Kids these days!

Since we won't be doing much trick-or-treating on Halloween night, the ward Trunk or Treat has become the big celebration here in VA. I mean, seriously...why didn't they think of that when I was a kid. None of this WALKING to get candy stuff! As if walking from house to house sticking a bag in someone's face and demanding candy wasn't easy enough, now you don't even have to go from house to house! Now it's just from car trunk to car trunk- an easy 8-12 feet away from each other! My little two year old can make a candy killing in one parking lot and 15 minutes! He was so excited about this strange experience of funny looking people throwing candy at him for dressing up like a penguin and saying some trite phrase. Once he made it back to our trunk (after about 12 minutes) and Rudy attempted to take his bucket FULL of candy and tell him he was done, he white-clenched the handle pulled his penguin hood back on and ran down the parking lot for round two. Luckily we're still faster than him...barely. He hurridly shoved two more pieces of candy into his mouth before we could snatch them away to add to the 2 cookies, 3 suckers and one cupcake he got inside during the chili cookoff and game section of the evening. After listening to him bounce of the walls in his room for an hour and a half after we put him down that night, I started to understand why it might be better to have your kids have to walk around the neighborhoods to get candy. I remember how tired I was coming home from my hard earned candy cash-out. I had already worked off the candy I hadn't even eaten yet and I'm sure I went straight to bed after such a strenuous evening...right mom? Someday I'll be able to say, "Ya know boys, when I was your age we had to walk uphill both ways...sometimes in the SNOW to HOUSES to get our hard-earned Halloween candy! You kids these days have it so easy!"

Yes, that's Tucker holding Cooper all by himself. So is that a 'big helper' or big no-no'? hmm...
Our costumes for the ward Halloween party...either a Safari couple who caught a lion and a...ahem...penguin, or zookeepers with our zoo. (I think that one works a little better! ;)
Cookie #1 for the evening...
The parking lot of goodies, there for the taking!

Stand off between Mickey mouse and Wheezy the Penguin...can you hear the western music now? (wooaawooaawoo waa waa waa)What I do when I'm not doing what needs to get done (exhibit A)
(exhibit B) I had to use the Wolf name tie-in somewhere this Halloween!

October Adventures

So if you don't get a family photo from us over the holidays...refer to the above photo--Happy Holidays! :) We're going to try to get in and get a family photo taken since the last time we were at an actual photography place to get photos was when Tucker was a year and it wasn't together as a family...but I can promise anything.

We had a lot of fun this weekend going to a pumpkin patch and letting Tucker pick out our pumpkin (we required that HE'D be able to pick it up in order to stay within our pumpkin purchasing budget ;)
We went with the Ruckers and had a great time! Don't you think this could be the beginning of a very cute wedding album? ;)
And we celebrated Kylea's 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday Kylea! Tucker was the only boy at her Tinkerbell party. However, Lissa made sure he had the blue flowers in his lei, the 'masculine socerer's power-wand' (instead of the fairy wand) to decorate, a coloring page with Peter Pan instead of Tink, and his very own goody bag with 'boy stuff' in it. Thanks Lis! ...although I think he was jealous of the bracelets the girls got... ;)
And of course, no lack of sweets and sugar for him to enjoy! ...must be my son if he enjoys sugar that much!
And proof that the art mom does actually do art with her child, even though he's not a big fan of it. Every once in a while he will actually paint a little. Crayons are still used for walls, breaking, and eating. I get about 2 minutes of painting out of him until it ends up on his hair. I guess I should embrace self-expression? My art professors would be so disappointed...I opt for home cleanliness over abstract art creation! I am ashamed.

Emotions

Boys. I'm so glad I have two boys. Coming from a family of all girls, you'd think I'd know how to deal with girls better. Nope. I've always been a girl relatively low on the emotional scale and always hung out better with the boys. I was really excited I was a girl so I could marry a boy and didn't have to deal with all of the emotions! :) HOWEVER, I'm coming to find that gender plays no differentiating role when it comes to being two years of age! And what I'm finding even MORE entertaining than the fact that everyday I'm trying to communicate with a pint-sized, irrational, bundle-of-energy 'teenager' who doesn't understand 70% of what I'm saying, is the ways he chooses to express those emotions through his facial expressions.
...at least I don't have to throw hormones in the mix yet! :)

Here's one of the happier emotions. I think this one was because there was another red tomato ready to be picked...wow...exciting, no??
This would be the teenager I was referring to...


Oh to wonder what Cooper will be like...
I LOVE parenting!!
And I love Bumbos! (Bumbo: a seating device (shown above) for 3-6 months. A miraculous dinner-assister.) Cooper does too...he's just sneezing right now so he couldn't show you how much he loves it.

OH! and here's a random picture to throw in the mix. This is what happens when I pour water down Cooper's head when rinsing it after a bath. Fascinating natural hair line, no? Can't wait to have TWO boys with completely unstyleable hair! Again...good reason to have two boys...and two good hats! :)

A shout out to Ginny

Happy Birthday to my older sis Ginny, who's turning 30 today! Thanks for all the good times and friendship over the years. Love ya and miss ya Gin!!