Happy Halloween!

We've been having lots of fun over the past week with Halloween. We went to our club last Tuesday for a Halloween Party. Last Thursday Hunter got to wear his costume to school. I actually went to his school to help with the Halloween party. They had all these stations set up in the classroom and I played Halloween Bingo with the kids. They all looked so cute! Friday night we went to this Halloween event with Aunt Emily, Connie, Joe, Heather, and Tyler. Nick was out of town, so it was nice to hang out with them and do something fun! They had "trunk-or-treating" where people had candy all set up in the trunks of their cars (sponsors at the event). Saturday my mom helped a little with the kids and we carved pumpkins before Nick returned home. Tonight we are going trick-or-treating with the Fatt Family--I'm looking forward to it!

Hunter was super excited to wear his costume to school. He said "Miss Claire will think I'm an awesome Buzz Lightyear!"

At Hunter's school helping out. I wore a witch hat and the kids loved it :)

I love this picture b/c you can't even see Jack's face--it really looks like Elmo--haha. Hunter, Tyler and Jack at the thing we went to Friday night.

I'm so happy that we have Tyler in the family now and next year I imagine they will play together even more. Tyler is going to be a big brother soon---so many boys in the family!

Another older Elmo we saw on Friday night...
Hopefully he never is wearing this outfit for real!
Our cute little Elmo playing in the hay maize. Jack was a little fussy and ready to go home by 7:30pm. We wanted to go stop at Rhonda's halloween party at her house, but Jack would not have made it. He cried a lot of the way home and had a meltdown when we got home.

Have a happy and safe halloween!!

Pictures with Gammy Dori

Last Friday Gammy Dori and Big D came down to do family pictures with a photographer and Gallup Park with us. Afterwards they came back over for dinner and to hang out for a little bit. We appreciate them coming and I know the pictures will turn out great! Well, we took a few pictures back at the house, just goofing around. Hunter LOVES to take pictures with our camera, so we were trying to get him to take pictures of Gammy, Jack and me. Nick and Big D were out picking up dinner still.

Jack is so cute, but I just don't think he is that photogenic. He looks pale and just not himself. Not to brag, but when we go out, people tell us all the time how adorable he is, yet when I look at these pictures I don't think he looks that cute...or like himself. I'm not sure why.

Gammy Dori sure loves her two grandsons :) They are so spoiled being the only two on both sides of the family!

Hunter took this one and I thought he did a pretty good job!

Outtake #1.

Outtake #2.

Have a great weekend. Nick has been out of town from Thursday morning till Saturday night. I'm so thankful that he doesn't travel all that much for work b/c it is HARD when he's gone. Last night I told him via text that I don't ever want to get divorced b/c being a single mom is really challenging. It gives me an appreciation for moms whose husbands travel all the time. Just getting dinner together, baths, bedtime, etc. is so hard with two wild and sillyboys! I think my back pain adds to the stress of it all. I will be so happy to see him tomorrow when he comes home. I am getting a massage (per Nick's suggestion) on Sunday and Nick said I could rest or nap when the kids aer napping and he could get chores done and deal with them. It sure gives me something to look forward to!

Almost, but not really...Wordless Wednesday

We went to a Halloween Party last night at our club...aren't these two cute? We had fun--ate dinner, decorated pumpkins and cookies, etc. We have lots of fun Halloween activities planned over the course of the next week!

Am I a bad mom for having Jack wear what Hunter wore when he was 2?

Below is Hunter when he was Elmo...who is the cuter Elmo??

Apple Orchard with Amber

Sunday Nick went to the Lions game so my friend Amber and I met up at Erwin Orchard in South Lyon at 4pm to pick apples and play with the kids. I love hanging out with her, but it's kind of hard to catch up when I have the munchkins with me. They just demand way too much attention! She loves to see them though and they love to see her. Hunter was in rare form...I won't even go into detail b/c I'll get mad all over again, but some crazy mom yelled at me and Hunter...it was not cool. We had fun picking apples, playing, eating donuts, etc.

Hunter did a good job picking apples to fill up our bag. I bought some apples at Costco the day before and then with the ones we picked, we need to eat like three a day before they go bad.Jack liked having Amber lift him up to pull apples off the trees, just so he could throw them on the ground and grab more! He did eat a few :)

We pretty much had donuts and apples for dinner on Sunday night. And more apples before bed! Oh well...the timing just worked out that way.

Heading back to the wagon...

We rode this big tractor/wagon thing out to the apple orchardMe and my sweetie pie :) I had to wake him up to go meet Amber and he was a little fussy.
They are standing on a haystack. I love how when I ask them to stand together Hunter looks like he is choking Jack. Well, he sort of is.

They had this obstacle course thing and Hunter did really good with it. He raced a 6 year old girl one time, but she beat him by a little bit.
The slide was steep and he loved it!

Fall Fun

Yesterday we went to church together and then Nick went to the Lions game with his dad. The kids and I had some time before naps, so we played in the leaves in the back yard. It was fun and one of those simple joys of being a kid (or adult, as I was laying in them too!)

After naps we met up with my friend Amber at the cider mill/apple orchard. More pictures from that tomorrow hopefully. It was such a gorgeous day!

Having so much fun throwing the leaves up in the air :) They would have played a lot longer, but we had to go in and eat lunch and take naps :(
Where's Jack?

I love these pictures of Hunter throwing the leaves, although they are all taken with my cell phone.

Can you tell my kid has a lot of energy!?!?

He's preparing to fall straight forward into the pile of leaves I raked for him! He would stand there for a few seconds and then fall down...so cute.

I think Jack is so stinkin' cute, but he's not that photogenic at times.

Isn't this the most pathetic face? I have no idea why, but I was laughing when I saw it on my phone.
Jack and I in the leaves together

Big Boy Bed

My dad put Hunter's big boy bed together last weekend. We bought those convertible cribs for both kids. They are cribs, then toddler beds, and then convert to a full size bed. We still need to do a little more decorating--i.e. things for the walls b/c I took down the really babyish wall hangings, but all in all, it looks great! I appreciate my parents doing this so much--it would have never gotten done if it was left up to Nick. My mom and I picked out the bedding last week together (it was 40% off at Macys--yay). I wanted something that would last for a long time (no spiderman, batman, cars, etc.). Hunter is really proud of his bed and loves it!

The bed sits up pretty high, but he can still climb up and down by himself. Jack on the other hand can't get up on the bed without help. My mom texted me the above picture while Nick and I were out of town last weekend. This is the morning after he slept in it the first time. He slept until 8:15am and didn't fall out!
Last night I had a MOPS (mom's group) potluck dinner. It was super fun and I didn't get home until 10pm. I went up to shut Hunter's door and this is how I found him. He has been loving his puzzles again lately...he was laying on the floor all over his puzzle pieces. I called Nick up to see him and lift him up into bed b/c I can't do that with my bad back. I was cracking up when I saw him. Silly boy!

Have a great day :)

Mornings at our house

I usually have a decent amount of time with the kids in the morning before Julie comes and I take Hunter to school. Lately, Hunter has not been napping, so he has been sleeping in later than Jack. It is bittersweet...I am not happy that he's not napping (he still has quiet time in his room), but it's kind of nice that he's not up at 6am. Plus he is ready for bed at 8pm. So for the last week or so, he's been going to bed at 8pm and waking around 7 or 8pm. Jack still goes to bed at 8pm, takes a nice long nap (2-4 hours) and sleeps until around 7am. We have our little routine each morning. Jack pulls his high chair over from the table to the counter for breakfast. Hunter sits at the counter and eats breakfast while doing puzzles. We sometimes watch cartoons. They will sit like this for 30-45 minutes and it's great b/c I eat breakfast with them, get my stuff ready for work, do dishes, feed the fish/dog, get Hunter's lunch ready, and we just hang out! This morning I pulled out the camera to take pictures...Hunter was making silly faces at me while I was doing dishes and Jack was trying to copy him. Plus they both got haircuts yesterday and look so darn handsome if I do say so myself!

Julie (our nanny) and I both agree that he looks SO MUCH older with his new haircut. I am such a baby, but I'm getting so sad that he's almost two.

My sweetie pie.

Cheesy smile!

Nick looks just like this when he was little...he would squint his eyes in pictures too!

The mean face.

The silly face.
The "Captain Hook, I'm gonna get you!!" face.