Halloween 2009

Man, why is so hard to take good pictures?

Anyways, the boys, especially James had a great Halloween week. Week?!?! What do you mean, week? Well, yes, the entire week was filled with activities. Each time, the costumes had to be put on, then taken off, and we received candy. I was especially nervous about all these activities because I had made James's costume and I wasn't all that sure it would survive.

Poor Andy though, he just used Charlie's/James's hand-me-down superman costume. Maybe next year I will let him have an opinion.



James was a bat.



He wanted to be a bat, well, I don't know what put the idea in his , but he said he wanted to be a bat so he could fly. Now, you can't buy a bat costume, so I had to make it. Normally, I would have tried to talk him out of it, "are you SURE you don't want to be a PIRATE?" but the funny thing was, is that I was a bat for Halloween one year as well.



I wanted to be a bat for the same reason as James. I wanted to fly. Didn't work though. Maybe next year, James will want to be a rubix cube!

Before and after

This is for Brittany.

I recently reaaranged our living room. I had some GREAT help. I was a little concerned because Mark, well, he is an engineer. That means he has a particular idea of how things should be. He is not Open Minded. Our current living room is a really nice space, but like most really nice spaces, isn't really functional. When we first moved in we placed things in a pretty traditional way. This picture is really from May 2008. I forgot to take a before. (I honest said as we were moving the first piece of furniture, "I forgot to take a before picture")



Here is the after. I started thinking about a non-traditional way to use the space. We basically broke up the space into a TV watching/living space and a play area. I know that the toys will still end up all over, but at least the larger toys have a place to live. We got 1 piece stretchy slipcovers for our 10 year old disgusting couch and chair. They are washable.





Mark liked it! He said there was tweeking to do (of course) but he said he was so happy to get our couch back.



Thanks to Jenny for the muscles and "adjusting for Mark" and to Juliet for the staging items, cable, and adapter.

You have a mission!

I need a little help.

When James was born we receive many gifts including multiple blankets. In the last year, James has gotten attached to one blanket in particular.



He calls it "my banket" or "my wittlest banket". When he gets hurt or upset he always wants his banket and when he sleeps he has it wrapped around his head.

So, now his blanket is 3 years old, I have no idea who gave it to us or where they got it, but I would like another one...just in case. I think it might be from Target because they have a similar piglet blanket, but none like this one.



Good people, go into the world. See if you can find this banket. If anyone finds it somewhere so I can buy another one, I will make you a batch of brownies. Try your local stores, or if you are good at the internet searching, that will be acceptable as well. Good luck on your quest.



I just thought this was a cute picture of Andy. And by cute, I mean, not really cute at all...but that makes it cute. Love boys in their jammies!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

So, this is the 3rd year we have been to the pumpkin patch and yes, they did raise their prices!

This year was especially fun because now both boys are old enough to enjoy it.

James always starts off at the water pumps/duck races. I don't know why. They never work!



Andy didn't get it either.



What Andy DID get was the barley box. It is usually corn, but this year it is barley. I think they made the switch because this gets into your shoes and clothes MUCH better. Anyways, Andy LOVED it.





See, it even sticks to your runny nose!



While Andy hung out there, James did pretty much everything else. He tried to do the rope swing, but that really just turned into "jump while holding onto the rope"



There was also a really big slide that took James about 5 minutes to go down.



The cow train is always a favorite!



Andy liked it too, but more so when I let him sit in my lap.



We have not ventured into the large corn maze, but spent some time running through the straw maze. That was fun.



Of course we picked pumpkins as well. It was good day!

Self Portrait

I don't know if you can tell, but James drew a circle with 2 eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I am so proud!

Party tricks

One of the benefits of having Andy is daycare is that he learns all these party tricks that I never thought to teach him. He blows kisses, and points to his head, and now plays ring around the rosy. It was funny the first time he was trying to get us to play with him, because we didn't know what he was doing. We figured it out pretty quickly and have been all falling down ever since.

James's first day preschool!

James started 2 and a half year old preschool. Of course, he is three, but that is neither here nor there. I am happy that there are a handful of other boys all with September birthdays in this class. They can beat each other up. James ends up being there all day so it is a new thing for him. Here is James and John outside the school:



And another one of John in the hallway:



Unfortuately, James and John are not in the same class. See, John is three and he is in the three year old class. However, they are together during the extended care time.

One more of James in his classroom. We did a "yay preschool! Yay for Mommy cheer!"



And Andy just looked cute in his little jersey: