Halloween 2012

This was the best year yet for Ashton and Halloween. It's so great that he knows what's coming this year since he remembers last year! At school the kids all dressed as farmers and they had a pumpkin patch and hayride so he was so excited. His awesome teachers are great about telling me what the snacks will be so I packed him up some Halloween cookies we made last weekend and he was set! Here we are at 6:30 before we all left for work and school. C and E were wearing their orange for their Halloween party too. I was dressed as Snow White for work (more later)

Ready to go trick or treating! Ashton had told Collin yesterday, "Tomorrow is Halloween and you get to eat candy ALL day!"

The firemen and their fire dog "Embers" which is really his nickname!

This idea came months ago when Ashton said when he grew up he wanted to be a fireman with Collin and I think Wes or maybe it was AShton who said  Embry can be your firedog!

Looking at their pumpkin daddy carved

The crew in their fire engine! I had wanted to make a firetruck with the wagon for a long time but decided it was too hard so Wes came up with this last minute which was perfect. He drew a ladder on the other side!

they looked too cute waiting on the people at the doors

Embers stuck it out even though he was tired and doing his "tired song" by the end

The hats were a little sideways by the end of the night and they couldn't wait to eat all the candy. Of course Ashton would say, "I'm allergic to this" which is awesome that he knows now. I bought lots of safe candy that we traded in for his unsafe and made him quite happy and now daddy and I have a lot of chocolate! 

This is me at work dressed as Snow White with one of my doctors as the huntsman. My mom made my skirt! I bought the cape on Etsy.

Another doctor was the wicked witch

OUr nurses were going to dress as dwarfs but decided that was too hard so we had a hillbilly, jester, and lots of jailbirds. They decorated the front windows with bars too. I work with such a great group! Our patients loved it.

Sweet Friends

It's taken me awhile but I wanted to post these special photos of my dear friend Heather's visit recently. We don't get to see her and her family often since they live in Boston. It was so great to get to see them with the Spencers and the Koulouris family and get all of our boys together.

 So fun watching the boys enjoy their cupcakes!

 And a little over a month later...Anna Elizabeth Koulouris has joined the crew! Here's my beautiful mommy holding her on her birthday.

                             And her beautiful mommy.We're all so excited to have a girl!!

Our new "pet"

About a week before Haley died, I was thinking about how a year after we had to give her away, Embry joined our family. We are all just so enthralled by him. He truly is like a new pet to us. The older boys adore him and laugh at every move he makes. Every time I get the camera out, he looks at me and grins. He makes us all smile!!!

 

 Ashton and Collin love to hold Embry first thing in the morning on my days off.

Here they are piling all Embry's toys on him.

                                               He never seems to mind what they do

I found them like this one day.

 Here's out little guy yesterday. You can see he's on all 4s just rocking! He'll be crawling any day now. Below is Collin one day when Ashton put a sticker on his diaper. I had to throw this in.

And last is a pic of 2 new family members...the goldfish Thomas and Diesel. Ashton brought them home from school on Wednesday. By Thursday, Thomas had "left us" but the boys didn't even realize it. Daddy took them to a pond where they are much happier!

Haley

 Today I got a call that our sweet sweet Haley had passed away. I'll write more later but here is my photo tribute to her. She will always have a giant place in our hearts. Our lives were so touched by you sweet girl...

Haley loved keeping me company while I was pregnant. I think she just sensed it!

Fourth of July 2009. This was our daily path by our condo on Haley's walks.

This was at the park on our last day with Haley. Collin was about 9 mos old. He was just starting to pull Haley's hair but she was always so patient with the boys. We loved taking her here. Wes and I used to hike all the time at Henderson Park with her. once the boys came, she was content to hang at the playground with us

Our last family photo with Haley. I can't believe I was smiling. Wes and I both cried most of the day.

This was Ashton about 9-10 mos old. Haley was truly his buddy. They would sit side by side all the time either at "Haley's window" in our condo (as Ashton named it) or on our back porch.

This was Collin's first walk with us. He's probably about a week old or younger.

Beach trip before Collin was born. Haley and Ashton shared crackers on the beach the whole time. He loved feeding her!

Ashton's first trip to the beach 2009. I think Haley went with us on about 4 beach trips.

Christmas 2010. She was so sweet even when the train tracks were beginning to take over our condo. She just dealt with it.

Loving the snow although she was so dainty and did not like wet paws. In fact, my mother-in-law found her some boots for the rain but she didn't like them.

Lay anything soft on the floor and she thought it was hers to nap on!

Driving home from Augusta one night when Ashton was a baby