Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of our little goblins in their Halloween costumes. 

Yes, Maverick gets to wear Mitchell's hand-me-down Halloween costume...but it looks so cute on him :)

In response to a stranger's "What do you want to be for Halloween?" question, Mitchell replied "I want to be something really spooky.  I don't want to be ANYTHING CUTE!" :)

I had to convince him that he was a very SCARY cowboy!

A cute little monkey on his first Halloween!

Mitchell, do you know there is a horse between us?

Maverick, have you seen these things coming from your head?

Our two Halloween cuties!

The End.... 

Pre-school Halloween Party

Mitchell had a little Halloween party at Pre-school yesterday, to which they invited the parents. Unfortunately, neither Jacob nor I could attend, so my Dad and Sherri were happy to step in. My Dad took a gazillion pics and gave me a full report :) (THANKS!)


Grampy & Sherri with Cowboy Mitchell




Here are the little rugrats playing a little game together at the 'party' with their 2 teachers.

They also performed a few songs for the parents. My Dad said the teacher commented that the kids were being a little shy about their singing. The teacher said something to the effect of "I guess you guys just aren't in the singing mood today. Mitchell, you are always our good singer." Mitchell responded to by breaking out into his rendition of "Humpty Dumpty" (obviously not the song of choice for the Halloween party). My Dad said the parents all got a good chuckle.



If you ask Mitchell what he is going to be for Halloween, it is something new every time. Although he IS going to be a cowboy, the most common responses are 1) Buzz Lightyear, 2) Iron Man or 3) Dinosaur. I couldn't help by notice that there were THREE Buzz Lightyears in this pre-school class of 12 kids and FOUR super heros (only one Iron Man). He was the only cowboy :)

Thanks again, Dad & Sherri!

Visit from Gran and Pops

Gran and Pops (Jacob's Mom and stepdad) made the trip to see us for the weekend. They treated us to two meals out...something we rarely do these days! It was a great visit!


(Mitchell is eating a carrot....which he got for himself from the bottom drawer of the fridge...whatever.)





Maverick is watching his favorite 4-legged brother through the back door. The little guy is SO MOBILE these days. My prediction is that he'll be walking by Thanksgiving (at 10 months). We'll see!

Mitchell and I were eating lunch the other day.  He was pretty quiet, which usually means his brain is busy processing :)  And as usual, all of the sudden, something interesting came out of his mouth.

He looks at me and says "Sometimes Daddy says dammit." 

I wasn't sure how to respond...but knew Jacob likely wouldn't believe me when I told him so I just had to get it on video.

He has since used "dammit" a couple of times, in context...usually after he stubs a toe or something. 

No, not ideal, but I guess it could be worse!

Pumpkin Head

While Mitchell was napping this weekend, Maverick and I played outside a bit and I couldn't help but think he made the cutest little pumpkin head :)

never seen these before....

No more bumbo seat needed in the wagon.  The little guy is so sturdy these days!

In other Mav news, I'm doing sign language with him like I did Mitchell.  He has started signing "dog"!  I'm sure others will begin to follow, but it is so exciting to see him start officially communicating with us.  Mitchell likes helping me teach them to Maverick :)

Our Artist...certainly not a starving one :)

Now that Mitchell is in pre-school, our house is quickly becoming over-run with art projects! My favorite so far is a finger painting (PURPLE!). It won the coveted spot in our artwork frame that my Mom and David got us as a gift. We love it!







The item below is a family tree that Mitchell created at Pre-School. A note came home the day before they created family trees explaining what they were going to do and apologizing ahead of time in case the kiddos forgot any family members. I was honestly really curious to see if Maverick was going to make the family tree. Mitchell likes to have selective memory about his little brother sometimes :)



So here is his family tree. I am orange. Daddy is blue. Mitchell is brown sitting on the swing...and if you look closely you'll see a little brown baby in the tree. Yeah, he remembered :)

Mitchell goes to his traditional pre-school 2 mornings a week. We also go to a Bible Pre-school once a week, in addition to Sunday school. All of the kiddos created a white tile with their hand print on it. When we came to pick Mitchell up from Sunday school, all of the tiles were nicely lined up outside. Each of them had one little colorful hand print right in the middle of the tile. We started searching for Mitchell's. When I saw this one with two messy handprints, I just had a sneaking suspicion that it belonged to our active, independent boy....I was right! :)

Mitchell seems to be learning a lot in school these days! The other day, I was asking him to tell me the names of the other kiddos in his class.
He starts..."Wyatt, Roman, Christopher... But not Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus rode on 3 ships. But not that really big ship that is sitting in the ocean leaking oil."

Holy cow...his brain amazes me!

Kitchen helper, thumb sucker and sleepover

Here are a few pictures of my little kitchen helper. Among his favorite activities lately is helping to unload the dishwasher (onto the floor, utensil by utensil) and clean out the refrigerator (by taking all of the things on the bottom shelf and throwing them on the floor).

Did I mention that Maverick has become a thumb sucker? It's like his thumb didn't exist for the first 8 months and now all of the sudden he just can't get enough of it. He got both of his top two teeth in late September/early January and his thumb seemed to take the brunt of the teething action!

Mitchell had his first sleep over! Our neighbor friend, Luke, who is 1 day older than Mitchell stayed the night with us on Friday. Mitchell loved the company! They played all evening and then when it was time for bed, they each curled up on their side of Mitchell's bed. I heard a "Mommy, Mommy, we need you." And when I went upstairs, this is what I found. Both of them sitting at the foot of the bed, waiting for me.

Mitchell says "Mommy, we both need waters."

Luke says "And a story about firetrucks."

They got both and were sound asleep for the night! I can't believe we're at the age where sleepovers are possible!!!

When we delivered Luke back home the next morning, he literally cried..."I don't want to go home." Apparently the sleepover was a success!

Pumpkin Patch!

I chose to celebrate my 33rd birthday last weekend with a family trip to the pumpkin patch!  Mitchell was in heaven with all of the fun things to do!

He ran from activity to activity...and Jacob, Maverick, my Dad, Sherri and I tried to keep up!

Maverick enjoyed his view from the backpack :)

Hang on tight!

Look for Mitchell's red head peaking out of the 2nd train car!

Mommy & Mitchell bounced on the big orange trampoline!

Family of Four!

Maverick loved crawling around in the corn kernels!

Mav Man and his first pumpkin, which now resides on our front porch

Mitchell picked his big pumpkin which he has been BEGGING to carve into a Jack-o-lantern about 3 times a day.

Overall, I had a wonderful birthday :)  I honestly don't have much angst about getting a year older, but when I look at myself from the outside...it is hard to believe it's me.  A happily married 33 year old woman with 2 boys....it just sounds much more mature than I consider myself!  But obviously, I wouldn't change it for the world!

Lucy vs. Chemo

You've likely already read my posts about our little neighbor friend that is battling brain cancer at 1 year-old :( 

She is doing as well as expected, and the chemo seems to be shrinking her tumor (yeah!) ! 

I visited them at the hospital this week and took a few pictures to share.  See below.

(And thanks to my Dad for playing with Maverick in the waiting room while I took pics!)

Last 2010 trip to the "K"

We took advantage of the nice fall weather and some free tickets to te Royal's game on Thursday night. My Dad, Sherri, Jacob and I took the boys to the "K" one last time before the season was over....and wouldn't you know it, the Royals actually won (not that it matters now!)

I think you could say that somebody enjoyed himself!




Maverick was a good boy, as always. He ended the game sound asleep in Sherri's arms.

Can't go to the ballpark without getting a hotdog as big as your head!

Mitchell enjoyed watching Sluggerrr...but seriously, who's this creepy Captain America in the Royal's super hero garb?