Fall Catch-up!

Wow, our life got SUPER busy, SUPER fast here in the last month and I have not taken a breath to blog! Here's a quickie to catch up on Fall fun. My best friend's 3-year-old told me that it's called "Fall" because all the leaves fall off the trees. I told him it could also be referred to as "Autumn". He wasn't buyin' it. Anyway, I'm not sure we experience much leaf loss here in coastal Georgia, but we had a little cooler weather. And I mean a little. No complaints here!

We got invited to a friend's twin's Birthday party in October with strict instructions to come dressed up....ALL of us. I'm not big on costumes, but I will have to admit that with a little creativity, a little sewing/glueing, a LOT of help from Dody, we pulled off a pretty cute family theme. We tried a few different methods of making Finn look like a hotdog. In one option, he wore a long vest that would have the "buns" pinned to it. When we tried the vest on him, for some reason he went totally nuts and started dancing around, waving his arms in the air. We thought he looked sort of like Jesus in that vest, so we slapped some sandals and a leather hand band on him (Rambo-style) and had a revival right there in the living room. Ok, well not really. But it was pretty hilarious. Anyway, here are the pictures.

 This is what you get when you say "Matt, hold Finn." 

 Much better. 

 Yeah, I know I look like an over-filled packet....it's the baby bump!

 Please note the grill marks. 

 At the party! Finn had lots of fun!

 Trick-or-treating a few days later started out really strong. 

Buuuuutttt, after about three houses Finn decided he was done and didn't see the point. Too much walking! That was fine with us. We were tired too!

In November we threw a Christmas shower for our sweet friend Charlotte who was getting married soon. It was so much fun, and I think they now have plenty of awesome decorations to deck their halls! 

We also took a quick trip to visit Matt's sister and her family. We always love seeing them and Finn was loving some cousin time.

 That's a lot of boys in that bath tub!!! They'll kill me for this one day. 

They have a big yard, and Finn enjoyed exploring. 

We went to Rock Hill to celebrate Thanksgiving a week eary with my grandmother. She was thrilled to have us. Well, let's be honest, she was mostly thrilled to have Finn. We let Cracker Barrel do the cooking and we had a great time. 

Then it was time for the 5th Annual Carpenter Thanksgiving Extravaganza. I'm not sure if that should really be capitalized, but it seems like it should. We have THAT much fun. Talking too much and eating too much ran rampant and a great time was had by all. Thanksgiving just makes me so....well, thankful! We are SO blessed. SO so so so so so blessed! You know, the bible tells us that of those who have been given a lot, a lot will be expected. That leads to some of my new years resolutions, but we'll get to that later. First, here's how Thanksgiving unfolded:

 Everyone working hard the night before to prepare. 

 Finn was just working hard being cute. 

 Harvey was NOT working hard. But he had probably worked hard all day. Barking and what-not. 

 I don't know what Dody did to deserve this face, but it was probably something really bad. 

 Stone cold sober, believe it or not....

The Thanksgiving day fun commences. 

 Jess clearly did not want her picture taken. 

 Here is Finn with his paci. It falls upon deaf ears when I say things like "Oh, Finn just gets his paci at night now. I don't give it to him during the day." After I say this he usually has it in his mouth within 2 to 8 minutes. Why do I even try when I'm around such child-rearing experts such as my family? The usual retort is "But he wants it!" Good enough.  :)

 The turkey. Last year our turkey weighed more than Finn did! This year was no different....but boy was it GOOD!!! 

 Dody gettin' artistic with the food pics. 

I thought y'all might want to see the bump. And the fact that someone took a bite of that biscuit! 

 Mini apple pies. YUM. I only ate like 12 of these.

 We had a little bloody nose incident and ruined the awesome shirt Aunt Tiffany got us. Popsicles and and my mom's superior stain-fighting ability make it allllll better. 

 Look at Lola and Blu, THE best behaved dogs to ever exist. And they are so adorable to boot!!!

 Here we all are thanks to my new tripod! Thanks honey!!! P.S. Someone is trying to escape from the photo.

We had a great Fall/Autumn! Then December came and the goal became retaining my sanity. More about that in the next post. It's on my list of resolutions to get to it really soon! :)