State Fair

For years I've wanted to go to the Texas State Fair. After all, shouldn't every true Texan see Big Tex in person at least once in their life? Well, I'm finding quite a few Texans haven't visited this one-of-kind event, so consider us your tour guides.

Let me just say that if you are going to try to make it to the last weekend of this year's State Fair, then get there early. We were there after the gates opened, but a little before the booths officially opened. It was really nice not to fight the crowds.

First up, Gavin helped out at the farm. He had done something similar to this at last February's Houston Livestock Show, but eight months of growing makes a huge difference on how much more he was able to enjoy it. He watered and picked peaches.

Planted pea seeds.

And drove the tractor.
And a run down of just a few other things we did: ate lots of food, walked it off, saw a saloon made of butter, watched a professional dog dancing show, took in the view of prized canned goods, ate some more, wondered why they were giving out blue ribbons for collectibles and secretly thinking about prized possessions we could enter next year, napped in the stroller (at least one of us did), burned more calories searching for a lost hat Mr. Man chucked out of the stroller, saw Oprah's camera crew, listened to Celtic rock music, and ate a not so delicious glass of fried Coke. Yum!

Can You Feel It?

Fall. It's my most favorite time of the year. The air is a little crisper (and I mean little in the hot South), leaves and jewel tone colors adorn everything, and a change seems to creep in unlike any other season. Yes, I like it even more than Winter and the glory of Christmas. It's probably because people seem to be a little more thankful and less commercial but for an, oh so brief, period of time.

And sometime during Fall, usually not at the beginning like I would hope, but about a 1/3 of the way through, the temps drop low enough here to consider making the first traditional pot of Moore chili and that ceremonious cup of hot chocolat. Yes, that is chocolat instead of chocolate. It has more of a sophisticated sound to it don't ya' think?

I'm probably just a little antsy, but I have already bought the new pack of marshmallows to replace the old, smooshed together leftovers from last year. And, a brand new box of reduced calorie hot chocolat. Those things have expiration dates if you didn't already know.

But alas, when my dashboard read a cool 100 degrees (it actually only reached a high of 92 degrees today), my hopes dashed away from that warm cup of marshmallowy goodness. I mean chocolat goodness. Hopefully no one is keeping track of my marshmallow to hot chocolat ratio. It's kind of like when the cousins would brag that we drank coffee at Nana's, but really it was 95% milk and 5% coffee. I've heard someone at Dell still drinks it that way.

But I digress and will endure for a few more days until our cold front comes to rescue us from the "marshmallow hits the pavement and melts" kind of weather. Until then, I will be looking for a new fall hot chocolat recipe (feel free to send me your favorite) and trying to usher in cooler weather with a reminder of last year's Fall.

Incognito

I love it that our little boy loves hats. I mean one day he's a pirate, the next an Amish boy and another day Frank Sinatra. With few accessories for boys, I'll take what I can get. And so will Me Me. Just recently, Gavin modeled several personas for her.

The candy corn cutie
Wonderfully wacky werewolf
And the Ghastly Gavin
So what are we going to do tomorrow Me Me?

Hibernating

My kindergarteners can tell you that hibernating means to sleep during the winter. Sleeping we've been doing a lot around here, but I wouldn't really say it was winter. Although the drop in temperature made me wonder if it was time to officially welcome in cooler weather with a nice bowl of chili. The higher temps today made me glad I waited.

See, we've been battling the flu around our house. It really only lasted a day or two thankfully, but to make sure we weren't contagious we've been staying home. So just how have we combated boredom? Why, we've created a makeshift zooming car complete with an airplane and daddy at the helm.
Someone has also been reading the newspaper and learning how to eat with a spoon. So, no worries Poppy, Nonna, Me Me and Granddaddy, this someone feels all better now.
I've got a few more posts lined up in the coming days so stay tuned.

Dedication

This weekend we had a baby dedication with our church, but it was so nice to be able to have our families there including the grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. If you're not sure what a baby dedication is, it's basically for the parents to publicly say we will raise our children to love the Lord and those witnessing should hold us accountable. We read some scripture and said a prayer for the children.

Gavin got an increased sense of confidence in his walking capability this past week, so he was showing Granddaddy how he struts his stuff.

Here's a little family photo after the baby dedication.
And a much larger family photo.
Psalms 78:1-7 "O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in parables,I will utter hidden things, things from of old- 3 what we have heard and known,what our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power, and the wonders He has done. 5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. 7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds but would keep His commands."

And the Winner Is...

In the ring: It's the Doctors vs. The Moores

Round One: Dentists vs. D. and A.
The round goes to D. and A. for having no cavities. The only penalty is limited flossing.

Round Two: Pediatrician vs. Gavin
And this round goes to the pediatrician. Gavin gave it a valiant fight, but ended up getting three shots. He's still a champ for mustering a smile after it all.

Gavin's stats: 19 pounds 2 ounces (5% percentile)
30 1/4 inches long (25% percentile)
75% percentile for head circumference

Special mention goes to D. for also getting a flu shot and sporting matching Snoopy band aids with his son. Here they are with their war wounds.

While waiting on the doctor, Mr. Man chowed down on Puffs.

And more Puffs. Daddy even got Gavin a special monster prize for being so brave.

PJ Day

After the busy week we had and the fact we all woke up with a major allergy attack, this Moore household decided to declare today PJ Day. That's Pajama Day, not Pirate Jabbering Day like so many millions of people think today is. Although we did have a little bit of pirate talk going on.

In honor of PJ Day, we stayed in our pajamas all day. That's right, we even fed the horses, got the mail and went for a ride in the mule in our pajamas. We desperately needed this day.
Oh, and one of us went for a joy ride in a police car.
We're just glad the cop didn't make us walk the plank. Arrr!

So I admit, it was actually Talk Like a Pirate Day, which we tried to explain to Gavin. However, he wouldn't humor us by wearing his pirate hat, but instead chose the classier Amish Boy hat.

And since we already mixed things up a bit by wearing our pajamas all day, we decided to have breakfast for dinner. I made blueberry pancakes. If anyone knows the trick to getting pancakes evenly brown on both sides, please let me know. Gavin and his toes will thank you.