Jake and Mari both love the Disney movie "101 Dalmatians" and wanted to dress up as Dalmatians for Halloween. The mascot at Mississippi State University (where I am working on my Ph.D. and working) is a dog and the bakery there makes dog biscuit shaped sugar cookies. The kids didn't like wearing the head pieces to their costumes at first, so I promised them some of the dog treat cookies if they would wear the hats.
James, Jake and Mari draw off the faces before the carving begins.
Jake models the silly face he is attempting to draw on his pumpkin.
Mari wants a sheep (of course) and James draws a sheep face on hers for her much to her delight.
The finished products: from left to right, Jake's, mine, James' and Mari's. 
Just like last year, we headed to the Pumpkin Patch at the Tupelo Buffalo Park to pick out some pumpkins. These first two pictures are on the hayride to the hay maze (well actually corn maze this year) you walk through to get to the pumpkin patch.
Jake and Mari both enjoyed the bouncy castle and we ran into Todd, Emily and Lucas while were there. Lucas is the boy in the striped red/black/grey shirt in the bouncy castle pictures.
Carrying our pumpkins! James was nice enough to hold mine while I took pictures and then I ended up carry Mari's for her, while he carried his and mine the rest of the way back to the car. It was still easier than last year, when I had to carry Mari and her pumpkin:)
These are a little out of order, but here we are deciding on which pumpkins we wanted to take home.
Jake and Mari putting some teamwork into lifting a larger pumpkin than either one of them could carry by themselves.
Mari carefully inspecting the pumpkins to find just the right one!
Jake carrying his pumpkin, at first it looks as if he is going to throw it!
Mari finally found one she likes!
Mari and I making out way through the corn maze.
James' brother John and his fiance Angela eloped in September and then each family threw them a "welcome to the family" party. These are pictures from the groom's side of the family gathering in Water Valley a few weeks after the elopement (October 17th).
I tried to label the people pictured as best as I can for people in my family (since more of them look at this than people in James' familly) so they know who people are, since they haven't met many of them. Above, from left to right is the back of James' mother's head, then going clockwise around the table are his brother John, sister-in-law Angela, his sister Cheri, a friends of John's Mike Tatum and his family.
James' uncle Don (married to paternal aunt Yvonne) on the left, Tim Weeks and his mother, James' great aunt Kay (his paternal grandmother Marion's sister). James' dad Larry can be seen standing in the back ground.
From left to right, James' aunt Leslie (married to paternal uncle Phillip pictured far right and mother of Emily pictured below), cousin Christy and her mother-in-law Yvonne, cousin Kris (son of Yvonne, married to Christy) and Phillip.
Jake and Mari (of course) playing with James's first cousin Kris and his wife Christy's children Hayden (age 5 as of today) and Caysen (who will be 2 on April 9th). James' first cousin Emily (who had recently turned 9 in this picture) and James' dad are looking on in the picture above.
Jake enjoys his half of my chocolate cake and then hits the stage with Mari and the other cousins to burn off some energy.
Above is the extended Carr/Hunt/Mills/Weeks family picture and below are James' parents, his mother Ann holding Mari and his father Larry holding Jake, from left to right are myself (and still unamed Baby Carr three), James, his sister Cheri, new sister-in-law Angela and brother John.
