Happy Halloween!!

Today is Halloween and trick-or-treat. Its very rare that trick-or-treat is actually ON Halloween around here. The mall, farmer's market, and our museum had trick-or-treat already and Lilly's father took her to those. We still haven't decided if we are going to go house to house the entire time or go to a church where they are doing 'trunk-or-treat'..... there's a bunch of cars parked in the parking lot and they are decorated and the kids walk from car to car to get candy. Its safer and more convenient for the stroller, but I don't think it'll be as much fun. We might try to end up doing both. Go to the cars first and then hit a side street or something. I told Lilly she gets to decide what we do.
Visited with my dad this weekend and saw his new house. I'm glad they got a bigger place, it was just too crowded in their other place...but I know how he felt there. He told me to come back in a few weeks to see the place after they have everything unpacked.
I'm hoping to get some good pictures of the kids tonight, but I don't know how well they will turn out since it'll be dark and my phone doesn't have a flash on it. I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

Pics of kids

Here's pics of the kids doing pumpkins as I promised. They had such a great time doing it and getting messy!

Zach with his hand down the pumpkin. He didn't mind the ooey gooey-ness of the pumpkin guts.

Lilly after getting out some of the insides.

Lilly with her hand down the pumpkin

Lilly getting out the insides

Lilly's pumpkin she carved by herself...with a little help

Zach chewing on the pumpkin scraper

Zach with his hand down the pumpkin

After we made a mess on the porch with the big pumpkins, I moved the kids inside to paint the little ones. I had them paint in the bathroom since its the only room we have without carpet. I was going to do it outside, but it was cold and I had to strip Zach down to his diaper.

Lilly painting her other pumpkin

Lilly making her pumpkin a rainbow

Zach slapping paint on his pumpkin

Zach painting his pumpkin



Zach enjoying getting messy

Lilly's butterfly habitat box

See these pictures and more on my flickr account. Just click here to see them all

Still not Christmas?

We are carving pumpkins tonight!! WOOO!! We were talking about letting Lilly do one all by herself this year. I'll make sure I get pictures and post them tomorrow. We have 2 big ones for carving and 2 small ones just for painting or drawing on. I'm gonna let Zach go crazy with fingerpaint and his pumpkin, as long as he doesn't try to eat the paint. Super excited about that. I'm pretty sure the painting is going to have to take place in teh bathroom seeing as how that's the only room in our apartment with no carpet.
Lilly's shoebox habitat was a great hit with the kids and the teacher loved it. She got to bring it home yesterday. I meant to get a picture of her holding it, I will do that tonight and post it tomorrow with the pumpkin pictures.
Everything is going great. Kids are great. I'm still really excited about Christmas and can't stop thinking about it. I asked hubby last night where we were going to put the tree this year since Zach's crib is where the tree usually goes. He just looked at me funny and told me not to think about it right now. I think what I'm going to end up doing is rearrange the bedroom and make room for Zach's bed so we can put the tree in its spot.
I'm hoping to sell my car, my mom car, soon. I posted an ad on craigslist today and already got 2 emails until hubby told me to just add his phone number to it. We've had a few calls about it this week from the sign he put on it. One guy called late last night. I'm also hoping I get at least half of the money from selling my car to put towards Christmas. I know hubby was wanting the money to put back in savings from where he paid to put an engine in the car I'm driving now....but I really want some of it for Christmas. Saving up money when you don't have any is real difficult.
I still haven't scanned the pictures that we got done at the fire station. I haven't even taken them out of the package yet. We were going to go through them and figure out what to give to people last weekened, but we didn't. We got lazy.
So be on the lookout tomorrow for some pictures of the kids! Lets hope I remember.

Mad Mom

Hubby really wanted to get Zach's hair cut. Here's what my handsome little man looked like before...

I told the barber that I just wanted it trimmed away from his ears and off his neck and out of his eyes. That's it. And this is what he does...

I yelled, I cried. I'm still kind of upset about it. This is not what a trim looks like.

So anyway... here's some pics of Zach enjoying a chocolate strawberry.

Weird dreams

We went and got the pictures that we had done at the fire station. They really weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I really like the family picture, all of us together. Its our first family picture. Everyone looks good in it. There were a few poses I didn't like, but we ended up getting all of them. There was about 3 of Zach by himself and only one of Lilly. I wish the photographer would have taken more of Lilly by herself. There's the family picture with us wearing our WVU shirts, a picture of just me and hubby and then a picture of just the kids. Then, we changed the kids clothes. In the middle of changing them, the photographer took pictures of Zach in his diaper. I love that picture. He's just sitting there with his paci in his mouth. There's 2 with both the kids in their costumes and one is really really good. There's one with Lilly by herself, which I wasn't quite fond of, and then 2 more of Zach by himself in his costume. I liked one of them.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not..but... Lilly had to pick a wild animal and make its natural habitat in a shoe box. She had originally wanted to do a deer, but changed her mind to a butterfly. I think it turned out pretty good. She colored the sky with a crayon, glued cotton balls for the clouds, we made a tree out of some sticky green craft paper and added apples on it. I printed off a picture of a field of flowers and used it for the back and then we started glueing on fake flowers on the bottom and side until we realized that tape was going to work better. We then hung the butterflies that I broke off some of her hair clips that she has never worn and never plans to from a string so they can fly around the box. I was wanting to take a picture of it, but it slipped my mind. She took it in to school today.

I had a dream 2 nights ago~ There was me and the kids, hubby, my mom and step dad and all my brothers in a small house, maybe a trailer. We were frantically trying to find a back way out of the house. By the time I noticed that the back door was blocked by a big tv, some guy busted through the front door and shot us all with a machine gun. I said to myself, "ok, I'm just going to lay down now and die." But before I fell all the way to the floor I woke up. I paced the house and tried to go back to sleep. I had the same dream, but this time I saved my kids by hiding them. I woke up again, paced the house, tended to Zach and tried to sleep again. This dream, we were all outside laying in the mud in a row, shoulder to shoulder. I couldn't see anything except the person beside me, so I sat up. I heard a guy laugh behind me and say something about me trying to run away and he shot me in the head. I didn't sleep the rest of the night. The dreams even haunted me all day yesterday. I didn't sleep well last night either. I just can't get these images out of my head now. I can't recall any dreams last night, but I did just lay there and stare at the ceiling most of the night. I just couldn't sleep. Crazy, right? I've had dreams before that I died, was shot, was run over, it was the end of the world...stuff like that, but none of them has haunted me like these recent ones have.

Weekend

Lilly did ok at the wake and the funeral. She asked a lot of questions, as I expected she would. She didn't cry until the funeral and I think it was mostly because her cousins were crying...that's what got to me. The whole family is doing ok. We spent everyday together since his passing. Hubby was taking it hard the day of the wake. I did what I could to comfort him. At the end of the funeral, a dove was set loose. We all went back to hubby's mom's house after and we stayed until real late. Here's a pic of the kids sleeping on the same pillow. So cute.

Saturday, hubby's mom pulled out Lilly's tooth.

 

Did you know that teeth are going for $5 now? Or at least the first tooth is. That's what her sister got when she lost her tooth and then a dollar for each one after that. Crazy.

Sunday I went to see some of my family. I drove my little brother around so he could buy a laptop. I've just been real busy this past week with everything going on and its just too much to type.

Still no word on the house that we want. Still waiting for it to come back on the market.... and no new house has come up in our price range that we like.

......

The wake for grandpa is today and the funeral is tomorrow. I'm going to leave work early, go buy some formula since we are completely out, pick up the kids, get them home and ready. Tomorrow, the kids are just going to go about their usual day, day care and school. I'm going to take tomorrow off, so no update tomorrow.

 

Zach does this new thing, and its so adorable. He loves pillows and for the past few weeks, he will go over to a pillow and lay down with his head on it. He'll toss and turn and play for a bit, but its so cute. We have a pillow that we keep in the floor just so he can play with it. When we are at someone else's house, if we throw a pillow in the floor, he will rush over to it just to lay down. My mom said that she wants to get him a Pillow Pet for Christmas. Those Pillow Pets caused me so many headaches last year.

I've also been having the urge to smoke again. I haven't, but I've wanted to. I've been doing really good and haven't touched one in such a long time. So.. I've been eating a lot more. I came so close yesterday to ask someone if I can bum a cigarette. I'm very proud of myself that I didn't. I've just been extra super stressed lately and then you add in everything that's happening this week and I just wanna pull my hair out. Right now, I'm looking around my office and going through my desk to see if I have anything to munch on. I need to get this under control before I gain weight. I've been doing really well lately, watching what I eat and exercise more... but now is all down the crapper.

I apologize for my postings being so short lately.

SECOND POST OF THE DAY

Simone from Australia is getting married this weekend and I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell her to have fun and don't get upset if things don't go as planned. My wedding day was crazy. Hubby's niece passed out, the air conditioner didn't work (and it was the middle of summer), my bridesmaid's dresses didn't fit and they were all safety pinned so they wouldn't fall off, my flower girl (Lilly) ended up going barefoot, my mom lost her camera, the isle cloth got caught on everything and ripped... just little things. During the reception our cake started to melt and fall off the pillars and we even ran out of cake. Not everyone got a piece. No big deal. If things can go wrong, they probably will. My best friend got married a couple months ago and her cake fell completely off the table onto the ground. So here's my advice I guess... don't sweat the small stuff... its not the wedding day that is the reason you are getting married, its the days that follow. Good luck and I do hope its everything you imagine and hope it will be.

Somber day

Hubby's grandpa passed away yesterday around 2:00 in the afternoon. He was 88 years old. I didn't know him very well, but in the few times that I was around him, he was always so very friendly. He always had a story to tell and would sit there and listen to anything you had to say. From what I've heard from other people he was a very good, hard working, honest man. He was so delighted to hear that hubby now works where he use to. He use to sit and tell hubby about how things use to be there. His wife passed away 2 years ago, we had the funeral on their anniversary. Her birthday would have been this Friday.

Hubby left work early yesterday to go to the hospital, but he didn't make it in time. I know that bothers him, but I hope he doesn't beat himself up too much for it. I left work a bit early too, but it was after everyone was out of the hospital and going home. I picked the kids up and headed to my in-laws house. 2 people ended up bringing 4 boxes of pizza. The kids played, the adults talked. Hubby's mom mostly took the time to make phone calls and talk to other family and friends. It was her father that had passed.

I don't know when the funeral will be, I would imagine no one has even given the arrangements any thought right now.

Where's my coffee?

Left work early Friday. Day care called me and said that it looked like Zach had pink eye, so I picked him up and took him to a doctor. Now...I didn't take him to his doctor cuz I tried to call and they were all out to lunch, so I figured I'd take him to this doctor's office by the house that's kind of like an emergency room, but not really. Its called Urgent Care, or it use to, or something. We sat in the waiting room for 2 1/2 hours and then in the patient room for another hour for the doctor, then another 1/2 an hour after that to be able to leave. I think next time I'll just wait for his doctor's office to finish with their lunch break and then call. It'll take less time that way. Zach's on eye drops now until Friday. He doesn't really seem to mind them. Oh, and he really liked that doctor that came to see him. As soon as the doc came through the door, Zach sat straight up and smiled. Here's a pic of Zach playing with the paper on the chair. It was the only thing that would occupy him. He wanted down in the floor so bad. Do you know how hard it is to keep a child out of the floor for 4 hours? It was exhausting!

Got to see mom Saturday. Lilly went to watch her sister in a cheerleading competition for a bit. Not really much more to say about that.

Sunday we had pictures done. The kids got some in their costumes and then we took some family pics in WVU shirts. I don't think I'm gonna like these pictures. I didn't like the poses, she didn't change the background for any of them. So, the ones with costumes and the family ones all have this horrible white background that looks like we are up against an old white barn. After that we had hubby's niece's birthday party to go to. Lilly had fun.

Yesterday I had my parent teacher conference at noon. The teacher said Lilly is doing very well and she's even going to put her in an advanced reading group. I asked about her talking, she said that Lilly is no trouble at all and doesn't talk too much. That was a big problem in Kindergarten. And I asked if Lilly got in a hurry and messed up cuz in Kindergarten she always wanted to be the first one done, it didn't matter if she was wrong or sloppy. Teacher said that Lilly doesn't do that at all. She's changed a lot and I'm very proud of her.

After that I picked up one of hubby's nephews, the one that's Lilly age and took the kids to McDonald's for lunch then to the playground. We were at the playground for nearly 3 hours before we headed into the school to look at the books for the book fair.

Neighbor invited us to go walking with her yesterday evening, so we did. I had Zach in the carrier sling thing and he was loving it. We walked mostly uphill for 2 miles. It was a workout. Lilly was complaining, but she made it. I really need to get out there and walk some more. I need to exercise and lose some weight.

Zach slept pretty good last night, but I couldn't. Hubby was at the hospital with his grandpa so I stayed awake until he got home, then Zach woke up once after that, but then I couldn't go back to sleep. I don't know why. I tried. So... my eyes are droopy this morning and I just really don't feel much like typing anymore.
Oh, and more pics are up here

Lilly at dentist

So, I didn't get to bring Zach with me. I figured today would have been a good day because the big boss guy is on vacation this week and well...its a Friday. My immediate boss told me that the big boss guy is not in a good mood. He's been called in twice to take care of business, while on vacation. I wouldn't be happy either. Its just not a good time. I'll have to try again some other time. I was actually really looking forward to brining him to work.

Lilly's dentist appointment went great. No cavities. Her teeth were a little yellow. She kept blaming me. I don't know how its my fault, but whatever. I always make sure she brushes her teeth, flosses and uses mouth wash. She likes to do it. There really isn't any problem getting her to do it. She's just not doing a very good job at it. Now that her teeth are white again, she is determined to keep them that way. I snapped a few pictures while she was sitting there.

Hopefully going to visit family tomorrow. Lilly is going to go watch her sister in a cheerleading competition and then we will go see my mom and everyone. Sunday, we have a birthday party and hopefully pictures at the fire station. We'll just have to wait and see....

Here's a few more pics of the kids...

Title Goes Here, but I don't have one

Wow... yesterday I was just feeling so low and couldn't seem to pull myself out of it. I think I'm ok today. I don't know what my problem was. I felt like crying half the time and screaming the other half. I didn't really talk to anyone or even want to. Yesterday just...... sucked.

Lilly has a dentist appointment today so I get to leave work early and pick her up from school just a little before the bell rings. She's really excited about her dentist appointment. Its weird. Tomorrow I'm bringing Zach to work with me. No special reason really. One of the couriers last day is next Friday and I told her I'd bring Zach in before she left. Last time I brought him he was good and I didn't have any problems getting my work done. I don't know about now. He's more mobile now. One thing I am really worried about is him falling. Sometimes when he's holding onto something and standing, he will just fall backward and bumps his head on the floor. I'm not sure if he lets go and tried to balance....but he can stand on his own now. I think he thinks the thing he is holding onto can move, but when it doesn't, his hands slip off and in the motion, he falls...... that's my theory anyway. The reason I'm worried is the floor here is just a hard concrete floor covered with a thin layer of carpeting and I know it'll hurt him more than the floor at home. I'll just have to keep a really close eye on him. I can't tell Lilly I'm bringing him to work with me, she'll get upset and want to come too.

So, there might not be a blog update tomorrow.

Parenting Fibs or Tricks

I read an article the other day that got me thinking. I began to think of little 'fibs' or tricks I tell and use on my kids or even ones I was told when I was growing up.

Of course there were the usual sayings my mom yelled at me over and over again

~ "Don't sit so close to the tv, you'll go blind."

~ "If you don't brush your hair, I'm going to shave you bald."

 

And then some I made up for my little brothers

~ The Easter bunny took your bottles, so you have to drink out of a cup now."

~ (After it had rained) "Drink this water, its rain water." (My little brothers would drink nothing but soda until I introduced rain water.)

~(this one I used on my brothers and have used on my own kids) "If you're not good, I'm going to call Santa!"

~ "You can't wear you new shoes out to play in because they don't make you run as fast as your 'play' shoes"

 

Here's some I've come up with as a parent

~ (When my daughter was little and liked to run away from me at the store/mall) "Stay with mommy, or the man will get you." (she was afraid of males for the longest time)

~ "Brush your teeth or they will fall out" (sort of not a lie)

~ "Eat your veggies and you'll be able to pick up a car one day." (this one hasn't worked)

~ When she was little I use to race her so she would eat. Whoever got done first won, but that all ended the day we were in a crowded restaurant and she yelled, "NO Mommy!!! Don't beat me!!"

~ I use to play 'see who can pretend to take a nap the longest' just to get her to take a nap

~ When she whines I tell her I can't understand her, then she talks normal.

 

These are just a few...I can't give away ALL my secrets. ;-)

Can you think of any that you were told as a kid or ones that you've told your younger siblings or children? Feel free to leave them in the comments or you can even tell me about it through email by using the email from my other blog... smilesareeverywhere@gmail.com

Lilly's costume

I got Lilly back yesterday and we were all excited. Zach couldn't stop staring at her. She tried on her costume and she loves it!

 

There's no school today, so she is just hanging out at the YMCA playing. We're having a special election for governor today since ours took the senate seat after our other representative passed away. We've had a fill in, but they need an election to make things official and permanent.

We didn't really do anything special yesterday. Lilly played the Wii while Zach sat in his high chair and watched until he got bored. Then, I moved him to his walker while I washed dishes and cooked dinner. Hubby was out on a car wreck and then he had his weekly meeting at the fire station. This Sunday we are going to try to get the kids pictures done. A studio is going to the fire station like they do every year and takes photos of whatever you want. You, your family, your pets.... I've always gotten Lilly's done there, except for last year. I'm planning on getting pics of the kids in their costumes and then maybe a picture of them in their WVU gear and then maybe a normal picture.. but definitely in their costumes... maybe on a fire truck or something.

I've become obsessed with Christmas... and Halloween isn't even here yet. I've been making and updating spreadsheets on what to get who and comparing prices of some stuff. Really excited over Black Friday already too. I've been actively looking for ads, but none have come up yet... it'll be another month or so before they do, but I can still try. I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to save up money to get gifts. Both of the kids have their big gifts and a few little ones so far. Zach has the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Farm, a book, 2 soft cars. Lilly has a scooter, some shirts, some books and some craft stuff. I still want to get Lilly a camera and walkie talkies and then a bunch of little stuff and Zach a firetruck, activity cube and who knows what else. I have yet to get hubby anything. His stuff is what I'm most worried about saving money for. His gifts I want to get myself, but he will help with the kids.

Its just something about this time of year that gets me in the Christmas spirit.... even though its so far away.

Rain rain, go away

Friday was hectic. I was here alone at work. My boss and the other assistant took the day off... at the end of the month... and at the end of the quarter. I was going crazy. I left work late and was trying so hard to be back at home before hubby left to go camping, but I just missed him. I was stuck in traffic and watched him as he pulled out of the driveway and drove right past me. After a horrible day like that, all I really wanted was 5 minutes with him. Me and Zach ended up playing and staying up late.

It rained all day Saturday. I found a break in the rain and took off to grandma's house. We stayed there for a few house before heading back home. Hubby came home late that night. Saturday night, Zach didn't sleep very well, he was up and crying every half an hour. I tried to just leave him alone and let him put himself back to sleep, but he didn't. I was exhausted. He was congested. I gave him some medicine and even did some saline drops, but he was still stuffy. Finally about 4:30 I put him in bed with me and hubby. If anything, he could crawl around a bit while I took 5 second naps. He ended up falling asleep until 7:00 after an hour of being excited about being in our bed. I am totally against letting kids sleep in the bed, but I just couldn't take it anymore that night and I couldn't think of anything else to do.

We didn't do much Sunday. I didn't even get the kitchen cleaned. We went to Walmart and then picked up McDonalds on the way home. That's about it. I get Lilly back today and get to keep her for 2 weeks. I got her costume Friday. I'll have to have her try it on tonight and take some pictures. Gonna take both the kids Sunday to get pictures done in their costumes. Very excited about that.

Here's a few pictures of Zach from this weekend at grandma's.