Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy!

I can't believe our little peanut is a year old. Time passes us by so quickly, even though tough days have the illusion of going by so slowly. (Is it bedtime yet?!?!?)
My screen saver at work is compiled of thousands of family snapshots. When the boys pop up from even a few months ago, I marvel at how fast they grow and change.
J has quite the personality. It's so funny the way his sense of humor is already evident. It's funny to me that even though he can't quite walk, his favorite activity is wrestling and climbing. He is all boy through and through. He loves his big brother. The way he looks at him is really something to behold. Even though he can't speak words of adoration, it is so clear in the way he looks at him. The same goes for when mommy or daddy come home. His little eyes sparkle and his eight little teeth break out in the widest grin.
Any time he hears applause he starts clapping. One hand turn correctly and the other slapping the opposite side, like he's giving himself a little hand spanking. 
Any day now I am waiting for him to start running. He lets go of the wall or furniture, takes one step, then crumbles into the ground and right into a "speed crawl". As if he is thinking about walking, changes his mind and says "crawling is waaay faster and waaay safer, I think I'll go with that!"
He is mimicking up a storm. His favorite word is "done!" (Other than Mama, of course....)
He eats anything and everything. More than his big brother on some days. So far his favorite dinner is salmon and cous-cous. I mean what baby do you know that spits out babyfood and thinks cous-cous with onion, garlic and tomatoes is the best thing ever?? After every bite you get a "Mmmmm!!!!" from him, which has really boosted my cooking self esteem.

I am so thankful to be a Mama to such an amazingly brilliant little guy. I don't know what we ever did to be so blessed, but whatever it is I tell God thank you everyday! I love you peanut!

Halloween Fail...

For the second year in a row we have had Halloween fail. Gone are the days of walking your neighborhood for treats. Now it seems as if the Halloween "events" has taken center stage. Neighborhoods look like a New York City caliber traffic jam because apparently, children have lost the ability to walk door to door and must be driven in mini-vans with open sliding doors from house to house.

Scooby and the Gang!

Shaggy and Scoob

Let me begin, we started off this year with a bang. The week before Halloween we had trunk or treat at our church. It was a great event. We invited the school and surrounding neighborhood. We had candy. We had spray on tattoos. We had bouncy rides. We had coordinating costumes.

Cutest Giraffe EVER!

Then came Noah's Ark day at C's school where he proceeded to inform me he would like to go as a giraffe. Okayyyy....no problem, it's time for creative mommy to make an appearance. You see, she's been hiding under piles of laundry for approximately 2 years. So I busted out the rusty, trusty glue gun and Voila! Giraffe. No problem baby. 

Youth Party

Now, please keep in mind at this point we have been to TWO pumpkin patch/farm/hayride kinda places. We have picked pumpkins, apples, and corn. We have petted and fed various sheep/goats/pigs/horses. We have gotten lost in not one but TWO corn mazes.
Not to mention a fall festival at school. And a date with mama to see Hotel Transylvania. We carved pumpkins. We made Oreo pumpkin pops. We grew skeletons in water (grows up to 600x their size!!!) For good measure we attended the youth Halloween party on Sunday, in costume I might add. 

Now it's October 31st. I tell you all of that to say this. You would think after all this hoopla we could simply "skip" Halloween trick or treating. We went to church, in yet another costume. Sorry no pictures because at this point I am Halloweened out. I was planning on glazing over the fact that we were just going home after church, but noooooo....apparently some little booger at my kids school told him about going door to door for candy. He insisted. I tried to be a good sport. Last year, we just went to friends homes. This year, all of our friends were at church. So we tried a mega church down our street hosting a "Truck or Treat". The line was wrapped around their mega building twice. I told C I would take him to the store and buy him whatever candy he wanted if we could leave. Being the savvy businessman he is, that was an easy bribe.

As we drove through our neighborhood, I noticed quite a few porch lights on. I thought "Ah ha! Halloween can be saved! We'll go at it the ol' fashioned way!" First door (WITH LIGHT ON!) No answer. Second door (WITH LIGHT ON!) no answer. Third door....you get the picture. If C was a few years older, I would have encouraged him to go get the TP and eggs. Ok, that was a joke. But I'm not gonna lie- the thought crossed my mind more than once as I carried J up the hill and watched C's disappointed face three doors in. I told him I would buy him TWO candies of his choice if we could just go home and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". So we that's what we did. We handed out candy to THREE kids. Next year, I think I'm going with "Didn't you hear honey? Halloween has been canceled!"