TrUnK-oR-TrEaT

Presenting... the Mario Brothers! 

Jackson as Luigi.

Harrison as Mario.

And last, but certainly not least, we have...

Reagan the Cupcake.

The ward party was a lot of fun!  (We have the best ward!)  Complete with a chili and pie cook-off, live music and dancing, and the trunk-or-treat.  Patrick decided he was going to try his hand at the chili contest this year.  He has never made chili before.  He did not win for best chili.... he won for the HOTTEST chili!  hahaha.  Here he is with his oven mitt of glory!  The 2011 Golden Glove of Hotness!  hahaha.  He was so proud!  And it really was hot!  I had a small test taste and my nose started running... it was a while before I could feel my lips again!  ;) 

The music and dancing was really fun too!  Reagan got to dance with her dad, she loved it!  :)  And Harrison found his groove-thang with me on the sidelines!  hahahaha.  Dancing Mario was pretty stinkin funny!

I only saw Jackson twice, here....

And when it was time to start the trunk-or-treat!  hahaha.  I know he had a lot of fun because when he did finally come back and find us he was sweaty from running around with all his friends... and wet from the sprinklers!  Oh that kid!  :) 

We had such a great time!  We have been a little off beat this year about Halloween.  I haven't been as on top of it as I would have liked.  But we are getting it all in.  It's already the big day!  We will be doing our carving, movie watching, school partying, "for real" trick-or-treating and more... should be LOTS of fun!  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  ;) 

Where'd Reagan Go?

Hmmm.....  Can you find her?  :) 

She has found a new favorite place. And now that this girl is definitely on the move, (she has rolling down to an art) she can get just about anywhere she wants to.  She likes to pound on the window... or look out the window... or talk to the dog through the window.  :) 

I love that she is doing to much!  But I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous about what being "mobile" for real will be like!  hahaha. This is the face I get when I tell her "No".  hahaha.  Oh boy, am I in trouble!  ;)

"Spooky" Preschool Fun!

I have to start by saying how very much I love the 4 little people we have in our co-op preschool this year!  They are SO cute!  And SO much fun!  :)  I found this fun idea here for this spider web activity.  We spread out spiders and then added ghosts, they had to pick up the spiders without falling off the web or stepping on a ghost. :)  They had so much fun they did it for about 30 minutes.  :) 

My boys liked it so much it stayed on our floor for over a week!  It was even Spider Man's web for a bit!  hahaha. SO much fun!  

Fall Break...

We are still around!  It's true.  Life just seems to be moving along and keeping us at our usual crazy pace!  haha.  I haven't been very good about blogging, mostly because there hasn't been too much to report.  But the regular, every day fun shouldn't get left out, right?!  So here it is:

As of Monday Jackson has been on Fall Break!  (And so was Patrick for most of the week!)  We tried to keep busy, partly to make it fun for the kids and partly to keep Mom sane.  ;) 

Monday night we had a group FHE at our house with 4 other families.  Patrick was Goliath for our lesson, so naturally he got pummeled with balls and had his head cut off numerous times!  lol!  (We had to be sure every kid got a turn.... and there were A LOT of kids!) And then we roasted up some s'mores! 

Tuesday Jackson and I got to go to the zoo.  While Harrison had preschool and Dad spent quality time with Miss Reagan.  Fun all around!  We also made a family trip to Lowe's!  (It really was a highlight!  Some people window shop at the mall... I like to look at light fixtures and bath tubs and paint colors... it's in my blood... and it inspires me! :) 

Wednesday, thanks to some VERY wonderful friends, Patrick and I got to go on a DATE!  What?  Its not even my birthday!  ;)  Mmmmm.... Texas Roadhouse!  It was awesome and VERY much needed! 

Thursday we picnicked at the park (it's still 90 degrees here) and then played for hours with some friends.  You know the kids had fun when they come home smelling like dirt and sweat!  :)  It was Patrick's last day off this week.  :(

And then Friday, with all 3 kids by myself, I turned them all out in the yard... even Reagan (in her walker, of course)!  She gets around on the patio pretty good. (And by "around", I mean "backward". hahaha. She's still figuring that thing out!  :)  She was laughing at the boys so hard I thought she was going to throw up!  hahaha.  I love to secretly watch my kids play together! It's the best thing in the whole world!  :) And I even managed to make curtains for the family room and pillow covers for our bed!  It felt good to get some projects crossed my list too! 

I love my little family!  I have been fighting off some kind of cold/allergy problem for the last couple of days, and I hate not having the energy or the patience I know they deserve!  But I tell you what, as rotten as I'm sure I was today, I lost count of how many hugs my boys gave me!  Really!  :)  And when I put Reagan in the bath to make her happy (because she needed some help with that), all they wanted was me out of the way so they play with her! :)  They helped me clean, they had quiet time.  They were good kids.  Jackson wanted me to play the Wii with him, so when we were done working, we did!  And we made a good team. :) Harrison was my little helper. I made cookies yesterday, and that kid will do anything for a cookie!  hahaha. He even did most of his helping with his monster (cheap Halloween) teeth in!  :)  

Jackson spent a lot of time talking my ear off about dreams he had or stories he made up!  They usually involve a mixture of his friends and his favorite movie characters.  :)  And Harrison has a special talent for making up words, they have meanings and he uses them in sentences!  hahaha.  We had at least 5 new ones this week!  I would write them down, but most of them I can't even pronounce!  hahaha.  And Reagan has finally figured out her "M" sound! :) She says "moe moe" ...and apparently its funny!  :)  I don't think it means Mom, but I don't really care!  :) 

It has been a fun week! We stayed up way too late! We ate out way too much! We played hard!  We didn't clean too much! It just might go down as the best stay-cation we've ever had! :) And of course, I don't have a single picture! :/
What a week, what a week!  I'm sad that it's over!  

Reagan's DOings!

Yep, she's a DO-er!  :)  She's been working really hard lately, with 3 different therapists, and the hard work is paying off! ...Although I think we can attribute much of her accomplishment to her "spirit" (or stubbornness ;) as well! :)  I personally like to see it as determination... because that is what she is: Determined!  It's so fun to watch her figure things out!  :)  Since pictures are worth a 1000 words, here are 5... with some commentary by Mom.  :D

Starting position.  Yes, she is using her foot to rub her face!  hahaha.

This is why there is not a video of her doing this... She moves at Reagan speed, which means she has to stop now and then to make faces or squeak or sing.  :)  We call this position "the dead cockroach".  ;)

Getting closer...

Little Miss likes to sit like a frog!  :)  But getting those legs under her is hard work!

Up she goes!  :D 

I should clarify that she is not yet crawling... but holy crap... if that isn't the coolest thing ever!  She is getting so close!  And she wants to pretty bad!  So far she mostly just rocks and propels herself forward onto her tummy and then starts again.  Pretty dang impressive!  :D 

And then there are those little fingers!  :)  Chubby and cute and so very hard to control!  BUT she has finally figured out how to use them to her advantage... that's right, she's picking up small food and getting it into her mouth!  :D  There are not words for how exciting this is!  Feeding herself is HUGE!  We've been working on getting her to table food too, this is a big step in getting there!  Yeah Baby Girl!!!  We are SO proud of you!

(I got the cutest video of her feeding herself the other day... but I can't get it to download! Rrrrr!  I've been trying for 3 days... I finally decided to just post without it. :/ But I will keep trying, it's so stinking cute!)

Bowling Party!

Harrison decided he wanted to try out bowling! He hadn't ever been before and he was pretty excited! We had 2 lanes and 2 hours of limitless frames! :) (We ended up bowling 4 full games!) Both boys got at least one strike, impressive, even with bumpers! :) 

He had the cutest form!  ;) 

Patrick is probably the most competitive person I have ever known!  That being said, I totally beat him 2 out of the 4 games!  hahaha.  It just needed to be recorded for posterity's sake! 

Proof that I was there too!  ;)

Reagan even got in on the fun!  :)  She was pretty good at pushing that big heavy ball!  And she thought it was pretty funny!  

We had a lot of fun! Thanks Elam's for always being the life of the party... and for indulging us over and over again!  :)  We love it!  And Happy Birthday Bubba!  

We have made an executive decision at our house that big friend birthday parties are going to be something we do when our kids are school aged, starting at 6. (And I'm still undecided on whether or not they will get to have one every year after that! I'm thinking every-other sounds good! We'll see!) We still try to do something fun, but we limit it to our family... and usually the Elam's! :)

Look Who's 4!

Harrison is!  :)  He slid out of bed that morning, eyes still closed, and made a b-line for the growth marker in the hall... "Am I bigger yet, mom?"  Yes, buddy!  Yes you are!  :)  He is such a funny, sweet, loving kid!  He is the face-puller, non-morning person, quirky, hoarder at our house. (Seriously, he keeps a slew of treasures under his pillow! :) He is a great big brother. Always such a good helper for Reagan and Mom. And he loves to make her laugh. He is also President of the Jackson fan club, and has been since birth. :) He has been pushing lately to gain all kinds of independence.  Learning to dress/undress himself. Going to preschool, and loving it. Saying his own prayers "bless the ice cream to stay cold" "bless I'm super super cool" "bless Reagan at the doctor" (he says this one in every prayer, even at meal times) "bless it to be my birthday".  hahaha. He has learned and grown SO much this year!  Talking about things like solar systems and echo location.  haha. He is 43.5" tall, just a half inch shy of Jackson at 5! (Crazy!) Getting to be such a big little person. He warms my heart.  My mama's boy.  Our Bubba.  Man do we love this kid!

We have early church, so he had to wait patiently until after church for presents!  :)  He actually did really well... considering!  And he got loaded up for sure!  He was so excited about everything!

This lamp was from his Great Great Grandpa D!  :)  Both boys think it is the coolest thing ever! 

And Toothless... his Night Fury Dragon.  :)  He doesn't look very excited in the pictures, but he was, really!

We had "pasghetti" for dinner and then chocolate cake!  He was is heaven!  :)  And so very proud to be 4!

In his own words:

Favorite Food: Rice and meat balls

Favorite Color: Black... um, blue
Favorite Toy: Night Fury Dragon "Toothless"---
Best Friend: Jackson (so sweet) and Levi
Favorite Song: "This is Halloween"
Favorite Sport: Football (with Dad)
What do you want to be when you grow up: Fireman (Shhh... don't tell his dad!  hahaha.)
Favorite Thing to do: Help mom with the groceries (awww!) and play with my toys.
Favorite Book: He had a list, but basically it was anything Dr. Seuss and "Dinosaurs Love Underpants"
Favorite Movie: "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Nightmare Before Christmas" 
Favorite TV Show: "Thomas and Friends"
Favorite Animal: Elephants and Sharks
Favorite Holiday: Christmas and Halloween

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRISON!

Helper Heroes!

Preschool this week was at our house.  And we got to do the letter H (for Harrison, of course).  So for today's lesson/activity/craft... we turned into Helping Hands Super HEROES!  :)  They had SO much fun with this.  And it was a fun way for them to discover how they can be Heroes everyday... by helping... because that's what heroes do, right?!  :)  They are the cutest bunch of kiddos ever!

These pics made me laugh!  I hadn't realized how much bigger Harrison is until I put them all in a row!  He is the oldest, but still!  ;)