Birthday Boy!!!
As I'm sure you are all aware, Matthew turned 3 today. According to him, he is now "bigger enough" for gum...according to his mother, he is not. We got things started early this morning with birthday round 1 at our house. Here he got his new tool set, some new Lightning McQueen shirts and a few other things he hardly noticed beacause of the new tool set. I know I'm a grown man and everything, but look at this toy!!! It's friggin' cool. It's got a wood working shop on one side and a motor to build on the other. Matthew took right to it...he's getting ready for his previously discussed career in racing.

He could work for Ford..."if it ain't broke, fix it till it is"

"feel that? that's real power"

"mmmmkay...you got a blown gasket, a busted head and your spark plugs resent the rest of the car so they ain't workin' no more....that'll be $9,000 to fix it all" Ahh, my son the auto mechanic.

Yank out that wimpy factory motor and swap in something with some real power.

There were other presents besides the tool set...this is one of them...CANDY LAND!!!

"oh oh oh what is it!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Ligthning McQueen shirts from the Tampa crew...can't go wrong with Lightning!

A new Hot Wheels city from Poppy...it's so cool!

After a great birthday morning, we headed to Granna and Da's for lunch, football and MORE PRESENTS!!!

I'm sorry, but isn't he CUTE?!?!?!?

"wait wait wait...you mean I get to do this AGAIN in a month? You're jokin', right?"

Yay for more Thomas books!

"A toy dump truck big enough to ride in...can life get better? I submit that it can not!"

So many toys...so few hands

"YO!!! GROWN UPS!!! Let's get a move on! I got some wishin' to do!!!"

"WAHOOO!!!!!"

We are proud to welcome the newest member of our family...Guido the fish.

Goodnight Guido

Let us not forget that Tony Romo and the Cowboys whooped up on the Jets today (look out Green Bay!!!). And with T.O. being relatively calm with his touchdown celebrations these days, Matthew has decided it's up to him to teach Mr. Owens how to dance again....

"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto....domo....domo"

Catching up

Ok, well, nothing really major has happened recently, but I guess that's a good thing. Around here, a quiet house is a good house...actually it's an empty house...you know, like if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound? If It's always noisy at our house when we are there, is it quiet when we're gone? How can we know for sure? What's the sound of one hand clapping?

Enough of that...on to Matthew. He is preparing for his future career as either a crew chief (hopefully not for NASCAR) or a race organizer, or maybe a commentator. This is just one of the many race-time situations he has set up with his cars:

All the guys, ready for the pit stop with 4 fresh tires.

But if his racing career doesn't work out, there's always the Food Network. He could be the Next Food Network Star. He could host something like "Kid's Kitchen" or "Cooking for Crumb-Snatchers" or even "Small Fry's Frying Big!" I bet he could give Duff a run for his cake decorating money with his Turkey cookies:

He might have had some help from ringer though (Granna)

As you all know, Uncle Jay, Aunt Jen and Cousin Charlie will be leaving us soon. Uncle Jay's already "gone to Nana's house." Matthew has really taken to Charlie. He's very protective of him, always sweet and ALWAYS there to tell us when Chalie is " 'pitting up" Matthew is quite the intuitive little guy as well. This week, when asked be his mommy if he was going to be okay when Aunt Jenn and Charlie left, he replied "Yes...are YOU gonna be okay?" We will all miss them, but it's hard to say who will miss them the most, Matthew or Mommy.

Gotta color on the floor so I can keep an eye on my cousin.

The 3 Day
Well, it's been a week since the ladies did their 3 day, 60 mile walk and none of us have recovered yet. The two of them are still tired from walking and I'm worn out from entertaining Matthew for 2 straight days all by myself. It was a long, hard journey, but we made it.....oh yeah, so did Amanda and Lee.

A dark, early start. Notice the dried and straightened hair, the make up and the glow of excitement...just wait a few pictures.

Lee's shirt. Each of the circles has the name of a person she is walking for.

The survivor's circle. These ladies represent the 350 women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, beat it and recovered enough to walk 60 miles. Not only did they beat breast cancer, they beat 3 long days, 2 cold nights and un-countable porta-potties.

Speaking of porta-potties...2,500 people all using the same toilets. It's a good thing there are so many. Look at all those stinky blue cubicles!!!

Sweet hot pink tents!!! It's too bad that the "hot" didn't translate to inside temperature. 2 nights at sub-50 degree temperatures. If you know Lee and Amanda, you realize how big an accomplishment this was for them. Not the walk so much, not even the public showers and the porta-potties. But for the 2 most cold-sensitive people I have ever met to actually sleep outside when it's that cold is quite possibly the biggest part of the weekend.

3 days and 60 miles later. Still a pretty picture!!!

Thank you all for your support. Keep your checkbooks ready for next year!!!!!

All Hallow's next day...
Well, another Halloween has come and gone. This year, Matthew did not scream and cry when the door-bell rang. He wanted to give out candy and see everyone.

We took him "Truck" or Treating around the block and he had a great time. It took him 2 houses to get the routine down. At the first house, the owner opened the door, Matthew held out is hand and said, "Candy?"...

At least he knew what he was there for. After that he got the hang of it. One very nice lady tried to give him some gum and he politely told her that he was "not bigger for gum"!! There were a few "bad houses" along the way with scary sounds and creepy lights, but we avoided those. We did not however avoid the "smelly house". I'm just glad he waited until the door had closed to tell us that he thought it was "smelly".

After a while his little bucket was so full of candy that he couldn't carry it. A sure sign that your little one is finished trick-or-treating is when you have to carry them from house to house because they just don't have the energy.

Here are a couple of pictures of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and the Tootsie Roll (he was a minor character that was later edited out of the original Lost Boys cast.)