Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. I actually remembered to get the pumpkins before the day of halloween, so we carved them for family night on Monday or I should say Kevin carved them after I put on the patterns because the patterns the kids wanted were much too complicated. Although Lizzy did carve part of hers. So pretty much all the kids did was dig out the guts, but they did have fun doing that.

This was the first Halloween Russ remembers so he enjoyed getting out the guts.

Russy had the fun face and Jane had Happy Frank, Nellie had the witch and Lizzy had the Spooky

It was fun to pull out old costumes and get good use of them again. Nellie wanted to be the Cheerleader that Lizzy was back in Kansas. It was a little smaller but it still fit. She made an awfully cute cheerleader.

Lizzy wanted to be a pirate this year, so I figured that I could dream up a costume for her. I found this really awesome fabric that I made a skirt out of. And then I found a pattern for a vest that I made look like a pirate. I thought it turned out really well.

I wanted Jane to be little Bo Peep last year but she didn't want to be, but it worked out well because this year Annie fit into the sheep costume, so I am actually glad that it didn't work out last year, because they were just too cute together!!

Annies little face was just so darn cute in this costume!!! I love this sweet girl!

No we didn't get a picture of all the kids together because Russ would not wear his costume for more than about 2 seconds and definitely not long enough to get a picture.

Yes this was the only picture I got of Russ before we left for Trick-or-treating.

But once we got going I told Russy that he couldn't get candy if he wasnt wearing his costume and he was glad to wear it from that point on. Kevin took Annie home after a bit because she was so darn tired and I thought that Russ would want to too, but he was going to have none of that. It was cute to see him trying to carry his bucket once it got full, but he was bound and determined to.

See how happy he was once he got his "condy" I had so much fun taking the kids around! We have such a great kid friendly neighborhood so it was so fun to be out with tons of other kids. It was a really great Halloween.

 

Lizzy's Birthday

This pretty girl turned 9 on October 26th. It was such a fun weekend for her! My mom came and stayed with us because my Dad was out of town. So it made her birthday even more fun to have her grandma here with her. For breakfast she wanted scones so I made her some with some yummy honey butter. Since we weren't giving her a party this year we told her she could pick where we went for her birthday dinner and she wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory. Oh darn my favorite! It was really fun, she and I shared a really yummy Chicken Madera and Steak Diane. She and I are huge mushroom lovers so it was perfect!!

She is such a beautiful girl inside and out! I love her smile, it is so genuine, it lights up her whole face!

She was really exctited to have her own piece of cheesecake and to have a candle in it and have them sing to her, It was her first time for that and she really loved the attention! She picked the new Smores cheesecake.

For her birthday cake she really couldn't make up her mind and didn't know what she wanted so I suggested that she instead have one of her favorite desserts, the raspberry dessert. It was so yummy! It is one of my favorites too! I am a bad mom and had a piece before everyone else. :( I deserve it right for how hard I work?

 

The Pumpkin Farm

I got the privilege of going along with Jane and her class to the pumpkin farm. We definitely couldn't miss going this year because we missed Janie's pumpkin Farm trip last year when we were in Utah for Ro Ro's funeral. It was such a nice fall day and I thought it would be fine with the three little ones. I take them with me lots of places so no big deal, I would just put Annie and Russ in the stroller along with my heavy diaper bag and be good to go. I knew that the stroller was in the van because we always have it there so I didn't even check. We we got there and no stroller. We had taken it out and I totally forgot that we had. Thankfully we had the baby Bjorn in the van so I could at least put Annie in that. So it was a miserable couple of hours carrying that awful diaper bag and Annie on top off it. My shoulder was killing me. But we had fun and Janie was very happy to get to go with her class.

Here we got to go on the hayride and Russ was really excited because there was a tractor pulling it, and he is just a tiny bit obsessed with tractors right now :) I was also very surprised that I got this good of a picture Russ pretty much refused to look at me all day when I was taking a picture.

There was a corn maze that we got to walk through that again would have been more fun if my shoulder wasn't killing me, but Russ and Jane seemed to like it. It was cute that they walked together. They don't always get along that great because Jane teases him really bad. Kevin and I keep telling her that she better watch it because one of these days soon he is going to be bigger than her. He actually is only a few pounds less than she is already.

She really does love him though. :)

I thought that this picture was fun because little Jane was up there posing. Russ would climb a little but he wouldn't go to the top. He has started to be pretty scared of some things lately which is really weird for a boy. I think he is just coddled too much by his sisters.

I did get a picture of my and my little kiddies. I have realized that I really don't have enough pictures of me and my kids. Not that I don't want them I am just usually the one behind the camera.

I love the pictures of them sitting in the pumpkin fields.

Russ did see a tractor that he could sit in and steer the wheel. He enjoyed that thoroughly.

Here are the three little pumpkins that I got to add to the weight of things to carry around. It was great. Sense the sarcasm.

Russ was so funny because he was loving the chickens. I cant remember a time that he has seen them before, but he must have because he immediately said "Chickens!" when he saw them. It was really funny.This was a picture of him watching the chickens.

Janie was really excited to pick out her own little pumpkin. She really took her time picking it out too. She would pick one out and then put it back and pick another. It had to be just right. She is such a cute little goose!

 

All about Russ-2 years

I cant say enough about how I love this boy of mine!! He brings something so different to our family it is indescribable! He is all boy and we love that so much. He is so completely spoiled and so well loved by all of us. I absolutely adore each and every child that I have and my life would not be the same without each of them. It is so fun to have this little man in our home! I know how much Kevy loves him and how he feels like he has his own little special friend to do boy stuff with. All of the girls love having a brother so much and after growing up with 6 brothers I know how good it is for girls to have a brother to make them a little less crazy. Hopefully having 4 sisters will make Russ very understanding of the opposite sex.

Russ was born the happiest little man, he always had a big grin on his face. He was like the boy equivalent of Lizzy. Right around 16 months he got really grumpy and whiney and it was really hard to deal with him, but he is back!! Since moving to our new house he has been the happiest little kid. So full of life and energy. He has gotten really obsessed with Lightening McQueen and all the cars. He love love loves tractors and bulldozers and trucks of all sorts and he loves to drive by and see them working. He has gotten really good at talking and we are all enjoying listening to him say stuff. He loves to say Oh Buddy, and Oh boy, and he says to the girls all the time "stop it!" which is not my favorite because he has started saying it to me when I tell him to do something. He loves to have treats and another favorite phrase is "I want more chocolate." He definitely has a serious sweet tooth. He is a lot like his Grandpa when it comes to sweets so I think we picked a good name for him.

Russ loves all his sisters so much! I love when he calls their names. Russ loves his little sister Anne so so much.. He is always trying to give her hugs and kisses. He pretty much mauls her to death and I have never seen him be jealous of her at all, so that is nice. I really think the two of them being so close in age are going to be best buddies. He also still completely adores his Dad. He loves me and is so sweet with me but he is a total Daddy's boy. He would want Kevin every time over me. Thats okay because it really makes Kevin happy that his only boy loves him so much!

I just love this little face! He is so darn handsome!! Russ gives the absolute best bear hugs. I love when he runs up and squeezes me so tight and the way he says "mom!" when he does it.

At his 2 year appointment he weighed 26 lbs. (30th) and was 35 1/2 inches tall (80th) He is much bigger than the girls at the same age, so there seems to be a chance that he may have gotten a little bit bigger of genes than the girls. We can always hope! Although Kevy is a shorty and he couldn't be any more perfect so if Russ is short that will be great too!

He also is showing signs of liking sports as well. He loves hitting balls around with his little golf clubs and he know when Dad is watching ball on tv.

I had to get a picture of him watching the diggers. We go down to the end of the street and watch them and every time when I say it is time to go home, he cries and says " No! watch diggers!" We just really adore this crazy boy of ours! I am so glad I was blessed with him and that I get to be his mom!