Wii Love It!

We bought a Nintendo Wii last weekend and our family is officially addicted to it. Cory has been a video game addict his whole life and takes pride in the fact that he always wins. Well, he finally has some competition. Not from me, but Rafe. Rafe is TOTALLY fantastic at bowling. Cory and I just laugh hysterically when he bowls. It is amazing! He does it without any effort and immediately walks away from the t.v. after he bowls like he knows what his score will be. He not only bowls a strike, but most of the time 3-4 strikes in a row. Needless to say, Cory is NOT the Wii champion. He has only beaten Rafe once (when he was just learning) and I have yet to beat him. Here is a picture of Rafe with his current high score. I think we have found a new sport for him. Santa may need to bring Rafe his own ball and shoes!!!

The Grinch

After watching part of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" this morning, Rafe, once again, turned into the Grinch.

Rafe - "I HATE Christmas! The whole Christmas season!"

Mommy - "Oh, you better not let Santa Claus hear you say that. He won't bring you any surprises!"

Rafe -"That's alright. Pop and Gram will!"

Is he spoiled or what??!!

Stevi B's

We went to a WONDERFUL birthday party yesterday. It was for one of Rafe's friends, Kaden, at Stevi B's Pizzeria. The kids had a great time! Rafe got to make his own pizza and even tour the kitchen where they cooked it. Rafe was so excited to see how big the dough gets and he even got to bring home a sample of the raw dough. That thrilled him more than anything. Thank you, Kaden, for inviting us to such a great birthday party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Rafe as Wall-E

The kids catching the dough

Spreading the sauce

Adding the pepperoni

The finished product. Looks great to me!

The HUGE pizza dough!

Rafe's dough

Yummy cake

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

These are Daddy's new pants and new shirt. They go GREAT together!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We love you and hope you have a great day!

Silly Pictures!

Buck and Rafe have the same face in this picture!

So do Rafe and Daddy!

Poor Buck! Batman and Shrek

We raked huge piles of leaves and Rafe had a ball!

Where's Rafe?

It's not like the 90 bags of leaves we raked in Charleston,

but there were still plenty of leaves for fun!

Exterminator

The Exterminators

After church today we found an unexpected guest in our kitchen: a Carolina Wren! He was perched on our kitchen table like he belonged with us. Of course I freaked out as soon as I saw him and yelled for Cory. We closed off the kitchen doors and Cory and Rafe got to work. Rafe said, "This is a job for the exterminator!" (he calls Cory that because he catches all the flies that get into our house with his hands!) I think even the "exterminator" was a little anxious about getting this bird out! After 30 minutes of chasing this bird around, Cory finally directed him out the kitchen window. We all learned a valuable lesson: don't EVER leave your door open, even for a second! Who knows what it might be next time!!

USC Football Game!

Well, we went to the last Carolina home football game yesterday. It is so hard to believe the season is almost over. So sad! Rafe had a BALL. This was only Rafe's second game of the year since most of them had been at night. We had perfect weather and a perfect outcome! It is great to see how much Rafe has changed in the 4 years that he has been going to the games. He went from sleeping in our laps, to running all around at the games, to actually enjoying watching the action. Cory and I are glad about that since we are both addicted to football. Who knows, he may even be playing out there one day!!

Rafe riding his scooter around the tailgating area!

Cory and Rafe cheering for the Gamecocks!

2001 Entrance!

Digging in Dirt

Busy bees digging away!

Rafe and Will filling up the dump truck

Warner trying a stunt. Of course Rafe did it next!

The boys had a great time racing each

other in their Gators.

Rafe and I took advantage of the beautiful weather today. This morning we went to Kid's Planet to play and this afternoon we went to some friend's house to dig in the dirt. Mrs. Pam (or TuTu) had a HUGE hole in her yard from a dead tree and Rafe had a BALL digging, sliding and just over- all getting filthy in it. Rafe said, "You mean I can just go there and get real dirty and you won't care!!" This is Rafe's absolute favorite thing to do - be outside, left alone to explore and get dirty. Thank you for inviting us TuTu. Rafe had a great time with Will and Warner. We will definitely be back!

Blessing

This is Rafe's blessing before every meal:

"God is great. God is good. Thank you for our food and breath mints. Amen."

I don't know where the last part came from, but we ARE thankful for them!

Halloween Fun!

We had a WONDERFUL Halloween day and night! That morning Rafe had a scavenger hunt around the house to find his Halloween surprises from Mommy and Daddy! He had a lot of fun with this. He wanted to keep doing it but the prizes ran out! Next we started applying the green paint and hair spray to transform Rafe in the Incredible Hulk. He LOVED making himself turn green! We met up with my cousins, Jamie and Tiffany, and their children at our grandparent's house for trick-or-treating and picture taking. Needless to say 3 boys ages 3-4 in one house running around was extremely crazy. Luckily it was pretty outside and they were able to run off some of their sugar!! This was the first time Rafe had been able to see his cousins on Halloween so we really enjoyed that. Halloween night we went to Tiffany's neighborhood lake for a hay ride, costume contest, and trick-or-treating. Rafe and William had a ball running around the lake and scaring the poor ducks! Thank you, Tiffany, for inviting us. Rafe had a great time! After that we headed home to suit up poor Buck in his Hot Dog costume! He "pretended" to not be able to walk in his costume so he only went to a few houses with us. I think the other dogs in the neighborhood were laughing at him. Rafe LOVED it.

Now that Halloween has come and gone Rafe is totally excited about Christmas. We wrote our letter to Santa Claus this morning and here is Rafe's list:

1. green lollipop

2. Smash and Screamin' Hulk

3. a leaf blower!! (any ideas???)