Happy Halloween!!

Today was a beautiful day in Michigan!! It was perfect weather for trick or treating! This year Kaden came up with the idea for their costumes. A couple of months ago Kaden decided that he was going to be a beekeeper, Perry was going to be a bee, and Emmy should be a flower. So, I went on a hunt for those costumes. I think that this might be the last year that they will go along with themed costumes, so I ran with it! Our night of trick or tricking started off great and ended up with me calling poison control!! Kaden bit into a glow stick that I had gotten for Emmy and swallowed the liquid. You could see the liquid glowing on his lips, in his mouth, and in his throat. He started screaming as soon as he swallowed it. I knew that it was non-toxic but I thought that I would call poison control anyways to see what we should do. The lady was very nice and said that they get calls like mine all of the time on Halloween. She said to give him a glass of milk and after 15-20 minutes he will be fine. She was right. We gave him a glass of milk and put on Halloween Dora and by the end of the show he was fine!!

For dinner, I made the kids mummy dogs. Perry's special treat for Halloween was trying cheerios for the first time. He loved them! He surprised us by picking them up right away and putting them right in his mouth! What a big boy!

Every year, our tree over our driveway falls in one day. Yesterday the tree fell, so the kids have had fun playing in all of the leaves! I think that we have a lot of raking to do this weekend!

What a cute little spider!! Thanks Cody for letting us borrow it!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins last night. Well, actually I should say that Chris carved the pumpkins. Somehow it has become the family tradition for us to start carving pumpkins together and ends up with Chris carving all by himself. Kaden had told Chris that he wanted his pumpkin to have a mean face. This is a picture of Kaden and Chris doing their "mean" faces!

Emmy showing off the pumpkin that I carved (see I helped a little). I sacrificed my melon baller on this pumpkin.

This is when everyone was involved before the kids and I curled up in front of the TV watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eating pumpkin seeds.

Tag, I'm it!

My friend Melissa tagged me, so here ya go!

4 Things I Did Today
-Helped Kaden get things together for his share bag for school
-Listed some of my baby things for sale on craigslist :(
-Made a pumpkin craft with Emmy
-Made goody bags for Kaden's harvest party on Friday

4 Things On My To Do List
-Carve pumpkins tonight
-Find something for Perry to wear for his 6 month pics on Monday
-All sorts of ladybug crafts for Emmy's b-day party
-Organize the kids toys (this never seems to make it off of my to-do list)

4 Of My Guiltiest Pleasures
-Doing random crafts
-Reading other peoples Blog’s
-Buying things on etsy
-Fountin pop (diet coke)

4 Random Facts About Me
- I love getting the kids pictures taken (I would get them done every couple of months if we could afford it). I am thinking of investing in a nicer camera to start taking the pictures myself.
-I have lived in Grand Rapids since I moved here when I was a baby (I know -not very exciting! I just love my family too much to move away)
-We are trying to sell our house
-Emerson and my aunts son, Grayson were born on the same day. Char and I had hospital rooms right next to each other.
Now—- Tag, you’re it!
Kristen
Lauren
Renee
Annie

Perry is 6 months!

Perry is 6 months old today!! Although he is all smiles for pictures, he still is a bit of a fussy butt! He is lucky that he is so darn cute! He takes naps a little bit better (which makes me very happy) but he is still having trouble sleeping at night. He knows that mommy is pushover this time ( he is my last baby - I can't help it) and just gets up and feeds him instead of letting him cry. This would have never worked for Kaden or Emmy.

Perry is still not rolling over!!! He is sitting up better and will probably be sitting on his own real soon. Side note -Chris is not very happy about these leg warmers that I put Perry in!! I had bought a couple pairs for Emmy and got Perry a pair too for when he is crawling around our wood floors. I think that they are cute!!

Perry tried pumpkin tonight for the first time. He did not like it!! So far, he has liked all of the baby food that I have made for him except for pumpkin and carrots.

Perry can drink out of a cup now! One of Perry's favorite things to do right now is to jump in his doorway jumper, check out the video below!

20 Things that I LOVE about Fall

1. All of the beautiful colors on the trees
2. Picking apples
3. Making all sorts of yummy things with the apples (apple pies, apple crisp, caramel apples)
4. Pumpkin Spice Lattes
5. Wearing cozy sweaters again
6. Raking leaves to jump in
7. Mums
8. All of the cute fall themed decorating
9. Crisp, clean air
10. Picking pumpkins at a pumpkin patch
11. Carving the pumpkins
12. Apple Cider
13. Cooking and eating comfort food
14. My kids birthdays
15. Flannel sheets
16. Football
17. Pumpkin Flavored Beer
18. Robinette's Doughnuts
19. Taking cute pictures of the kids
20. Family

I have a 5 year old!!

Kaden officially turned 5 yesterday! He had a really great day. After school, Grandma and Grandpap came over on their way back from Cleveland (Go Browns!!!). We opened presents and had cake. Then we went out to dinner. We told Kaden that we could go anywhere he wanted and he choose Bud and Stanley's ( he is a sucker for those toys that they give you to play with there).

All Kaden really wanted for his birthday was playmobil, especially the hospital. So, he was very excited when he opened the hospital from Grandma and Grandpap. Chris spent the whole evening putting it together. It was ready for him to play with first thing in the morning (and he woke up really early to start playing). Kaden said, "Mom, I love my presents so much that I can't stop playing with them."
I was too tired to make more cupcakes for his official birthday after making the shark cupcakes and treats for his party at school yesterday. So, Grandpap picked up an ice cream cake for Kaden (it even had a shark).
Chris was able to spend the day with Kaden at school yesterday on his birthday. Chris was a "Watchdog" (a program where dads volunteer at the school) yesterday at Knapp Charter. Kaden loved having daddy at school with him. Kaden and his buddies even performed a puppet show for him!

It's a Shark Party!

This afternoon Kaden had his much anticipated Shark Party! It was a beautiful day for a outdoor birthday party. We played a few shark games (which did not take up as much time as I had planned), ate shark cupcakes, and opened some shark themed presents.

Some of the kids and I playing "Minnow, Minnow, Shark"
Kaden and his shark cupcakes
The cupcakes turned out really cute and were a lot of fun to make
Kaden was excited to start opening presents!

Our Scarecrow!

Sunday after church, we went to Rockford for the harvest festival. We shopped for awhile and then made a scarecrow, which none of us have ever done before.

Here is the finished product!! Next time I will pay attention and not pick a kids pair of pants with an adult male shirt. The kids were very proud of him. After all of this fun, the stomach flu hit 1/2 of the family!! Everyone is feeling much better now and hopefully the rest of us won't get it!

Happy Anniversary Derek and Lindsay!

Saturday night we went to Derek and Lindsay's anniversary/ house warming party. We had a great time! Since we couldn't find a babysitter, Grandpap was going to babysit but at the last minute we found one. The kids loved her and I think that we will use her again. Kaden was bragging to everyone that his babysitter is Hannah Montana because her name is Hannah (how do 4 year old boys know this stuff??). Grandpap was off the hook and able to go to the party with us, although he still came over and spoiled the kids with new toys!

Derek feeding a shrimp to one of his sting rays in his bar!
Char posing for a pic w/ the sting rays
Thanks Derek and Linds for throwing such a great party!!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Saturday we went to Country Basket to pick some pumpkins. It is one of my favorite family traditions and it is always fun to get some cute fall pics of the kids. There were to so many cute pictures that it was hard to choose which ones to share!

We headed home with our family of pumpkins, one for each of us!

Crafty Kids!

The kids latest craft project was these really cute sunflowers. I got the idea at the artist woman, go to her site if you want the directions. We used mini chocolate chips for the centers (which the kids ate 1/2 of), instead of the poppy seeds recommended. They turned out great and they actually look nice on the dining room table.