44 Cookies Later

These cookies are killing me. They are small and oh so yummy and did I mention addicting? I pop them in one after the other. We started out with 48 cookies. I didn't eat them ALL myself, but my tummy can account for quite a few of them.

In case you couldn't tell, they are pumpkins and ghosts. The ghosts throw me off a bit. When I first look at them I see ducks or penguins with extremely large bills.

Big Brother Halloween Tips

Overheard this morning while visiting the ladies at the office where I used to work:

Kekoa leans in and whispers in Gavyn's ear as he's rummaging through the candy dish of suckers, "Only one. You need to say trick-or-treat."

By the time we left, Gavyn had not one, but two suckers stuck in his mouth. Kekoa had managed to pilfer three. I think we're starting to get this Halloween thing figured out. It is what it is. Candy!

Booya!

...from some fierce kitties. I wore my standard kitty ears from the past five years. Hard to get very creative when I'm being creative for two other little men.



We had Beggar's Night last night. Kekoa has been talking about this all month. Or rather, ever since I made him put the tiger costume away so maybe longer.



First we hit five of the neighbors up for candy. At Kris & Jen's we got a little side tracked by the kitties. They were giving out little containers of black and orange Play Doh which I thought was a fab idea. By the time we were back to the car to go to a neighboring town to trick-or-treat with his cousins, Kekoa was high on Kit Kat bars. I might have had one or two, too.



Cousin Jordan took good care of the kids while making the rounds to neighboring houses. There were lots of cute little goblins wandering around in the dark. And a few big goblins, too. Cousin Grayson stayed home to help Aunt Gina and Grandma Barb man the trick-or-treating post and help with trying to identify who and what everyone was.

By the end of the night, Kekoa was a leopard (no, he couldn't keep the pants up... a tad bit too little) and Gavyn was a tiger. Go figure.

The sugar high made it interesting trying to settle down at bedtime last night.



Happy Halloween!

Anniversaries

Steve and Barb would have celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary today. The last time I talked with Steve was a year ago this very day. He was so anxious to let me know it was their 30th anniversary... the 30th on the 30th. Anytime I saw him, it was always very evident how proud he was of his wife and his kids and their accomplishments. It's days like these I realize how much we really miss him. Barb, I hope you are finding comfort today in the many happy memories you made together. I know it can't be easy, but remembering might help a little.

40K Game Night

Daddy has his weekly game night with the guys. I give him a hard time about grown men still playing with army men, but secretly, I'm a bit more impressed than I let on. The rules aren't all that easy... they play with rule books by their sides so they can look up anything they don't know.



The other aspect that impresses me is his miniature figure painting ability. The amount of time and detail that go into these little men is a bit staggering. I'm amazed everytime I look at those tiny dots for the pupils of the eyes. To me it looks like a lot of hard work, but Daddy enjoys it. I'd say it's safe to say this is his main hobby.



Every once in awhile, they will play a 40k tournament over a series of weeks, and this is the trophy one of them takes home at the end of the day.

Pumpkins Are Lit

Last night, we finally got our pumpkins carved. I love the color in our four season room at the back of the house, but it is an awful color to try to get good pictures with - washes everyone out.

BEFORE



AFTER



LIT PUMPKINS



Gavyn was pretty excited about the pumpkins once they were all done.

Mr. Woodpecker

This little guy was chirping at us yesterday afternoon in between his pecks at the tree in our backyard.



When I was growing up at home, every once in awhile a woodpecker would get confused and try to peck holes in our metal chimney pipe. It was always disconcerting to wake up in the morning to the rapid fire of a bird's beak against the metal pipe located on the roof just above my head in my bedroom.

Mommy, Mommy... LOOK!

Just witnessed peering at me from the top of the basement stairs.

Cheeseburgers!

We have had to visit the following spider and monster everyday for the last three days. The weather has been nice enough, it hasn't been too much of a bad thing yet.



The funny thing is I think I've done a pretty good job not letting on to my boys about my extreme arachnophobia. In fact, the more I repress my strong reaction, the less I seem to fear them. Maybe the boys will serve as my therapy to overcome said phobia. Guess we'll have to see.



"Cheeseburgers!" they yell cheerfully at the camera from their perch on the wall. They are fashion statements, no?

Who Me?

Kekoa's already learned to be Mr. Charming when he needs to. Case in point.

A couple of days ago, I was in the basement for a brief moment. When I heard what sounded like a herd of stampeding elephants coming from the room above my head, I made a mad dash upstairs to see what was going on.

As I entered the room, both boys looked up at me innocently enough. Nothing resembling what I'd just heard seemed to have occured. What's up, Mom? That's when I noticed the spools of thread all over the floor.

Upon realizing I had indeed noticed the randomly scattered spools, Kekoa casually mentioned, "Gavyn got into those, Mommy."

Let's assess the situation here, shall we? Mommy knows where these spools of thread normally hang out. She also knows Gavyn can't reach them, but it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that her three-year-old can.

"Kekoa, did Gavyn REALLY get those out or did you?" asks Mommy.

And I am NOT kidding, Kekoa looked me straight in the eye with the best charming smile he could conjure up and says sweetly, "Mommy, that new sweater looks sooo nice on you."

He's three years old, people! Where do they learn this stuff? It took me a full five minutes of asking that same question over and over before I finally got him to acknowledge the question. We talked about airplanes and not breaking toys and birthdays and anything else he could think of to avoid the question. I'm thinking we might have a future politician on our hands.

Once he figured out his Mommy wasn't going to be led off topic very easily, he broke down, smiled sweetly and said, "Yes, Mommy, I did it."

It might be interesting to note I wasn't actually wearing a new sweater. I did have a new outfit on that had arrived in the mail that day. Being the "me" that I am, I had to try on/wear all the new clothes right away. I'm currently digging this new skirt. I wasn't really into the new poof skirt style at first, but now I own two. Go figure.

Annie Oakley, I Am Not...

...but with a little practice, who knows what could happen?



Speaking of Annie Oakley. That was one of the first musicals I remember seeing as a child. It was a instant favorite. I don't know if it was because of the romance or the "Anything you can do I can do better..." action of a very independent female. Whatever the case, I was into it. I remember really, really liking it.



That's not to say I have been itching to learn how to shoot a gun ever since, but my husband sure has been wanting it to happen. This gun training for spouses came up and he was all for signing me up.



So, I spent majority of my day today at a shooting range. I was apprehensive at first, but found myself really enjoying the challenge of it. I noticed a difference between my shooting at the beginning of the day to the end of the day. Whatever becomes of the training, I think it was a good thing for me to learn some gun safety, think about how and when to use a gun if I was armed or in a situation where I found myself "accidentally" armed, and learn the ins and outs of loading and unloading a gun as well as how to shoot it. You never know. The education could come in handy some day. I certainly hope not.

NOTE: Heidi, you would be interested to know that Adam was in this class today. I made sure he knew you were my sister. He's so shy. I think I embarrassed him. Imagine that.



Notice my "partner" (see above) was a much better shot than I was - the main goal being to get all the shots in the black. I'm covering up my one errant bullet but who's to know if I didn't tell you. The other 29 shots were there.



Grammy came and watched the boys for me again today since Daddy had to work. That's two weekends in a row. The boys are going to get used to this if I keep up this rate. She brought us these delicious French Breakfast Puffs. I've eaten FOUR, to be exact. Gun slinging makes you hungry, I guess.



Later, Gavyn tried to guilt Grammy into staying just a little longer. He figures if he keeps coming in for hugs, she'll stay around forever. Who knows? It just might work one of these times. Thanks again, Grammy!

Fall Clean Up

We kept busy in the last couple of days cleaning up our front yard. The boys had fun getting wheelbarrow rides back to the house with Daddy when he was hauling rock to the backyard.



Later, they spent some time jumping around in my leaf piles. I don't know how some of you with much, much larger yards do it. I haven't even got to the backyard yet. There's also a couple of neighboring trees that haven't lost their leaves yet, so I get to go back and do it all again soon, I'm sure.

Who's Reading?

Fair Time 2007

Post #100 and I haven't even been blogging for two months. Some of you are going to think I don't have a life. Maybe I don't.

Just out of curiousity, who's reading? Please leave me a comment. I'd love to know who you are.

Honey Crisp

Boys were quiet this morning. When I came up the stairs, I asked, "Kekoa, what are you doing?" As I round the corner, I see two boys sitting on the floor. They look up at me over the top of the giant Honey Crisp apples in their mouths. They're munching contentedly. "We're apple eating," he says matter-of-factly. Innocent enough. I look in the kitchen. Fridge door is wide open. Guess I can be glad I keep healthy snacks around. Now we have to start working on the part about asking mommy first.

I discovered Honey Crisp apples a couple of years ago. Normally, I'm not a big apple fan (even in apple season), but THESE apples are an exception to the rule. They taste like candy. They are beautiful, crisp, juicy, and exactly the right flavor. Inexpensive they are not. But I'll pay the price for something that looks and tastes this good.

I Thought He Was With You

Kekoa was 21 months when we had our first experience with "Where's Kekoa?" "I don't know, I thought he was with you." "Well, I thought he was with YOU." Then, the slow build of sheer panic as you frantically try to figure out where he went.

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, and we were coming home from a weekend at Mom & Dad's farm. When we got home, Kekoa came inside the house with me and the first load. Gavyn was newborn, and I can't remember for sure, but I think I was probably preoccupied with feeding him. I do remember I was sitting on the living room couch. Craig moved back and forth between the house and the garage, unloading all our things.

At some point, I realized the house was too quiet. This prompted the exchange above. Once we both figured out Kekoa was missing (and somehow we both knew he was NOT in the house!), the frantic, frenzied search was on. We both had visions of him wandering into the street and getting hit by a car.

"Kekoa?" we called out, each going separate ways out the side door. No answer. Our voices get a little louder, a little higher pitched, a little more wild, more frantic with each inquiry. "Kekoa?"

It was a matter of minutes before we found him standing shivering and barefoot on our back patio next to the door. He hadn't been answering because he didn't want to be found. He didn't want to go in the house. He wanted to be outside.

I've never been so relieved in my life. It's one of those moments when the urgency of the situation doesn't set in until later. We sat in the house looking at our little drowned rat thankful we were fortunate to find him and to find him intact. Minutes later I look at my hands. They'd begun to shake.

Thankfully, we haven't had this experience with Gavyn. But then... he hasn't quite reached 21 months yet, either. Let's hope there's not a repeat.