Trick or Treat 2009!!!

The pumpkin princess and Aggie football player enjoyed our annual neighborhood party this evening. There was brisket, a pumpkin decorating station, roasted marshmallows, a costume contest, and a bounce house. After the festivities we went door to door where John received a few candy treats. When we got home he was already tearing into a tootsie roll pop. And, for the sake of my child's teeth, the rest of the candy in his pail went into hiding....

One of our neighbors went all out and made a haunted house in his garage. My parents watched the kids while Kyle and I went down to check it out. The best part were that video cameras inside the haunted house were hooked up to TVs outside so you could see people's reactions as they went through it. That was great fun for all.

Thanks to the families that put on the big party. It takes a lot to do all that and I know they were working all day today not to mention the prep all week.

The Angry Itsy Bitsy Spider Song

The other night at dinner John started singing what can only be described as a hostile rendition of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Not sure how he got so worked up but it made for a good video. We made him perform it several times before we got the camera so this version isn't as hostile or as clear but I think you get the point.



And here is another video of John showcasing his stellar air guitar moves to entertain his sister who, by the way, finds this curious little man absolutely hilarious

Driving Miss Anna

Look out, world! Here I come!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Anna B!

Sorry....last one!

I totally forgot to post this picture and it's one of my favorites!

Pumpkin Patch - The Man and The Mama Version

I'll just preface this post by saying that both my kids have an aversion to the camera lens. Which is a bummer for a photography-loving mom like myself. But I gotta work with what I got.

Unfortunately, Anna has given up her modeling career earlier than John did because I believe he was still a working model for me at 7 months. Anna is so over it. So this was more of a "candid" photo shoot....

Anna posing with the pumpkins

I'm not sure why I even thought I could get a picture with the two of them together

And those are Anna's arms peeking out from under John's body as he body steam rolls her


So we go back to the single shot of Anna

John lifting a pumpkin with Daddy..."Too heby, daddy!"

The money shot. My only decent picture from the pumpkin patch. It was worth the 80 or so shots I took.

Apparently pumpkins are for climbing too

Giving Anna a kiss

Anna is not too excited about pumpkins this year

She certainly didn't like the tower of mini pumpkins John was stacking up her chest

Happy Harvest!

JT & RT & Pumpkins ~ Br^mance

Today was the 3rd annual John 'n' Rusty Pumpkin Pals Picture Fest. Emily and I have gotten the little men together the past several years to take pictures. The first year, no one was really into taking pictures, no one could sit up very well, and no one could deny it was HOT. The second year, everyone could sit up but no one wanted to look at the camera...and it was hot.


This year, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....still not much success in getting a straight look at the camera but we had fun and it was Anna's inaugural visit to the pumpkin patch. Bonus: it was cool this morning!


First, I'll post pictures of John and his bud, Rusty (whom he refers to as "Resty") at the pumpkin patch today....my how these little guys have grown! What a blessing to have sweet friends.

Here Rusty is giving John some important advice: "Hold Up. This is serious business, dude. Stop. Concentrate. And let's find the perfect pumpkin"

Try banging on them like drums! (while Anna chokes herself in the background)

Rusty and John giving Anna major pointers on how to find the most perfect pumpkin on her first pumpkin-scouting trip. She appears to be listening intently.

Always bearing a social conscience, John and Rusty get distracted and take a stance against flagrant pumpkin abuse. Do not pick up the pumpkins by their stems! (so says the sign) Free the pumpkins! Get us outta this pumpkin slaughter field!

Ah, these little ones might be the perfect ones for us!

A long morning at the pumpkin patch. See ya later, home-slice!

Uh, you know Emily and I are going to force these two to re-enact this picture senior year. Our sons are gonna LOVE us.

Next post will have John and Anna pics....later....

The Camera's Baa-aaack

We rented the fancy Nikon camera from our friend, Brad, again....I wanted to take some fall pictures of the kids, Anna in her "pumpkin" tutu, and the traditional annual pumpkin patch pictures. So here's a smattering of pics I've taken this week (pumpkin patch pictures will come later)

Having the camera was so worth it for these tutu pics...love them! I bought Anna's tutu from Trinity's Tutus on Etsy. For all you girl moms.....they make great quality tutus custom made in any color combo and they come with the headband and flower clip. This is her Halloween costume. She's a "Pumpkin Princess"...yes, I made that up.

In other news, we love having our neighborhood friends to play with especially on lovely days like yesterday and today. We have about 13 kids between the ages of 1-3 in our two-street neighborhood and 3 new little girls born between March and October that will be Anna's future "gang". Absolutely love all the playmates and shared toys between us.

Here are John and his neighborhood buddy, Tyson, ridin' dirty in the hood.

John hijacked Tyson's birthday gift for a quick joy ride. Tyson was happy to oblige.

Cruisin' in the Escalade (with a radio and pimped out speakers in the back, thank you very much)

And here we are traveling by a more humble means of transport. Caden is letting us borrow the trike this weekend so we can practice our pedaling.....what a neighborly thing to do. Thanks, Caden!

John is a big help when I'm unloading the dishwasher. I've discovered that letting him unload the utensils keeps him occupied so he doesn't break the dishes. It's like a matching game for him. Although it didn't work the second time as well as the first.....bummer.

Miss Anna discovering herself in the excersaucer mirror

PEA FACE!

Well, hello, friends....let me introduce you to my two new teeth

Bath time!

Tad and Anna in a Texas stare-down duel. Notice she's only about 2 inches taller than a stufed animal in the sitting position

John's Big Wall Climb

So my sweet husband is very generous in allowing us to have a babysitter come help out with the kids during the day on occasion. Usually I leave both of them with her while I do things like grocery shopping and run errands that would normally take me forever to do with 2 kids in tow. Today, however, I decided it would be a good idea for me to spend a little one on one time with my man. I left Anna with the sitter and John and I took off for our big date at Pump It Up.

I chose Pump It Up because when we were leaving church yesterday we drove by the large movie theater/entertainment complex where Pump It Up is located and John pointed and wistfully said "I go to Pump It Up..." He's only been there 3 times but apparently it's made an impression.

The last time I was by myself with John was in July when I took him to the pool for an hour while Anna napped with a sitter. It had been a while and I was so happy to have this special time to focus on John and he was SOOOOO excited when I told him where we were going.

I was very proud of him today because he did this huge and difficult (for his age) obstacle course all by himself. Last time we were here (in August) Kyle or I had to do this particular obstacle course with him and he was terrified of the whole thing especially the slide part. I was so proud to see my little guy work so determinedly (is that a word?) to climb and do this himself. This a little boy who went down a playground slide for the first time by himself only 2 months ago. "Cautious" is his middle name, baby.

Here's a video of the last part of the obstacle course---a really steep climbing wall to the top of the big slide.

Go John!

It was so sweet to hear him tell the story about it all day long...and my favorite part of him telling the story is that he says, "Mommy, I go beery fast but you catch me" and then he nods his head as if to say "I knew you'd be there for me". I feel so special knowing that he felt like he could conquer that big slide because he knew Mommy was going to catch him at the end....if only I could catch you always, little man....but I'll do it while I can and while you'll let me.

I love your little 2 1/2 self, baby! XOXOXO

Weekend in the B/CS and Time with the Fam

We took our first family road trip to College Station on Saturday. Kyle attended the Aggie game and John, Anna, and I hung out with Granny and Papaw in the warmth of the apartment. John was in heaven playing puzzles with Granny

After the game we had dinner with Kyle's family and my cousin, Belen, who started her first semester at aTm this fall...WHOOP!

The next day we seized the opportunity to take pictures of the 2009 Bethancourt "triplet" cousins:

Nathan (born in January), Anna (born in March), and Sadie (born in August). This picture was taken right before Nathan tweaked Anna's ear.....

....and our models (well, mostly just Anna) descended into hysterics....

Then the real wrangling began when we tried to add John to the picture. Since he is such a camera-hater he thought rolling around on top of his sister was appropriate picture behavior. Not even a bribe of graham cracker cookies could get him to sit still and smile. Through the magic of time lapse photography you can see our struggle documented here....