Looking Back

Good Heavens!!! My how time flies!

I have been busy with some things and other times I am not busy but I am tired and to have to get the computer out and think of what to say is just to much.

I have a quiet moment right now, Steve is at a meeting and all the kids are in bed, so I thought why not dust off the old blog and write again.

{but we are NOT going to talk about the dishes in the sink, or the laundry n the bed..... or the really messy boys' bathroom, or the disaster area {that should be taped off} play room}

Things here have been moving along. The practice is slowly picking up. To slowly for me but all in good time right?? The boys are busy with school. They are enjoying it and enjoying the friends that they are making, but by the time that they get home and finish with homework it doesn't leave a whole lot left in the day for play or even family time. I always look forward to the breaks that they get.

Benji is keeping me busy. He is my little shadow all day. It's weird just having two at home, it makes for some quiet afternoons. There is one thing about winter that I am enjoying. While the weather is cooking down there is almost this unspoken rule that a big blanket needs to be taken out and snuggled under. So while Swim naps Benji and I snuggle.

Speaking of Swim... Holy Moly!!!! That kid is on the move! he has decided that there is need for walking. He is 9 months. He's really cute about it. He'll stand up and take a few steps and then start giggling and fall. Then he gets up and does it again. Oh... and he snorts when he laughs!

Time goes by all to quickly!

For Halloween this year the boys were going to be lego men.... the concept seemed good in my head but the actual conception.... yeah... it didn't work out so well. So we pulled out the old fall back costume that every mother knows of... homeless men, or as what I called them.... hobos.

Have you ever seen Studio C???? It's a clean version or Saturday Night Live. There is a character that is a shoulder angel.... so since Benji likes to ride on Steve's shoulder.... he was the shoulder angel.

Life has taken a quiet turn for the the past couple months. Sometimes it makes me wonder what is coming? But I am trying to enjoy the time that we are at.




{The picture at the top was one that I took while we went hiking. We hiked Stuart Falls up by Sun Dance Ski Resort. I carried Swim in my wrap for all 4 mile and gave him to Steve as we were walking t the car because I was so tired and sore. I thought it was so cute to see him looking over Steve's shoulder looking for me...... The three big boys.... they ran the whole 4 miles and waited for us at the bottom. I love seeing the energy that their bodies have!}

Frankenstein

I figured out {I hope} why blogger wouldn't let me add any new pictures. I wanted to add these because Steve did such a good job on his makeup!

He decided that he wanted to go as Frankenstein and he likes things to be just so. He got up so early to start on his make-up.

He used real staples and used a face glue to get them to attach to his head.  I was impressed with how real it looked.

It's nice to see Steve enjoy the holidays a little more, and even get into them like this. And Tommy was excited to trick or treat with his dad because Tommy was "the son of Frankenstein"

Halloween 2012

Halloween is always fun and this year was no exception. There was pumpkin carving, costumes, and of course the all important candy.

I gave my pumpkin googly eyes... and I was quite impressed with all the boys, they all carved their own pumpkins...scraped them out and all. It's fun now that I don't have to do it all for them. 

Benji, was really cute, he sang "Happy Birthday" to each pumpkin as a candle was put in it..

They all looked really good lit up.

Oh, the joy of costumes.... each boy wanted something different and had their minds made up. I know that Halloween is every year on October 31st. but I still feel like it sneaks up on me every year,  leaving me to scramble for costumes for each of the boys.

Tim was a knight... {or Robin Hood} He went through so many costume changes it was hard to keep up with them all. finally... the day before the Trunk or Treat for our church he settled {was gently talked into} this. I had it on had, it was a costume that a friend of mine made for James YEARS ago. Tim really is the only one who likes to dress up so until the costumes reach him they stay in pretty good shape. After Halloween he continued to wear the costume for 3 weeks.

Tommy is {the son of} Frankenstein,  he was pretty easy, and it was nice to just paint his face and add the bolts and call it good. {I would show you a picture of his father, but blogger is not letting me upload any pictures right now.... but Steve's costume was really good!!}

James was the Grim Reaper, again another easy costume with a black robe and a thingy... I don't know what it's called that he holds, so it's a thingy.

And Benji, was.... yeah, I'm not sure. This too was a recycled costume. He looked cute in it and he actually had a sword to go with it too. He didn't cry when I put it on him, and he could move in it without getting tangled, so it was a win-win.

Halloween was fun this year. The boys made out with a ton of candy and were able to have a little more freedom when trick or treating in the neighbor hood. Steve walked behind them and some friends of theirs while the boys went to each door. I stayed behind and walked with Benji. He was really cute he would say "trick or treat" at each door, proceed to stick his fingers in the bowl to grab things out himself, then instead of a nice thank you... he would just say 'more'. Good thing he is 2 and can get away with that.

Maybe next year I'll start early on costumes.... who am I kidding I won't and I'll be scrambling around again... oh well... I guess it's part of the season too.

Back up to Halloween

Halloween was a blast this year! And the boys did a great job in picking costumes!

 Tim is an astronaut, James is a Samari-Vampire, and Tommy.... Tommy is a failed math test. Everyone loved his costume! And as we were trick-or-treating so many teenagers commented on his costume, so next year be on the look out for failed tests.

 Benji was so cute. He was Perry the Platypus from Phinas and Ferb.

He's pretty cute -huh-

And what would a secret agent be with out a nemesis??  Steve was dressed as Dr. Doofenshmertz.

 For those in Port Orange they know who the AT&T lady. She's great! She stands on the corner and dances the day away.

Always dancing there in all her pink glory. Fanny Pack and all. I don't remember the last time I dressed up. It was a lot of fun.

The boys got copious amounts of candy... and being the good mom that I am I went through it all to pick out my favorites, make sure it was all safe.

And now it sits getting picked through a little every day.

Science with Candy.

In the days after Halloween what in the world do you do with all of the candy that you get??? Me... we start doing science with it. {that way the boys don't think it's so bad when we have to throw it away}

Here is the plate that we put in the freezer. After about a half hour I took it out so we could touch it. It was all hard and the things that were chewy.... weren't any more. Oh sad.... then we had to throw the candy away.

Next we put some candy in bowls and the poured boiling water over it. We watched the water melt  and dissolve the candy. {In the colored bowl those were Mike & Ike's and in the yellow bowl.... a Starburst}

Here we have Samrties and Whoppers. Did you know that Whoppers explode in hot water?? Not like 'bang' explode, but all the inside starts coming out. Even before the chocolate melts all the way.

And here is a Hot Tamale. It was in the water for 8 minutes and then when we picked it up all the color was gone.

It was fun to see what would happen to all the candy. As we played with it all. And ahhhhh we had to throw away all the candy that we messed with. After the first time we did this the boys wanted to keep doing it with different candy. So we did. And soon enough we had a half bowl left of candy.

{oh... and don't worry we took out all the good stuff and put it away. Can you blame me??? Why would I ruin perfectly good candy}

Happy Halloween!!

 Happy Halloween to all.... about a week late. I know... I know... I'm trying to get all caught up.

We had a good Halloween and I was so excited to have two boys who wanted to be traditional Halloween things.

I have a Vampire..... {getting this shot was hard, All Tommy wanted to do was to smile. I guess not a total bad thing but being a vampire is not a laughing matter.}

 And a Skeleton!! And yes people that was my handy work in painting on all of those bones! I was up until wee hours of the morning because I promised I would have it done. It passed inspection {by both the husband and the child} and was put on.

 Then I had the cutest Transformer that you will ever see. Although Tim was mad that he couldn't turn himself into a car. I just had to remind him that cars only get gas... not candy.

 Did you know that baby costumes are like $20!!! I mean really.... they will only get one wear out of it!! So B went as himself.... his cute self. And it worked out because then for the Trunk or Treat I could wrap him up and wear him

 Here are the other boys all together. The crazy just continues!!

 Oh... and here we have the husband.....

 Oh, and look.... he just had a baby!!

Amazing how that works :)

Pumpkins in Florida

We have found out the hard way that pumpkins in Florida have to be dealt with in a entirely different manner than other places.

On Wednesday {only 4 days before Halloween} we did a science project with the pumpkins before starting out and then we scraped the goop out. That's always the part that takes the longest so I thought we would get out of the way.

Later that evening we did the carving ...{be prepared for lots of pictures.}

Peeking to see what is inside

Time and his pumpkin face.

Tommy had a great time since he go to use the little knives. He really enjoyed pocking holes in his pumpkin.

James did his pumpkin all by his self and was quite proud. {I was happy that he still has all of his fingers}

What have we learned from this??? Wait until Halloween day to carve a pumpkin if you don't want mold to grow.

Yup.... there's mold in them there pumpkins.... and now James is really excited to watch them decay. I guess learning can take place in even the grosses things....

On an entirely different note.... look at these cute bags. I used the freezer paper to stencil a really cute picture for the candy bags. I really like the way they turned out!

I thought they turned out really cute! I'm trying to be crafty again... and this is great because it's so easy!!

No Goblins here

There were no goblins at our house this year. I was hoping that our family could go as a group and do "Phineas and Ferb" but the boys wanted to be different things... and well, that's the fun of Halloween.

So we had Anikin Skywalker

A Stormtrooper

And.... and.... Batman!

We went to a great party on Friday! It was a ward party and Trunk'r'Treat. There was great food, and lots of games for the boys to play. There was a bounce house, and a maze made out of cardboard boxes. James really like that, he went through it probably 5 or 6 times. {sadly I forgot my camera....}

Then Saturday, came a day of sleeping in {since we were all up late the night before} pancakes and cleaning. Then a trip to the Library for books for the next week. {Indians} We made a stop at Target to get Tim some new shoes, that boys feet grows so fast!!

The boys could hardly wait to go out to get candy.

Once we were actually out the boys couldn't wait to get back.... Strange I know but that's my boys.

We 'made' them walk around the neighborhood and boy oh boy they were happy with the loot they got. Keep in mind it was hot and by the time we got home we had sweaty boys {I was now the official mask carrier} that needed drinks.

We came home and watched a couple movies... Ichabod Crane and Garfield's Halloween. And put three little spooks to bed.

The tears were relatively few, and the company was good. Happy Halloween every one!

A family of Supers

This Halloween was great! (Especially compared to last year) Everyone was happy with their costumes and there was no bribing to get them into it. James was even happy not being a rocket. So as you can see, we are a family of "Supers!" I have a Batman, a Superman, and Spiderman, so what does that make me? You got it.... SuperMom!! (Complete with a cape, a tierra, and striped tights)

The day started off taking James to school. He wasn't allowed to wear a costume to school (that's another issue) but they could have crazy hair. James wanted orange, black and green. I couldn't find green, so he settled for blue.

I found James' costume in the toy department, ie cheaper than buying it in the costume area. (will be great for dress up)

Tommy's costume was another easy buy... Jammies' from Target. Complete with cape and light up "S". (Winter jammies for Tommy) Did you see the dark hair on Tommy. I sprayed it black for that "real" Superman look.

Tim didn't really have an opinion this year, so I made him Spiderman. Now I couldn't find a costume small enough for him, and even if I did I wasn't about to spend $20 on a costume that he would wear once! So he got a red a sweatsuit with spiderwebs all over it. I thought it turned out really good. (Again, jammies for Tim)

Here we are on our way out to Trick or Treat. Tim had lots of practice at the Trunk or Treat at the church two day before, and totally liked the idea of saying "Trick or Treat" and getting candy.The boys were really excited to go around the neighborhood, and....

Tim tagged along behind.
So the boys totally made out in the candy department!!! And being the god mom that I am I took the candy to look through it and make sure it was safe. Well I definitely had some problems and had to take out all the Butterfingers, Laffy Taffys, and Skittles. Don't worry there is still plenty left.

Here are some fun pictures that I had that I wanted to share.

James and his crazy hair. He really like it, and I must say, it kinda grew on me too.
Here is Tommy, and I must say, this mom defiantly prefers blonds

And here is Tim at the Trunk or Treat, you don't know it but he is having a fit. Tim is really funny, when he has a fit, he lays down and then crys. He has hurt himself before by throwing himself on the ground so he's pretty careful now. And the funny thing is he moved to the sidewalk to finish the fit he was having. I guess the grass was itching him. He keeps me smiling...even when he's having issues.

Here's to next year.... Happy Halloween!!!!