November -- yes, I'm THAT far behind!

november was such an awesome, crazy busy, fun month that i couldn't bring myself to sit down and write all about it!! before we knew it, it was december with all the peppermint white mochas as starbucks, non-stop christmas carols on the radio, and christmas light spotting with sutton!

i'm getting ahead of myself, though, since last i shared it was halloween! we started off november with having family pictures made (you can see a few here) by ashleigh. i've now decided i need to seriously work on not making weird faces when there's a camera out!

sutton and i tagged along with daddy on a business trip to scottsdale, az. i had a blast taking sutton on all sorts of adventures like the park with the mini train we rode, the zoo, the children's museum, and the super fun play area at the mall (where we were almost caught up in the hysteria of the stars of twilight being there to sign autographs!). then when daddy had a day off we made a road trip to sedona - soo beautiful.

hanging out in scottsdale

sutton's new buddies, the goats at the petting area of the phoenix zoo - watch out for the poo, though...it looks tempting to pick up!

laughing hysterically at all the funness at the children's museum of phoenix...it was seriously cool.

throwing rocks...this may be even better than the zoo or children's museum! he could honestly do this for hours (such a boy!). (i just noticed it kinda looks like he threw that giant rock...he's big and strong, but no hercules.)

getting some coaching from daddy

tuckered out!

so, this was my favorite cactus we saw. we were kinda obsessed with cactus spotting and trying to figure out what they looked like. we decided this cactus was either saying, "howdy!", or "yes, they're real and they're fantastic"! (sorry about that last one, it may be a little PG-13!)

sedona....it was amazing!!

we got home just in time to host a "congratulations, you're married" party for amy and joshua :)

by the time we recovered from arizona, craig and marla came to visit us! sutton loved having his auntie-m and uncle chef staying with us. we did a little shopping, made a trip to the zoo, the hoa (pho hoa bihn, yummy!), and since auntie-m was determined to see a dinosaur, we even took in the sights at the pink palace! then all of us loaded up and went to mimi and poppy's for thanksgiving. here are just a few of my favorite pics...

sutton playing outside with poppy thanksgiving morning (he must have been drooling over the smell of that turkey!)

mmm...turkey - we're all teasing of marla here (even marla)

i laugh every time i see this picture!

sutton styling in the hat mommy made for him (i need to take a pic of the skull and crossbones on the back!)
the serious girls

the silly girls

rockin' rock band

the pups, poor brewer and barley couldn't join darcy, tilly and gracie

the boys playing some black friday golf while the girls shop

santa at the santa's village in huntsville. sutton loves everything about santa except sitting in his lap! he didn't cry but did want his momma :)

snowwoman- mimi, snowman-poppy, and snowbaby-sutton

sutton hanging out in santa's sleigh with aunt sara and unkey casey

and finally...you know santa's on his way when you put your christmas tree up! sutton was a huge fan of christmas anything. he had to point out lights everywhere we went, loved those giant inflatable christmasy things people had in their yards (we had to look for "Frosty" across the street every time we passed by the window), jingle bells (the song and actually jingling bells), and everytime he saw anything with santa on it he'd say, "ho, ho, hooo". it was so cute!

i'll get december up here before too long!

Happy Halloweenie:

i hope that everyone had a happy halloweenie! as you may know, it's a big event around our house. first we had the fall festival for our church and sutton's day care. can you guess who we are?

isn't that the cutest rubble family you've ever seen? sutton made a really cute bam-bam, though i accidentally made his club a bit heavy for him to carry...hey, he'll grow into it :)

sutton LOVED playing in the water with the ducks! most all the kids did. i had one kid that was too quick for me and put one leg into the water! we just had some wet sleeves to deal with.

farmer aunt kiki was in town to celebrate with us, too!!

aww...sutton loves aunt keeeeks!

on halloween, my sutton entertained my dad by showing him around outside while we prepped for the party. that hat from mimi cracks me up...since it fastens under his chin, he'll actually keep it on, but it squishes his cheecks and makes him look like an even chunckier monkey!
mimi and poppy with bam-bam before the party. notice the "boo" in the window? i'm not telling who started it ;) did anyone else have those going around in their neighborhood? northwood drive had a great time with it!

helping get the party set up.

the rubble family is all set for the annual northwood drive halloween party!!

hey! the flintstones showed up to the party! yabba-dabba-doooo!

little orphan annie and her mommy also showed up! what a cutie!
ooo...spooky! we have this awesome creative neighbor who brought the bubbling cauldrin of fruit which really made this table with chris' pumpkin even spookier....

hope you all had a spooktacular halloween!

Celebrity Chef Craigery:

check out this feature on my brother, Chef Craig! the local greenville, sc, entertainment paper is doing features on the kitchens of chefs. i even got a shout out for my awesome wire mixer that he stole from me years ago to put in his kitchen :)

congrats to my (in)famous brother! (he's so famous, he's IN-famous!)

Our little pun-kin:

over my birthday weekend we went to celebrate with my family in north alabama. we had a blast at my dad's pirate-themed company picnic (where i ate too much funnel cake!). since we were really trying to cram as much fun into one day as possible, we went to the pumpkin patch, too! this is not like the little church pumpkin patches around memphis...this was where pumpkins REALLY come from! there was old farm equipment turned into slides, containers full of dried corn for kiddos to play in, large trailors full of fresh-picked cotton to jump in, a hay ride where you could pick out your pumpkin and cut it off the vine and so much other fun stuff...too much to list here! this may be our new fall tradition :)

enjoy the pictures of our little pun-kin and happy fall, y'all!!!

Feeling Crafty:

i don't know if this is true for anyone else, i often get some strange looks from my hubby when i share these kinds of things, but whenever i am walking closely with God - you know in true fellowship and obedience - i have this overwhelming urge to create something. i can't really explain it except that it must be because He is the ultimate creator and has filled this world with so many beautiful sights, sounds, smells and tastes (oh and textures...just to round out all the senses!) and desiring to know Him more fans this little creative spark in me.

thanks to the sweet ladies at our church, i have learned a new skill (one of my very few that i claim to have) as they have tought me, and other young ladies in the church, how to crochet. the main goal is to help with making hats for the people our church serves with the homeless ministry, but along with that has come wonderful friendships, encouragement, and times of fellowship! isn't that fun how that happens!

i have made a few hats for the ministry since we started, each one getting a little more creative as i get more comfortable, i've made a prayer shawl and a few hats for bible study friends' daughters. i have not yet made anything for me or my family, but i have lots of ideas.

here are the few crafty sparks i have in me right now:

these are from anthropologie, but surely i could find a similar crochet pattern somewhere and make these before i could save up enough to buy them! well, maybe not the scarf...that looks time consuming, but addictively fun :)

and i really want to make sutton a hat with a skull and crossbones on it - not trying to be goth or anything, it's just because we like pirates (or more specifically talking like them) around our house! the only pattern i've found for a skull and crossbones applique looks a little too smiley. i may try just sewing a felt cut-out onto it...hmm...

and i think he really would be adorable in a brim hat like this one. if i can't find a pattern cute enough maybe i can get some "coaching" from the more experienced crocheters and whip up our own creation!

and unrelated to crochet...thanks to AM, for sending me this wonderful blog full of all kinds of fun for mom and kids that i will never have the time to do :) seriously i love it and am dying to make a picture like this!

P.S. oh, and in other day-in-the-life-of-carie's-new-hair news...i wore it curly to work for the first time yesterday to lots of praise. it's kinda this crazy retro funness that makes me feel like i could be straight out of the 20's with flapper dress and all! i'll try to share a picture soon :)