Halloween~Part 1

I figured I needed to break up the events of Halloween since it somehow turned into a week long holiday for us, and it is still going...one more day left!

Earlier this week I took the kids to our weekly ritual of Story Time at the library. Oh how I love this part of our week so much! We get to go sing songs, dance, watch a puppet show, and read stories. Axel has loved doing this since he was a tiny baby when I would take my sisters kids, now he is old enough to join in and "get" it. It is so much fun to watch him. I love it!

This week was Halloween week, they had the kids all dress up, and the story time teachers dress up as well. Axel was pretty excited that one of them was a pirate. :) AND she let him ring the bell too, at first she asked the two girls next to him, but they hid behind their moms, so when she offered him his little eyes lit up, and he eagerly took it, but then he got a little nervous because this required him to be brave and outgoing, but he looked at me and I encouraged him he could do it and he shook that bell with all his might and then quickly handed it back to her and sat down next too me. I love my timid boy so much! 

After we stopped by a tree in our neighborhood that had some great leaves and took pictures of the kids in their costumes, and playing in the leaves. 

I had SO many pictures from this day. So click here if you want to see them but here are a few of my most favortist ones!

Obviously we had Axel be a robot for Halloween. I made him his costume this year, and it only cost me 1.50 for the fabric! I made up the pattern for the shirt, but the hat was a pattern I had, and we just added the applicae's, antenna, and poof ball on top.  I was really nervous about him keeping his costume on, so I wanted it to be something he really loved. And we all know how much he LOVES Robots. I also wanted his costume to be something we could put in dress ups and he could keep wearing.

While I was working on the design of the front I had the buttons on the side lined up, he came up to me and was like "oh a beep beep button!" and was pushing and turning all the buttons :) The buttons and ric rac I acquired from Kory's grandma and literally were perfect for this.

 

He loved throwing the leaves

 

 I tried to get him to look at me and smile, but he just wouldn't. He is still such a serious boy!

 He loved throwing the leaves at me, I had leaves in my hair all day, that night even Kory found some.

Dani was a Zebra this day because I didn't have her costume yet. Oh how she reminded me of Axel this day. She was sooo serious! She was concentrating very hard on all the leaves and the crunchy noises they were making. I could not get her to crack a smile once! 

 

She would NOT stop putting those darn leaves in her mouth! 

This one is my favorite of her! Even though she is not smiling I think it turned out really cute. I love that the leaves are flying through the air because Axel wouldn't stop throwing them on her, and her face couldn't be more put out. 

How come kids in costumes is tooo ridiculously cute?

Yesterday we went to the Anderson Halloween party, and I forgot my camera! I was devastated. I really was. I really wish I would have made Kory take me back home. But I had chili on the floor of the car spilling all over my leg so I just wanted to make it there with out getting burned.

Speaking of chili I had a few people ask me for the recipe for the chili I brought. I got it from my sister, who got it from her mother in law, but it is pretty good stuff. I served a modified version at the party to meet Kory's dietary needs :)  So here it is... (AND I feel pretty good because Kory said he liked it, and he even had TWO bowls!)

Karen's White Chili

4 chicken breasts
1/2 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
4 Cups chicken broth (I just put 4 cups of water and 4 chicken bullion cubes in the crock pot)
4 cans white beans
1 Cup sour cream***
1 can diced green chillies
2 t. Oregano
1 t. Red pepper
1 t. Cummin

Cook (bake) chicken with salt and pepper. I used frozen chicken breasts and cooked them at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then shredded the chicken, into the broth. 

Sautee onion and garlic with 1TBS Butter.

Add all ingredients together in large crock pot. Simmer and salt/pepper to taste.

***I substituted the sour cream with my a roux of butter, flour and almond milk, and no one could even tell! So if you want to do that you heat 1/4 c butter and wisk in 1/4 cup flour, until you get a paste, then you slowly stir in almond milk, about 1-2 cups worth until you have a good consistency of creme. Then just add that to your crock pot with the other ingredients.

Fall is in the air

What is it about this time of year that makes us feel like we have to fill our homes and time with lots of baked goods & holiday crafts? It is a mystery to me, but somehow it gets me every year, the October chill hits and I want to do nothing but that. Suddenly I am even willing to lose sleep and rest over it. So here are a couple things we have done to embrace the fall atmosphere...

I whipped up this wreath thanks to this and this on Pinterest. Mine is not nearly as adorable as those two. But I am proud of the fact I made it from things I already had. Minus the foam part, which I got the idea from this, and it only cost me 97 cents from home depot!  Which I think is a great way to make a wreath. However, it does sort of go into an oval shape after a while, so it is not the most durable wreath, but it works for seasonal items, or if you like to mix up your decor often, I recommend this approach.

A few days ago, a neighbor invited us to join her and her little girl Daphne to the pumpkin patch. When she called she said "I asked Daphne which one of her friends she wanted to invite to the pumpkin patch and she said 'can we invite the little boy who loves Backyardigans?' I asked her who Axel? and she said 'YES Axel!' " So we went with them, and had a really great time. Axel loved the whole thing, and I enjoyed visiting with her, it has been a long time since we got together.

After almost 4 years in our house we finally got "Boo'd". My theory is that someone finally dared come to our door because they could do it without being seen. Anyway, thanks neighbor whoever it was, you made our day/week/halloween!

I also finished the kids costumes and I CAN NOT WAIT for this weekend, as we have oodles of plans to do lots of parties and trunk or treating and visiting family! Sheesh when did Halloween turn into a week long event! But I will save that for the next post!

Baby girl and Gaugers aka "tank"

Don't let his nick name fool you, this guy may be big and tough looking but he sure has a sweet heart and a special soft spot for baby girl.

Whenever he sees her his eyes light up and he makes his way over to her,  NO MATTER what is in his way.

 
Gets into position, hence the tongue :) 


 
and he plants one on her!  ahhh so sweet right?! 
woops! She tried to turn her head to look at me, as cruel as this picture may seem, I love it, I love that Dani is getting a squished face, by gauges oober chub gang flashing hands and then his bright blues are so innocent, like always. Too cute!

 This is pretty much an everyday occasion, on this particular day I was ready with the camera. He is so sweet to her, and I know they will be the best of friends, maybe a little better than their older siblings :)

Not that S and A aren't good friends too, they just have a "different" kind of friendship. When they are friends they are the best of friends, but when they are enemies you better duck and cover.

motivation where are you?

So in my last post I said I wasn't going to blog for a while because I had a craft-a-thon to do, but it really is not working out as I had hoped. I have still been doing extra projects this week, just not to the fun part yet I guess.

But here I sit on my computer, completely exhausted from taking care of my two kids today, and all I want to do is lay here and do nothing but look at blogs and pinterest and just be the lazy unmotivated person I have turned into.

The kind of person that doesn't accomplish much in a day other than feeding kids, herself, and keeping them happy and healthy. But I consider that a good use of my time, I guess what I am saying is I don't know if crafts really still bring me joy like they used to. I would much rather spend it with my kiddos, and feel it is a better use of my time. SO even though my crafting week didn't really work out, I think it still had it's ups.

Speaking of my kids. I took this picture of baby girl and a couple days ago when I was on my computer and she on my lap trying to push the buttons. This is her mesmerized face the one she gives people until they smile at her. Sometimes she will then yell at you until you acknowledge her.  Shortly after this picture she smiled at herself but you know how the Photo booth goes...

 Then I started scrolling through my pictures and came across this one of Axel

 

And this one 

  

These were both taken of him at 6 months. For the most part I think this is the age where he looks like baby girl, maybe it's the bald thing. But he is two months older in these pictures but I have always thought she looks like him at this age. 

I kept looking through pictures and came across this picture of Axel at the same age Dani is right now, and they look nothing a like. Then again he looks nothing like the pictures above either. He changed so much in those two months, he lost his long dark locks, and his baggy eyes, he still had his chubby cheeks, and he learned to smile a lot more. But for the most part he was way different.

My point is this, I wonder how much baby girl will change in the next couple months. I can't imagine her with a ton of hair, or light hair. But I never thought Axel would have light hair either, and he is as blonde as blonde can be now. 

Babies grow and change so much, I am always sad to say goodbye to each phase when it is time to move on, but happy and excited for the new things they learn.  Like we just said goodbye to baby girl being that baby that just will chill and sit there. She has always wiggled yes, but she now wants to get down and play and roll around and just be doing what everyone else is doing. But on the flip side she is rolling over from back to front and front to back all the time, if she sees something she wants she will just flip over and over to get it, we also pulled out her bouncer and she loves being able to stand up in it.

This is Dani a month or so ago, she is a lot more giggly now, and we LOVE it.

The video above is of Axel being a pirate. We love his arm move :) I love how much Axel loves all things boy, sports, pirates, robots, skateboards, drums and guitars. He has been really into singing lately. Each day he gets better and better with the Backyardigan songs, and other songs. we often hear him singing to himself. He is turning into such a little guy.

Life on my phone

I wish my phone took better pictures because it seems to be my go to camera. But the quality is always gross unless I am outside then it works fantastic. But it seems to do a better job at capturing the more priceless moments of my day to day life with the kids. So here are some of the ones from the past couple months that I got a major kick out of. One day I think I would like a snazzy iphone, that would be swell, but for now these will do.

A play date with nixon. They both have grown so much since then

 

A month ago I tried to potty train story and Axel together, they were bare bummed most of the day.

 and drank a lot of juice

 and ate popsicles and had to change their clothes due to some "accidents" ie Axel peeing on the floor and then Story running and slipping on it while trying to get away.

 

When we went bed shopping for Axel we met up with Ashley at IKEA. The boys had fun playing on all the beds in the toddler section. 

  

Ashdon made himself right at home

 

Along with that one of the first nights Axel had his new bed he opted to sleep on his chair instead.

 

Axel is TERRIFIED of our dr's floor. He was walking very carefully on the edge next to the wall. We are not sure what he thought it was, but he kept asking for "huggies" and for us to hold him.

 Axel's cousin Andy made him some really cute "gabba gabba" drawings the other day, he absolutely loved them

 First time with play dough. Story just kinda stared and didn't know what to do really, but they both have gotten much better since then and we play with it on a regular basis.

 Axel thinks my bra is a hat, so he put it on baby girl.

 Baby girl was trying to sit up all on her own here.

 Axel was pretty excited about this robot book sent to him all the way from Georgia from his buddy Shane. We read it every night and he has it memorized.

 Chillin with cousin nixon, these two seem to be best buds, they like to hold each others hands and suck on them.

 

Axel found a "SMAKE" in the yard and was pretty happy about it

 

I often take pictures of Kassie's kids because they are a lot more cooperative, and this one is too cute to not share. You are welcome Kass. 

 

 On the day I was taking pictures of Kassie's kids for her birthday Axel decided he too wanted to pose with the yellow flowers too. 

 

I let Axel try licking the frosting from the beater for the first time. He didn't trust me at first, luckily Story was there to show him how it's done. 

 

Maybe these pictures aren't funny to anyone else but me, but we thought they were pretty great. 

This is going to be my last blog for a while as I am having a "craft-a-thon" this week. We'll see how much I can get done, but then I will blog all about it!