the coolest pumpkin ever

If you are a Georgia fan, you will appreciate this pumpkin...



Scott saw it online and thought it was a cool idea! Wonder if our Virginia neighbors will get it?

Danny enjoyed watching and poking the pumpkin, but was not into touching the seeds and guts. That is, until I roasted them and then he couldn't get enough! In this photo, he is trying to get guts off the hat after peering into the pumpkin.


This pumpkin was going to be a classic with eyeballs like the left side, but then I accidentally chopped off the inside. So, it became an eye patch on a pirate. Can you tell that he is saying arghhhh?



I will post again soon with Joshie's info from his appt. He is a big boy!

my wild animals

It is brrrrr chilly and very windy outside. I am enjoying candy corn and warm coffee today. Definitely need coffee to keep me awake after our boys have had restless nights lately. yawn. Mommy is worn out!
Tonight we are going to carve our pumpkin. Any good ideas for face designs? I don't think we are big Halloween people at the Gaskill house, but we do enjoy the fall festivals and pumpkin carving. I think Danny and Josh will probably get to dress up for a few more years and then we will hopefully phase out of that stage.
We did enjoy a fall festival this past weekend and look forward to going door to door as the cutest giraffe and lion you will ever see! I included some pictures of our "wild animals"!

my sweet boys!


Josh was worn out!


Caroline is giving Danny some TLC. He is such a flirt!


Danny loves his tail!


Tomorrow is Joshua's 6 month appt....more updates to come!

Three kids...not yet.

I mentioned in our last post that we took care of our friend's little girl this weekend. She is a sweetheart. Danny followed her around all weekend and is still talking about her. Her name is Caroline, but he says it like "Cawowine". Adorable!
Mommy and Daddy are exhausted though. She was an easy baby, but I think having three children in diapers is not ideal(my sympathies to Mere) Another tough thing was the fact that two children had to be carried whenever we went anywhere. No rest for the weary. After she left, we were amazed at how calm things seemed. But I have to say that if we have a third and are blessed with a girl, I hope she is as sweet as Caroline. I loved having a little girl to dress up! Not a good reason to have a baby. Maybe I need a baby doll for Christmas!

Here is a picture of Danny and Caroline sharing cheerios on the couch. I wish I had taken more photos!


Speaking of Christmas, I love this time of year. I love the fall and the cooler weather. I love sleeping under tons of blankets. I love the smell of firewood burning. I love the bright colors on the trees. I love the anticipation of advent. I love fresh evergreen decorations. I LOVE all the decorations for the holidays. I am itching to get the Christmas stuff down from the attic. I know, I know, we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but I can't wait. I guess that explains why all my fake ficus trees have lights on them. I love twinkly lights! Can you tell I am excited?
Now it's your turn. I have a request of all my readers....I am curious how many of you are out there. Please take a moment and make a comment(I have reset it so you do not need a blog account to comment!).
Please tell me about your favorite holiday tradition. We are looking to adopt some new traditions. Do you have a yearly event that makes the holiday time special for you?

Someone please feed the kid

I am currently loading pictures on my computer and getting started on long overdue updating of our smugmug site. Stay tuned for fall photo updates. I love taking pictures, but as I browse through recent photos, I am overwhelmed with the fact that I am practically a year behind in my scrapbooking. yikes!

I am also excited to share stories from this weekend, as we had our first family of five experience. We had our friend Caroline spend the night Friday and Saturday. Danny loved having a "girl"friend here. She is between our boys in age and is so cute! I have decided it would be fun to have a little girl, but I was reminded by my family that wanting to play dress up with a little girl is not a good reason to keep having kids. We will definitely be attempting to wait a few years before we have any more children. I will write some more stories later about her visit!

Something exciting is happening at the Gaskill house!
We have done some rearranging at our breakfast room table. Danny has upgraded to a booster. Previously, we were using his high chair with out the tray as a chair at our table. He loves his new seat and is proud of being a "big" boy at the table. Josh has also upgraded from Mommy's arms/bouncy seat/where ever he would sit during the meal...to....the...HIGHCHAIR! Yeah for real food! Our Doctor is big on waiting until they are 6 months to feed them their first food, but I couldn't wait. He is always trying to take bites off my spoon when he sits in my lap during dinner. That seemed like a good sign to me. Here are a few cute pictures of his first real meal. Can you believe how much he has grown up?


I tried to explain to him that you don't actually eat the tray, just the food on it. I promise he isn't hungry. He is a rollypolly baby!


Don't you just want to kiss those sweet dimples? I do!


I will share more later, but here is a recent picture from our trip to Carter's Mtn for a fall festival!

friendly sign war

My official position is typically anti-yard signs or bumper stickers or t-shirts promoting your favorite candidate. Honestly, do you really think that your bumper sticker is going to change someone's mind...hmmm, she looks nice and she likes McCain, so therefore I think I like McCain. No. And yard signs are just asking for someone to egg your house. But I gave in a few weeks ago.
Yes, I put up a yard sign.
We have this neighbor who is very supportive of Obama and so she recruited her elementary age girls to go around and get neighbors to put up signs. I started to see a scattering of yards with Obama signs a few weeks ago. Another conservative neighbor of mine decided that we needed to even out the advertising and offered signs to a few people. I put one up. Scott cringes at it every time he drives up the driveway, but now we are just one of many neighbors stating their support in a candidate. I mean it is actually pretty funny as you drive down the street and see sign after sign. Our quiet little neighborhood has become an interesting study in the state of this election.
I want to make sure that this blog is just a place for family and friends to read about our boys and how our life in Richmond is going. I don't want my readers(ie: the 5 of you) to feel bombarded with political opinion. I also believe that my role as a Christian is to love my neighbor. And pushing my beliefs on them certainly won't achieve that purpose. God is not for politics. He is for people. Including the unborn child and Joe the plumber. I definitely disagree with Obama on so many levels, such as: abortion, taxes, health care, size of government, etc. I felt the need to let our neighbors know that we were not on the Obama band wagon.

This is like my little "blog yard" sign. Please don't egg my blog.

It was like seeing a celebrity...

We were in Frederick, Maryland visiting my parents at their new house. After church, we headed down to the main street area to grab some yummy Mes-si-can food. If you ask Danny to go eat Mexican, he will literally squeal and jump up and down like a little kid....oh, wait...that's because he is a little kid. But he reallllly does love some beans and rice. But I digress(as usual). We were walking down the street when we came upon the fire station. It was basically some garage doors open to the street with four shiny fire trucks inside the garage. We stopped and took the opportunity to point out the trucks to Danny, when (get this!)...a...real...live...FIREMAN came over to talk to us. Wow...a fireman. Danny was a little speechless. He did keep a tight grip on Nana's finger, but we managed to snap a few photos. What friendly people! And what a cute little town! We can't wait to explore more in the future.

Time for a rescue

It was less than a minute. I only stepped into our kitchen for a minute and left Joshua in his usual spot on the ground rolling around with his toys in the living room. I heard sweet words coming from Danny's mouth as he sat down to play with his brother.
But much to my surprise, Danny was not being very sweet. I turned the corner to the living room to find Danny banging Josh on the head with a toy! Fortunately it was just a soft toy...it was the base to our fabric ring stacking toy. Joshua was not in any real danger, but he certainly was a little shocked to be repeatedly banged on the head by his brother. I hollered at Danny and swept Josh up just as he started to whimper.
Is this a taste of my next few years with two little boys?
uhoh.

this taken was on vacation....just layin' around.