Aggie tailgating

For the OU/A&M game a group of our friends got together for a tailgate with all our kids. We had a great time and the kids did really well being out there for most of the day. We did an early tailgate for lunch so the kids could play and then we'd have time to take them back to our houses before the game started.

Here the kids are with their friend Addison while we were getting all set up.

Our friend Misty brought rub-on tattoos so the kids had fun with that.

Brooke played frisbee with our friend Jordan (he was such a trooper to play with all the kiddos!) What a good dad! :)

Some of the ladies helped me out with all the tags Katie and I had to make for our Advent event at church. We punched 500 tags over the course of the afternoon. THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Some of the kids waiting for the spirit walk... These kids are from 3 families...and we are missing 5 other kids from two other families! We apparently take the "be fruitful and and multiply" very seriously! HAHA

Meanwhile...Hallie wanted NO part of the group photo. Oh the drama in that girl!

LA trip part three

Our last full day in LA before the taping of DWTS we took a tour of the WB studios. This was really neat and I had a great time. Unfortunately my darn camera was on the wrong setting so most of my pictures came out really blurry. UGH!! I really should learn how to do photography. Anyway... for those of you interested...here's a bit of the tour.

This is Sookie's house from Gilmore Girls.

The building with the boarded up windows was the grocery store.

This is just more of the city that is being set up for the set of either Pretty Little Liars or Gossip Girl (I can't remember which)

This is Luke's diner set up now as a General store.

They had a car museum. Here are two cars that are from Dark Knight.

Central Perk from Friends... this is a permanent set. Some museum wanted to have it for their display and WB said no... so they have it in this little room just for tours. It's so much smaller in real life!

Our tour guide had a different style of movie and TV so most of what he pointed out was not something I was interested in or had ever heard of. It was still neat... no celebrities spotted and if we go to LA again I'd want to tour more sets. It's easy to see why if you have the acting bug and you go out to LA you'd want to stay. I don't have the bug but thought it would be really cool to work at one of these studios. We got to walk on two sets - Two and a Half Men & The Mentalist. You can't take photos there because it is all copyrighted...but that was pretty neat to see too. I've never watched The Mentalist but want to now that I've walked on the set of the police station.

Halloween 2010

For Halloween this year we had... Jessie from Toy Story, Minnie Mouse & "Boxman" (otherwise known as the UPS man. That was a random costume but it was so cute! :)

We went to the Fall Festival again this year at our church. Unfortunately (to only me) we didn't get a photo in front of the fall festival photo op station... seriously I was pretty bummed. This year the festival for us was just crazy and we didn't do as much as we normally do. Partly due to the crowd and partly due to the socializing along the way.

But the kids loved the inflatables.

Hallie didn't want to do this obstacle course so she just hung out with me waiting.

They had a roping area and Brooke was really adamant about wanting to try it out... it's only fitting for a cowgirl to get her turn roping the cattle. :)

The kids didn't get near enough candy (okay... well they probably did...but not if they were going to share with mom and dad, haha) so we went trick or treating too. We hadn't planned on doing this so we crashed a party of some friends of ours who were in a neighborhood that was pretty kid friendly. I am happy to report that their candy loot was a success and I've been enjoying it ever since. I even rigged a box for Hudson to carry around as his bag... every delivery man needs to have packages, right?

Brooke LOVED IT! She literally ran from house to house and it was pretty exciting to see her "get it". At one point she tripped in the grass and George and friend went over to help her up thinking she'd be upset and/or hurt... but she just said "I'm okay.." and got back up and RAN to the next house. It was so fun to watch her excitement.

When we got home I wanted to take a family shot... but seeing as we had no photographer and pulling out the tripod at that hour would have been ridiculous we didn't get the shot I'd hoped for... oh well.
As you can see... Minnie lost her ears in all the excitement of trick or treating. I was probably more upset than she was. I HATE loosing things... really I do. It eats me up. I went up and down the streets in the dark with no flashlight looking for that darn thing... and nothing. :( Next year I have got to remember... NO removable parts, hats, headbands, etc. With 3 kids it's a little much to keep track of.

LA trip part two

Part of the tour that I told you about in Part One of the LA trip was up to this viewing area where we could see the Hollywood sign and downtown LA. I love city views. If I lived in LA I think it would be so cool to have a view like this... and the 45 million dollars that would be required for the view. :)

The famous sign... which TV always makes look closer and cooler.

The Hollywood Bowl (which also has been in a lot of movies)

I found this sign to be funny... such an odd number for a fine.

Our tour bus driver took this picture and insisted that we hold up this sign... But, hey! We're tourists so I guess it's okay. :)

We took a drive out to Santa Monica that afternoon.

We rode the ferris wheel and I was so impressed that it only cost us $6... the one at the State Fair costs more like $20 (for 2 people).

We sat on the beach for a while and just listened to the ocean and watched the crazies who were actually IN the water. It was SOOO cold! And there were parents with their little kids in there. NO thank you! But the view was awesome and there's just something about the beach that is so relaxing.

LA trip part one

Last week George & I were able to go to LA for a few days on a spur of the moment trip to see Dancing with the Stars and do a little sightseeing. We had a great time and are really thankful for family who are willing to keep the kids and who travel with their jobs to be able to give us frequent flyer miles. :)

We took a Hollywood stars homes tour on the first day we were in LA. It was a cheesy tour for sure... picture a 15 passenger van with the top cut off... and that's it! We had headphones to hear the driver point out to us all the sights. Are you curious what we saw? Here's the tour...

Lauren Conrad's house from the Hills (apparently I missed the season when she lived here. I only knew about her apartment)

The house from the ORIGINAL Father of the Bride movie (sorry it's blurry)

Jennifer Aniston's house

The Elvis door... Elvis lived in this house at one point and his fans came and carved messages and wrote notes to him on this door. The new owners have all kept it intact.

Courteney Cox Arquette & David Arquette's house

This is Greystone Park. It's been used in a lot of movies including National Treasure, Batman & American Sweethearts.

The paparrazzi hanging out outside of Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes' house.

The house in the top of the shot is David & Victoria Beckham's house

This was George Clooney's house when he was a "struggling" actor

Behind these gates is the house where Michael Jackson died.

This is the house from Fresh Prince of Bel Air

This is a 1.6 MILLION dollar car (yes, you read that right). It's owned by one of the shop owners on Rodeo drive.

This was Jennifer Aniston & Brad Pitt's house... known now as the house that Angelina broke up. ;(

Richard Gere's house (he apparently is rarely here).

Bob Barker (from The Price is Right)... this house was SO close to the street with no security gate.

We also saw the houses of Ben Stiller, Charlize Theron, Joel Madden & Nicole Richie, Christina Aguilera, Dr. Phil, Beverly Hillbillies, but most of those were either hidden or my photos turned out terribly blurry!