"Don't eat it all mommy!"

That was Reece's FIRST FIVE-WORD (technically six because of the contraction in there) SENTENCE!!! This was said after coming home from our final trick-or-treating excursion of the day - Reece looked up at the GINORMOUS mound of candy on the counter. We had a busy day................first Whitney was the helper mom in Lucas' preschool class http://blogs.oaisd.org/resserver.php?blogId=371&resource=P1010272.JPG during the morning while Jackson and Reece played with Grandma Meyers. After picking up the little boys we headed home for lunch and naps. We headed back up to Tim's work to collect candy for an hour. Did I mention Reece HATES masks??? We grabbed a pizza and rushed home to be greeted by trick-or-treaters at our porch! So, skip the "healthy" dinner boys and eat some candy on the street :) Papa Gator and Tim took the oldest two out to gather more treats in our neighborhood. We piled all back into the minivan to show off costumes to Grandpa and Grandma Meyers before they headed off to dance lessons for the evening. We even made it to Grandma Holden's house (which Praise the Lord is 2 seconds from G & G Meyers!). It was an insane night, but lots of fun!!! It was a bit slower passing out candy as the weather could have cooperated better, but the kiddos had a ball. It's nice to hear the sound of the exhaust fans at the days end (it puts them all to sleep - by the way: we're on our 3rd exhaust fan in the master bath! - maybe static on the radio is cheaper??). Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween however you celebrated (or did not celebrate - sorry erin!). Thanks to Missy on the costume for our tank of a child - it was a hit!



And here are the pix in reverse order.......................







Pix @ Grandma Holden's




Jackson LOVES masks (unlike his brother)





Pix @ G&G Meyers'






Pix @ our house with Papa Gator and Sue







Pix @ Daddy's work

Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do..............

Now that you all have the COPS theme song in your head, I'll explain - this post title is NOT referring to any of the boys in our family, but instead a girl! Yes, we had the cops at our house Friday evening (due to a complaint from one of our anonymous neighbors). The officer said, "We had a call at 4:30......." and I immediately thought, "Crap, did one of my boys call 911 again?" (just for the record, 911 does work when your phone is locked) ...................about a barking dog (okay what a relief! my kids weren't prank calling the authorities, my dog was just being herself). I asked who had reported us (are we not approachable, understanding neighbors?). Anyway, she asked me if we had a bark collar (to which I answered, "no" - obviously if we did you wouldn't be here now, would you officer? - didn't say that last line out loud). Then she said that the neighbor wanted them (the officers) to talk to us and left :) I'm sure they just love those peskey little calls :) Those are some good tax dollars at work. It's funny how we made it through our irresponsible years as teens and twentysomethings WITHOUT the cops intervening in our lives (okay, Tim, you had a few traffic violations - and I only had 2 - not that we're keeping score :) and now that we are parents, they come hunting us down :) Sadly so, that was about the extent of excitement this weekend.



I did clip 60 nails last night! PEZ candy work absolute wonders for getting a squirmy 2 year old to sit still for his nails to get trimmed.



We gutted two pumpkins tonight as well - only got one carved as the kiddos had to get to bed. Here are a few photos (*tip: click on the slideshow and hover the mouse over a single picture for captions!) highlighting the adventure.......

Experimenting

WOW! The possibilities are endless with technology. I had fun creating the slide show at the top of our blog last night (instead of sleeping :) oops!). If you want to add one of these to your blog, check out www.slide.com for more details. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Interested in a good fall wine? We picked up a bottle of Leelanau Cellars' "Witches' Brew" last year on our trip to Traverse City in celebration of Tim's 30th birthday. I just tried it the other night and was satisfied with it's unique taste (best served warm). It's also on sale at Meijer this week for $4/bottle. Try it out! Happy Fall!!!

New technology!

If you've checked out the blog recently, you've probably noticed me editing it a bit (sorry Kates, you'll have to repost your pic to my guestbook). I stumbled upon a fun website (thanks to Missy) www.slide.com. It allows you to create slideshows, guestbooks, and other fun stuff to add to your website. It took me some rearranging to get my guestbook into a semi-permanent position on my blog (instead of just a "post"). There were so many fun "skins" to pick from that it was hard to choose. As a mother of 3 boys I opted for the camo (though it's not as aesthetically pleasing as others :) Erin, they even had designer purse skins! So, what are you waiting for?!! Go ahead and add your photos, videos, etc. to my guestbook and enjoy!
PS - I will try to post some pix again - can I use "I've been super busy!" as an excuse? :)

"You Can't Spank a Kid in a Snowsuit & Other Lessons on Parenting"

If you're wondering where this title is leading..............I've made history again! I've done the unthinkable in "my" history - I read a book. No, not that I don't read, or am incapable of, I've just never found a niche in picking up a good read and emerging my self for hours. I never liked reading as a child when it was required in elementary school for book reports. I did learn to tolerate the feat in college when my grades and money (well, half being my parents' money) depended on it. As a parent, though, I do enjoy getting new perspectives on parenting. At a recent second hand sale this past weekend, I picked up this book for fifty cents figuring if I got anything out of it, it was worth the buy. Later did I realize it was a parenting book with scriptural references (did I mention it had me in tears laughing at some excerpts?). The title of the book is "You Can't Spank a Kid in a Snowsuit" by Bruce Howard. You can find it used on http://www.amazon.com/ for a penny! It is a bit older (1994) but is a great "pick-me-up." I read it in a day and a half (while feeding Jackson) and I'm sure you avid readers could accomplish the task in a couple hours. Here's just an excerpt from the book:

After listening to his six year old explain that his brother made him pick a lock on the family vehicle (and in so doing broke the lock)

"Frustration began to build. I went on to ask one of those amazingly dumb questions that parents have asked since the beginning of time and will go on asking for generations to come. 'Why did you do that?' If you're smiling right now, it's because you've been there. You too have asked this dumb question. It's dumb because there is no real answer, and it wouldn't do a bit of good even if there was. It's just that in the face of the absurd and irrational, we have a deep longing to somehow make sense out of a senseless situation. We need to know why these things happen................................Further reflection on this throughout the remainder of the evening helped me understand something of how my heavenly Father feels when I come to him, confessing my mistakes. All too often I have someone else to blame, like Adam in Genesis 3, who said, 'It's that woman you gave me.' Or like Eve: 'It's that serpent's fault.'.............................I know how I felt when my son tried to duck his responsibility. I also know how i felt when I saw and understood his genuine remorse for his mistake. It did turn out to be one of those golden teachable moments that you read about in parenting books. It was, however, my heavenly Father who did the teaching, and in the end, it was I who was instructed."

Did I learn from this lesson?

Apparently NOT! Last night we picked pumpkins from a local patch and Lucas "discovered" the insides of one (not on purpose and NOT with his hand - did I mention it was a ROTTEN pumpkin?). After arriving home and changing his clothes, I asked him the inevitable, "Why did you put your foot on that pumpkin?" His reply was, "I wanted to stand on it like dad had been doing." Maybe DAD needs to do the learning................I asked Tim if this was true. Tim's reply was, "Yes, I was going around the patch stepping/crushing rotten pumpkins every so often." I guess we all learned from that situation :)

Here are a few more of the evening gathering pumpkins - ENJOY!!!

Reece finding just the right pumpkin.

Can Reece pull a load of 71 pounds of pumpkins? And, if you look closely you can see the rotten pumpkin just to the right of Reece's head that Lucas submerged his shoe in :)

Just me and the boys

Jackson's first words

This is the first video I've captured since the hospital...it's been too long. I'm quite ecstatic I've finally accomplished this video posting thing, despite it being 2am! Better get some shut eye before the kiddos get me up in less than 6hrs! Enjoy!!!

Baby Gap is to Old Navy as Gymboree is to Crazy 8's

If you love Gymboree clothing (but not their prices) then check out their newest concept, Crazy 8's at http://www.crazy8.com/index.jsp . I just saw an ad for them in my new American Baby magazine tonight and just had to research it online. They offer Gymboree inspired children's clothing at a fraction of the cost. It looks like their current promotion is free shipping! They are opening retail stores across the nation, but nothing closer than New Jersey and New York right now. Check it out!!!

BLOG THIS MOM!!!

This would be Jackson's "latest and greatest" accomplishment - sticking out his long, skinny, KISS tongue - check out the length of that thing! He just started doing this today and gets such a reaction from us when he does. Enjoy!

Count your blessings..........

The first step in dealing with an addiction is admitting you have a problem, right???? Okay, so my addiction is reading others' blogs (I guess it's not really a problem). I get drawn in by the cute posts of little kiddos. In reading some of my friends' friends' blogs this evening I was awakened to how blessed I am. Here are just a few of my undeserved blessings.......

1. Our Creator (and the freedom we enjoy living in this country to worship Him)

2. Three happy, healthy, beautiful boys

3. My loving, giving, selfless husband who's an awesome father to his children

4. Family

5. Friends

6. Church family

7. Health

8. Prayers from others

9. My husband's employment

10. Our pets

11. Our home (and too many other material things to mention)

May God bless you and make you a blessing to others!