Halloween Weekend 2010

Once again, I'm playing a little catch up with this blog. I've been trying to force myself to have better sleeping habits lately...not as many all-nighters...tonight doesn't count though.

We had an awesome Halloween this year, the kids really got into dressing up in their costumes and got to go trick or treating for the first time. We still have candy in both of their pumpkins in our pantry that I have been slowly getting rid of by sneaking way too much for myself when no one is looking! Friday night we carved pumpkins...just little mini-ones this year (so much less mess)! Saturday morning we got up and made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, then headed off to Adalee's 2nd birthday party which was a blast. Sunday the kids got dressed up and we headed over to Keith and Jana's house for trick or treating. This was their first time to actually go door to door, Hannah and Kaitlyn were totally into it...Hunter was a little skeptical after walking past a little boy wearing a scary "scream mask". I probably would have been scared if I didn't know what it was either. I was beyond proud of myself that I spent very little on Halloween stuff this year. If anyone remembers I had gotten Hunter an Elmo costume on consignment last year for like 4 bucks. Let's just say he totally freaked out when we tried to put it on him, so we had to resort to plan b...a makeshift farmer. This year he LOVED it....wore it the WHOLE night. Man, what a difference a year can make for a kid. Hannah was a lady bug...I couldn't resist it when I saw it at Cracker Barrel...so cute!

pumpkin carving

cookie making
*you will see this smile appear several times, I'm not sure where or when he started doing this but this is his new "cheese" smile for the camera

yep...here it is again

all dressed up and ready to go

just a little touch of lip gloss....she thought she was SO cool

a little touch of blush

ready to go trick or treating

Cinderella Kaitlyn

at the end of a long night...guess Hunter thought they were sour

Pumpkin Patches and Ponies

Last weekend I took the kids to the fall festival/pumpkin patch at Keith and Jana's church in The Woodlands. Kevin had to work, so Pam went along to help with the kids and we had a lot of fun! We tried, and tried to get a good picture with all 3 kids (Hunter, Kaitlyn, and Hannah) looking at the camera at the same time, but just accepted that was never going to happen. I got a lot of cute pics, though most of them are of us being blinded by the sun...it was surprisingly bright and sunny that day!

so sweet, I love this one

This is Hunter and Hannah's first pony rides. I flat out couldn't believe that Hunter got right onto that pony, he's usually scared of stuff like that. The pony ride was short and sweet, all of about 30 seconds, by the time he got back around to realize what he'd done, he was so excited!

Uncle Keith and Hunter

Uncle Keith and Kaitlyn

Hannah on her favorite pony (b/c the saddle was pink)

Sneaky, Sneaky....

The other day the kids were sitting at the table eating their lunch while I was across the kitchen folding clothes and doing laundry. I could see them from where I was, but not close enough to see exactly what they were up to. Evidently there was some sneaky business going on at that table. I kept hearing them giggle back and forth, totally cracking up laughing. I think I heard the word accident, so I figured one of them had dropped some food on the floor....no biggie, we'll just clean it up later. Then Hunter stood up in his chair and announced to me that he was "really full, and needed a good job sticker". I knew something was off when he asks for the sticker (I've tried to bribe them a few times to eat certain things with little happy face stickers- which usually could care less about). I walked over to look at his plate, and sure enough, he'd eaten all of his food...not a crumb on the plate, so I gave him a sticker.

Mr. Sneaky a.k.a Hunter

A few minutes later, as I was wiping off the table and their booster chairs, I happened to notice something down one of the side hole of Hunter's booster chair (this TINY hole is where the tray table originally went into, which we no longer use)

Upon further inspection, I find that shoved through that tiny hole was the remains of Hunter's lunch that he had been so proud of eating that he wanted a sticker for it....
Let's see, it looks like his entire sandwich and 1/2 of his baby carrots were just hiding out!

**Note to self: Periodically check underneath booster seats to see what surprise awaits me

Finally a swingset

So, we've made some major changes at our "casa" the last few weeks...and I am soooo happy! We just finished adding on a covered patio, fully fencing in our backyard, and probably the most exciting (for the kids) getting a swingset. We've been thinking about getting them one for a long time now, and they absolutely love it! Hannah could just swing all day if I let her, and Hunter loves the slide. The first time he went down it, he shot off the end like a rocket....it's got a pretty steep slope on it. So far, we've only had one busted lip....I'm anticipating more things to come, but so far so good. And let me just say how AMAZING it is to have a fenced in backyard with very active twins, and 2 dogs. I honestly don't know why we didn't do this years ago because I can already feel my stress-level going way down. I used to be a basket case with them outside because I was constantly trying to keep my eyes on both of them (always wanting to go different directions of course), now I can just let them run free! The last part of our project list is getting the house painted, which is still in progress, so I will try to post some pictures of everything else soon!

Fishing Tournament Pics

Here are some pics from our day at the annual Big Bass Fishing Tournament we went to a few weekends ago. We had a lot of fun, the guys got to see all the big pro's and the big weigh-in.....I went for Blake Shelton (who was AWESOME)!

This picture just makes me smile. These kids LOVE their grandparents. I know their Pa-pa's shoulders were sore after all this, but he did it anyway b/c they were loving it.