the most about this pic..the amazing building or the button on the back of marks head!

more campus architecture

thats kyle & i in front of 'touchdown jesus'

the group..mark c, jen, jackie, mark m, jammi, kp and a few pics of the field.. soon after the game i lost interest in photographing anything. unexplainable..if mark & jackie ever share their pics from chicago i will add them. ;)

on sunday we all had lunch at the infamous gino's east. it was every bit as good as the reddicks said it was! and then my wonderful husband drove me 5 hours to see one of my best friends! we saw the entire state of indiana.. and the ohio river as you pass into louisville. met jenn and jeff for dinner..watched the cowboys game..thanks to the genius of tivo.. slept a few hours in their amazing new home.. spent a little quality time with my favorite little kaitlyn in the whole world.. and drove back to chicago. it was such a long drive.. and kyle should have been REALLY mad at me for talking him into it.. but he was a trooper. i love that he shares (or at least caters to) my need to do too much in too little time! we did have time to stop off at a casino on the lake in chi-town to play a little black jack. and then we were texas bound. needed to get home to our babies! all in all a wonderful time! im so glad we went! thanks for the invite mark and jen. we are definitely in for the next adventure!

congrats to aly and paul..

my good friends aly and paul have decided to tie the knot! well.. she decided along time ago and now they are making it official. i was invited..with a select few friends..to attend the bachelorette party a couple of weekends ago. i know.. i know. why has it taken so long to write about it? well theres a good explanation. sort of. i forgot my camera. but i was confident that someone else would have one.. not so much. so i had to buy one of those disposable camera's. like the one i bought at the river... have you seen those pics yet? no. hate picking up pictures! and really ..whats a post with out any pictures? the party was on a saturday night.. and we left the next friday for chicago. sun-thurs should have been enough time to get them developed. but i also had to find halloween costumes and get ready for our trip. enough excuses! sorry it took so long aly! but here it is! ...i will pick up the pictures and add them to the post. before you are a married woman. i promise! cant tell you all the details.. that would not be cool. since a bachelorette party is kindof a final single right of passage. however..i can fill you in on some of the highlights. there were 4 of us plus the blushing bride. i had met all the others, in passing once or twice, during my days at NM, but for the most part i was the stranger in the group. we all emailed for a couple of weeks working out the details.. and saturday the 13th was the day. which was also the day of jackson cusano's 3rd bday party. i got up early on saturday morning so that kennedy and i could spend some quality time together. we went to learning express..she spent some of her birthday money and we got a pretty cool present for jackson. i even had it wrapped so that the k-team wouldnt have to do anything to get ready for their party (yes, kari, learning express wraps everything for free but kyle didnt know that!) i filled the truck up with gas so that they wouldnt have to make a stop on their way to coppell..got both the kids dressed..picked up the present and sent them on their way. now it was time for mommy to focus on her own party. turns out one of the other girls lives somewhat near me in allen and we had planned to ride together. after packing a little bag for myself. wrapping my gift. picking up the food i was in charge of. and finally getting a bite to eat myself - i arrived at tiffany's house about 45 minutes behind schedule. it seems when aly was telling them all about her friend jammi..she failed to mention that i am always late. its not that im slow -- just usually try to get too much done in too little time. anyway..scooped her up and we were on our way. called ahead..told them we were running late..everything was good. until we ran out of gas. thats right. out of gas. with someone i barely knew. so embarrassing. we were in kyle's car. i was so concerned with getting the family taken care of and all the stuff ready for both parties that i didnt even look at his gas gauge. tiffany's sweet husband brought us a little gas in his lawn mower gas can so that we could make it to a station. and then we were off again. we finally arrived at hotel zaza around 540pm. only 1 hour and 40 minutes late! we valeted the car..snuck in our wine..and loaded up to pick alyson up from work. upon our return we uncorked a few bottles of wine and finally sat down. she opened all her gifts.. i will not be sharing what they were.. {except for the joke in the bottom of my bag of goodies. a pregnancy test! by my best calculations it should be pink within two weeks of the wedding and we will be throwing a baby shower by may.} we finally got ready around 9 and made our way to a bar.. we gave aly choices of things to do on her so called last night of freedom and she chose a country bar called Gilley's. we ended up staying there all night. (they needed a few cool girls like us to really make the bar shine) i think everyone had a great time. most everyone rode the mechanical bull..i did not. chicken, i guess. there was a band or two. and a lot of boot scootin. aly will have to teach paul some of her new skills. tiffany and i had a little late night random fun with the camera. at the bar.. dont get any ideas. had to use all the film. and who says you have to have security clearance to get on the stage with the band?!! thank you so much for inviting me!

come on girls.. this is gonna be fun!

mel, aly, syd and tiff
aly & jammi

sydney on the bull.. look aly its easy!

aly on the bull!
sydney, aly & jammi
sydney & tiffany

aly finds a dance partner..plastic horns..seems harmless enough!

then jammi and tiff find fun stuff to do with the disposable camera..gotta use it to develop it right?

jammi & tiff..with security

jammi & tiff on stage

there are more jammi and tiff pics..but you'll have to go see them for your self on shutterfly. this post is about aly!!!

the rest of the pictures are here..
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN2zhs3btGLDEg&notag=1

..no ~ im not on strike!

...ive gotten 3 emails this week asking if im burnt out on blogging. or if im on strike from it?!?! when actually i miss it very much! it seems that sometimes we pack so much stuff into our lives..stuff that makes really awesome blog posts..that we dont leave time to write about them! in the passed 20 days since my last blog post -- ive gone from our very own hotel zaza.. to the radison suites on huron downtown chicago.. spent 24 hours driving across the state of indiana (north to south) to stay one night in the amazing hotel moore in la grange, ky.. to a hampton inn off 35 in denton. that's a lot of traveling for a girl who traded in weekly trips to new york for annual trips to vegas. i have tons of pics and stories that i want to share!

i would also like to thank my mom and my mother-in-law for being such awesome grandparents and stepping in with our kids so that we could have a few weekends to be kids ourselves. its so great to have good families! we are so lucky.. and so are the K's! love you guys and thank you!

happy anniversary honey!

just a quick note to thank my wonderful husband for making me his wife two years ago today... thank you sweet heart for being such an amazing husband and father. you make me smile every day.. i cant imagine my life without you in it.. and i love that you are my very best friend. happy anniversary!

some things that make me smile...

whoppers.. whoppers make me smile. you know, the original malted milk ball. they were one of my dad's favorite candies when i was a kid. a few weeks ago i thought of them and really wanted some! i guess you could call it a craving -- but dont get any ideas! anyway.. it was a lazy sunday and going to the store, getting out, going in.. all seemed like a lot of work so i settled for a milkshake from sonic - thought the chocolate would do the trick.. drive up, someone brings it to your car, much better. then last friday when most of our crew was sick i went to walmart to pick up some medicine. the pharmacy is right across from the halloween display and there they were. did you know.. that there's only 7 grams of fat in one serving? i know what you're thinking..how many are in a serving - 5? nope. 18. thats awesome! just another reason why whoppers make me smile!!!

and as a side note.. i saw that sonic now (and for a limited time only) has whopper shakes! someone at sonic is in my head! i havent had one yet but im sure it wont be long!!

nick folk makes me smile. what a game, huh? it was thrilling to say the least. we were on the edge of our seats.. or standing on the coffee table (kp..not me) the entire time. i searched for a pic from the game. there were plenty. the moment - well, both 'moments' were captured very well. but you can see those anywhere. i found this pic in my search. not sure who's underwear those are but i think they say it all. and it made me smile.

kennedy has been grounded for an entire week. that does not make me smile. we started out with one week.. and we've added 3 days for poor behavior. i was pretty sure she would never get ungrounded.. but yesterday. from morning - to after school - to evening - to bedtime.. she did not argue. she did not talk back. i cant say perfect angel.. but very pleasant to hang out with and very helpful. sissy..that makes me smile.

a couple of pics that make me smile.. they have great explanations. but i dont think they are necessary.. they make me smile with out the info.

korb has hit a stage where he wants to repeat every word you say. he tries so hard and isnt always successful but its so cute. he can say a lot of stuff! on that same trip to walmart that blessed us with the whoppers.. he was in the cart and i was talking to my mom on the phone. i said mom, he said mom. i said nana, he said nana. i was talking about his daddy, he said daddy. then he started to gag.. i thought for sure that he was about to throw up. i panicked. he laughed. he was faking. then he did it over and over. and laughed. i was still on the phone with my mom .. and i said to her. he is faking.. he should not know how to do that! i said thats crap, he said crap. not cool i know. but it made me smile.

these pics have nothing to do with the story.. but they make me smile too. thats korb in his ladies man t-shirt compliments of his uncle sam.

and those are his 'ladies'!

and finally.. poop. solid poop. funny that poop would make me smile - but my kid and every other kid who's poop i change on a regular basis has been so gross for a week now. korb had a normal poop this morning and it made me smile. sometimes its the small things..... sorry. no pic!

birthday parties..birthday parties and more birthday parties...

kennedys birthday was on the 24th of sept.. on her bday we had some cake and sang happy birthday with our closest family friends. and she opened presents from her father. she was very excited about them.. he got everything on her list. then on friday evening kelly, aaron, kyle and i (along with cub and the kobra) took kennedy and 4 of her buddies out for her birthday party. we all went to brother's pizza..where there was a random carello family sighting! -- ate dinner..opened presents and had cheesecake ~ which is kennedy's favorite thing in the entire world! then kelly and i took the girls to the movie theatre. men and babies not allowed! we saw the game plan. it was opening night.. they had a blast. the evening was so packed with stuff to do and so rushed there werent not too many pics -- but still wanted to share the best.

on saturday the 29th we headed to rockwall for a kanuth birthday party celebration! it was elle's party - but kates birthday. elle's was the day before... it was a great time! we had so much fun. they planned a ton of stuff for the little guys to do. there were water games for the big kids and the babies.. and the daddies with the babies. too cute. elle's grandmother made these amazing party hats for all the kids. korb wore his forever! i only got one pic of elle.. eating cake. there were a couple of others but they look like my mom took them.. (she wasnt there..maybe kennedy?) anyway, it was great fun and im so glad we got to celebrate with them! thanks guys for letting us be apart of your special day!

elle..the cake was amazing korb.. in his is hat!kaden liked the cake. not sure about the hat..

he's so handsome!
kennedy.. in her hat
kel & ava .. not participating in water fun.

that was a daddy job.

and the daddies were so good at it! caden and jackson swimming it up!
korb loving the pool!
and korb.. still in his hat! i love this one.. pink balloon and all!