HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! We had a busy, but fun day. It all started early this morning since Derek has school at 8:00 am. Taylor and I watched his school parade, which was very cute. After we picked up Derek from school and took a plate of cookies to Dave's office. It was fun to meet all the people he tells stories about each day. Then we raced home in time to babysit for my sister.

Here are some photos of the boys outside Dave's work. We had time to kill. Derek was "the Red Batman". The first time he put this costume on he said "I don't even look like Derek. I look like Batman".
Here's Raphael, our cute little Ninja Turtle.
Derek and two of his cousins that we watched today, Cameron and Landon.

Don't be too impressed with this cute dinner. It was $4.99 from Papa Murphy's. :) But I thought it was fun so I took a picture of it anyway. Ha ha.

The End of a Fun Day

After dinner we went trick or treating. The boys only lasted 40 minutes. Taylor got spooked at one too many doors and decided he was done. He stopped going up to the last of the doors and Derek went up all alone. Some doors Taylor did actually walk up for candy, however, he'd refuse to take the candy once he got there. Just take the candy dude!! You're already there!!

Here's Taylor and his loot.

This is a total "Better Homes and Gardens" shot...well I thought so anyway. :)
All done trick or treating. What a fun day.

An Early Lesson on Taxes

Pumpkins A Go-Go

Here are some photos from our pumpkin carving family night. The boys drew on their pumpkins and we were supposed to cut out where they drew. That turned out impossible to do, since Derek's facial features were tiny and Taylor just scribbled all over his. (Apparently his pumpkin "was on fire".) So they described what face they wanted and we did our best to carve it for them. We had a lot of fun and the boys love looking at their jack-o-lanterns.

My Parents' Addition

We've been driving up to my parents' house just about every weekend for the past six months. Dave and our brother-in-law have been helping my dad build this addition to their house. Dave has learned a whole lot since he's been involved with everything from the foundation to the roof. Here are some photos of the current state of the addition. It's extending the dining room and deck and adding a storage room and guest room to the basement.

I guess it looks a little different now. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago. There is now a window in the downstairs room just under the upstairs window.

I'm glad we captured them working on a stormy day. It has rained or snowed the past five weekends that they have been working. But the weather has been great now that they are done with the exterior work. Great.

Derek's Owwie

Have you ever witnessed one of my hysterical laughter episodes? You'd know it if you saw it. When something strikes me as very funny, I start bawling uncontrollably. Well, that's what happened after I witnessed this in person and after watching the last 3 seconds of this clip over and over. Am I just a horrible mom or what??

DEREK'S A WINNER!!!

It's Red Ribbon Week at Derek's elementary school. Each child was given a red bracelet to wear all week long. If the child's name was drawn and was found wearing their bracelet, then they would receive a prize. Derek was so sure that he was going to win. Well, today he came running out of his classroom and yelled to me "I won a prize! It's in my backpack!"

He later told me that his name was announced over the speaker in his class and a "big kid walked me to the office". He chose this pencil and bookmark. It's fun watching how excited kids get over the little things in life. (Hey, I remember how excited I was to win a bright yellow Farmington Elementary Roadrunners t-shirt for guessing how many candies were in the jar.) This is a very fun stage!

(He made sure I took a picture of both sides of the bookmark.)