Trick-or-treat!

I just can't get enough of little kids on Halloween. I love how adorable they look in their costumes and watching the excitement bubble up in their faces. So the fact that I have a baby, a toddler, and a preschooler all dressed up this year was especially precious. I got to experience Halloween in the eyes of each of them.

Jacob and his friends took on the lead role, as they ran knocking on each door. After four years, they have this trick-or-treating thing down pat. Gavin (along with the younger siblings) tried his best to keep up, but after awhile his pumpkin bucket got heavy and he kept spilling it. Eventually he handed me his candy and just wanted to play with his glow stick as he walked. He LOVED the glow stick, swirling it all around and grinning from ear to ear. And baby Casey slept Halloween night in Mommy's little Baby Bjorn.






We've always been trick-or-treating with friends on Halloween, so we'd never made it home to pass out treats. Tonight, we were home around seven so I put a bowl of candy together for Jacob to pass out. I had no idea how much he would love it! He peered out the window and jumped up and down in excitement when he saw kids walking up our driveway. Some of the kids had been in my class, so I told Jacob to give them lots of candy. At one point, a friend who watched Jacob when he was a baby came by with her kids. We stood there talking for a long time, so Jacob kept filling the kids' bags over and over. Finally, after several rounds of candy he said, "OK that's enough. It's time to go to a new house now!"

Getting ready for Halloween

Our family has gotten so big that we had to carve six pumpkins this year! Adam carved Daddy's, Gavin's, and Sy's. I carved Mommy's, Jacob's, and Casey's.

Jacob drew me a picture of what he would like his jack-o-lantern to look like.
Here they are: Daddy, Mommy, Jacob, Gavin, Casey, and Sy. Funny how Casey looks like mine and Gavin looks like Daddy's. (Jacob's is a striking resemblence to his picture, you think?)
The boys ate caramel apples afterward, since Daddy accidently burnt the pumpkin seeds. ;)

Here are each of the boys in their Halloween costumes.

Jacob really does want to be a doctor when he grows up, so it made his outfit especially cute.
Gavin thinks he is Handy Manny, because I don't think he has actually seen Bob the Builder. (It was Jacob's costume when he was two) Since Handy Manny always has a pencil behind his ear, Gavin keeps trying to put a crayon behind his ear. ;)
Here we are trick-or-treating with friends at the Y!
The boys can't wait for tomorrow!

Accomplishments

Our kids have had some exciting accomplishments in the last week.

Jacob learned how to swim! The last few times I have taken him swimming, he has been going under the water and kicking... he just needed to add the armstrokes. So we practiced big alligator arms and he did it! Especially being a swimmer my entire life, I was really excited.

The monkey bars. Jacob and Gavin were on a walk with my mom, while I stayed home with Casey. When they came back, my mom said, "I didn't know Jacob could go across the monkey bars." My reply was, "What? Are you serious?!" He has never even done a single monkey bar without our help. Apparently that night, he just whipped across them like he had been doing it forever. So I grabbed Jacob, Adam, and my camera and we ran to the playground. By the time we got there, it was pretty cold and dark. Jacob must have tired himself out with my mom because he got up and just hung there. Finally, he did one bar and dropped to the ground. He tried again and again, and eventually gave up. He said sadly, "Mommy, I went across the whole way with grammy and for you I did zero." I told him that his arms just got really tired from doing such a good job earlier and we could try again tomorrow. The next day, I saw it with my own eyes and was so proud.

Gavin drew his first recognizable picture. Is that a tie or Daddy's legs?


He also completed his first 70 piece puzzle. Seriously, we have some crazy puzzleness in our family! I don't know how they do it. I thought it was just a Jacob thing, but apparently Gavin has the crazy puzzleness in him as well. He was doing 24 piece puzzles so fast that he got out one of Jacob's puzzles. I told him that it was too hard, but he started putting it together and totally proved me wrong. So now we have two puzzle guys... it sure makes for a quiet house when they are both at work!

And little Casey has been flashing us some incredible smiles...

We also tried him in the Bumbo... but I don't think he's quite ready yet ;)

Dinner drama

We were eating dinner tonight when Gavin fell from his chair. This is a pretty common occurrence actually... Jacob and Gavin are always falling from these chairs. ;) But tonight, it was pretty comical. As he was falling, Gavin knocked his milk off the table and it poured right over his head! He also managed to take down his dinner plate, which also fell on top of him. He sat there crying, in the midst of his spilled dinner and milk ~ while Adam and I couldn't help but laugh. (He wasn't hurt, just sad that everything had spilled) To make matters worse, Sy came over and started eating the dinner and lapping up the milk that surrounded him. This made him even more upset and made us laugh even harder. We eventually helped him up and gave him a bath, but not before taking a few pictures! Are we terrible? ;)



Where was my camcorder when I needed it? We could've won America's Funniest Home Videos!

My sweet Jacob

I thought I'd share some cute things Jacob has been saying lately as well.

*The other day, he asked me what the word shy meant. I couldn't really think of a good definition. I finally told him that when little kids don't talk or answer your questions, they are just being shy. So he was playing with Casey today and said, "Mommy, Casey is SO shy!"

*I was telling Jacob that we were going to eat at the Spaghetti Factory. He thought for a minute and said, "The old one?" I couldn't help but laugh. Then when we were eating, he exclaimed, "Mommy, this is a GREAT factory!"

*For dinner we were having leftovers one night. Jacob looked at the meal and said, "Mommy, I don't want rest-of-ours tonight." I guess it makes sense ~ like the 'rest of our' food we need to eat? It does sound a lot like leftovers!

*This is my favorite. We were talking about heaven and Jacob decided that he would go to heaven when he was 100 and then be all done when he was 105. He told me the exact order our family would go to heaven... Daddy, Mommy, Sy, Jacob, Gavin, and baby Casey. (How Sy will outlive Adam and I, I'm not sure ;) Then he said, "Mommy, when I get to heaven, I need you to give me a little squeeze." I smiled, gave him a BIG hug, and told him I would have lots of squeezes for him in heaven.

Our day at the pumpkin patch

Adam had the day off since he passed his checkride, so we headed to the pumpkin patch! It was really nice to have a family day together since Adam has been so busy with work and studying these last few weeks. Thank goodness, it was a beautiful day too. No mud in sight... when does that ever happen?

We walked around to pick out our pumpkins, but Jacob and Gavin mostly wanted to climb on them. Once they discovered they got to bring one home, they both made a great attempt to put their pumpkins in the wheelbarrow all by themselves.


I thought it was sweet that both boys wanted to make sure we had a pumpkin for Casey. They must have tried to put a hundred tiny pumpkins in the wheelbarrow to make sure he wasn't forgotten.

I fell in love with a pumpkin that was in a crate in the midst of hundreds. I was completely enamored by the fact that Adam climbed over all of the other pumpkins to get it for me.

The corn fields were so much fun... especially since they were dry! Jacob and Gavin could run and run without complaining about their pants and shoes being wet. ;)


Here are our pumpkins. Jacob was super intent on getting a big pumpkin for himself because he is such a BIG boy! We can't wait to carve them!

ZUMBA

I was finally cleared to exercise at my 6 week postpartum appointment, so I didn't waste any time. I haven't been to the Y since I had gotten pregnant with Casey, so I was anxious to be back. I really loved doing the step classes before, so I started off there. It was good, but I was a little disappointed to see that my favorite instructor was no longer there. So it just wasn't the same. I guess other people felt the same way, because there were only five compared to the forty people who had been there before.

I soon realized that the crowds had moved onto a new class called ZUMBA. ZUMBA is mostly salsa-type dancing, with lots of booty-shaking and shimmying. I felt a little out of my comfort zone, but it was in a small, enclosed room and nobody seemed to be paying attention to anyone else. So I decided to try it again, however, this morning there was one minor exception. The class took place in the main gym, wide open for everyone working out on their exercise equipment to watch! A couple of older men walking by even stopped for several minutes. I'm fine with making a fool out of myself when everyone else is right there with you, but I'm not so sure about shimmying and shaking my booty for gawking bystanders.

I did get a glimpse of everyone dancing when I went to grab a drink from my water bottle though and it actually was pretty entertaining. Some girls seemed to be salsa experts and performed each move with perfection, others were moving around awkwardly in confusion, and there were even little grandmas who were shaking their booties. I have to admit, it was pretty comical. I guess I can see why people were stopping to watch...

When Gavin was eight weeks old, my friend and I were lucky enough to work out with a personal trainer. I was able to get back to my original weight then and I'm hoping to do the same this time. A personal trainer was pretty expensive though, so I think I'll stick to ZUMBA. The instructors have very high energy and I have to admit, it is a pretty fun way to work out!

You are the cutest!

Gavin sure gives me a run for my money sometimes, but he can be so DARN CUTE! I guess two-year olds have to have their adorable moments to make up for all of the difficult ones...

Here are some cute things he has said and done lately.

*He uses "Please give me some..." to start almost every sentence when he wants something. Please give me some ap-ple joo. Please give me some mamoni and cheese. The best part though is when he uses it to start a sentence that doesn't make sense. Like please give me some throw it in the garbage. Please give me some take a bath. It's pretty funny!

*When Jacob and Gavin are fighting over a toy, Adam will take it away and say, "OK, nobody gets it." So now when Jacob and Gavin are having a hard time sharing, Gavin takes control. He yells, "No buddy gets it!" and proceeds to put it on the counter.

*This morning, Gavin found a coffee bean on the floor. I heard this crunch, crunch sound. Then Gavin ran up to me and said, "It coffee. Yuuummmm! I get nother one." Seriously, how could a kid like coffee beans?!

*Sometimes he substitutes the "oo" sound for the short u sound. We have a Toy Story book that says ~ Woody and Buzz. Good buddies. So Gavin says, "Woody and Buzz. Good boodies." We call our pug Sy the puppy, even though he is seven years old. We can't help but laugh when Gavin calls him Sy the poopy. "Mommy, Sy the poopy like his food." It's hilarious!

*Gavin sang his first made-up song in the car last night. I heard the sweetest voice singing, "Da moon is white. Da moon is white. I see da moon. I see da dars." (Sigh.)

Our first road trip with Casey

Last weekend, we went up north for my nephew Travis' birthday. We stopped at GG and Papa's house to get the new babies together. Casey is five weeks, cousin Olivia is eight weeks, and our friend's baby (on the right) is eleven weeks.

I also visited with a good high school friend while our kiddos played together. They were fully entertained with feeding the neighbor cows apples from their tree... until Gavin accidently touched the electric fence. I had no idea that it was on or even that it was electric, until I heard the loud ZAP! Ouch. He was pretty upset about it and will probably never go near a cow again. ;)

Then we went to the birthday party. The theme was Pirates of the Caribbean, so my sister bought inflatable pirate swords, eye patches, fake earrings, and a pinata ship.

It was a beautiful day, so we also broke out the water balloons...

...and had a barbecue

Check out the cake!

Happy 4th birthday Travis!

The latest...

Daddy got Casey to flash a big smile when he was saying his name and touching his little nose. (I haven't been able to catch it on my camera yet. :) We have him back in his bassinet at night... Daddy knows how to do this amazing super swaddle and Casey loves it. A few nights he has even slept up to six hours straight! I'm a thankful mommy, but I do have to give most of the credit to a book called Babywise. It's worked like a charm with all three of my boys!





I obviously need some more tummy time!