Bananas over Halloween

Around here trick or treating starts at 3 and ends at 7pm city wide. We really enjoyed the early trick or treating time. It was still light outside so we could see everyone. Plus since we got to start about 2 hours early kept me from answering the question "Is it time yet to go trick or treating" 246 times.

This year my boys were a monkey and a banana.

It was also freezing.

We went trick or treating with our neighbors.

 

 

 

Wild Man has repeatedly stated that he loves Halloween.

After trick or treating we went over to our neighbors house and waited to hand out the candy to the rest of the neighborhood.

Every time the doorbell rang, Wild Man would drop what ever he was doing and yell. "Another customer is here!"

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This Halloween was a little bittersweet for me.

Exactly 2 years ago today, Wild Man wore the same monkey costume.

He was also sick.

I am sad because on this day 2 years ago was the last day Wild Man was an only child.

Tomorrow my sweet little Romeo turns 2.

It's payback time

As early as I could remember my mom would remind me about a time that I embarrassed her to no end.

I was 4 and my mom was preggers with my first sibling.

I saw a man that had a big belly.

In the mind of a 4 year old, I thought he was pregnant.

So I then said in my not so quiet voice, "Mom, look that man has a baby in his belly too!"

When Wild Man first started talking I knew the day would come where it would be my turn to get embarrassed by the comments that were said by my children.

So mom, you will be happy to hear that my payback has begun.

On Tuesdays we go to our church for Bible Study. This study that we are doing we study James for about an hour and then we join other groups and then have an aerobics class together.

Because I know that there will be sweating involved I do not where my best clothes. I usually wear some knit pants and a t-shirt. Coincidently I also wear a t-shirt to bed... and knit pants.

I am sure you see where this is going.

I went to pick Wild Man up from his class and he was so happy to see me and in his not so quiet 3 year old excited voice, he said, "Mom, you are wearing you pajamas to church. You are so silly."and just in case no one heard him he kept repeating it while also asking, "Why are you still wearing your pajamas?"

Lovely.

Then lets move on the sweet little Romeo.

As we were walking into the very quiet library my sweet and loving little Romeo... passed gas.

Very loudly.

Then my sweet boy looked up at me and also in his not so quiet sweet voice that was so proud announced his deed to anyone that was around, "TOOT!"

He was smiling so big when he said it to.

And this is only the beginning of the strange situations my boys will put me in. Lord help me!

Our new den...hopefully

The Lettered Cottage is a blog that I have been reading for a while.

She is a genius when it comes to decorating on a budget and make it look like a million bucks. Just be prepared to be addicted to her blog.

Don't believe me check out this link to her kitchen before and after. well really during. She is always working on it. Just when I think it is done, she does something else and it looks like it should have always been there.

Anyways, I got a consultation from her that I am really pleased with... Mr. Genius is not so pleased with it because it means another project is in the works.

So would you like to see what another project will be?

Here is what she proposed for the den above the mantel.

I can say that I am not a fan of the bird pictures. But the idea of the pictures on the side of the mantel is great. She thinks to put beadboard over the mantel with decorative molding around it. Along with crown molding...but to me that is a given. We were already planning on doing that.

Then for the crazy shelves in the room she thinks we should paint it all white except for the counter top and we would keep that the brown that it is. But we should also put beadboard wallpaper on the back of the cabinets. Just to do something a little different I may paint the beadboard the same color of the walls. But we see how ambicious I am that day. Also we will be adding two more shelves above the TV. Why didn't I think of that? She is so good.

Yes I sent her pictures with Wild Man in them. Because, I am weak and he is strong. In Wild Man's defense any time other then this time that a camera has been out it was usually to take a picture of him and I decided not to have a fight with a 3 year old. I was too tired just trying to clean up for the pictures, and simultaneously teaching about the letter F.  So I either sent a picture of a messy house or one with my son in it. You can see which one I chose.

She also suggested I change around my pictures on this wall. What do you guys think?

Another project that we are wanting to do is a board and batton in the entry way, the staircase, and the dining room. I really like this:

Poor Mr. Genius. 

Fall Leaves

When I was little I remember dad rake a big pile of leaves that would take it about an hour to do and then we would jump into them, build forts out of them or do whatever us kiddos would think up to do. Then when we were done, we would go inside eat a snack or watch tv and the leaves just magically raked themselves back into a pile.

I never gave it a thought about what happen to the leaves after we were done.

Then I became a parent. And I may not be the one raking the leaves, but I am the one watching the leaves being raked. And the one to encourage the one that is raking the leaves to continue to do so. 

At our TN house, we didn't have trees that dropped a significant amount of leaves that was worth raking, but at this house we do.

I was so exciting about letting the boys play in the leaves, and I am sure that Mr. Genius will be just as excited when the boys can be the ones to rake the leaves.

 

Here is Romeo saying cheese while admiring his leaf that he kept calling a spoon.

 

Then our weather man indicated rain, so we went inside.

 

(he hates it when rain hits his head)

So we went inside to cut open a pumpkin.

This was the only time Wild Man put his hand in the pumpkin guts. He thought is was gross.

But of course sticking your finger up your nose all day and showing off your treasures is not gross.

Boys are so complicated.

No fear

After a week of uncooperative children and a lot of kicking a screaming (I promise I will work on that) my brain had become mush. I gave up all hope of trying to entertain my little darlings. So we went to a gymnastics place that had an open gym time.

It was awesome!

I am sure we will be there a lot this winter.

I will have to say that my little Romeo was a spectical. All the moms there were in Aw of his fearlessness.

First they had this trapeze bar that swung over a pit of foam.


Wild Man ran straight for it.

And since little bro has to do whatever big bro does...

Sorry for the blurry picture, phones are not meant to take action shots.


Romeo just smiled as big as he ever had and giggle the whole time. While I stood behind him wondering if the foam could hold my weight when I needed to jump and save him.

He did great getting through all the foam.

Maybe we should make one of these in the basement.

But Romeo's next feat was even more amazing.

What is a little hard to tell by the picture is how tall the stand that Romeo was on.


It came to my shoulders.


Then the foam was lower then the floor I was standing on.


The reason he doesn't look happy is because he wanted me to stand right next to him and count to 3.


Not take a picture of my incredibly daring offspring.


The teenage years are now that much more scary for me.

Flying Solo

Mr. Genius left for DC Monday afternoon and will be back Friday afternoon.


We are counting down the hours.


On Monday the boys went on strike.


No Daddy, No naps.


That night there was a pizza party through the city that we were signed up for.


Against my better judgement I went anyways.


Wild Man threw 3 beautiful fits. I lost count of how many Romeo threw.


The magician even felt pity for me and tried to distract the boys... during his act.


This would be another time that I am glad that we do not know anyone in our area yet.


Tuesday started good. The boys actually slept in til close to 7! and that's when the good day started and ended.


We went to church for Bible Study and the boys go to Kid Zone (childcare).


I had a great time of fellowship with some wonderful Godly women. Lord knows I need it in order to get through the rest of that week let alone the next hour.


When I went to pick Wild Man up, he refused to leave. Not because he wanted to stay and play, he was sitting in a chair and refused to get up. So I decided to get Romeo and then bring the car up to the door. Good thing because, while I was gone one of the teachers couldn't conveince him to get out of the chair, so she just dragged the chair to the door.


As you can imagine this infuriated Wild Man even more.


After a few minutes of trying to calm him down and talk to him I ended up just picking up this kicking and screaming 3 year old and ran out the door. The teachers were all shaking their heads knowing I had a long week ahead of me.


This day after an hour of fighting it Romeo finally took a nap and Wild Man still refused to.


The rest of the day was pretty much a battle.


Today I woke up and rather then prayed for strength to get through this day, I begged for it.


I decided to go to outdoor museum since it was a pretty day. Thought it would be a good idea for the boys to run around and get some energy out.



Long story short, we left early.


The good news...an hour and a half after first putting Wild Man down for his nap and after taking away all the toys in his room he finally took a much needed nap.


Needless to say I am tired.

I have informed Mr. Genius that when Saturday rolls around, he may not see me. I do not know where I will be but it will be somewhere...alone.

E to the Extreme

So this week at school we were learning about the letter Ee.

 

On Monday we learned about Eggs.

We even had an egg race where we pushed plastic Easter eggs with our noses to the finish line.

I thought about making them push it with their ears or elbows to stick with the E theme, but that was a little too much for them.

Then on Wednesday, we learned about Elephants. We walked like elephants and

played soccer like an elephant.

On Friday I was planning on having a lessons on Eyes. I was going to even make up and eye chart.

Instead we actually took Wild Man to the eye doctor.

Because I am that dedicated to teaching my children.

Nope.

Not really.

Instead when you mix one of these,

and a precocious 3 year old that decided we wanted to exercise.

You get this.

The bar of the resistance band smacked him right in the eye.

Right after it happened, there was blood in his pupil. But the next day it went away.

Then his pupil was more dilated then his other eye.

Then we noticed that his pupil was oblong.

So off to the pediatric optomologist.

On the bright side he did get to see an eye chart and they couldn't find any blood in his eye.

The bad part is that because he did have blood in the pupil right after it happened they are treating him as though he has hyphema for fear that his eye may rupture.

So what that means is that we have to keep him as still as possible. No jumping, running, screaming, crying, bending over, or just getting excited for that matter.

Is it bad that I laughed after they explained that to me?

Have they been around a 3 year old...ever?

Now I should let you know that, Wild Man did this Tuesday night while Mr. Genius and I were cleaning up dinner. Between Wednesday and Friday, Wild Man has jumped off of every flat surface in this house and I do not think it is in Wild Man's make up to walk. He only runs. There have been screams of joy and screams when we are unhappy with not being able to eat chocolate all the live long day.

We are doing are ever loving best to be cautious with him and telling him to walk that I will pick things up for him, and that we talk quietly.

Then after naptime I went to get him out of bed and he was jumping on and off his bed.

So far no rupture, but we keep his dressed as a pirate.

 While I was typing this blog Romeo walked up and touched the infamous band and Wild Man shouted;

"No, don't touch! I hurt myself with that!"

At least we learned something from this ordeal.

We've been Boo'd!

Last night while we were getting ready to put the boys to sleep and get some halfway decent clothes on to go out to eat for our anniversary then someone rang our doorbell.

Mr. Genius went to the door to see noone but two cute little bags of goodies and a paper that said:

BOO!

To our good neighbors on our street.

Our homes' locations made us meet.

You now have been boo'd, but who could it be?

We'll never tell, it is a secret, you see.

We placed these goodies for you and yours.

Then we ran fast, after knocking the door!

Happy Halloween!

Place this boo on your front door

and make sure you have boo'd two neighbors of yours!

Today the boys and I went to the dollar store to pick out some fun treats to the neighbors we will boo tonight!

We did this in our old neighborhood but this year Wild Man noticed and can't wait til we can boo two friends tonight.

Wild Man has been asking constantly if it is dark enough to boo our friends, and he has been carrying the bag ever since he got up from his nap.

If this isn't already started in your neighborhood, you should start it.

It is fun, and something new to break up the day a little bit.

You can go to http://www.myfolsom.com/boo/ and print out the signs.

7 Years ago today..

After almost four years of dating (and me waiting impatiently), two young kids got hitched.

 

 Sometimes I look at these pictures and think, "These kids have no idea what they are getting themselves into."

 But I wouldn't change a thing.

While Matt and I were dating we would always get comments about how young we looked. So young in fact that when we were graduated from college and earning a living. We would get carded at the movies because they didn't think we looked 18. I never understood that until I ran across this picture.

I think they were being nice just thinking we looked 18! We looked 16 at best.

Oh the things I would do to not have birthing hips and bags under my eyes.

Happy Anniversery Honey!

Thanks for putting up with me all these years. Can't wait to see what we are up to in the next 7 years.

I love you!

We all survived and I think we still love each other.

 Everyone has come and gone. And we are all having withdraws of seeing people other then ourselves in the morning.

We were a little cramped in the house, but we survived.

Griffin resorted to trying to find some privacy in the cabinets.

Wild Man, who decided to give Griffin the nick name Griffiny, thought he would introduce Griffin into the world of Mickey Mouse on the computer.

On Monday it was sunny and beautiful and 45 degrees. Warm to the people in the north and freezing to us southern folk. We opted for some indoor activity so we can stay warm. We went to a Jump place so the kids could get their energy out and we can stay warm. Apparently we were the only people who thought that it was cold because we were the only people there. Which is what I think helped Romeo actually have the courage to jump on one of the inflatables. This is amazing since just 6 months ago I couldn't be holding him and touch an inflatable with out cries of hysteria.

The next day we thought we would go to a pumpkin patch and get some cute pictures. The boys didn't like that idea so much.

 

They were not happy about being stuck in the wagon.

They just wanted to run in the puddles.

 We then drove into the city to a great apartment.

Just look at our view!

 

We were on the 30th floor. Mom and Dad got the apartment for us and this is ironic because mom hates heights. She wouldn't come within 10 feet of the windows. So thanks mom and dad for the apartment and for facing your fears.

On the drive there we witnessed a miracle.

 sorry for the small picture mom emailed it to me and my tech support just went to sleep. So this will have to do.

All the boys feel asleep! Yeah!

After they got a quick snooze in we went to the zoo.

Wild Man was so excited.

We went to the aquarium, where the boys got to pretend to be penguins.

Poor Eli this week was a little too much excitement for him.

And of course we had to get some of the local pizza.

I swear, this child eats as though every meal will be his last. Atleast he is polite about it.

We also went on a carriage ride and the Children's museum. We had a great time, and can't wait to come down at Thanksgiving to see everyone again!

Oh, and friends this is what a laundry room looks like after a week full of fun and vacationing from washing clothes.

 

Playin with Griffinie

We are having lots of fun with JJ, Pop, Uncy Andy, Aunt Kat, and Griffin which Conner has decided to call Griffinie.

Can't wait to see Reid, Jenny, and Eli tomorrow!

Visitors, visitors, and more visitors

There are a couple of reasons I haven't been able to post much lately.

One is because of Homeschooling.

We are doing school 3 times a week. Conner really likes it and some how he is actually learning stuff. This is just taking a lot of work at night to prepare and research what we can do for school.

By the way the above picture is Conner playing in shaving cream. We practice writing our numbers and letter in it, but of course being the true boy that he is. It quickly turned from making letters to cars that needed to bulldoze through the "snow". But it worked for a minute.

Also by changing my blog takes a lot of work. I am going through each post and having to change all the names. That took a while, I think I am done but I am going to double check.

We have been blessed to have lots of family come to visit.

First Matt's sweet grandmother visited us for 5 days. 

Then Matt's parents visited us the next weekend. We had a fun time with them. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures. Sorry Nana and Paw-paw. We had a great time while you were here.

Tomorrow my parents, both my brother's and their wives and boys will be staying with us for a week.

All in our house.

That will be 12 people.

Hopefully we will all still love each other afterwards.

I will try to remember to take pictures this time. If I don't remember I am sure someone else will take some that I can copy.