Pumpkin carving 2010

We finally got around to carving pumpkins on Friday, two days before Halloween. Hunter clearly does not like to get his hands dirty. I did the carving, but tried to get him to help me clean them out. Nick supervised kids and took some pictures....he knows I'm better at carving pumpkins, so I did both of them. We used to have contests with each other before this year and mine always turned out better. Not that I'm an expert, but he is not creative whatsoever.

I asked Hunter to help me clean the pumpkins out and you can see by the expression on his face he is not having any fun.

He does not like getting his hands slimy or dirty
Ok, he's had enough...."mommy, I need some napkins!"

I carved "Jack" on one pumpkin and let Hunter choose the shapes for the second one...he wanted a triangle eye and circle nose....easy enough! He did like pushing the pieces out as I carved, so that part was fun :)

He did not like it when I put candles in them and turned off the lights in the kitchen...instantly scared. Then we took them outside and he said "I want to play outside in the dark right now"....I don't get it!

Today we are having my cousins over to go trick-or-treating...we're going to have pizza and go around to a few houses. Hunter has been Woody from Toy Story a few times, but we lost the hat and can't find any cowboy boots, so tonight he's going to be a Michigan Football player...we should put a bag over his head since it's embarrassing after the way we've been playing lately. Jack is going to be a duck--I'm sure I'll have pictures tomorrow!
Happy Halloween :)

Hunter's obsession with puzzles

I will be the first to admit we have a ridiculous number of puzzles. If I had to guess I'd say between 30-35 and I already bought two more for him for Christmas. I can still remember how amazed I was when he was about 1 1/2 and could do a numbers puzzles after watching me do it once. I videotaped it at the time b/c I was so proud of him. Needless to say, he is really good at them and they are educational. Puzzles have basically taught him his abc's, numbers, and he knows all 50 states...and more! The child does not like to sit still, but you can keep him busy doing puzzles, and he's still for quite some time. We also have several floor puzzles that are lots of fun...maybe another post b/c on any given day we'll have three big floor ones in our entryway.

We like to do all of them and make huge stacks as we complete each one. This is not all of them, but many of them...

Lots and lots of puzzles!

We have easy ones, hard ones, musical ones, animal ones, you name it and we probably have it!
I picked up a few like this for $1 each at Target...I was so proud of that find!

This has gotten it's use and he can count to 20 mostly from doing this puzzle so many times.

The "S" is the only piece missing of all the puzzles we have.

This one has the most pieces---48 I think and he's so good at it (and has been for a long time)!

This puzzles taught him his shapes :)

You can ask him to find any state if they are piled on the floor and he can pick it up and put it where it goes. I thought it this was way too hard for him and he learned how to do it quickly quite some time ago.

Bed head and just playing around...

Here are some pictures of my cutie pie kids! I feel like I haven't put any pictures of them up this week :) Have a happy Friday and happy Halloween!

Yesterday when Jack woke up from his nap he had some serious bed head!

Above he started crawling towards me and was on the move...after the camera.

I'm coming for you mommy!!

Trying to eat the camera? Or showing off his teeth.
He's so adorable...or at least I think so. He has 4 teeth now--two on top and two on the bottom.
I can't believe he's going to be a big one year old in about a week and a half!

Am I weird?

Last night I was watching Oprah in the family room. Nick was watching something else in the sunroom. His volume was up too loud and bothering me, so I texted him from my phone while lying on the couch and asked him to turn it down. Is that weird and/or pathetic and/or just plain lazy that I didn't walk in there to tell him? We usually hang out together, but I wanted to watch the end of something before we went up to bed. I was laughing to myself after I texted him thinking that was rather pathetic that I didn't walk in there to ask him. I didn't want to yell cuz I'd just put Hunter to bed and his bedroom door was open. The joys of technology and unlimited texting.

On a totally unrelated note...I can't stop thinking about the Oprah episode I watched. This mom was in the car with her 5, 4, and 2 year old kids when she was rear-ended while sitting in traffic on the freeway by a semi going 55mph. All three kids died. I was fighting tears while watching it as I just could not imagine what the parents have had to go through. The kids were adorable and they had the cutest videos of them. The boy had just turned 5 the day before the accident. The miracle twist was that they got pregnant with triplets (two girls and a boy--what they had before) and the triplets were born the day before the one year anniversary of the deaths of the other children. It gave me goosebumps watching it. They had to do invetro b/c after the first three kids they had done something to prevent having any more kids. What is so ridiculous is that they sued CA government b/c this area with a blind spot curve on the freeway has been a problem area for many years and they wanted something to change. They were not trying to get rich off their kids dying. They lost the lawsuit and the state is telling them they now owe the state $300k in legal fees. Give me a break. They are appealing, but honestly, that is insane.

Have a good day! Jack was up several times in the night and up at 4:30am this morning...Grrrr. I think he's teething again! That is just too early for me.

Our dinner table

Check out the video below. The joys of having three boys...

I will warn you to turn down your volume b/c there is a lot of yelling.

Click HERE

Have a good day!

Family Trip to the Toledo Zoo

Nick does not like going to the zoo. I seem to want to torture him by making him go. What normal person doesn't like the zoo? Seriously. Anywho...they had this fun Halloween event at the Toledo Zoo this weekend. We had plans to go with friends, but they couldn't go at the time that worked best for us, so we just went on our own. The traffic on the way there was horrible, which got us off on the wrong foot. It was crowded. I refuse to wait in long lines to get a piece of candy (or sticker, coupon, whatever). So we skipped most of that and just went to see the animals. I decided part way through I was going to change my attitude and make the best of it. Hunter had fun and loves the zoo and that is what matters. We got a late start on the way home and then Hunter didn't nap which was shocking...he nodded off in the car for a few minutes, so we were quite disappointed when he didn't nap once we got home. Oh well. Nick and I need to work on going places as a family and not getting stressed out and just making the best of the situation! We like to get out and do things, so we've got to try to have fun and laugh at the stressful situations...which is hard to do in the moment.

We went on the train which is always a hit with Hunter. He was dressed up as Woody from Toy Story. All the kids were pointing at him and saying "That's Woody!!" He couldn't keep the cowboy hat on, so that didn't last. And I won't tell you how many stores I've gone to trying to find cowboy boots...they have them for girls, not boys. I've given up. I didn't really dress Jack up, but he had a dinosaur hoodie on.

So excited!
You can see Nick's fake smile a mile away. He was not happy to be there.

This large giraffe got spooked and was running towards us on the train--it kind of scared me for a minute!

I took the kids on the carousal...Jack rode on the bear and Hunter on the elephant. Nick stayed off and attempted to take a few pictures.

What a beautiful day!

Yesterday was such a nice day--sunny, warm, and windy. We went to church, Costco...the usual. Then we went to Matt & Jacquelyn's for dinner. We'd planned to meet at the cider mill, but decided to bbq one last time before it's too cold. We took a walk down to the park/beach area in their subdivision...it's a great place for kids to play! Hunter had a good time on the play structure and beach area, while Jack played around in the leaves. We had a lot of fun, as always!

Silly Jack

We went to get pumpkins last Friday after work with the kids. Jack was a bit fussy b/c he's getting his top teeth in, so I sat in the back of the car with the kids. He was so funny, so I started taking some pictures. He was just giggling, yelling, and babbling...so cute!

Our morning conversation

Hunter was sick this morning, but we had the cutest talk this morning when he woke up. First, he woke up at 5:30am and came in our room and said, "I almost puked." I got up and walked him back to his room after he said he was ok to go back to bed. He then got up at 6:30 am and I went to get him dressed. While we were getting dressed and brushing teeth, this is how our talk went.

Hunter: It's nice to see you this morning mommy.
Me: Thanks honey. It's nice to see you. Did you have fun with daddy last night? (I had a late meeting)
Hunter: Yes. We played with Jack. He is my best friend. I taught him to crawl.
Me: That's great. Daddy said you were really nice to Jack last night and you guys had fun.
Hunter: I was. Then Jack will be walking, running, and hopping.
Me: Yep. Then you can play more together and it will be so much fun. Did daddy brush your teeth last night before bed?
Hunter: Yes, he did. He is a good daddy.
Me: He sure is.

Hunter threw up twice so he stayed home from school. He said he wanted to go to school and promised he would puke in the potty at school, but I had to explain he needed to stay home and rest and not get others sick. Julie our nanny was sick Monday and I've felt a little yucky all week. I am sure he'll be fine tomorrow!

Our weekend

I felt like last weekend flew by! When we went to bed Sunday night I thought it should only be Saturday night. We had a fun weekend, besides Jack's crabbiness since he's been teething.

Friday went to pick pumpkins after dinner. Hunter played at the pumpkin place for a bit and we had fun. Saturday morning Nick took Hunter to this fundraiser for a grief support organization where he serves on the board. They had a 1k run for kids and the proceeds went to New Hope Center for Grief Support. Hunter ran the 1k and they had lots of other activities for kids. Nick did not take pictures, so I took a few when they got home--he even got a medal!

While they were gone Jack and I took a great nap together on the couch--I just love cuddling with him :) I also cut his hair. I sort of messed it up and will not be cutting it again. I guess it's time to start taking him to see Dayna at the salon from now on! Saturday after nap, Hunter and I went to pick apples with my friend Amber while daddy stayed home with Jack to watch football. Saturday night we watched the Backup Plan. I would recommend this movie...it's a chick flick/romantic comedy. Nick fell asleep immediately (nice date falling asleep at 9pm on sweetest day--haha). The wine he drank during the game must have knocked him out. Sunday we went to church and met up with the Duprey Family after nap. We took Mason and Hunter to the park before going to the Gator Grille in Canton for dinner. Hunter was kind of a stinker at dinner and at the park. This was interesting....he randomly ran up to this boy who looked to be about 12 at the park and hit him on the head. The mom of the kid was laughing, but I was upset with Hunter. I just wonder what was going through his head--he didn't know the kid and it was so weird. I made him go apologize. Then he spit on Mason's shoe at dinner--Nick took him outside for a talk. He is in full horrible three mode and we are doing our best! The talking back is out of control and we are trying to put a stop to that as well. On another note, last night Hunter was perfect. I'd had some injections at the pain clinic and maybe he knew subconsciously to be good? He was such a nice boy...we did puzzles, read, and he was on his best behavior. Moments like that are so wonderful.

I hope you had a good weekend too :)

Hunter's medal. The run was in a subdivision called Steeplechase, thus the Steeple Stampede. I guess he ran the whole way so I'm really proud of him!

He is proud of his medal too! His teeth are gross b/c he was eating m&m's that he got from the run. They had a clown there that painted his arms.
On Saturday Amber, Hunter, and I took a wagon ride out to pick apples.
I sort of messed up Jack's hair, so I gave him a mohawk to try to hide the part where I messed up! haha.