Halloween #2 - Carving Pumpkins

Given the title, I'm sure you're expecting photos of cute little kids, getting their hands dirty, experiencing pumpkin guts for the first time.  But you don't have my husband.

Trey likes to use power tools to carve his pumpkins.

Here's Trey sporting a Sawzall to cut up a defenseless little gourd.

Ever-so-delicately carving his masterpiece.

With a Dremel.

Drawing out the face on the 2nd pumpkin.

I haven't seen any children in these photos, have you?

The Final Results:

An Incredible pumpkin for the Incredible family!

Our Happy Jack O'Lantern

The (facial) hair makes the man

My man is sexy, that is undisputed. But he can freak me out by simply taking a razor to his face. One week last month, he decided to have fun with me, and sported different facial hair each day of the week.

The pictures for this post were taken mere weeks before Trey and I became privy to the knowledge that we apparently live in the shadow of the worlds largest mustache (that would be The Arch!), and that The Lou is also home to the American Mustache Institute. Who freakin' knew.

Trey in full beard.

Personally, I like him best with a face sweater.

And then one day...he walked out like this.

Gross. That was all I could say.

I asked where he left his mullet.

Ick. Handlebars.

I asked if he kept his Marlboro Reds rolled up in his sleeve.

Lester the Molester.

Just call him Rick.

Nice. The Hitler look is always fashionable.

And there he is, clean shaven.

Phew, so glad that experiment is over!

Happy Birthday, Trey!

Happy Birthday, Trey!  

Trey is 37 years old today, but I must say he is handsome as ever!  The boys and I are putting together a family dinner just for Daddy, and then they're hitting the sack early so Mom & Dad can have some Birthday Lovin'!  You know, snuggle up and then pass out on the couch while watching a movie!  What did you think I meant?

This weekend, we celebrated Trey's birthday with Isabella with a family outing to the Zoo.  We had The Best time!  These kiddos LOVE their daddy!

Sean, Daddy & Isabella

Sean & Daddy 

Wow, they are so gorgeous!

HaHa!  Isabella was the only one ready for this shot!  

Hangin' on Dad! 

Their favorite place to be!

It's still a great photo, even if the cranky kid is burying his head!

And not to be left out, Baby Ryan, who was in the stroller asleep most of the time, wanted to leave this birthday message for Daddy.  (I hope this is up soon - I've been waiting over an hour for YouTube to process this video!)

Our Lake Vacation

Now that we've been home for a month....

Following last year's lead, we took our annual family vacation down at Lake of the Ozarks, again boarding with the Schneidermeyer's at a lake house owned by a friend of Melissa's.  There really isn't a better way to spend a week with your family than laying by a body of water, debating which drink and chip you'd like to eat next.  

It was a bit different for me this year, only because I wasn't choosing between Miller Chill or a Margarita on the rocks with salt.  Oh well.  We had a blast, nonetheless, and a week away from home without a hectic schedule or a list of to-dos is the best way to enjoy your family!  

Some highlights....

Cole and Sean counting down to Jump Time.

One of many jumps into the lake!  Way to go, Little Man Sean!

Trey and Sean enjoying our boat ride with Schneidermeyer's family friends.

Sean learning the fine art of Skee Ball down on The Strip.

Isabella, Trey and Sean on the Bridge of Death aka The Swinging Bridges.

Isabella, Sean and Trey doing what they do best - chillin' out on the dock.

Me and my first ever catch!  I made it look easy!

Sean posing with Momma's first fish!

Cole and Sean, being silly on the dock.

Our trip was not without incident - Trey changing a tire on our van for the first time ever!

But he's awfully cute, even under duress!

Trey and Isabella prepping for their big race at the Go Kart track.

Unfortunately, spending a week in the Ozarks meant we missed my big Lee family reunion in Portland, Oregon.  However, it really wasn't much of a choice when we looked at the finances of sending the entire family out West for a week versus driving two hours away and spending a week in a house for free!  Good, Cheap Fun - that's what we got at the Lake, and we loved every moment of it!  

Andy & Melissa - same time, same place next year?

Like Father, Like Son

It's not enough, really, that Sean adores his Daddy, worships baseball like his Daddy, loves the vroom, vroom of anything on wheels like his Daddy.  Now we can add another love that father and son share...mowing the lawn!

Super, duper, incredible thanks, again, to my friend Susie, who bought this bubble mower for Sean for his birthday.  This baby's already gotten tons of mileage.  Here's some video of Daddy and Sean sharing one of their loves together:

You can also find this video on our You Tube page.  

Happy Dad's Day

On Sunday, we had the grandpas over for an afternoon BBQ for Father's Day.  Poppa Latta and Nana Roxy, Grandpa Phil and Oma Annie, plus GiGi Harman, came over for a fun and relaxing afternoon.  

As usual, Costco came to my rescue.  I came down with the same cold Sean has on Friday evening, and just couldn't bring myself to prepare a bunch of homemade food.  But a trip to Costco Sunday morning provided all of our Father's Day grub - brats and dogs, pasta salad, veggies & dip, crackers & dip, chips & salsa, lemonade and strawberry shortcake!

Three Generations of Latta Men!

Poppa Latta, Sean, Daddy, Grandpa Phil

Daddy & Sean

Happy Birthday, Trey!

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the world, my husband, Trey.

I Love You

Amy & Trey, November 2001

My Baby's just a cute little boy!

What can I say, my kid has been adorable this week!

On Tuesday, Trey was home with us, as he had his jury duty fall through, and was back home by 9am.  What to do on Daddy's day off?  Snuggle on the couch and watch Backyardigans!

Later that night, the little bugaboo was in full on goofiness - laying on the floor, eating raisins, singing and flinging Sleepy Bear around with his monkey toes - with fresh-out-of-the-bath winged hair.  

The Madness that was Easter Weekend

I'm not sure when Easter became the scheduling nightmare that Christmas is, but this year definitely wore both Trey and I out!  We had a FULL Easter Weekend!

    

Sean and I started on Friday, with an Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt with a friend who is moving soon.  We had a great meal, before heading outside in the wonderfully mild weather.  This was Sean's first real Easter egg hunt, and he had a great time!  

 

We woke up Easter Eve to bitter cold and howling winds - perfect weather for an outside Easter Egg Hunt up at the St. Peters City Centre!  Trey, Sean and Grandma and I stopped by and I believe our total time there was no more than 10 minutes - including egg hunt, prize pick up, grabbing a few hot dogs and a balloon.  

Then we headed home for our Easter lunch with my family - Grandma and Papa Z, Grandpa and Miss Annie, and GiGi all came over for an amazing (catered) lunch from St. Louis Rotisserie.  Sean had fun playing with Grandpa while the rest of us sat around and visited.  

Afterwards, Trey, Sean and I headed up to Hannibal and spent the evening visiting with Grammy & Terry and Aunt Mandy & Uncle Nick.

 

 

Sean colored Easter eggs for the first time, completely in awe of the white egg coming out different colors.  Nick worked quite diligently on each of his amazing works of art.  In the end, we had lots of eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide!  After Sean headed to bed, we played Mad Gab, which is a really fun game, once you get your violent tendencies out in the open.  Ahem.

On Easter morning, we got up and went to Easter Services at Trinity Episcopal Church, the church that Trey's mom and uncles grew up in.  The service was uplifting and wonderful, and Sean enjoyed it as well....as he bellowed "wwooaaahhh" throughout the sermon!

After we changed, we headed over to Aunt Jan and Uncle's John's for lunch.  

Oh, and we had a mini-birthday party for Baby Chase!  Chase turned two on March 19th, and he shared his dead-on impression of the Tipping Tractors from the Cars movie while opening presents!

Then we got pictures of the youngest Latta cousins - that's Sean, Mason and Chase - and then all the cousins (photo coming as soon as I can steal it from Mandy's blog!)

 

 

Sean had fun playing with Aunt Mandy, eating candy with Dad, playing with Uncle John, and eating more candy with Grammy!

After Aunt Jan's, we headed over to Poppa Latta's house for an Easter Egg Hunt for everyone!  That's Trey in the red hat holding Sean, Isabella in the dress and black jacket.  

In the end, we were all pooped....but at least Sean slept on the ride home!

Long and stressful week

This past week has not been one of my favorites. It's been long and stressful, with drama entering my life from every angle, and me really not wanting to care, but someone now able to get over my compulsive need to please everyone. But there were glimpses of really fun family life over the past few days, so here we go....

Last Weds. night was Sean's first tumbling class. What a hoot! I was too in awe of it all to get any halfway decent photos, but here's Sean enjoying one of his two new favorites, walking on the balance beam.  He also loved the trampoline.  Actually, he loved it all, the little ham!

Saturday, we were up in Hannibal for Isabella's basketball game.  All that hard work for a tie, but we had fun cheering them on!

Here we are on Sunday at my Grandma's 80th birthday party.  GiGi, you look awesome and we love you!

Isn't this kid just too cute?  Don't mind the half naked girl in the background.....she decided she didn't want to be a princess anymore.  And yes, that's family friend Nate next to her, dressed as Tinkerbell.  Really, the photo's about my gorgeous kid, but there is some 'splainin' to do!

And tonight, Trey finished these awesome storage shelves in the part of our basement that will remain unfinished.  There's the little guy giving Daddy a hand!

And here's hoping that the next week kicks butt, rather than kicks my butt.