Halloween!!

Every time we asked the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween, their mutual answer was 'ghostez.' I had to continue to convince them that maybe they wanted to be something else? I'm sure 'ghostez' would have been fun for them, but to be honest I didn't want to be the mom that threw a white sheet or pillow case over them with 2 eye holes and called it a Halloween costume. But they probably would have been completely content. So, we eventually landed on gnomes. As in, garden gnomes. They really like the movie 'Gnomio & Juliet' which is their only perception of a gnome. Although Emma referred to herself as 'Gnomiet.'

having a piece of candy before we even leave home. I left a bowl of candy at the door and Emma did some trick or treating from our bowl before even leaving.

So, we did some trick or treating in our neighborhood first....

They had so much fun. Initially they wanted me to open every piece of candy immediately so they could eat it upon leaving each and every house. But that quickly got to be a little too much. They had SO much sugar last night I'm really surprised they weren't up all night with bad little tummies. I was definitely anticipating that. Although I did cut them off at one point for the remainder of the night for that reason.

Going around our neighborhood:

Gnomio & Juliet and Mama Witch!

I just loved Emma's face in the picture above. She was really pleased with whatever it was that was just given to her. They usually don't get candy, so they were in heaven!! (And they probably actually thought they would get to eat it all too! ;)

Brianne stayed when we got home from work and came with us around our neighborhood. Brianne ( B-Ann as the kids call her) is our nanny... I guess it's been about a year since we found her and she is wonderful! We all love her!

So they did a little bit around our neighborhood, until they started to get tired and trip over their own feet (which really didn't take that long to happen) We had a few wipe outs. Luckily no injuries. 

Then we took a little break, and a short car ride over to my parents... and went to just a couple of their neighbors houses. It was actually pretty funny, all of the parents on their street were walking around with their big wine glasses as their kids ran up and down the driveways. (One woman actually had the whole bottle of wine in her baby stroller!!!) I guess she didn't want to risk running out and having to walk back to her house?

And then... we made visits to a few family friends so that they could see the gnomes. 

Opening their Halloween gifts from JoJo (Spoiled little gnomes.)

Visiting Teresa

It was a pretty long day/night. What do you call totally beyond exhausted? Because I was that.

I was so tired, and hungry. But it was fun... and the kids had a blast. A MUCH more successful Halloween than last year (The flu completely wiped out our entire house last Halloween)

Although, when we left I left the bowl of candy out on the front porch with a little note that we were out trick or treating and to take a piece of candy. We got home and not only did someone take all of the candy AND the bowl, but also threw Emma's little pumpkin in the driveway! So sad... Apparently the teenagers (little shits) made their rounds later in the night after the little kids. Or at least I hope the little kids got candy first before they did that.

I thought it would be fun to do a little comparison from past Halloweens:

We hope everyone had a fun and exciting Halloween!! It's crazy that we are already in November! Christmas is right around the corner. (Which means this little elf has got to get busy!)

Carving Pumpkins

I was really (really, really) hoping to have a relaxing, slow pace weekend, just because I've had a crazy few weeks and felt like I needed a little down time at home. So far, I think we're doing a pretty good job at accomplishing that. Although, our idea of relaxing and uneventful is probably drastically different from your typical person, or... someone without two 2 year olds running around the house. There was actually a Halloween party tonight that we thought about going to, but earlier in the week when Andrew asked me to make a decision on whether we were going to go or not (because we would have to line up a babysitter, do the whole costume thing, etc...) I was having a busy day at work, had not slept the previous 2 nights and had extreme back spasms to point that it hurt to breath; truth be told, I just thought a quiet* (again, a relative term) night at home with the kids, in pajamas, going to bed early sounded absolutely wonderful.
We carved the kids pumpkins tonight. I think holidays are so much more fun when you have little kids around. Especially Halloween. This is a really fun age also, because they are really starting to understand the concept of things - and it's especially hilarious (and SO cute) to listen to them explain it to one another.

These are the pumpkins they each picked out at the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago... but we decided to hold off on carving them until closer to Halloween (from a 'we didn't have time anyway, even if we wanted to' perspective and, if you do it too soon and you have a few warms days, Yuck. You are then left with a pumpkin that has shriveled up features. And that's not cute at all.

We gave them each a marker to design their pumpkins face.... (Washable markers - which wound up really coming in handy considering what they had drawn would have been pretty much impossible for Andrew to carve.)

So they had fun drawing on their pumpkins, and then once they were all emptied out and cleaned up they told me what kind of face they wanted and I drew the faces for daddy to cut. Drew wanted a ghost and Emma wanted a vampire. Let me tell you, those little pumpkins are not easy to work with. First of all, they are pretty thick to cut through but it was difficult for me to actually fit 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth on such a small pumpkin. Luckily Drew's 'ghost' only required eyes and a mouth. So that was good.

(See what I mean about the scribbles - it would not have been the easiest to have to follow for carving....)

 Emma doing some supervising when Daddy was cutting out the face on her pumpkin. If he angled it a different way for cutting and she couldn't see what he was cutting, she definitely let it be known that she HAD to see the face as he was cutting it.

Drew's turn!

And.... Drumroll... our finished product!

(Not a great picture at all - - we had all of the lights off in the kitchen to light up the pumpkins and check them out and my camera freaked out and didn't know what to do because I didn't want to use the flash.) But whatever, you get the general idea. A ghost, and a vampire. Sort of.....

 We moved the pumpkins outside and Drew wanted to sit in a picture with them =)

(Actually, I think he was stalling because he didn't want to go back inside. He is not usually my picture boy. I have to sneak up on him to snap pictures otherwise he doesn't allow it.)

Drew caught a cold earlier this week and we spent a few days trying to keep him comfortable and get him better. It was the congestion, runny nose, scratchy cough, etc... So he was pretty much miserable. Honey acts as a natural cough syrup, so we were using that and a little bit of Tylenol and the vaporizer at night while he was sleeping. He's doing MUCH better now, it was a quick one. But of course he had to share the love with his sister. She came down with it last night, and she does not hesitate to express how unhappy she is if she doesn't feel well. So now I'm working on getting her all better.

Earlier today she was watching a movie in her room and I found her asleep on the floor. It was only a few hours after she had woken up this morning, and she napped for quite a while.

This is who I have sleeping next to me at the moment. Cutie pie.

Halloween weekend last year we were all hit with the worst stomach flu any of us have ever had in our entire lives. So I will gladly take this cold over that any day.

Goodnight... (I think I'm going  to join my little sleeping beauty and get some rest myself.)

Sunday Funday: Football, Family Dinner & Playing in the leaves

I'm trying to do a little catching up here. It hasn't been too easy since making a promise to myself to really try to limit the time on my computer and/or phone while the kids are awake. And.... since it usually (sadly) happens to turn out that when the kids fall asleep, I fall asleep, that puts a little bit more of a limit on the time I have to get pictures uploaded and the blog updated. But it's ok - I am trying to focus more on being in the moment, than trying to capture the moment in a picture. It's more fun that way. I also want to have as many pictures for my kids as my mom took of us while we were growing up. So, I'll find a balance. I think it's fun to look back at old pictures... My mom was really good at taking pictures (getting them developed... which seems so ancient) and keeping them all organized in albums. God help me if that was still the case, I would have zero pictures of my kids. It's much easier uploading them onto the computer and keeping them there until the day I've been talking about since they were born, when I will actually have time do something with them. When Em & Drew were born, my mother in law stayed with us for a few weeks and she absolutely insisted on me getting everything updated in their baby books that I would want in there from that crazy week after they were born because I would never have time to again, and she was definitely right about that. Since then I have been throwing things into the book (between the front cover and the first page) - to make sure I save it, but again, waiting for that day when I actually have time to update them.
For me, this seems to be the easiest way of keeping an 'up to date' journal of our activities and the highlight pictures for the week or month. There are companies that will transform your blog into a memory book, so that may just be the way to go.
Ok, I will stop rambling.
These pics are from last weekend - - We had a family weekend (my aunt & uncle were in town) we did the pumpkin patch, and had a big family dinner Sunday, the kids played around in my parents yard and jumped around in the fallen leaves and of course, football.
Andrew is in charge of the kids clothes for Sundays during football season.One football Sunday last year I forgot, and I was definitely questioned about why they were not wearing their Bears gear. As Drew would say 'Ticago Bears.'

The Bears Boys

(Now that I'm looking at this, I had NO business being in pictures that day. Yuck.)

Peg & Emma - Emma was most likely cooking her something at her little kitchen. That is one of her favorite things to do these days. The kitchen has become a semi-permanent addition to my parents family room... Very classy. (And it is also home to several of Drew's trucks, cars and trains.) But, anything goes for those two kiddos.

Drew & Peg hanging out.

I love this next one:

He's such a sweet boy, when he wants to be.

He is either a rough and tough little boy, or a big snuggle bug. Depends on his mood. But I love the snuggle boy. I definitely take advantage of those times... which is usually when he is way too tired to be anything else!

Emma and Drew spent a lot of time running around my parents front yard, chasing the dogs around.

Drew, being a boy.

They can just run around together forever... and never get tired, and it never gets old.

And what's a big family dinner without cake?!

Miss Emma, probably bossing someone around... =)

Uncle John & Andrew

Em & Peg

I liked this one of the girls... but to be fair to John (Since I'm not quite sure what he's doing here) - here's another one:

Emma already has a fake smile... Can you tell?