We love Halloween!

This has been one CRAZY BUSY day! But it is just too much fun to pass anything up. First we started out our day in downtown where they have trick-or-treating at the stores. They are all little boutiques or restaurants and you go from store to store getting candy. It was a lot of fun, but a little stressful since I was an only parent watching over 3 little ones on very crowded streets.

Emma is my little monkey this year. She was so cute and didn't even mind the costumes hat. Usually she is ripping that stuff off her head.
Tobie was a scary vampire, he sure is handsome for the role! Miriam was a cute ladybug, although she kept calling herself a butterfly. She was adorable no matter what she was.
One of the stores had this up so families could take pictures. They took one with their camera and are going to put it on their family wall. My kids are going to be famous! =)
They have this one area that has rock climbing, which I couldn't get Tobie down from, and bouncy houses. They even had a little train you could ride around the parking lot on, but I couldn't take one or two kids and leave another hanging. That was the hard part about this area. Tobie wanted the wall and Miriam took off by herself to the bouncy houses. Emma was asleep for half of the commotion and woke up when it was almost time to go. It was a lot of fun. We collected more candy on the way back to the car and then it was off to another party!
This is at the Coast Guard Halloween party. We were a little late and there wasn't too much to do when we got there, but I thought this was a really cute picture. And yes, I walked all over downtown dressed as Snow White.
Later that night was our Ward Halloween Party. This was the most fun of all! They had trick-or-treating in the classrooms, they had a cake walk, a bean bag toss, a fishing pole and some other things. They even had a Spook Alley. The Spook Alley was really fun, but really scary for my little man. When you walk in the overflow they had a black garbage bag draped so you couldn't see down the main part, but Tobie peeked a little. When it was time for us to go through he was so afraid that I had to pick him up and carry him. As soon as I started to walk through the curtain he yells, "No!!! I don't want to DIE!!!!" They had one of the YM on the table with blood on his shirt and the "Mad Doctor" sawing him in half as he yelled in pain. It was pretty funny, but Tobie didn't think so. We made it through and after a trip to the bathroom all was fine with Tobie.

At the Ward party Miriam wanted to be a princess. We had a fairy costume that someone had given to us, so she was a fairy princess! Very beautiful!
Here is my little monkey again with her buddy the dragon.
And here I am as Snow White. It was so funny how all the little girls downtown where staring and whispering to their parents, "Look, it's Snow White!" I just smiled and waved as if I was in Disneyland as the real Snow White. I even had the Mayor stop me on the street and ask me if I worked for Disney because I look so much the part. I thought that was pretty cool. I have always wanted a good costume and now with kids I can get dressed up and not look too much like a wierdo. This costume is definitely a keeper! Happy Halloween everyone!!!

It Never Fails

It never fails that when Theo gets deployed somewhere something happens to my kids. Tuesday night, the night that Theo left I was at the church for YW. Miriam was having a wonderful time with some of her friends. They were running up and down the hallway just having a blast. Suddenly I heard Miriam screaming. I ran to her and saw blood gushing out of her mouth. I ran her into the bathroom and as I was cleaning up her mouth I noticed this ginormous bump on her forehead that was 4x's it's normal size. I finally saw that she had a huge gash in her lip that I got to stop bleeding after about 10 minutes, and after 15 minutes she was back up running around as if nothing happened. Apparently she had tripped and smacked her face into a door frame. These are pictures from the next morning. The bump on her head went way down, but today it is a spectrum of color and still has a little lump on it. But as you can see from her expression she doesn't seem to be too bothered about it.



In fact I think she may have been a little proud of her swollen lip. She seemed to show it proudly.

Emma is 1!

Well she has actually been 1 for over a week now and I am just now getting the motivation to post her pictures. Some of her milestones in the month leading up to this day have been cutting two bottom teeth, crawling on her knees and sporadically mimicking a few words, like "Ouch". She thought it was funny to whack mommy on the head with a toy hammer and make me say "Ouch". It was so cute when she tried to repeat it. It sounded more like "Out". Anyway, I brought some cupcakes to work and we celebrated there. We are planning a big combo party for her and Daddy since his b-day is at the end of the month! Here are the pictures in sequential order, so you can get the real feeling of the eventful day.
I placed her cupcake on the tray and she just beamed for about a whole minute just admiring it. Almost as if saying, "That's great mom, but, uh...what is it?"
She got the nerve and dug in with both hands, no holds barred!
She totally freaked out and was probably cursing my name with this face here.
I have completely betrayed her trust. " Mom! What is wrong with you???!!!"
I dipped my finger in the frosting and put some in her mouth. She stopped crying just long enough for the frosting to melt, then she would look at her hands again and start screaming. She did this 3 times until I got smart and put some of the cake part in her mouth.
She has discovered the joy of sugar and all is well in the Mommy and Emma universe. WHEW!
I thought this picture was priceless. Lainie's boys really enjoyed the cupcakes. She told me they would get messy, but I have no idea that Spencer would wash his hair with the stuff! This is a boy after my own heart. If I could bath in icing I just might do it. (Lainie, that is Spencer, right? ;)~ )
So that was the big day. We let her have another cupcake at night so Daddy could celebrate with us also. And you know she had the exact same reaction as she did that morning. She seemed to have a great time though. And as Tobie puts it, she is a number now, she is 1.