Movie Review Corner: Bolt

We all headed out to the theater today to check out "Bolt." It had gotten really good reviews and I had a $25.00 gift card(which covered my ticket), so we loaded up the van in the rain and headed over to Philips Place. 

• Matt: really liked it.
  
• Jill: really liked it.
  
• Carter: really liked it. Maybe better than Wall•E...Gasp!
  
• Abby: between the grape soda, the popcorn and the "pop-tarts" (actually sweet-tarts) and the movie, she was completely entertained.
  
• Taylor: slept and pooped in his pants
  

So...Bolt get's a 4 out of 5 from the Stevens family.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great thanksgiving this year. The kids helped me prepare the turkey. I use an "America's Test Kitchen" recipe that requires you to butterfly the turkey. There's much hacking and slashing. The kids loved it, as you can tell...

The turkey cooks in under two hours. The stuffing cooks under the bird.

We didn't get many pics of Thanksgiving day itself. We went over to my brother Bob's house to be with his family(wife Kelly...kids, Hannah, Harris and Ellie). My brother Chris and his family (wife Luci...kids, Colby, Nick and Emma) were all there as well. We had a relaxing time. Uncle Chris made a store run and brought back these beauties...

"Sponch!" became the word of the day, and of course I had to try them. As good as they look(not good).

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed up to the mountains for more family gathering time. We went to my brother Steve's house in the Linville area. His wife Anita and all of his kids (Jennifer, Kate and Matt) were all there. It was great to have pretty much everyone together, even the older neices and nephews who have a lot going on with school, jobs, etc.

Abby at the swings

Abby and Lady down at the creek

Cousin Kate and Taylor

Carter and the cousins at the hot-tub
For my next trick...

After lunch, the guns came out. Carter got to try his hand at the .22. Next year he's going for the Glock.

Uncle Steve adjusts the scope

My work birthday card

My coworker Joey made me the coolest birthday card ever.

Recycling Center Field Trip

Today we went to the Metrolina Recycling Center in Charlotte. This is where all our recyclables are taken each week. There was a puppet show, a talk about what recyclables they accept, a video and we got to look through the viewing windows, (above). They really enjoyed this field trip.

Fall Sunday in the back yard

Abby by the window

Vogel State Park

Carter and I went camping down at Vogel St. Park in North Georgia. We met up my brother from Charlotte(Bob) and his 3 kids(Hannah, Harris and Ellie) and my brother from the Atlanta area(Chris) and 2 of his 3 children(Nick and Emma).

The weather didn't cooperate much...it rained hard Friday night, started clearing some on Saturday and then the cold set in. We woke up Sunday morning to some snow on the ground and 25 degree weather. I got a horrible night's sleep, waking up at 2am with frozen feet, but Carter slept like a log, as usual and thought it was very cool we camped in the snow. We had a great time joking around, eating more hot dogs and marshmallows than any human should, doing a bit of exploring and just hanging out.

Jill Abby and Taylor stayed warm in Charlotte and got a visit from Jill's Uncle Harpo and her cousin Anna on Saturday. Abby was sad she didn't get to go, but Carter and I brought her a princess PEZ from Cracker Barrel to cheer her up.

Matt's corner of random

PLAY MOR GITAR

Carter participated in a Guitar Hero tournament at the Cotswold Chik fil A today. He was very excited all week and pretty nervous once we pulled up to the restaurant.


Carter's first round opponent was a no show, so he squared off against "the cow." The cow actually put up a pretty good fight for a guy with hooves.


This was the second round. Carter was in the under 12 division and this was the "12 year old" he was playing against. The kid was a bit late for the match, we think he was in the bathroom shaving. This was the new Guitar Hero game that we don't have so Carter was playing a song he had never heard or played on a harder level. He did an awesome job. Unfortunately Carter lost in this round, but he had a good time.


The guy that one the whole thing is in this picture. All I'll say is don't judge a book by it's cover. Free Chik fil A for a year!

Fall nature walk

Today the kids and I went on a nature walk to collect leaves and admire God's creation. We had a great time. I think Taylor enjoyed the view from his stroller. He was smiling the whole time, despite the fact that it was his nap time. The kids each had a bag to collect their own leaves. They took their time and picked just the right ones. It was so much fun to watch them get excited about their leaves. We hope to make a leaf book with the leaves tomorrow. The trees were glorious.

Fall Soccer

Carter's fall soccer season just ended this past week. He plays through the Harris YMCA. The boys had such a good coach and got along so well last year, everyone wanted to keep the team together. So this was the second season that it was mostly the same group and same coach. The team improved a lot and really started understanding how to pass and play as a team. As you can see above (that's Carter begging to play defense) Carter has a passion for playing D and is looking forward to playing in the Spring again. Coach Miller will be back, and it looks like we'll be keeping the team mostly intact once again.

Matt

Five months old today

Taylor is five months old today. As you can see, his brother and sister love him. They often are competing for his smiles and laughs. He has started making a spitting sound, which, of course, we think is so cute! He is happy almost all of the time. He is 18 pounds and 8 ounces. He is 25 inches long. He is our biggest Stevens yet. He loves it when we talk to him. No rolling over yet, but we are working on it. He has slept through the night a few times, but we are working on that also. He got his first cold last week. His nose was all stopped up and he had to sleep in his car seat or bouncy seat in order to breathe. He is very easy going. He gets dragged to ballet, soccer, P.E., plays, fields trips, and doctor visits and gives up some good naps. But he hardly ever complains. We are so thankful to have Taylor in our family.

What I do all day

I've been working for the last 3 months or so on my company's website. Check us out at hawsedesign.com.

Matt

Carter Votes

I took Carter and Abigail, (Taylor came with us), to vote yesterday. Unfortunately, they don't let children who are not in grade school, vote. Abby was sad. Carter voted. He was really excited, until he found out later, that his vote didn't really count. He said that it was unfair and that we should take the people in charge, to court. He was not happy. He said it was too long to wait until he was eighteen:)

Halloween 2008

We took the kids out for some trick or treating. This was the first year Abby really "got it" and approached every house with delighted screaming. Carter racked up as well and the Li'l Stinker was a trooper.

Jill tried her best to get Carter to wear his Mike costume from Monsters Inc., even resorting to bribing with extra video game time. But he's too "grown up" for that and he went with Jango Fett.

The pumpkin on the left is from Matt's carving contest at work and the one in the right is Carter's.