A much needed visit to the park

Like most kids my kids absolutely love the park. So, despite me not feeling so hot, I pulled all my energy together and decided to go and take my camera to document the journey.  The rewards for the kids were obvious and the rewards for me were feelings of such joy and happiness watching the kids making the most of something so simple.  

 Isn't it great when the kids just start hugging ... no, this was a request by me that they thought was pretty funny.  Thus the laughs and giggling.

 To say Mason LOVES the swing would definitely be an understatement.  He wanted to swing for so long I actually thought he might get sick from it all. But oh no, he just never wanted it to end!

 Oscar's favorite slide. Its super big and I think he feels a victorious feeling 

every time he goes down it!

 Underdog mom, again mom, again and again!

 We were pretty lucky cause the park was absolutely empty of all other people except for us! 

We had the whole place to ourselves.  We could be as loud and as silly as we wanted!

 More pushes mom, More, More!

 Look at that look of determination as he tries to climb the tree. Nothing was going to 

stop him from at least making a serious effort!

 I love how he was smiling the whole time - except for when I said it was time to go home. Boy that did not go over well.  He cried all the way to the car.

 Ellie also felt like she could conquer the tree

 I had so much fun that day. Everyone was so happy it was spreading like wild fire. 

Mason was determined to climb to the top and got about half way up and I think he must have thought to himself, "What in the world am I doing! This is way too high for me." I ended up bringing him down and putting him back in his safe place -- the swing of course!

Welcome Emme Rose

I was going to wait until we met Emme in person but it just doesn't feel right waiting that long. 

You see, we won't actually meet her until Thanksgiving and so I just couldn't wait another day to introduce our little adorable niece...

daughter of Kenton and Brittney Anderson...

Emme Rose Anderson

She is so precious. Is really isn't fair that she lives so far away (Colorado).

We look forward to meeting her soon!

The Magic of Halloween

 Kids love Halloween and for good reason! There's so many fun things to do for this holiday including carving pumpkins, dressing up in costumes, trick or treating, parties, decorating the house with scary spiders and bats, and of course candy, candy, candy.

 This was one of our first projects with a pumpkin -- we wanted to make them look like bats.

So the first step was to paint them black. Mason really thought it was exciting!

 For a girl who LOVES to paint, Elaina was pretty excited when I told her we were

going to paint some pumpkins. I almost feel like making the bat pumpkins all over again just

to watch her singing and painting.

 Here's the finished products - cute little bats. 

They didn't really last long - after the first rainstorm we had to retire them to the dumpster.

And it was a little spooky when it came to our ghosts. Three of them flew away and

we haven't heard from them since!

 Mason is a little bit obsessed with pumpkins. In fact, its a good thing that we can still decorate 

with pumpkins for Thanksgiving because I think he would be really sad to see them go.

He likes them so much that every time he sees one he stops, looks at it, and wants to hold it.  

He especially likes the little baby ones and has been known to carry one around with him all day, cry if he looses it, and sleep with it at night and of course call it his "baby." (he has done the same thing with tiny water balloons ... should I be worried?)

You can imagine how long it took at some houses trick or treating stopping to look at all the creative decorative pumpkins. Pretty funny little guy. I think he was a little disappointed to find out 

that pumpkins are full of yucky, gooey seeds!

 Its hard to really see the finished pumpkins but there's a rocket in the middle and two silly faces

on both sides. Ellie and Oscar drew the faces they wanted and Mike carved them out.

Here's a video of cleaning out the pumpkins...

Yikes! Grandma & Grandpa  Anderson gave the kids some Halloween treats & little toys.

Boy did they love the scarey vampire teeth!

Mason and Ellie would chase me around the house with these teeth in and 

I think they really thought I was terrified. (I'm a pretty good actress)

 I think Ellie was more excited about the broom than the witch costume. 

We ordered it online and so everyday she would ask me "Will my broom come today mom?"  I remember when it finally did come and the magic moment of getting it out of the box.  I think she thought it would really do magic or something.

 Here's a little information about six year old boys - at least this one- any costume 

that has a toy as an accessory is pretty much awesome. 

I remember when we first talked about what he wanted to be for Halloween he wanted something

scarey, had a weapon/toy to go with it, and the only thing he wanted people to see were his eyes. 

I think we did pretty well considering all the other options out there. 

 I think we counted down for two months before the day FINALLY came where it was time to 

trick or treat. Halloween and Christmas are the most exciting holidays for my kids.

 The lighting kinda makes it look like he has a mustache! 

I have to say the back view of this little spiderman as he was running from house to house 

was pretty cute too!

 Here are the kids with their cousins Carter & Bennett (Winnie the Pooh & Tigger) 

Carter looks adorable posing the picture and Bennett just looks mystified by the 

crazy angry ninja standing next to him!

Here's Mason talking about his fun time trick or treating...

The beautiful colors of fall...

Its been a while since we've taken some good pictures of the kids. 

And what better time than in October with all the fall colors.  

We don't have a fancy camera and so these pictures are just simple shots to 

hopefully give you and idea of the beautiful day it was. 

 The kids were in heaven and had so much fun while we took the pictures!

 I think they were a little disappointed that we didn't do more hiking and exploring.

 We forgot to do up his zipper! Whoops!

 

 This one was a little less enthusiastic. It was a little tough to help Ellie realize we 

needed to keep her white shirt clean.

 Super happy kiddos

 Mike actually let me take some pictures... yippee

 Mason was loving the grass, the leaves, the trees, the dirt, pretty much everything!

 Ellie and Daddy

 Mason is really good at giving BIG JUICY kisses!

 And he always insists on getting one in return!

The Power of Positive Thinking

I came across this video recently that I wanted to share. Shawn Anchor really says it well the way
positive thinking can bring happiness into our lives.... and its pretty funny too

A special welcome to LUCY JAYNE, our new little neice

We had so much fun visiting my sister JaNae yesterday.  She introduced us to her little baby girl,

Lucy Jayne 

Here's some cute pictures to celebrate her arrival.

We are so happy for JaNae and Wayne and 

can't wait til we get to see Lucy again! 

You would never know this is JaNae's first baby. She is a total natural!

Look at that adorable face!

She has such a cute smile with those huge dimples

She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. She is soo much fun to hold!

She is one seriously adorable baby! Congratulations JaNae & Wayne!