Mine!

Today we got out our Halloween decorations along with all of our costumes and the kids found their trick-or-treat bags. They each grabbed one and the song began...

Johnny: "Mine!"
Alex: "Mine!"
Johnny: "Mine!"
Alex: "Mine!"
Johnny: "Mine!"
Alex: "Mine!"
Johnny: "Mine!"
Alex: "Mom, we're having a 'mine' fight, here's one for you" and hands me a trick-or-treat bag of my own.

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In scattering the decorations about the house Alex sits our two stuffed scarecrows on a seat and says to me, "Look where I put the scarecrows, this is 'Budge' and this is 'Dudge'. That's what I named them."
Me: "Hi Budge, hi Dudge."

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1:00 church isn't easy with a 2 year old. We usually put him down around 10:30 or 11 but he's getting older and isn't quite as tired this early in the morning as he used to be. So this morning I tried skipping naps to see how things would go. I'm not sure how he was in nursery but ever since we got him home he was a mess. I could tell Alex was tired today too and it wasn't long after we got home from church that I took the picture below.

A Bike Ride...

The other day I noticed that it wasn't blazing hot outside and I could spare a couple of hours so the kids and decided to take a walk to the park. We got half way there, Alex was complaining about her bike tilting too much on it's training wheels and it looked like rain in the distance so we turned around and went back home. Ever since then the kids have been begging to go to the "big park" (we have a little kiddie one across the street). But Johnny doesn't want to ride in the stroller anymore, he wants to ride his bike like Alex now. He can't reach the pedals on our trike or big wheel and so he rides his bikes "Flinstone" style and it takes forever and he usually gets tired of it after too long and I end up carrying his bike. So I had this idea that I figured I'd try out. I tied his big wheel to the back of my bike with a rope and decided I would tow him behind me and that way he could "ride" his bike. Well the big wheel is low enough to the ground that I never had any problems with tipping or anything and once I got the hang of it I could keep him going straight enough. He kept turning his wheel so he was zig zagging back and forth behind me and the momentum would some times bring him right up next to me at first. But any time we had to stop for something there was potential for great hazard seeing as though I couldn't put the brakes on his bike while putting them on mine. I had to ride in the middle of the street too to keep him from hitting any mailboxes or anything. Needless to say we won't be trying anything like that again but it was fun to watch his face as I pulled him along. He was crouched down on the seat of the bike so his feet wouldn't drag on the pavement and he was gliding along without a care just smiling and happy to be on his bike. I wish I could have blinked my eyes and taken a picture of him, when are they going to create a camera like that anyway? There are so many times I'm in need of an eye-blinking powered camera. I need to find a way around it next time we go to the park because I'm sure he'll be requesting to do it again.

Cookies with Auntie Em!

Over the weekend Brad and I took off to Palm Springs for Matt and Vanessa's wedding! (Pictures for that are coming.) And while we were there Brad's sisters took care of our kids for us. Tiffany had them Thursday-Friday and she happens to have spent Wednesday night in the ER with a hurt back (the hospital thought she was in labor) so Jason took Thursday off from his usual running around to help with the kids (lucky for us he works from home). Then Emily had them Friday-Sunday and she came down with the stomach flu Saturday night. Not the best weekend to pawn our kids off on them. However we are so grateful because the wedding would've been so stressful with our kids there. Lots of driving and late nights. Well before Emily got sick the kids had a blast. She took them to some garage sales and gave them each their own money to spend on whatever they wanted. Then they made and frosted sugar cookies. As you can see from the pictures, Alex really got into it. I don't think they even missed us once. Except maybe Sunday. Since Em was sick in bed, Tate (her husband) did his best to get them dressed and changed his first ever diaper (I heard it ended up on backwards - "A" for effort Tate!). Their Nana and Papa rushed over as soon as they heard and took the kids to church with Nana trying her best to pull Alex's hair back in the little time they had. Their Papa asked her when they got to church what she did to Alex's hair (it's not easy taming that silky straight hair). Then Alex was hot and wanted to take off her church jacket. Apparently Alex picked out her clothes and so she was wearing her favorite Sleeping Beauty t-shirt underneath. Then Nana had to take off early to pick me up from the airport and put Papa in charge of picking up the kids and feeding them dinner. He got Alex safe at home and it wasn't too long before he got a call asking if someone was planning on picking Johnny up from nursery that day. I couldn't help but laugh when Nana told me all that had gone on Sunday. I appreciate everyone's efforts and I am glad I have so much family around to pitch in when our kids need caring for!

Desparate Times...

Tonight Johnny gave his favorite stuffed animal, "Howie" a juice bath very close to bed time. Knowing that he would never get to sleep tonight without him I tossed him in the washer to clean him up. I was running out the door and didn't have time to be crafty about it (usually I have to sneak Howie into the wash) so Johnny saw me toss Howie into what Johnny figures is a death sentence for his sleep buddy. I calm him down with Sesame street and a familiar blanket and sneak out the door. When I got home 30 minutes later Brad says he heard someone in the laundry room and figured it was me but when I didn't answer he went in and found Johnny inside the washing machine searching for his precious Hippo. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Howie's the plump, blue and green hippo sitting in the middle of his "Sprinkles" cousins.

Gymnastics!

Alex just started Gymnastics this month. She absolutely LOVES it!

That's what a living room is for...right?

Today Alex was all dressed for church and completely bored, wondering what she can do until church started (we have 1:00 church). My first thought for some strange reason was to throw the black sheet I just bought up on the wall of the living room and take some pictures. I've been wanting to try taking pictures with the black background for awhile now and just haven't had the chance. Our living room is my ideal picture taking location because of the great natural light coming in from three different angles. So we turned it into a temporary photo studio. All day Alex has been using it to take her own pictures. Her dolls were her best subjects but she even had Johnny posing for her. Some how she even managed to take many pictures of herself with her dolls. When I was scanning through my pictures today looking at all the pictures I was laughing out loud at all the ones Alex took while I wasn't in the room. I was just going to take some of Alex just to see how they turned out in our little "studio" and when Johnny woke up from his nap he got in on the action as well. I'm lucky I have kids that will do their best posing for me. There best of course meaning the best you can expect from a 2 and 4 year old. Anyway, it was fun, and I think I will keep our living room a photo studio for a couple more days so I can play around with it. What else are we going to use it for really?