Halloween, here we come!

This has been a very exciting, high energy, and crazy week at our house. Not because of any monumental happening or changes to our daily lives...only because of Halloween. Trevor is buzzed all the time, and by buzzed I mean living all parts of his life at 110%. He talks loud and fast, runs everywhere he goes, and can't sit still to save his life. Listening to and obeying his mom are the hardest tasks required and he's at a 50/50 average. I'm going CRAZY! Cambria and Ethan, of course, follow his lead and so by bed time I'm ready to crawl into bed myself (mind you, bedtime is 7:30 at our house). Yes, at our house I'd say we are excited and ready for Halloween.

Carving pumpkins was the start to our week and Cambria went right in for the slimy stuff while Ethan preferred using a spoon...carefully. Cambria's comment to Tyler..."You're the best picker ever." (talking about picking out the guts of the pumpkin)

This is the first year Trevor actually got his hands down in the pumpkin and got the guts and seeds out. It didn't last very long but he did get quite a few seeds out (I think his personal motivation for getting his hands dirty was so I could make him roasted pumpkin seeds).

Cambria was very excited to do her pumpkin and while see was the only kid willing to get her hands dirty she was also the most talkative. Her best comment..."Look mom, I got a gut". (interpretation: look at the guts I'm getting out of the pumpkin)

Some of the finished product. I still have to carve Ethan's little pumpkin on the right and Tyler needed to finish his haunted house. Here are our pumpkins!

We're Expanding!

I've been so excited to share our news but due to unexpected delays I had to wait. So now I can tell everyone that I'm having a baby! :) At first I thought it was twins because my stomach grew very fast and I was really sick, but after our first ultrasound we found there was just one. The kids are very excited and Cambria is sure it's a girl. I'm 13 weeks and my due date is April 21st. So many of my future blogs will probably be about pregnancy...I will try however, not to just focus on that. After all we have a soccer star in the family as well as the cutest 2 and 3 year old kids ever!

Why is it?

Why is that all boys have their funny bone connected to things that happen in the bathroom? Ethan thinks it is VERY funny to sit on the toilet and not urinate into the bowl but see how far he can get on the bathroom floor. He also thinks it's hilarious to poop--into the toilet, into his pants, where ever it may happen to come out. He giggles so much that he can't get control of himself again. Of course, if it happens that he had an accident and pooped in his pants, I'm fuming and he's just laughing at me. So far we haven't had any incidents of urinating in the corners of our house like Trevor did, but time will tell. Like I mentioned before...I HATE the potty training stage.

Moving right along

Here we are the middle/almost end of September and I'm still thinking it should be July. Our summer here didn't really start until the end of June because of nasty weather and I was thinking for sure, we would go into October with nice, warm weather. Not to be. It feels like fall and it's raining like it's fall...and our family is marching right along with life. Trevor has been in first grade for about 2 1/2 weeks and he totally loves it. He has turned into a social butterfly and is constantly asking if he can go play with his friends. His reading is coming along, his handwriting is actually legible and he loves being at school all day long with the big kids. He is also starting soccer today with his first game on Saturday. We'll see if he has his mom's competitive spirit (which I suspect he does)!
Ethan is now potty trained and was the easiest by far. He still has accidents once in a while but I'm thrilled that nasty business is over with. It's still painful for me even if it is pretty easy.
Our house is now a different color and I must admit that I love it! We are not quite done with the accent work but when it's finished I will post a picture. Tyler has spent almost the whole of three weekends trying to get the painting done and I help when I can (when either the kids are napping or it's dark). I had no idea painting a house was so much work!
I've started piano lessons with three students and I LOVE IT! I look forward to the lessons and have found that I want to practice and learn some new pieces as well. All three of the students have previous experience with piano so we aren't starting at the beginning (which I must admit is kind of nice). They are great kids and are teaching me great stuff!
I think that's all the news for now...like I said we are moving forward and not slowing down anytime soon! I hope all of you are enjoying this great time of year...

Summer Blahs

I think I'm going through a bout of the summertime blahs. We've had a fantastic summer, don't get me wrong. This week however, I'm tired and have very little motivation to do much. At the beginning of the summer I always have lofty goals of things I want to accomplish for myself and for the kids. This year I started off very motivated and had some great days of doing just what I wanted everyone to do. Now I look at the calendar and realize that summer is just about over and I didn't get everything done. Now I don't care. I guess I just have to keep thinking in terms of the "glass half full" and not get down on myself. I also find that I'm letting the kids watch more and more TV-- it's just easier. I know many of you have had your kids start school already and I REALLY wish we were starting soon but we still have TWO WEEKS! Trevor is VERY ready for school and I'm ready for him to be ready to start school. So, any ideas on what to do to stay motivated? I'm just curious...

Garden Update

I'm so excited!! We finally have our first garden produce! I was very skeptical of a garden growing this year and actually producing because it was so cold here for so long. We didn't plant anything until the middle of July and yesterday I went out and picked 4 zucchini. Yay!!

The cucumbers are coming as well as the green peppers, but the tomatoes and corn will still be a while. This years garden was a little experiment to see if it got enough sun and as you can tell the plants love their spot!


I'm already planning next year (hopefully by then we will have raised beds) and all that I want to grow. Trevor is most excited for zucchini cupcakes and zucchini cookies...he asks me everyday if I've made them yet.

Baseball with a kick

For his birthday, Trevor got a t-ball set and so this past weekend we decided it would be fun to take the kids to a baseball park and teach them how to play baseball. They all enjoyed it and of course, fought over whose turn it was to hit the ball with the bat. Ethan fought and cried the hardest and is still asking us everyday if we can go the park to "hit the ball". Tyler was telling Trevor that you have to step with your foot before you hit the ball and Ethan took his words to heart in this video. He is a determined, very adorable little ball player!