HaLLoWeeN Extravaganza!

We have been getting all of our Halloween affairs in order. (Costumes included, but I am saving those as a surprise! :)) So yesterday we tackled all the fun stuff! Ghost making, goodie bags, pumpkin painting & carving, and of course cookies! (This is going to be a long post with LOTS of pictures! It's our first time doing a lot of this stuff together, so we had to document it all!!)

These are their goodie bags from Grandma & Papa Salisbury. They were SO excited about the giant gummy snake and spider!! (Thanks Mom!) Lots of cool stuff to keep them busy!
The boys making their ghosts! We got a fun craft book with the stuff from Grandma & Papa. The ghosts were a must. They played with them for about an hour! :) While the boys were sleeping we got the paint out and started on their little pumpkins. I painted Jackson's Jack the Pumpkin King. And Patrick painted Harrison's Frankenstein. It was Patrick's first pumpkin painting experience... and don't tell anyone, but he enjoyed it and he did it while reading Twilight! haha!
And then after dinner, we started the cookie making and pumpkin carving. And for background entertainment we listened to/watched Nightmare Before Christmas one more time! :) Jackson LOVES that movie and knows all the songs! I love to watch him watch it! :) Patrick was put in charge of pumpkin carving, because he hasn't done it in probably 10 years! (If you know Patrick, you know Halloween is his least favorite holiday. So I was relentlessly trying to beat the spirit into him!) haha! (Couldn't get Jackson anywhere near the inside of that pumpkin!)
He also has a lovely gag reflex, so the guts were not his favorite part! I was laughing my butt off! And he wonders where Jackson gets it from!!! Progress...

And the finished product! :) He had fun, he wouldn't admit it, but you can tell! And he did a fabulous job, the boys were very impressed!
And while the carving was going on... we made pumpkin sugar cookies.
And then we ate them! :) They each got to decorate one and eat it, or at least try to! Jackson is a sprinkle nut, he LOVES him some sprinkles! :) And Harrison really just wanted the frosting and cookie separately! So he made an amazing mess trying to accomplish that! :) It was a very fun day! We got to do all of the things we wanted to, with Dad home to do them with us. We finished the night off with some sugar induced hyper-ness that caused the first bloody nose in Swain kid history! There were very few tears (he is the toughest kid ever)! We were all pretty exhausted, but in a good way! And they even slept in this morning! :) Perfect!

So, this is boy heaven!

The weather has been absolutely perfect lately, in the 70s and 80s and sunny! We are loving it! And today was no exception. After soccer the boys really wanted to go swim, but we weren't feeling totally up for the pool! So dad hooked up the sprinkler under the trampoline and filled the little kiddie pool and.... they were in heaven! The water was great, but.... the MUD was BETTER! Finally, all that dirt in our back yard being put to good use! :)
I wish I had gotten pictures of them actually playing in it, but this is what the yard looked like after they gave up. (And they only gave up when the dirt in their pants caused enough discomfort to warrant quitting!) :)

The river of "water" from the sprinkler.The river again, swallowing the shoes that were missing from their feet.
And finally... the master minds! :)They had mud EVERYWHERE! They had even managed to launch it everywhere, including at each other. (Ya, Harrison's back didn't get that look all by itself.) They had a blast out there for about an hour and a half! And we got a good laugh watching them!

S is for "ghetti"

Harrison... our garbage disposal, is going to eat us out of house and home! Thanks to the Chapmans, my boys favorite meal is spaghetti. (Of course!) This was Harrison showing off his physique after 3 large bowls...

he was SO proud.

Soccer Pictures

As promised, here they are! He looks so cute in his uniform!

The GREAT Pumpkin

Patrick was off for a couple of days, so naturally we were looking for something fun to do together. Our fun neighbors were nice enough to invite us to go to Apple Annie's with them (in Wilcox) to raid the pumpkin patch. So after soccer, we headed out. We got to enjoy some GREAT hamburgers and pie (Oh, I LOVE pie!) in the orchards. (If you look close enough you can see some "fall" colored leaves in there!)
Harrison sniffing around the table for leftovers! :)
Jackson and his friend Wyatt, they had so much fun together and got SO dirty.

And then there was a hay ride to the pumpkin patch.

Their favorite thing was the hay ride, Harrison is obsessed with tractors! Even with the dust in their faces we had to sit as close to it as possible.

Patrick had the boys looking for the most perfectly round pumpkin in the bunch, they took to the searching very seriously. And I think the one we came home with was as close as we could have found!

We even got a family picture opportunity with our pumpkin, thanks to the Elams! (The wind was blowing really hard, and Harrison was pooped!) :)We had a lot of fun outside in the warm sun, with our friends, and most of all together as a family.

We laughed a little at the fact that we used to be surrounded by pumpkin patch opportunities and never took the chance to take the boys. The one thing we are learning very quickly about living in AZ is that driving (for an hour or more) to go to or see something is pretty common. It's not what we are used to, but it's been a great lesson in patience for the boys, and we do get to spend the extra time together in the car... so it's not all bad! :)

Out of Hibernation

Now that the weather has cooled off a little (it's 90 today) and we can spend more time outdoors without being in the swimming pool, Patrick thought it was time to get the 4-wheeler out and running. It took a minute to get it started (it's been sleeping for a LONG time). All three boys took it out to explore, they were all pretty excited. And fortunately ATVs are allowed on the roads here, we are considered rural, and there are a lot of trails. We see/hear people out all the time. So off they went. Harrison wasn't as sure about it at first, he hasn't been on it in probably a year, but he ended up being the one who could have gone all day! :)

PS. I plan to go for a spin myself... in about 3 months! :)

No News is Good News

Things are moving along as always, not much going on outside of the normal. So I thought I would post a little something about the little happenings at our house. (Mostly for journaling purposes.)

I finished editing and organizing it months ago, but finally got around to ordering it. My 2008 Blog Book. I did it through http://www.blurb.com/ and I LOVE the way it turned out! I am excited to start my 2009 Book already. I wasn't going to pay to have someone do it for me, but after looking at it and the cost to print it myself, it was about the same either way. So I let them do the work! ;)

Jackson got his soccer pictures back, and as soon as I can figure out how to make my scanner work, I will post them. He is growing up so fast and is really loving soccer and preschool and primary and everything else that involves socializing.

Harrison has spent the week looking like we use his head as a wrecking ball. Poor kid can't manage to protect his melon in a collision. But luckily none of them were serious! He is talking a lot more and has to color every day!! And he continues to be Jackson's little shadow.

Swain baby girl is very active and GROWING. Time feels like it is flying, and I am still waiting for inspiration for her room. I have some ideas, but I haven't started anything yet. We have picked a name, or at least we haven't found one we like better. So she is most likely going to be Reagan Leigh Swain. Yes, I know, it's a President's name... that is a complete fluke!

I FINALLY got my hair done/cut! WOOHOO! (Ya, I don't take pictures of myself, so that one is going to have to wait too!) I am blonder again, and I cut about 4 inches off, so it's a change but nothing too dramatic! But I have to admit, I feel better just having had it done. It's been way too long, like since I was living in UT! (Thanks Patrick for "babysitting" and for the fund-age!)

And poor Patrick has started his 3 months of graves! Yuck! We never see him, and he is pretty much always tired, so thus far, it sucks! But I bought him some ear plugs and a sleep mask the other day and those seem to be helping with the sleep deprivation and noise (since he has to sleep during the middle of the day). The good news is that he has managed to have more days off on the weekends, so he has been able to go to soccer and church a few times.

So there it is, an update of sorts. I still can't believe it is already October. Where has this year gone?!

Fall is in the air...

We got into the spirit this week. Decorated the house, watched Jack the Pumpkin King (Nightmare Before Christmas) twice, did some Halloween crafts and... the temperature even dropped outside just below 80. I love fall!


We still don't know what the boys are going to be for Halloween this year, which has me a little worried! (Jackson just can't seem to make a final decision, Harrison doesn't really care.) But we are enjoying October so far.