Fall Traditions

So I am a HUGE fan of holiday traditions, and as our family grows and the kids get older, I will be unleashing all of the stored up ideas that may drive them crazy for a good portion of their lives, but will one day remind them of home, sweet home!

(ahaha, if they only knew my plan...)

So now to show you the things we have accomplished since the start of fall...

First, there was the Pumpkin Patch...we tried a new one this year and though fun it is nothing like the pumpkin patches back in Illinois. I want a patch, not a pad of dirt with pre-cut pumpkins lined up in a row, but I digress. We had fun hunting for the perfect pumpkins, from the rows and rows of pumpkins, see. We even went on a hayride. -B- had to work so it was the boys and I, on our own with some friends.

The next tradition we enjoyed was some good ole' fashioned caramel apples. Now go figure, the way to get a 2 and 1/2 year old to eat an apple without having to cut or peel it, is by completely covering it with caramel and calling it an apple sucker.

He ate it down to the very last bite, core and all, and let me tell you there was no stopping him either, just short of "taking candy from a baby"!

Upon finishing his caramel apple we moved on to baking sugar cookies with -G.G.-

The cookies turned out scrumptious and we had so much fun cutting,

decorating,

and most importantly indulging in the yummy goodness of said cookies.

and last but certainly not least in preperation for Halloween, let's not forget carving pumpkins!!!

-N- helped his Dad carve -A-'s pumpkin, because -A-'s not quite big enough to get in on the fun yet, but just wait until next year!

and here are the fabulous Jack-O-Lanterns

(mine and -N-'s is on the left and -B- and -A-'s is on the right)

Happy Halloween!

The Musings of a Two Year Old...

Each night -N- demands that I snuggle with him at bed time, mind you only after Daddy takes him in and tucks him in, I'm not allowed.

So tonight I walked in, covered him up and laid down to snuggle with him. Thus began his musings...these are the things he knows to be true and ways to prevent himself from falling asleep-

• I told Daddy I DON'T WANT TO GO PEEPEE
• My Daisy (our dog) didn't find any monsters, cause they are pretend and only I can see them
• My friend Aiden is scared of monsters too

I interject...monsters aren't real they are pretend so you don't need to be afraid of them and neither does Aiden. Continuing...

• My friend Aiden is my buddy
• So is my friend Bryson, he's my buddy too
• but Mel (their Mom) is not my buddy, she is just Mel (me-trying not to laugh)
• My Daisy is not a girl

Again I interject...yes she is.

• No she is not, she is a dog

...yes she is, she is a girl dog. I am a human girl, you are a human boy and she is a girl dog.

• nope Mom, she is not a girl just a dog and I don't like humans

...fast forward a bit and on the topic of Santa now, yes he is already being talked about here at the -G- household.

• Mom I don't like Santa, well I do but just when I call him Noah
• Santa looks like Noah from Noah's ark, but no one says I WANT, I WANT, I WANT to Noah

...so there ya go people. What will he think of next, don't worry cause I'm sure I'll hear all about it!

Pumpkin Painting with Friends...

Today we had so much fun! We invited some friends over and painted pumpkins for Halloween.

-N- couldn't stop talking about it all week in preparation for the big day and once it arrived he was thrilled to finally be allowed to paint the pumpkin that sat on the counter all week long. Here's the budding artist:

Then there was -A-'s take on things, for most of the morning he watched the excitement from the back of his eyelids like this...

but at one point he graced us with that wonderful smile of his, see...

I had more fun than anyone though, it took me right back to my teaching days, to have so many children running around and playing. This is how I get my fix, and I don't even mind the mess, shhh, don't tell anyone.

Making their Uncle Proud!!!

So today we took a trip to a local fire station and went on a tour. The boys' Uncle is a volunteer fireman in Illinois, so I thought it would be fun to take the boys to see what Uncle Mark does in his free time. So off we went with the MTM Playgroup.

The firefighters were amazing and spent so much time with all of the kids teaching them to stay low and crawl out of the house if there is a fire. Then they showed them around the station and let them look at all the equipment they use.

Firefighter Quick, took his time in putting on his gear to let the kiddos know that he is there to help. They saw him all decked out and even listened to the sounds he makes when he comes in to save people, so they wouldn't be afraid.

Here is Lieutenant Jason Quick:

and here is the ladder on the fire Truck, it climbed 12 stories high!!!

-N- was having a shy day, but let me tell you, he had no problem coming out of it once the guided part of the day was over, it took everything I had to pry him away from the Fire truck and Ambulance.

and for those who are wondering, yes -A- and I were there!!

Look...I have proof! (that's -A- all bundled up)

Thank you Lieutenant Quick and all the Fire Fighters over at Station 2 and a few from Station 1 too! You inspired quite a few future fire fighters today and made my boys' Uncle back in Illinois proud!

We love you Uncle Mark!

**A Special Thank you to Rhonda over at snapshotsonlocation.com for the beautiful pictures from today's adventure

Tackle It Tuesday...took a little longer than just Tuesday

I love having my own space to create. Our laundry room is rather large and so I decided to use the empty space as my craft area. It isn't anything glamorous but it's all mine! With such tight quarters, everything has to be put in it's place, or it ends up looking like this...

The Before: Complete Chaos and piles everywhere!

Let's not forget the laundry side of things...

and that's on a mild day.

So I started this project on Tuesday, but let me tell you, it was a chore and with little to no time to sit and chip away at the many piles, it took til today to get it finished. Whoooo, I'm exhausted!!

The After: Aaahhh, Organized Chaos, hehehe, My beautiful space!!

Shoot and another Tuesday is almost here. I think this time I'll go for something small, say the...refrigerator?

Lunch with my Parents

Well my parents had the day off yesterday, so the boys and I joined them for lunch at a local roadhouse restaurant. Now somewhere along the way the definition of Roadhouse has evolved to, a place where one can joyously eat peanuts, and upon cracking open the shell and devouring the yummy goodness within, one can just discard said shell onto the floor where it will later be stomped on by all whom enter said establishment...

Now that being said, -N- found this to be one of the best places in the world to go out to eat!! His grandmother helped him perfect the art of smashing a peanut on the table to get to the yummy goodness inside (which he discovered to be "YUMMY" only after great coersion to try something new, mind you). Then his grandfather taught him the art of sweeping any inedible portion of the peanut onto the floor below him. At the end of our meal, his grandparents decided it would be a good idea to load up -N-'s pockets with peanuts, so that he could later enjoy them at home.

Now I know what you must be thinking, why in the world would it seem like a good idea to take these home, after teaching a two and a half year old that it is okay to throw the remnants on the floor? Well had we been heading straight home, I would have protested the idea, but since we were going to Grammy and Grandpa's house, sure why not hehehe. So I pointed out how excited I was that we were headed to their house FIRST, at which point my Mom thanked my Dad for teaching -N- the art of "sweeping" and then told -N- we don't throw these on the floor at home.

Now you might be expecting some cute pictures of -N- smashing shells, or "sweeping" them onto the floor or maybe even stomping on them as we left the restaurant, well...

Nope! Here is the load of the laundry from the next day. Hmmm, note to self, it's time to start checking the two and a half year old's pockets. HA

10 Weeks and Counting...

Just a little more than 10 weeks ago, this little man arrived. My how time seems to fly so much faster with your second child. I guess it has a lot to do with having his older brother to keep me busy...amazing how that works.

He is such a happy baby...

I spend so much time trying to memorize this little face. He has the most piercing blue eyes and it is always so hard to catch the true color on camera, but there they are. And that smile seems to make it easier to get up with him in the middle of the night...well a little bit. One thing we have going for us, he likes his sleep as much as we do, so he's trying...

So precious, and he is definitely my snuggler!!!

Somebody has to do "It"...

So this particular "it" just so happens to be mowing the lawn. A job that seemingly always needs to be done, but it seems as there is never enough time to do. Well let me tell you, if we could just figure out a safe way for a two year old to do "it", "it" would never need to BE done again. It just so happens to be his favorite past time and as you can see, there's no need for pants...and yes those are baseball underwear.

I mean really how would you be able to see them if he had pants on, silly???