Halloween

This year has been a bit of a doozy... first off, Lilia was sick on Friday. Poor kid. She missed her Halloween party at school. The interesting part? She missed it last year for the same reason. And she got sick the year before that right after she did the trunk or treat but before we could take her around the neighborhood... Quite the odd coincidence, doncha think?

Luckily she was feeling fine by Friday night so we decided she would be fine to go trick or treating over the weekend.

Second, this was Matthew's first Halloween. YAY! But due to him being sick with an ear infection and a cold he sat out most of the night... BOO! I took him trunk or treating (where he slept in the car almost the entire time). But decided to not take him around the neighborhood. Mostly due to all the RAIN.

Lilia was Cinderella. She is so darn cute! She loved the dress I got her. Lacey was a vampire bat. The costume had wings, a headband with ears, a tutu, tights, and little fingerless gloves. She looked super cute, but refused to say she was a bat. If you ask her she was "a black Tinkerbell!" Matthew was a vampire. I was gonna paint his head to have the classic widows peak black hair, but decided against it when we saw the rain and chose to keep him home.

The picture of the kids for trunk or treating...

The trunk or treat was quite the ordeal with the weather being so bleak. There were a lot of people there, yet many neighbors I didn't see. So we went home and I made some totally delicious stew for dinner. WHILE I was making the stew, Lacey realized she needed to go potty- NOW. Unfortunately, she couldn't get her tights and tutu off in time and had an accident on the bathroom floor. All over her costume. :S Not two minutes later, while I was attending to Lacey, Matthew crawled into the kitchen and decided to go for a swim (or sit) in the dog's water dish. He was SOAKED from the waist down. Good grief! So Matthew was stripped down to nothing but his shoes and a diaper, and was dubbed "the modest streaker." (Or maybe I was too lazy to re-dress him- you may never know...) For Lacey, we decided to just pull out one of the dress up dresses, and sent her as "Sleeping Beauty." She wore a pull up this time. :) I did get a picture of my two youngest miscreants, but my camera is dead. I'll update this with pictures once it's charged.

I took the girls for the first half of the neighborhood. Lilia had a great time, except for the need to stop for a potty break... Lacey was not faring so well. When we finished the "top loop" of our neighborhood, I took the girls home so Lil could go potty, and then I convinced a frozen wet Lacey to stay with me and Matthew while Joe took Lil back out to finish the "bottom half" of the 'hood. All in all, a crazy hectic night. We didn't quite give out all our candy this year, but I totally blame the weather and the fact that Halloween is really on Sunday so we may get a few stragglers tomorrow night.

To give you an idea of how much candy we go through in this neighborhood...

For the trunk or treat I gave out a REALLY large bag of Smarties, and about 3 large bags of Livesavers.

For trick or treating we gave out:

1 bag of Twix

1 bag of Snickers

1 bag of Almond Joys

1 bag of M&M's and Skittles

1 bag of Baby Ruths

1 bag of Crunch Bars

1 bag of Starbursts AND

1 bag of Dove milk chocolates

I would say of all of that we have about 1 bag of candy total left... (we always save the best candy to be handed out last, can you tell?)

How was YOUR Halloween?

Talent comes in MANY forms...

I read a blog a few days back that made me smile...

For those not in the mood to check out the link it was all about talents. Lemme sum up for ya! Everyone is blessed with talents. Some of these talents are musical (be it piano, vocal, or some other instrument). Some are physical (like sports). Others are blessed with talents for teaching, or learning, or speaking, etc.

Take my sweet husband for example. He is overly blessed (in my opinion). Not only is he a computer WHIZ. But he is smart. As in straight A's with no effort, smart. He can play almost any sport well (not golf- he sucks at golf). He can look at an item, de-construct it in his head, and know how to fix it (like garbage disposals and the likes). He is quite the handy man (he has framed our basement, laid all the electrical, and put up all the sheet rock with only a few hints and tips from professionals), and he can play a musical instrument! The man is AMAZING!

When asked about my talents I usually draw a blank. I don't necessarily feel like I am all that talented when it comes to music. I mean, I can sing, but not solo. I used to play an instrument, but not anymore. I have absolutely NO talent in sports. I guess I am marginally blessed in the area of learning. I have a pretty good memory, and did well in school without too much effort. But still- no common talent really stuck out for me. But here's the truth of it... no one said talents had to be so cut and dry? I have talents! For example:

1. I can pick things up with my toes. Now some don't see this as a talent. I beg to differ... ever have a fussy baby in your arms, you are on the phone trying to take a message and you drop the pen? TOTALLY easier to use your toes to get the pen than to bend over with the phone on your shoulder and a 20 pound child on your hip.

2. I can read in the car. I am the family entertainer because on long car trips I will pull out a book and read to the fam. (Ask me what book I am gonna read for our drive to Disneyland in December... go on, ask! It's fantastic!) I have this insane ability to not get car sick. I lose my voice before I lose my cookies! :) (And yet- a shaky camera scene in a movie makes me motion sick- go figure!)

3. I can wake up seconds before my children. This one is odd but I swear to it! I am RARELY woken up by my kids. I almost always find myself wide awake just a mere minute or so before they start getting up. When my kids are sick, it's nice to be alert when that first child makes a mad dash for the bathroom...

4. Along those same lines I have this insane ability to wake my kids from their naps by announcing publicly that they are still asleep. Yup- every time I comment to someone that my kids are all asleep, they slowly trickle from their beds all bleary eyed and confused... :) (Okay- maybe this one isn't a talent so much as a curse, but whatev!)

5. I make good chili. Just ask Joe. He says its better than his mom's... (shh- don't tell her!) It's the ONLY dish he says that about. And I will take claim to it! YAY! I make SOMETHING better than my awesome cook of a mother in law! :)

6. I can quote movie lines like nobody's business! Problem is, I don't always remember what movie it is I am quoting... That's when it's nice to have Joe around. He can usually supply me with the movie title. Unless it's Disney. Though I KNOW when I am quoting Disney...

7. I have this THING with numbers... I remember my first phone number. I remember my bank account from when I was 14 and opened my first account. Heck I remember all of my phone numbers. And most of my friends phone numbers from my childhood... If I do struggle with the number all I need is the first two or three digits and then it floods right back.

8. I make cute kids. Yup- takes a BUNCH of talent to create the cuteness that has come outta me in the form of three adorable children. Now if only I made cute, PERFECTLY-OBEDIENT-AND-WELL-BEHAVED-AT-ALL-TIMES kids... THAT would be a true talent!

9. I can pack the car for a camping trip. This is a killer skill when you have as little trunk space as I do. Seriously! I am proud of my puzzle piecing abilities!

How about you?! Feel free to post a blog with your awesome talents, I would LOVE to read it!

Random Goodness (and maybe a touch of naughtiness)

Oh how I love my children! I love them when they are cute- when they are silly, when they are sleeping, and especially when they are naughty. Heaven knows they keep me busy!

Lil-isms:

Her latest favorite sayings:

"What the heck?!" Always used properly- if not a little too often. Last night she was reading a school book about silkworms and it mentioned that when silkworms become silk moths they don't eat, and eventually die (odd fact, but true) and she said, "They don't EAT?! What the HECK!?"

"That's LAME" Don't you just love all the wonderful sayings children bring home from school?

Lilia is loving 1st Grade. She is also a natural at gymnastics. She is kicking some royal booty in her gymnastics class! She loves her teacher and loves being in the same class as one of her best friends (Kyle). In gymnastics she says her favorite thing is the bars (the uneven bars) and the vault. Unfortunately she practices the vault flips at home on our couch... Not good. :S

Lace-isms:

Favorite sayings: "I nuh-no" (I don't know). Anytime I catch her doing something she probably ought not be doing I will ask, "What are you doing?" and she will look at me, ring her hands and say "I nuh-no..." with a very sad kind of lilt in her voice. It's pretty cute.

"Maffew" and "she" she is quick to call her baby brother a she. "Mom- Maffew is awake! She is awake!"

"kuh-zurt" as in my favorite kuh-zurt is ice cream. She doesn't get to eat kuh-zurt until her dinner is finished. She is too cute!

Lacey has lately gotten herself in all sorts of trouble due to her artistic tendencies. She was supposed to be taking a nap at my mothers house a few weeks ago. When Grandma went to check on her she found a tube of hydrocortizone cream spread across her carpet (finger painting) and Lace had taken a ball point pen to Grandma's newly painted dresser... we never did get all the ink off and now we have to sand and repaint the drawers. And then there is last night... She was supposed to be sleeping (again). And eventually she really did sleep... but when I went in to check on her and her sister, this is what I found.

And then I found MORE this morning in the daylight... though I think this is the work of the older sister... the letters are too neat to be the writing of a 3 year old. And besides, the equasion is not something Lacey would know how to put in order...

Ugh children... It's a good thing they are so darn cute!

Matt-isms:

Favorite sayings: "uh daa!" or "uh daa?" Like the other day when I was nursing him and he tooted. He stopped nursing, sat up said, "uh daa?" and then went back to eating... it was pretty cute!

I commented to someone the other day how I was amazed that Matthew had yet to fall asleep in odd places. I have many pictures of Lil and Lace asleep in high chairs and bouncers, but Matthew only ever sleeps in his crib. Sure enough, the next day he fell asleep in the bouncer, then the day after that he fell asleep in his high chair... I guess I spoke too soon!

Randomness...

It blows my mind that I can give Lacey a fruit roll up, or an ice cream and then put cheerios in front of Matthew and she will STILL ignore her treat to eat his cheerios.

Nectarines are likely the best fruit ever created and I wish I could live in a place that grew them year round... Anyone know of a place that does?

Joe and I are taking our kids to DISNEYLAND for our 10 year anniversary and I am SO EXCITED!

Lilia has an insane fear of automatic toilets. Seriously petrified.

When I read in a fantastically cool book about Disneyland that ALL the DL toilets are automatic (yes, there is actually a book so detailed about DL that it talks about their toilets) I told Lilia and she said, "What the HECK?! That is LAME!" and then pouted about it. I asked if we should cancel the trip and not go because the toilets were automatic and she actually seemed to WANT to do that! Ca-RAZY!

My son has this amazingly cute outfit on today and I can't stop looking at him and thinking that he has GOT to be the worlds cutest little boy ever. And I really do believe that. He is so stinkin' handsome. And he has such a cute little smile, and such a funny little crawl. I could watch him all day and not get tired of him.

Lilia was playing with her daddy's tennis racket last night and totally biffed Lacey in the FACE with it! Poor Lacey has this monster goose egg on her head now. It's bright blue. I took a picture.

My mom and my aunt got in trouble as children for playing with some blue eggs they found in their chicken coops as children. It still makes my grandpa mad to think about it.

Over the last 6 years or so, my cousins send my mom random blue eggs (like marble eggs or easter eggs) as a joke. I think I will give my mom or my aunt the picture of the blue goose egg on Lacey's head...

Lilia is such a smart kid. She is amazingly cool! Tonight she was rattling off all of our birthdays and whose birthday comes first in the year and whose is last, etc. Joe looked at her and said, "I am glad you know the dates, then I don't have to remember- I can ask you!" Lilia looked at Joe and said, "Dad- you aren't so smart!" (I seriously didn't expect to hear THAT until she was in high school!)