Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year! We started off the day with an impromptu Halloween party at our house with all of our friends. We usually do lunch with friends on Saturday or Sunday, so we just had lunch at our house with the kids in costume and some fun Halloween activities.

We had a tough time getting all the kids to pose and look at the camera at the same time. I managed to get everyone, in some combination, in the above two pictures. We had a baby's 1st Halloween outfit, a skeleton, Buzz Lightyear, a motorcycle dude, a Tootsie Roll, a dalmatian puppy, Darth Vader, Woody, a turtle, Hanna Montana, Optimus Prime, and Minnie Mouse. What an awesome looking group!

We even had a special appearance by Elmo! This was Sean's homemade Elmo costume that only won him 2nd place at his work's costume contest. He was robbed, I tell you! Most of the kids were a little too scared to approach the giant Elmo, except of course Elmo's little boy, Patrick.

The kids played musical pumpkins, which was a little chaotic, but I didn't expect much else with a group of mostly 3 and under. They ran around a bunch and got prizes though, so I call that a successful game.

Then, we had some mini pumpkin painting. Some kids got really into it, others not so much, but everyone had fun and that's what counts.

Here, Nate is saying, "To infinity and beyond!", sort of. We would stick out our arms and tell him to say this. He would stick out his arms and say, "Wa wawawawa wa wawa". Or something like that, that sounded like he was really trying to say it.

Here are the AWESOME costumes that my mom made for the boys! Can't we ever give Grandma something easy to make? Wes's costume wasn't so bad, but Nate's was quite labor intensive because there was not a pattern available for a baby Buzz and she had to adapt a larger pattern. They turned out so cute and authentic, though.

I felt like I had to show off my mom's hard work by really going for it and creating a spaceship out of Nate's stroller. In the movie, Buzz didn't really have a spaceship, only the box he came in that looked like a spaceship. So, it was appropriate that this spaceship was made out of a box.


I started out pretty early with the boys, while it was still light out, so the older neighbor kids that love Wes and Nate could see their costumes before they went out trick-or-treating themselves. We made it around a couple cul-de-sacs before Wes started asking to be held because his legs were tired. So, Woody got to ride in the spaceship home while Mommy held Buzz and pushed the stroller, I mean spaceship, home.

We ate some dinner and Adam and Jaime came over before they headed to their parties. We headed out trick-or-treating again with Adam and Jaime in tow. Luckily, this time when Woody's legs got tired he was able to ride his horsey, Adam, back to the ranch.

With Wes's bag full of candy, we then headed over to Grandma and Linde's house to visit with the Wood family for our annual Halloween get together. Alex and Leah ran Woody around the backyard to wear off some of that sugar, then it was time to crash in our beds. What a great Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

Grandma and Linde came over with their pumpkins, tools, and stencils and we got to carving our pumkins. Wes dug through Grandma's bag of stencils and found a really cool (and really hard) Lightning McQueen that he wanted me to carve for him. I tried to convince him that he really wanted a pumpkin with 2 eyes a nose and mouth, but it didn't work. So I set to work carving Lightning and hoping that after all my hard work, you would sort of be able to tell what it was supposed to be.
Grandma made a very creative mummy pumpkin with a white pumpkin, gauze and eyeballs. Wes helped Grandma carve her second pumpkin and did a pretty good job. Good thing, because in a couple years I'm going to put him in charge of carving the really hard stencils.

Linde made a very creative, and easy, pumpkin with spider webs and spiders.

Here is my labor of love! I'm just glad that, after all of my hand breaking work, it actually looks like Lightning McQeen.

Nate Speaks Some More

Grandma watched the boys for a couple hours today because I had to be to work at 3pm and Chris doesn't get home until 6pm. Grandma heard Daddy's car pull up and told Nate, "Daddy's home". Chris walked in the door and said, "Hi Nate", to which Nate replied, "Hi Da". This is now a thing with them, every morning and evening. "Bye Nate, Bye Da". "Hi Nate, Hi Da".

Dancing King

Today at lunch, Wes was singing a song he had learned at preschool and we looked over to see Nate swaying back and forth. Wes stopped singing to watch Nate dance and Nate stopped dancing. We must keep the music flowing to keep his body rocking!

First "Piter" Pizza Ride

Pointing

Nate's new trick is pointing. Usually, he points and gives you some sort of instruction in baby language.

10 Months Old

Mommy's 1st Triathlon

I've always wanted to compete in a triathlon. The one thing that has always stopped me from doing it, was the running. I hate running, I've always hated running and I'm still not a fan of it. One night, when Nate was about 3 months old, I was watching a "Biggest Loser" episode where they were supposed to complete a 5K. This was an episode early in the season, when they hadn't lost a lot of weight yet, and one of the girls ran the whole 5K. I was very impressed and inspired, if she could do it then so could I.

I immediately started researching training regimens and found a "couch to 5K", or as I like to say "baby to 5K" program that I thought I could stick to. The program started out walking and gradually increased your running times every week, until you were running a 5K by the end of 12 weeks. I also found a sprint triathlon training program that picked up where that left off and was another 12 weeks. Next, I found a triathlon to sign up for 6 months later and I was all set. Oh wait...I guess I actually have to DO the training now.

Sticking with the training was definitely the hardest part, but I did it. I am NOT a morning person but I quickly realized that with 2 kids to take care of, the only time I would be able to train would be the mornings. While Chris did not do any of the training for me, I do have to credit him and especially thank him for my success. He pushed my butt out of bed every morning and got the boys mostly ready, while I was out running or biking or swimming. I just had to be back in time for him to go to work.

Then three days before the big day, I caught Wesley's cold and could barely breath! There was no way I was going to let that stop me though, I had worked too long and hard to miss the race. I competed in the JCC Scottsdale Fall Festival Sprint Triathlon. It was 250 yards swimming, 9.5 miles biking and 2 miles running. My goal was to finish and to run the whole run.

I did finish, and didn't die, but I didn't quite run the whole run. In addition to being sick, we had an unseasonably hot day and the temperature was in the low 100's. I knew I needed to get water at the water stations during the run and I tried drinking and running at the first station. For me, drinking+running=choking. I decided to walk and drink my water at the next two stations. So, I didn't quite run the whole thing but with good reason. My time was 1:10.

I did great in the swimming and running in my category, but not so great in the biking. I guess my $100 Target bike didn't really cut it and I'll definitely rent or borrow a better bike for my next triathlon.

Here are some of my biggest fans. I can't thank everyone enough for coming out to support me! Chris, Wes and Nate came of course and Chris was busy trying to take a ton of pictures for me and caring for our 2 boys. My mom, Linde, Adam and Jaime came out nice and early even though they are also not morning people. Lou Lou, Papa, Liz and Jack also came to cheer me on. Liz also helped make sure the day was thoroughly documented (it was almost like I had my own paparazzi) and Lou Lou helped Chris try and comfort Nate, who had a cold also and was not feeling well. Everyone braved the hot, early morning just to cheer as loud as they could for me. Thank you, it really meant a lot! I did this for myself, but it sure helped to know that you were all proud of me.

The whole time I was competing I kept thinking about how much I hated it and couldn't believe I thought this was a good idea. As soon as I was done, I was figuring out what I will change for my next one. I have to equate it to childbirth. While your in the middle of it, you can't believe you ever wanted to go through this and swear to never do it again but as soon as you have that baby in your arms you're already trying to figure out what your next will look like. So, I have the finish in my arms and I'll see you all at the Tri for the Cure in April!

Nate says Adam...really

Nate has been trying to talk, a lot. Whenever you say simple words to him, he tries to repeat them. Of course it doesn't REALLY sound like the word he's trying to say, but the intonation and some of the sounds are correct and occasionally it sounds a lot like he is saying a word. At dinner tonight, Grandma and I were telling everyone how Nate had said words that sounded like "hi Grandma", "bye grandma" and "i love you". Adam decided to teach Nate to say his name, right then and there. He pointed at Nate and said "Nate", then pointed at himself and said "Adam" and repeated this several times. Finally, he pointed at Nate and said "Nate", then pointed to himself and plain as day Nate said, "Adam". We all looked at each other in surprise and then burst out laughing.

Zoo Day

We headed over to the zoo for a fun day with our friends Jen, Izzy, Austin and Dane. Nate got to see his favorite, monkeys, up close and personal.

Wes checked out the baboons too...or did they check him out?

We even got all the kids to sit down at the same time to take a picture. Now that's a miracle! They sure are all getting big and cute.

Tolmachoff Farm

It's pumpkin patch time again! This year we headed back over to Tolmachoff Farm, the same farm we went to for Wes's very 1st pumpkin patch. Now it was time for Nate's very 1st pumpkin patch. We like this farm because it isn't too far away, it's smaller and easier to get around, it has lots of stuff geared towards littler kids, and it's less expensive. We loaded up the wagon with some boys and water, and off to the farm we went.

We met all of our friends there, and I mean ALL of our friends. Luckily, almost everyone was able to make it out this year and it was sure to be a fun day.

Jack was not too happy with the corn box, and Nate only wanted to eat it. I had to snap a picture, then quickly get all of the corn out of Nate's mouth, snap a picture, sweep for corn, repeat.

All of the kids rode the "train" (a bunch of oil cans on wheels, pulled by a tractor) and loved it.

Even Rob and pregnant Lizzy got in on the action, lucky them!

Ah, the corn maze. So, this is when everything took a turn for the worse. A thirty minute corn maze with 15 people to keep track of and a bunch of tired kids? What could go wrong?

See? Wes looks happy. This is not how most will remember him this day. It started out fun. The kids were running around, Chris was pulling Nate and Cate in the wagon, we were searching for the hidden mailboxes to build the puzzle for the map. The next thing we knew, everyone was hot and tired, Chris took a corner too close and accidentally dumped Nate and Cate out of the wagon, Wes started to freak out because everyone wouldn't stop and wait for him to tape the puzzle pieces on the puzzle and full blown tantrum mode kicked in. GET ME OUT OF THIS CORN MAZE!!
We got Wes calmed down, sort of, and tried to head over to the pumpkin patch to get a couple pictures of Wes, Nate and Jack with the pumpkins. Note to self...take cute pictures of the kids BEFORE they are hot, sweaty and cranky. Here's a couple of my lil' punkin with some punkins.

At least we got all three cousins in the same frame. Believe me, at this point it was a miracle.

We did manage to get a group shot with everyone. Good thing this picture doesn't have sound, because Wes was screaming his head off, but I held on tight and smiled. We were going to get the group shot, darn it.
I then had to promptly carry Wes, literally kicking and screaming, to the car. It was not a pretty sight. He has really only thrown an all out, super angry, fit like this one or two other times and I really wish I knew what caused it so I could prevent another one, ever. I think it was just a bad combination of too much stimulation, not enough food (I realized when we got home that his breakfast was sitting on the table uneaten), and being hot and tired. I was pretty upset at this point too, because I was embarrassed and bummed that our fun day had ended on such a sour note. We didn't even get to pick out our pumpkins. Chris and I managed to get Wes calmed down enough that we thought it would be safe to join everyone for lunch. When we got to lunch, Wes told Suzanne that he ruined his Mommy's day. Kind of sad, but I do think it is good for him to know that his actions affect others. Overall, it was a fun day. Sometimes it's just hard to see that when you are carrying a Tasmanian Devil to the car. Thanks for the fun everyone!

What's For Lunch?

Uncle Mike is in town to help Papa after his knee surgery. Wes loves Uncle Mike! We were getting ready to head over to Chino Bandito to meet friends for lunch. Wes also loves Chino quesadillas!

Wes - "Uncle Mike, are we going to get quesadillas for lunch?"

Mike - "I thought we established that."

Wes - "I don't want established that, I want a quesadilla!"

Mommy Turns 29...Again

I had a nice birthday celebration with my family. We went to my favorite restaurant, Eden's Grill, then went back to our house for some cake and presents. That weekend, Grandma Dee Dee and Linde were nice enough to watch the boys while Chris and I went to dinner and a movie. We saw Zombieland and we both really liked it. Happy Birthday to me.

School Pictures

Wes came home with his very first school and class picture. Such a big boy!

The first one was kind of funny looking and the second one turned out pretty cute. I had to get one of each!