Sam's birthday

 

Sam now only has one final year in his 20's! Eek! This year we celebrated by meeting some friends for lunch at our favorite bbq place nearby (not pictured) and I brought his favorite cake for dessert (Better than sex cake). Later that evening, I had to teach a couple lessons and then we had my babysitter stay afterwards so we could enjoy a nice dinner alone together at Angelo's in Cumberland Gap. Hope you had a wonderful day, babe! 

 

 

As a birthday present, Sam registered for the MEDWARS race at his school for the Saturday after his birthday. People came from all other med schools to compete in the teams challenge. It was a 12 mile trail hike/bike with stations that they would have to stop and treat mock medical emergencies along the way. Fasted time combined with points for the stations determined the winner. Sam teamed up with a couple of animals who really were prepared for this thing.  I'm pretty sure Sam knew what he was up to when he asked them to be on his team- both are avid trail and distance runners. They ended up winning first place! By a long shot, apparently. Way to go guys!!! Glad it was a fun experience! 

Marshall at 11 months! (in November)

Marshall turned 11 months old this past month! I guess the biggest news is he is officially walking! Took a few first steps in the days before and officially was able to take multiple steps the day he turned 11 months. He's also been a little cranky every now and again from what we think is just teething. But still no more teeth have popped through! Just the two. He loves wrestling with Ivy (which is really just running into her while crawling or body slamming her any chance he gets) and climbing onto and into things, clearly. 

He is still such a great sleeper and napper. Still takes two naps a day. LOVES pretty much all table food and has really started turning down most baby foods. But he has his days that he will eat it still, thanks to sore gums I think. Also enjoys eating any non-food items he can get his hands on. Doesn't matter what it is, he will eat it.

Body slamming the sister:

These next three pics are Marshall in his true form. Eating paper, making silly/smily faces, and always going for Mom. He loves to be near me and if he can see me, he hates ever seeing me leave the room. He's fine if I'm not in the room with him but he hates seeing me walk away from him if I were to just set him in the living room or something. But for naps and bedtime, he's usually fine.

The first video is from the exact day he turned 11 months. Still a little rocky, hehe:

Ivy and Marshall discovered climbing in and out of this cabinet. They were having so much fun, lol:

Fall in Cumberland Gap

Here are some photos of how colorful the fall season was this year! Most of these were taken by Sam. It continued to get even more red and orange as the month of October went on but with the red/orange came some dead trees along with it. So these were taken when the trees seemed most colorful and vibrant! Loved it!

view from our back patio one gorgeous morning:

Sam snapped some fun photos of Ivy in our front yard one morning. We put her in the outfit she wore for our pics bc we were planning to take a few more of both her and Marshall but he ended up being cranky and went down for a nap, instead. haha! Such is life! Here's some of my hilarious girl. She is never boring, that's for sure!

This tree was ginormous! and super orange. Wish I remembered to snap one a couple weeks later when it was completely yellow and many of the leaves had fallen:

Not to leave baby boy out... These were from an afternoon of crunching in the leaves with Ivy (not pictured). They loved the leaves! Of course, marshall enjoyed trying to eat them, haha:

Halloween festivities

Between all the fall and halloween festivals around, it seems like this holiday lasted just about all month long! The wreath and painted pumpkins (Ivy did the glitter paint on hers) were the only decorations we had out for this month. And yes, I made the wreath. I've had it on my to-do list for about 3 years and I'm SO happy with how it turned out! I love it! Now, on to the festivities--

Elsa and my little aviator! These pics were taken before the ward trunk-or-treat activity(and good thing I got a couple good ones, it was raining the whole day of halloween). Last years's was so back-country and fun so we knew it was gonna be quite the party this year. This year, it wasn't nearly as cold (thank goodness!) and the whole event was FAR more organized than last year. Hay ride, bonfire, and chili cook-off made for a great evening! They even had a trunk or treat in the dark with our cars all lined up on the property. All the kids were given glow sticks. It was so fun! 

I could not believe Ivy actually got on that thing. Oh and two Elsa's, ha:

 

The next week, Ivy had a halloween party with her preschool class. Pumpkin decorating, popcorn, cookie decorating, and a cute little bat! This girl was in heaven:

Gotta include a pic of my nail art (since it will probably never happen again, haha). I was feeling festive! Oh and a better pic of Ivy's lovely hair. I think I had to braid her hair like 6 times that week:

Halloween Party at the library, that we always look forward to every year. Ms. Cindy always does so much for these kiddos! We just love her:

Finally, actual halloween night.. pouring down rain! We had dinner at our friends' house in Middlesboro and started off in their neighborhood.. We only made it to probably 6 or 7 house before hurricane strength winds(not really) finally convinced us to head out. haha! Ivy still loved every minute of it, though. As did Marshall, I assumel: