I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, so brace yourself...
Today we went back to Stony Creek (we were there 2 weeks ago) because we didn't feel like we really had a chance to explore it last time.
Elijah was excited to check it out again (and yes, he is wearing the same sweatshirt...it's the warmest thing he has at the moment so it's acting as his winter coat).
We were glad that Jess was around to come with us!
Proof my baby is not always happy.
He loves those pumpkins!
Kirk, Jess, and I were on a quest for the perfect pumpkin. Here is Jess's!
Me with my tall, skinny pumpkin (which is the only one we brought home by the way).
As you may be able to tell by Kirk's face, he wasn't loving the "take pictures with your winning pumpkins" game.
Last weekend, Kirk and I headed up to Taylor twice to celebrate homecoming. The first time was Thursday where we attended Airband. If you are not familiar with Taylor, it's a basically a glorified lip-syncing competition with costumes, sets, and choreographed dancing. It was an incredible show and we enjoyed it all (especially Kyle's performance as a candlestick in Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest"!). We went up again on Saturday for the football game and to hang out with Mom, Konni, Aunt Kerri, Makenna, and Kelly, and Kyle who were all in town for the weekend. Sadly, my camera battery was dead but thank you, Mom, for sharing yours with me!
Cousins Makenna and Konni outside the admissions office (Makenna is a junior in high school and Konni is a sophomore...only a few more years until they are enjoying this campus as their own!).
We got Elijah all bundled up to attend his first football game. By the way, Taylor football is having its best season since 1999...it was fun to watch a close game for once!
Aunt Kelly did a great job of keeping her nephew bundled in the cold weather!
It was definitely cold out there!
The whole group... all Taylor grads and future (hopefully) Taylor grads! Kyle, Konni, me, Kirk, Mom, Aunt Kerri, Elijah, Makenna, and Kelly.
We went to Cracker Barrel after the game. Elijah's poor chin was chapped from drooling in the cold...but as you can see, he was dressed appropriately for homecoming :).
It's been a long day so I am going to kick back if you don't mind.
You may remember me asking for prayers for my Uncle Bob who was diagnosed with leukemia back in March. Today, my uncle lost his battle and went to be with Jesus. He will be greatly missed. Please pray for my aunt, Karen, and my two young cousins Will and Adrianna (15 and 11, I think). My family very much appreciates your prayers. Below is a picture of Uncle Bob and his family.
Inspired by my friend and fellow American Idol fanatic, Mallory, I've decided to make my list of top 10 American Idol performances. I am qualified to do this since I have been watching since season 1. I am including YouTube videos of all the performances in case you would like to relive them (just as I have done for a good portion of my evening). Enjoy!
10. Anoop Desai, "Always on My Mind", Season 8 I know some may not agree this belongs here, but I am a huge NoopDawg fan and I could listen to his smooth voice all day.
9. Nikko Smith, "Let's Get it On", Season 4 Many of you probably have no recollection of Nikko, but I am telling you, he was probably one of the most under appreciated contestants in the history of the show. This video proves it.
8. Jason Castro, "Hallelujah", Season 7, I love this song and I love his version of it even more.
7. Kelly Clarkson, "A Moment Like This", Season 1, Even though I was one of about 4 people who were cheering for Justin to win season 1 (he's from Doylestown, PA! I had to cheer for him!), I can't leave this one out of the top 10. She really can sing, even though she is sort of crying for part of this performance.
6. Clay Aiken, "A Bridge Over Troubled Waters", Season 2, I was a freshman in college when this finale happened. I will admit I was a HUGE Clay fan. I mean huge. I actually cried when he came in second (by the way, you will notice Ruben Studdard, the "winner" of season 2 did not even make my list. What a disappointment!).
5. Blake Lewis, "You Give Love a Bad Name", Season 6, I think I watched Blake Lewis's performance on YouTube in my office the next day somewhere between 15 and 20 times. He is such a great performer!
4. David Cook, "Always Be My Baby", Season 7, Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey is my all time favorite song. I usually don't like it when someone redoes a great song, but I couldn't be disappointed with this remake.
3. Carrie Underwood, "Alone", Season 4 I was a big fan of Carrie all of that season, but this was definitely my favorite performance of hers.
2. Kris Allen, "Heartless", Season 8, As Randy said, his version was even better than Kanye's. And he's a nicer guy than Kanye too. This video is different because YouTube wouldn't let me embed the live performance into my blog.
And drumroll for number 1 please..........
1. David Archuleta, "Imagine, Season 7, I love David A and this is, for me, the most memorable performance of all the seasons. I had goosebumps when it was over.
And here's a few honorable mention (without videos): -Adam Lambert, "Tracks of My Tears", Season 8 -Elliott Yamin, "A Song for You", Season 5 -Jordin Sparks, "Broken Wing", Season 6
Yesterday, we had a really great fall day. I absolutely love fall with the colors and the fun activities and pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks :). First Elijah and I went to a huge craft show at the local high school called "Christmas in October". We had a great time walking around and seeing all the cool stuff...it really made me think of my mom and sisters...I think you all would have enjoyed it! Kirk was playing golf while we did this and when he was done, we all headed up to Stony Creek Farms (same place we got our Christmas tree last year) and explored the pumpkin patch. We didn't have too much time before it closed so we plan to go back next weekend (hoping to bring Mom Duncan, Konni and Kelly with us too!!). Anyway, here's the documentation of all of it :).
Elijah is all ready for "Christmas in October" with mommy. Doesn't he look like a big boy here?
I just had to take this picture. These pants are a little big on Elijah so as he was crawling around the living room, they were dropping lower and lower :).
And then we were off to Stony Creek!!
They had a great little petting zoo. Elijah loves to look at all kinds of animals.
Enjoying his first hayride!
The view from the tractor.
We let Elijah explore the pumpkins.
He loved it!
My baby and me in the pumpkin patch.
He matched the pumpkins perfectly!
he was very pleased that we were letting him crawl around in the dirt.
Daddy and Elijah "tapping" the pumpkins. Tapping is one of Elijah's favorite things to do right now.
This is when we decided we should probably get him out of the dirt. Should've known even the pumpkin would go in his mouth!
I'm not sure these two could get any cuter.
Kirk with our "perfect pumpkin"...which we did not buy because we didn't have enough cash.
Happy fall from the Duncans!
I thought Elijah might be interested in climbing on the hay bales. I was wrong.
They had a cannon that you could shoot gourds out of.
Kirk's idea :).
We tried to get Elijah's face in a pumpkin and had several failed attempts.
So I got up really close to try to get his attention. You can't see that it's a pumpkin anymore, but I still absolutely love this picture!
All done! Let's ride on Daddy's shoulders to the car!
