Happy Halloween

Halloween is always a big hit in our house. Chase loves to dress up and Olivia loves candy. Chase wanted to be a police officer this year. We got his costume about a month early and he has been wearing it all around. He has dressed up for everyone who has come over for a playdate or visit and several times has worn it out on our afternoon walks to "make sure the kids outside are behaving". The down side of all of this play is that all the accessories (ie club and cuffs) were broken before Halloween but maybe we were better off that way, don't want any neighborhood kids getting hurt.

Olivia was Rapunzel. She wore a sweet little dress and a long hair wig. She has been obsessed with the candy bucket and wakes up asking when she can eat some candy. William wore a couple of Chase's old costumes. He was the lion for a Halloween party and the little golfer for trick-or-treating. He loved following the big kids and went right up to get his candy too.

Introducing Benjamin Ryan Cortner

My brother-in- law and sister-in-law, Randy and Jeannie, just had their first baby. We are so excited for them to join us on this wild journey of parenthood. Jeannie went into labor about midday on Friday the 21st. I was hoping he would drag his feet a bit so he could be born on Saturday which is Ryan's birthday, not that I wanted Jeannie to have a long labor :( . But labor did take about 12 hours and Benjamin decided to make his appearance on Saturday, October 22nd. I guess he is forever bonded to his uncle with the name sake and sharing their birthday, so sweet.
The kids weren't allowed into the hospital room so we went down last week for them to meet Benjamin. It was interesting because William (who has no experience with babies) was totally fascinated with him and Chase (who has been around lots of babies) was relatively uninterested- "Yeah, Yeah, another baby, whoopty do. Where do you keep your office supplies?"
Benjamin is so sweet and snuggly. I even got to give him a bath!
We are looking forward to loving on that sweet baby boy!

Gator in Training

We have started planting the "Gator" seed in the hearts of little ones, as we would love them to attend UF someday hehehe.
Ryan was able to take Chase to the season opener this year. Ryan has been anxious to have a football buddy and it seems this year he does since Chase is old enough to sit for most of the game.
They made a big day of it, heading up early to check out the university and have dinner at The Swamp!!
They went into the stadium early to watch the players get warmed up and then watched the game until half-time, when they headed home.
Chase had a great time. He thought that football was much better than baseball (he has been to a few Rays games). And was very happy that the cotton candy man sells huge bags of cotton candy.