Halloween Photos

We just got back from trick or treating. The kids had so much fun. The weather wasn't so bad either. Chilly, but not windy. We even met a couple kids from the neighborhood who are in Ella's class. One girl came right up to Ella and gave her a big hug. Very nice kids.

We just left the bowl on the front step and when we got back there was so much left!! I've instructed Zan and Ella to give handfuls to anyone else that comes to the door. I don't need all that candy laying around the house.

Here are all the pictures that I have. Notice the cute pumpkins too! Sammy and my pumpkin is the bat and the other one is Zan and Ella's.

Candy Day...er...I Mean Halloween!!!

I dug out all the candy from the pantry. There was only one bag that had been previously opened and only a few pieces missing. I was very good this year! (At least before Halloween.)

We took the kids trick or treating at Zan's work last night. They had a lot of fun. Sam was really getting the hang of this candy thing. If they left the bowl of candy down by him he would just keep putting more and more into his bag. Needless to say we have a ton of candy just from his office.

Since we're going to take the kids out around the neighborhood I've decided to leave a bowl of candy on the front step. The reason is twofold.... First I don't want to be left with bags and bags of candy. Second I don't want the kids to miss out. We shouldn't be gone that long and then we can come back and finish handing it out ourselves.

I haven't gotten a photo of the kids in their costumes yet, but let me tell you they were so cute last night. Sam's costume is so round and looks so cute. Ella's is great. Last night they were just goofing off waiting for Zan to pack up his stuff and Ella fell down on the ground. Sam proceeded to go jump on her and then practically bounced off and landed on the ground. They are pretty spill proof in their costumes. He has a hard time getting up off the ground with his costume and pretty much waddles around in it. Way too cute! I'll get pictures up tonight of them, don't worry.

Here's a picture of them waiting for the pumpkins to warm up before we carved them. (More like Zan and I carved them while they ran around the room telling us to hurry up.) They turned out very nice and I'll try to get a picture of them too.













My temptations!!! Sam is sleeping and Zan and Ella are at swimming lessons. I have been very good about not just digging in. It's been very hard. I can hear the bowls calling me!!!

"Blog Worthy"

Almost every morning I have this window of time where Ella has left for school and Sam is still sleeping where I come on the computer and do a little looking around. Often times I think of updating the blog. After all this would be a perfectly good time to do that without hearing screaming ~playing~ downstairs or something.

Unfortunately I don't always have something that I feel is interesting enough to post about. Who knows, maybe to other people it's interesting to hear about all of my previous days accomplishments.

But I often wonder if you want to hear that I hung up a picture in our hallway yesterday. Or that I moved these really large boxes out of the family room into the basement. I even organized our bills/mail/receipts in the office so they are easier to find.

To me these things just aren't blog worthy. I had the heating guy out to fix the vent in Ella's room so that it isn't so cold in there. That might be a little more blog worthy because it's keeping my child warm. :)

I do try to post something everyday to keep it interesting, but I often fail at finding something that is interesting to write about. Maybe I should start watching some news shows and comment on politics or other news worthy items. But I really don't want to debate most issues.

If there's anything you'd like to see on here let me know!

Otherwise I'll have great photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes very soon. We're going trick or treating at Zan's office later today. Ella's been teaching Sam how to say "trick or treat". It's very cute!!!

Wordless Wednesday...Tiny plumbers crack

Birthday Number Two

We were in Sioux Falls over the weekend visiting and eating more cake. Who doesn't like ANY excuse to eat cake?

Zan had to pick up some (all) of his childhood toys and let me tell you we rented a truck. Granted we had to bring back our patio furniture too, but wow he has a lot of toys and things. (I'm being kind on the terminology I use here.)

Sammy also got another opportunity to celebrate his 2nd birthday. He opened toys and ate/wore cake. All in all we had a good time, didn't get enough sleep and made it home to unload the truck.

Here are the kids playing with one of Zan's old toys....


















Sammy opening in his presents.....





























Singing Happy Birthday! He just loves it when people are singing to him!

Without Further Ado....

I have officially finished painting and decorating the kids rooms!! (for now anyways) We're still waiting for the bedskirt on Ella's bed though. It took about a week and a half and about 6 rolls of tape. My hands have taken a beating and are just now starting to heal.

I found it very funny that while trying to create a random stripe pattern it took a lot of planning. I'm very please with the way everything turned out and the kids really like their rooms too.

Wordless Wednesday....Taken One Year Ago Today

(For those of you unfamiliar with this (grandma and grandpa) :) I'm going to start doing this on Wednesdays from now on. It's something that's done in blog land. Enjoy the pictures.)

Fall Pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend and to pick out our Christmas tree. There's a tree farm just a couple miles from us that also happens to have a pumpkin patch. The nice thing is that you can grab a tag and find your Christmas tree that you will cut down after Thanksgiving. It's much nicer to roam around the tree farm when it's warmer out and no snow on the ground.

The pumpkin patch leaves a little to be desired and this year was no exception. Last year they didn't have any pumpkins because they didn't grow well. This year they were very picked over and what was left wasn't that great. The field was very muddy too. We managed to bog through and found a few that are now decorating our front step. You also only pay for the pumpkins what you want. They were less expensive this year than in years past! :)

Sam got his 2 year photos taken today. He did really well in following direction and smiling. There came a point though when he was done. And by done I mean done. We asked him to sit one more time and he said no. We asked him to sit by Ella for a picture and he said no. So we were done. We did get a few really cute pictures of him though. I also snapped a few before we left by our pumpkins.

A Comfy Lap

I was rinsing out my paint brushes in the sink the other day when I hear Ella ask Sam if he wants to sit in her lap. They were watching a show on TV and Sam was just standing there while Ella was sitting in her chair.

He proceeds to sit himself up on her lap. Way too cute. Now of course my camera is upstairs and I'm full of paint. So do I rush upstairs to get the camera because you know when I get back down he will have gotten down? I chanced it and quietly ran upstairs. When I got back he was still sitting there and they were engrossed in their show.

So I snapped away. Eventually Ella realized how heavy he is (nearly 30 lb.) and got him his own chair. But I have the moment captured on camera.

Stripe It Up

I've been busy putting stripes on Ella's wall. I'm very, very please with how they are turning out. Many times I have a vision in my head about how I want things to be. Most of the time they don't quite turn out like I planned. This time they are turning out perfect. I'm not done, there are a couple more colors to add. Since I can only do one color a day (so it can dry) it takes a few days to finish. I can't wait to do Sam's room.

Here's a photo of it about half way done.
















Sam had his two year check up on Tuesday. He's doing really well. Still tall and lean, but about the same as he has been. On the way home from the doctors Ella says, "I like chickens as food, but not as animals." After giggling for a minute I asked her why. She said they aren't cute. We then proceeded to drive by a farm and there were chickens out front and I pointed them out to Ella. All she could do was laugh. She thought it was so funny that there were chickens out there.

The kids crack me up.

Snow Out...Snow Out

Sam walked around all morning looking out the window and saying, "snow out, snow out". It has mostly melted by now which is good. I'm not ready for snow just yet. We don't even have our pumpkins outside yet!























What better thing to do on a snowy day inside than bake cookies! I picked these up last week for the kids. They are so good. I could probably eat a whole batch warm from the oven by myself!














I think I've finally got the kitchen all organized for the last time. I had put everything away and realized that I didn't like where things were. So after taking most things out of their respective places I found them all new respective places. I'm quite satisfied for now. There are other things that need to be organized now. If only you could see the room I'm sitting in now....

Happy 2nd Birthday Sam!!

Sam (my baby) is two years old! I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Nana and Papa came over this afternoon to drop off a present for Sam and have a little cake. Sam had a good day. Didn't seem to care too much that it was his birthday. If you ask him how old he is he says, "two".

We've been very busy around here trying to get everything where it should be. Zan was able to get the garage door opener installed so we got the cars in the garage here before it starts snowing. (Barely made that one!) Our office here is very cluttered. It's more of a staging room almost.

School has been going well for Ella. She still really enjoys it and is learning new things every day. She went on a field trip last Thursday to the fire station and had a great time.

Sam showing off his jersey.


































The kids bathroom. (I think it's the only room that is completed.)





















Ella and I watch the sun rise while we eat breakfast. This is our view from the dining room table.














Ella all ready for school.





















Sam with his cake. I love the look of "trouble" on his face. Then playing with his new basketball hoop that we got him.

A New Routine

We're getting settled in very well in our new home. I'd put up some pictures for you, but the place is a mess and I just can't let anyone see it in disarray. If you're lucky I'll take a picture of the kids bathroom and put it up. It's very cute and pretty much done. I still have some painting to do in their rooms, but it's going to take a little bit on those projects.

I need to keep going through boxes that are in the garage. I'd love to have the car in the garage with all the rain that we've been getting. I was telling Zan it almost feels like we have everything we need in the house (except all our bedding) but we have a garage full of stuff!

The kids have adjusted really well. Sam is still sleeping at the moment. Ella gets to sleep about a half-hour longer in the morning and I do too. Sam snoozes in the morning and I get him up about a half-hour after Ella gets on the bus. I'd let him sleep longer, but I think it's long enough. Even though this quiet time in the morning is very nice.

We got our cable and Internet yesterday which is very nice. I was very excited to put up our curtain rod that I had purchased a couple months back only to find out that I ordered the wrong size. They no longer have that curtain rod anymore either. I've spent a lot of time looking for another one that is the style we want and is affordable, but have yet to find that. At least there aren't any houses behind us. Maybe I'll get Sam's curtains up today. We're going to get my brakes replaced after Ella gets back from school. There's a Perkins across the street that we're going to go have lunch at. Hopefully the rain will let up for a little bit.

We're Moved...mostly

It's now Sunday morning and most everything is moved into the house. We are currently spending our last morning at Nana and Papa's. We have to bring some things from here over to the house, but other than that just need to get things put together (crib, bed, etc.) and find some (most) things.

The house is really great! There is one issue that I have though. Our dishwasher sucks! I can't fit my dinner plates in there without the water spinning thing hitting them. It seems like it's apartment sized or something. So we're going to have to get a new dishwasher. Otherwise we'll be eating off of salad plates forever! I just don't understand why the dishwasher is so crappy. All the other appliances are very nice, but not this. Oh well, I guess we'll get it figured out one way or the other.

Well I need to go get the kids up and dressed and try to get Zan up and moving. Must finish moving everything and I also have to run to the grocery store because all that's in the refrigerator is Mountain Dew and Diet Dr. Pepper.... :)