Halloween!!

So, I'm a little behind. I know that Halloween was two days ago, but man, oh man, did we party it up this Halloween! I just have to share.

We started celebrating a week out from Halloween...similar to Christmas, our Halloween holiday was prefaced with decorations, treats, and parties!!

First, we went to a special Halloween Story Time at the Ottawa Library (one or our favorite weekly events, turned scary!).



Parker had a super fun Halloween party at school...full of games, treats, crafts, and their first field trip to the University to parade around campus in their costumes! What a wonderful class, with such sweet kids and nice parents!!













We went to visit Grandma Elaine and had fun with all of the 'ladies' at Lexington Park: Polka Style!



Then we did some major cookie and cupcake decorating (this time, without the kiddos...and a little wine)!!



We were invited by our neighbor friends to go to the Elks Club Halloween Party...







We joined in on the Spook Parade and paraded with the likes of Captain America, Super Mario Bros, tigers, Thing 1 and Thing 2, as well as many other creatures, animals, cartoon characters, and super heros.





On Saturday night, Brandon and I had a fun date night with some of our best friends!! We headed to downtown Lawrence for dinner and...if you've spent any time at all in Lawrence...you know that there are some interesting people that hang around downtown. And, on Halloween weekend, it's especially interesting and it's difficult to determine if someone is in costume or if that's how they dress everyday!

Just for fun, we went into a costume shop....and Julie and I decided to pick up these two guys...



We went to church on Sunday and enjoyed a delicious pancake lunch after the worship service (a great fundraiser for Parker's preschool class), and then had fun at Trunk or Treat!!














And, then....well, then it was Monday. And, after our week long celebration, I thought for sure, my kids would be sick and tired of putting on their costumes, but man oh man was I wrong!



Parker and Andrew loved Halloween!



They got all dressed up, gathered up some friends, and while Andrew took in all of the creatures around him from the wagon, Parker and his buddy Julian, ran from house to house in search of MORE candy, only stopping when the front door was just a little too scary!!









We walked (or ran) from house to house with crazy, Christmas Grandma Robbie (who yelled out Merry Christmas to Parker...who laughed with delight and then informed her that it was Halloween), and our neighbor friends. We had fun ringing doorbells, collecting candy, and even stopping a Police Car along the way to ask for some goodies! And, while all of this trick-or-treating was MY favorite part of our spooky night, Parker and Andrew ended up having more fun sitting on the driveway, handing out candy to the princesses, frogs, doggies, cats, witches, super heros, monsters, and skeletons that came to our house.



This first Halloween, with all four of us, was full of creepy Halloween fun!!

I love my sweet, but scary bat....and my little monkey...ugh...monster (seriously, he's so stinkin' cute in both costumes, how could we ever choose?)!

And now that our Halloween holiday is over, Happy November!!! One of my other favorite months!!

Happy Halloween (Eve)!

For the past week we've been celebrating this silly and scary holiday called Halloween!! Our days have been filled with costume changes, sticky fingers, late nights, Halloween games, movies, and books, and so much fun! I'll catch up with you all later- for now, here's one of the sweetest Halloween photos I've ever seen!!



So, while I've got 590 photos that I just uploaded onto my computer, this photo will have to do....I've got some decorating to do for our fun day tomorrow!!

Happy Halloween (Eve)!!

Requests

You may recall my post in August about this family that I know. This sweet baby boy passed away on Saturday and now this family needs us to pray for them that they have the strength to greive and continue to go on in life without their youngest son. Please do this with me.

We also recently found out that our favorite story time teacher's youngest son (who is only two years old) has a tumor on his brain (they've now removed most of it) and it was found to be stage 3 cancer. Please join me in praying for our friends so that their son's body has the strength to fight this awful cancer and pray for this family, their doctors, and nurses, so that they will continue to have the knowledge and ability to help this young boy fight the cancer that has invaded his young body.

As I said in my post in August- our family went through this (on a much smaller scale), when Andrew was born. For 10 days we lived through what these families will live through for months and years. And, it was hard. This is why I continue to ask you, as our family and friends, to help me in praying for these friends. I ask you to also hug your babies tight today and be extremely thankful for the blessings that you have in your healthy children. Thank you.

Seven Years

Today Brandon and I celebrate seven years of marriage. And, as all young, married couples can relate, the past seven years have been magical, amazing, memorable, always changing, and extremely fun...they've also been super crazy, full of sleep deprivation, arguments, make-ups, hiccups, wrong turns, and most importantly....love! Yes, our marriage is normal, and on October 23rd, 2004, I married the man that I want to be completely normal with!

When Brandon and I were dating, we would always make these silly lists that spelled out all of the reasons that we were perfect for each other. And, the other day, I was looking through some VERY old emails and I found one that I thought would be perfect for this day and one that I thought would make Brandon smile. This is the result of a 'love test' that Brandon took...way back in 2003!

Here it is:

You've made a good decision in choosing your mate. Let's face it, for the most part, you have always wanted that storybook romance, and your definitely on the right path with your love. It may have been love at first sight for you, but you can bet that your mate didn't choose you in haste. After all, she never likes to rush into making any decisions before they absolutely have to. Good news for you, your girl will over look those temper tantrums of your and quietly wait for you to return to your senses. Your partner will always remain faithful and fair to you, even in the toughest of times. Once you see what your mate has to offer you in the way of love and devotion, you might find your independent personality spirit fading as you'll be wanting to spend more time at home alone with your mate.

And, while this love test has proven to be true (although, I think I may be the one that throws more temper tantrums), who would've known WAAAAAY back in 2003, that we would be where we are today?! We have the sweetest family and such a faithful love for each other, that those little temper tantrums, don't even matter!

We've been through a lot with each other in seven years and I can't wait to spend eternity with my Brandon!

We started out here (2004)...



Then we were here (2005)...



And here (2006)...



And the year Parker joined our family (2007)...



And this year (2008)...



Another year (2009)...



And last year - as we eagerly awaited our sweet Andrew (2010)...



And now!- with our sweet boys!

Disclaimer

No....that is not a giant boogie on Andrew's face in the video.

It's so sad. The other day (last Sunday) we had some family photos taken...well, you know how it goes...family picture day = one of the kids falls down and gets a big boo boo on their face day.

Luckily, it was on the last set of photos that Andrew decided to jump out of the chair and eat some gravel. Unluckily, he had a huge strawberry on his forehead, a busted lip, and a HUGE gash across his nose.

But man, is my little guy tough! He had tears for probably a minute and from then on...he was just fine! And, isn't it amazing how fast these little guys heal?

Just thought I'd fill you in...so you're not wondering why I didn't wipe his face...

Monday Movies

Andrew's new word for the week is "Ugh Oh!" He says this when he throws a ball that no one catches, when he drops food off of his highchair, when he bonks you in the head, and anytime he just wants to be silly and say something!



And, as you can see, Parker is having fun with his brothers new words!

Andrew now knows how to say: Momma, Da Da, Bubba (Brother), Bel - la, Ugh oh, Up (although it's more of just a P sound), Ball (sounds like a really low growl), he can act like a puppy, and he absolutely adores all cats! He is growing up so fast and he is soaking up everything around him!!

I love this video...these two brothers have so much fun together! Yesterday, I walked into the boy's computer room (that they share with their Dad) to find them like this.



Yes, Andrew has his own keyboard....that isn't really attached to anything. Would you expect anything less from Brandon?

What a fun weekend we had! We spent the ENTIRE weekend together and most of it was spent at home! That rarely happens to us this time of year...I am so thankful for it!

As the fall weather starts to cool off, I can't help but think about Andrew's first birthday, that is just around the corner (or 4 weeks and 6 days away) and I get butterflies in my tummy. I have this bittersweet taste in my mouth about this huge milestone my son is about to reach. Just one yeat ago I was super, duper pregnant....so excited and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our sweet Andrew. Now look at him...talking, almost walking, eating big person food....what happened to the year!

I know everyone feels this way about their kids...how do you cope with time running away from you?

Loosing My Wits

I've written this before....this time of year is crazy for us! And, it seems to be that every fall we just get busier and busier. And it seems that this fall will go down in the history books as the craziest one yet!

As a Mom, I am always trying to balance everything...I believe this is something that men have the priviledge of not worrying about. I'm trying to balance work life, our extra-curricular activities, social life, school life, finances, service work, and most importantly, our daily family life! And, sometimes, just sometimes, I can't quite balance all of it and it seems like in an instant everything that I'm trying to balance, comes crashing down in one big bang!

Now don't get me wrong. I count all of this craziness as a blessing...but, more often than not, these blessings come in the disguise of stress, worries, and always wanting to be able to do MORE.

So, this past weekend, when it seemed like one thing after another kept going, in my opinion, 'wrong'. I felt myself starting to loose it. I was actually loosing my wits. I felt myself snapping at everything the kids and Brandon said and did. I was mad at the dogs and our house guest for the messes they were making, and worst of all, I felt myself dreading our super fun weekend that was full of all of the things I loved...all because I had lost my wits.

THANKFULLY, I remembered something. We all do this sometimes. As mothers we want to constantly be ahead of the game. We want to be super moms and have super powers to make everything perfect for our families. We want to do it all, have it all, be it all....and, when I started to really think about loosing my wits this past weekend, I decided to really take a look at what I was so crazy about.

Here's where my thoughts ended up:

Motherhood requires much of us. Life requires much of us. If everything in motherhood and in life were easy, where would we be? We'd be lazy, we wouldn't have learned anything, we wouldn't be passionate about anything and we wouldn't be GRATEFUL for all of the GOOD that happens around us. I remembered that the key to getting my equilibrium back is to take a deep breath, smile, and get over it! Yes, that's right, just get over it! Which I did...I thought about EVERY good detail of our crazy world and it made me feel better...it gave me peace of mind...and I got my wits back.

Afterall, if I hadn't gotten my wits back, I wouldn't have enjoyed these moments...

My Soccer Star getting his medal for doing so well!




Andrew...loving his brother's medal!


Our trip to Pome on the Range...




Our Fall visit to the farm...


Grandma Elaine (finally) being able to go to the 'camping spot' at the farm!


Andrew loves the farm!


Painting our toast...


And Andrew's VERY sweet smile!