Halloween is here!

We have been doing so many Halloween things in the last 3 days, and it's only the 29th! We carved pumpkins on Saturday, but as you can see, Jodee chose to paint hers instead. No, she wasn't opposed to carving, but when we opened her pumpkin up, it was MOLDY inside! YUCK! Luckily she is so easy going, that painting was a great option! She chose a castle, and we worked with it, and it turned out pretty nice. Dustin chose a skull, and with some help from mom and dad, it turned out great! Dylan wanted a spider--which Josh drew free-hand, and I think it looks awesome!! Saturday night, we had an adults-only Halloween party at our friend Misty's house. It was so much fun--and yes, costumes were required! You can't see my whole costume, but you get the idea of the army girl thing. In case you were wondering about Josh, he's the "Ghost Rider". Also, check out that cool picture behind us--it's a freaky Mona Lisa. Misty had some great decorations!

This is Misty and me outside by the bonfire.
The kids got to spend the night at Grandma's house Saturday night (thanks Mom!), and had a blast, of course! We celebrated my brother Jeremy's birthday on Sunday after church, then took Jodee to a birthday party for a friend. Busy day already! Then, to add to the craziness, we had our church's Fall Festival that night, too! It was fun, just like always, and the kids got to go "Trunk or Treating", and play carnival games. Here are some pictures from the evening:
This is our kiddos with 3 of their good friends:
Maybe my next post will be the real Halloween!

Our good deed

My good friend and I decided to try to teach our kids to care about the earth, and to learn that we all need to do our part to keep it clean, SO...we adopted a street! We adopted 33rd street between Boulevard and Bryant (here in Edmond, FYI), and we have a sign that says "JD Kids", because all 5 of the kids' names start with a J or a D. We did our first cleaning of the street yesterday, and it took us 2 hours! We both expected an hour max, but boy were we surprised when we didn't get finished until after 6 pm! It was fine, though, and the kids learned a good lesson about not littering. We had a few funny moments, crossing the street at rush hour, and throwing pecans in the street (maybe that one wasn't so funny!), and, the boys had sticks with nails on them to stab the trash to pick it up, and my friend and I were just trying to not get stabbed! It was a great experience...here is a picture when we finished..we had already thrown away two huge bags of trash..who knew 33rd was so trashy?

I had to put this funny picture in too, it has nothing to do with cleaning the street, but it's too cute! We have been doing shrinky dinks every day for the past week and a half, and this is how Jodee sits every time I bake them:

Family time...

Okay, we had a BIG weekend! Friday night was Orvis Risner's Fall Festival (note the previous post with the cool cakes!). Here is the one and only pic from the eventful evening...Dustin and Jodee both had their faces painted--pretty professional looking if you ask me! HA! Yes, I was the artist, and yes, she did ask for the black cat on her forehead! Dustin got the eye patch as a prize and had me paint a mustache to go with it so he could be a pirate. Dylan is holding up his measly little prize, a miniature flashlight! He loves it, so we were all happy...it was a fun and busy night--even Josh got in on the face painting to give another parent a break. We had fun, then had to get into packing mode for the next morning and our trip to Mineral Wells, TX.

Mineral Wells was the location for our "Fowler Family Reunion". It was great! We were missing 2 families, and one spouse, a total of 11 people, but still had 58 people in attendance! BIG family, huh? It was great to see everyone...some we hadn't seen since our wedding--10 years ago! Here is Jodee and her cousin Samantha--good buddies:
Here is Josh's grandparents, "Pop Pop and KK" and all but 6 great grandkids.
Here are Pop Pop and KK with the grandkids...all grown up!

We had so much fun, one of Josh's aunts rented a moon bounce--which the kids all loved. Kept them busy too! My favorite part of the weekend with the family was Saturday night, the singing was amazing, and hearing favorite Fowler memories was so special!

The other great part of the weekend was getting to visit my sister, Heidi. She is a teacher down in Texas, and she let us stay in her apartment--thanks Heidi!!! We loved seeing her and her new place, and the kids love playing with her. She went to church with us Sunday, so we got an extra long visit with her...it was so nice. Here are the kids (yes, the boys are being goofy!) with their aunt Heidi: We feel so blessed to have such a good family. We love you all!

Jodee's real birthday, and making cakes!

Well, she's really 5 now! Wednesday was Jodee's real birthday, and we celebrated once again! We went to the donut shop for breakfast (the one thing that Dustin got to join in on!), and then went to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. It's not called that anymore, it's now a western heritage museum, but you get the idea! It's free on Wednesday's right now, so that's always a good thing. It was fun! We went with some good friends of ours, and had a great time!

After the museum, we went to Cici's for lunch. Daddy got to meet us up there--which was a nice surprise! Poor Dustin was stuck at school all day...so that evening we got him his favorite--a happy meal from McDonald's. Did I even cook at all that day??? I don't think I did!! That's very unusual, and pretty unhealthy too!

We had the Orvis Risner Elementary Fall Festival Friday night, and they do a cake walk every year, with a cake decorating contest for the kids. I offered to help Dustin and Jodee if they wanted to do a cake, and so they both decided to go for it. I iced them, and they did the main decorating. I didn't think it would be fair if I did the decorating, since it's a contest! Although I really wanted to--it's fun! They did a great job...I drew with a toothpick on the cake, and they did the drawing with the black icing. Good job kiddos!

(Notice Jodee's nice grayish teeth in the picture, let me just say, she LOVES eating icing, even black icing!)

We found out after school Thursday that Jodee got 3rd place in her grade on the cake and received a 10 punch coupon for the festival, and Dustin got an award for free popcorn that night at the festival. Very cool!

Happy 5th Birthday Jodee!

We had a weekend of celebrations for Jodee's birthday, which isn't even until this Wednesday! Friday night, she had 5 friends spend the night for a "Princess Slumber Party". It went very well, considering there was a range of ages from 4-7. They dressed up, put on make up, and I gave them manicures. They also got to watch the new Barbie movie, and we danced around to High School Musical 2 CD that she got from one of her good friends. It was fun! Josh was really wondering about my sanity at about 11 that night, saying I was crazy, but I really did have fun, and since they are all pretty young, they weren't into staying up all night or anything, so we actually got some decent sleep. In this picture, they're all dressed in their tutu's, purple and pink hair, and in front of the princess castle on the wall.


Saturday, after the kiddos went home, Dustin got home also (from a sleep over with a buddy of his), and we all took naps...ahhhhh...it was nice! We then woke up to watch the OU vs. Texas game, make some snacks, and wait for Josh to get home from work. Jodee received a special present(OU cheerleading outfit) right before the game started from Aunt Karen and Uncle Kory, and she LOVED it!





After the game, we had her family party. We missed Grandma and Jeremy (they were at work), and Taylor (at homecoming), but everyone else that lives close by was able to come. It was fun! She had a princess cake, and tons of presents! She loved everything, and had a blast!


Also, last Thursday we were able to watch my cousin Remington play in a football game. Go Vikings!

The past week....

Okay, better play catch up--and sorry to my faithful readers--I was a little busy over the past week, and will make up for it today!

Last week was member appreciation at the gym that we go to, and one day, they painted the kids' faces! Jodee is a kitty, and Dylan is a blue tiger!

Also, Friday was Family Fun Night at the zoo, so a friend of mine and I went and dared to face the crowds! It wasn't nearly as bad as we anticipated, and we got free t-shirts, free tram rides, free carousel rides, and free Krispy Kreme donuts (just what I needed after working out at the gym that week!). We had a great time--we love the zoo!

Last Saturday was our church's "Day in the City", a service day spent helping out around the metro. I chose to go to Orvis Risner Elementary school (Josh had to work--we missed him!), where Dustin and Jodee go, to help out. I had planned on the kids helping too, but when I was asked to paint bright red lines on the blacktop for the kids to line up on after recess, I told them they could go play! Dylan actually DID paint a little, but I really didn't want a huge mess of red paint all over, so he eventually worked his way to the playground. We worked for 3 1/2 hours--also swept the gravel off of the basketball courts, and got some good conversations in with the principal. It felt good to help out and get something done!

Early this week, we shopped for Jodee's birthday, and also Halloween costumes! Of course, we've had to put them on at least once a day to see how they look:

Dustin's baseball team had pictures taken, and a friend took this adorable pic:

(thanks Christi!)

We went to my cousin Taylor's high school homecoming parade on Wednesday--he's a freshman football player--go huskies!

Well, I think that about sums it up. I will be posting again soon, with Jodee's birthday party! Woo hoo! She can't wait!