Trick-or-treat!

Introducing.....Doctor Alex and Pirate Zachary! Alex had picked out his own costume. He really likes doctors.

We tried several times to get Zachary's mustache and goatee on right. It still wasn't perfect but he was so so cute anyway.Oh my gosh. The boys had so much fun trick-or-treating tonight. This was their first one ever and it didn't take them long to catch on. Some friends of ours came over with their two kids and we all went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood together. This was actually our third time to trick-or-treat with them. We've gone twice before even though we didn't have our boys yet.

Here we are at our neighbors house. It was our first stop of the night. I think daddy would still be out trick-or-treating if we didn't all stop him. I will admit that I might have gone a little overboard with pictures. I can't help it. Really, I can't. Even Chris took one picture and I didn't have to ask him too.

Happy Halloween!

A day in pictures

Yesterday we got up and outa here much earlier than usual. We had to go to school. Since Alex is about to turn three, his Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) speech services will end. This is where the school district picks up. We had a pre-assessment/meeting at a nearby school. It was a play based assessment so it was in a room full of toys and they basically just watched Alex play and talk. I think he and Zachary had a blast! Now that they've seen him it was agreed that we need to do a full assessment but we couldn't get it scheduled until the end of November. It was a little bit cool out so I had the boys dressed in their new jeans. They looked so cute and grown up that I had to take pictures. They're making kinda goofy faces but I love to see them standing together to see their heights.Once we were done at the school we had a little time to kill. A realtor was coming to preview our house around noon and it was only 11. So we headed to a playground close to home. The boys love any chance to play outside.

As if that wasn't enough fun and excitement for the day, when daddy got home he got out our "new" car! A few days ago Papa brought over a car that one of my aunts took to his house for us. We weren't entirely sure if it worked or not but it did. Alex and Zachary loved it but need more practice. They could push the gas pedal but weren't too great steering. I had to jump out of the way more than once and Chris kept our real cars safe.

In training

Hey, isn't this what boys are for?

More house pictures!

We had to go make more decisions on the new house today. We chose interior paint colors, granite countertops for the kitchen, marble countertops for the bathrooms, and stainless steel kitchen appliances. Then we finally got to go see the house! On the outside, the stucco is painted and the stone on.

(The above picture still has a temporary front door. We haven't picked the real one yet.) We also have the drywall up inside. It sure looks different now that the walls are closed in. The stained concrete floors are also finished but they are covered and taped up while the rest of the work is being done to help protect it.

When the living room is finished the fireplace will have stone all the way up that whole corner section of the wall. It will probably be limestone like on the outside of the house. I can't wait to see it again. Things should move fast now once they get going on the inside!

Monkey see Monkey do

Alex and Zachary are so silly. They are plenty silly on their own but they often have to copy each other. It doesn't matter if it's playing with a certain toy, making funny faces, or doing something that gets them in trouble. If ones does it, then the other wants to do it too.

Here they are at Mimi and Papa's house. We had just finished up lunch and they flipped their bibs up over their heads and made funny sounds and faces.

Then they had to repeatedly dig out a bucket of beads from the toy closet. Who said only girls like to dress up?

Chris was out of town again this week. This time in Arkansas. So we spent a few days at my parents to break up the week. Chris did end up coming home a day early (today instead of tomorrow) so we were all very happy.

The "key" to Zachary's heart

This boy has a thing for keys! I'm talking obsession. He's seen keys before and was maybe even allowed to hold them once or twice but now talks about them all day long. It all started a few weeks ago, I'm not sure how. We have to make sure are keys stay put away because he will climb tables to get them. If the door is left partially open to the closet where I store the diaper bag he will rummage through the pockets to find my keys. All of this wouldn't be quite as bad if it weren't for the fact that he also likes to stick them in his mouth and his nose. While at Mimi and Papa's house awhile back Mimi found several old keys that didn't go to anything and made a key ring for Zachary and one for Alex. They were so excited - except that we had to repeatedly take them away do to being put in noses and mouth. My mom did send them home with me but I never got them out until yesterday when Zachary was crying so hard because we wouldn't let him have daddy's keys. The boys use them on the house doors, on their play house, and on their cars. They have been taken away a few time. They have been fought over (you know one set of keys has got to be better than the other). They have been loved by one (O.K. two) little boys. I'd better go find the missing set before morning and pandemonium breaks loose.

Donut day

What could be better than a donut day? Not much! I decided to make donuts for an afternoon snack today and we invited our friends over. The boys really dug into the donuts and so did I. They especially liked to eat the donut holes or "baby donuts". These are donuts that my grandma used to make and they are the easiest thing ever. If you've never had them, then try soon.

You buy a cheap plain can of biscuits and cut a hole in the middle with a thimble (hey, that's how we did it growing up). Then fry them in a pan of oil. They cook really fast. When they come out, dip or drizzle them with a glaze of milk and powdered suger, sugar and cinnamon, or whatever donut topping you like. Voila!

Bedtime battles.....well, not really a battle

A few weeks ago I posted about some sleeping issues with Alex. Although the crying at bedtime as mostly stopped he is still asking all day long about when it's time to go to bed again. He'll say "Mama, no night night?" and I have to reassure him that it's not time to sleep yet. He's even got Zachary copying him now and they'll sometimes ask shortly after they've woken up. Now there is something new. Several times now after we've put the boys to bed and settled back down to watch t.v. or whatever we'll hear Alex whimper "mama". Once I went up and he asked for water, which he's never done before. Tonight he told me that he had an owie on his knee. Two or three times he's asked me to go "night night" with him so I crawled in with him for a few minutes. When he first came home he slept with a stuffed puppy. He picked it and wanted to sleep with it - no problem. A few months ago he lost interest and it sat in his room but he told us he didn't want to sleep with it. Recently I moved it out of the room with the rest of the stuffed animals. Tonight when I was in bed with him I thought to ask if he wanted to sleep with his puppy and he said yes. So I brought it back. I wonder what's going on? Could he be upset or worried about something? I know this is very minor in the grand scheme of sleeping problems because he does sleep all night and still goes to bed fairly easily but something has been off. I'm afriad it's going to be bad when he has his own room at the new house in a few months.

While daddy's away......

Since Chris was out of town tonight we met our friends Kelly & Luke to play and eat at a new place. It was a hit! (Well, the playing was anyway. The food, so-so.) It's a nice indoor play area with climbing and slides. It was all netted in instead of closed off so we could watch from below.

Here's our three little monkey's on top of the "tree".

We're sure going to miss our friends and all of these fun places when we move.

Yesterday both boys had follow up eye appointments. I didn't realize that they were going to have their eyes dilated. Boy, they weren't happy with that. Then Zachary had his final visit with his Infectious Diseases doctor. Yea! (He had tested positive for TB on the skin test but negative on the chest x-ray so he doesn't have TB. We think the positive result is probably because he received the vaccination in Russia. So as a precaution he's had to take 9 months worth of medication and see this doctor to make sure he wasn't having a negative reaction to it.) Then today Zachary had to go to his pediatrician for his last catch-up vaccination and a flu nasal vaccination. Poor guys! They deserved some fun this evening.

H.O.T.

I meant to post last night but was too tired. Please forgive me. Yesterday we went with some friends to the Heart of Texas fair (HOT fair - it was hot too!). We all had a good time. One of the main attractions for all of our munchkins was the petting zoo. This was the first time that Alex and Zachary had been that up close and personal with any of these animals.

The next exciting thing was the pony ride. I wasn't sure how our guys would do, especially since one of our friends cried when he got on the pony but they were very good. I walked beside Zachary and he held on to the saddle and didn't try to pull the pony's hair or jump off or anything. (The saddle did have a seat belt just in case!)

We thought we'd try some of the fair rides but Zachary was too little for any of them. Alex could have ridden a few with an adult but he doesn't like them. Instead we played the midway games. This is Chris's favorite thing, I think. He did great and we came home with two more big stuffed animals.

The boys behaved pretty well even without their nap. It's funny how they can miss a nap if we're out of the house doing something fun and be O.K. but if they missed a nap at home they would both be so cranky! We were all tired on the way home and Alex and Zachary slept most of the way.

Best seat in the house

This is where Chris chose to sit and have a drink when he came home from work today. When I asked why he was sitting there he said "because it was comfortable".

Do you think I can get away from the kids up there?

Wordless Wednesday - At the pumpkin patch

House - work

Building a house is exhausting and I'm not even doing any manual labor! Today while my mom stayed with the boys Chris and I met with the decorator to pick out many many things. We chose cabinets for the whole house, plumbing fixtures, and lighting. That may not sound like much but there are so many choices that it took several hours. I think we did a good job though and got it all done. We were also able to see some sample paint colors on the house and picked a stucco color. We ended up choosing a dark brown (like we thought we would). It's the color on the right. The stucco is up on the house but it's not painted. The bottom portion here will be limestone and the trim around the arches and windows will be the same as the top trim color which is almost the same as the stone.

Most of the insulation is in the house now too. This week the concrete stain samples will be put down for us to choose from. We will probably have one more full day of decisions and then a few smaller ones as we go. We still have to choose carpet, tile, countertops, interior paint, appliances, a front door and who knows what else. I think by the end when everything goes in we won't remember what we chose and it will all be a big surprise.

A groggy weekend

This weekend Chris and I headed out of town, without the kids. My mom came to stay with the boys so we could go to Chris's Dining In for his battalion. This one was different from the one we went to in the past because they had a grog. (If you didn't click the link the history of grog says it began as a mixture of rum and water to keep the drinking water from spoiling on long sea voyages. Grog's now, at least in this context, are a mixture of everything but the kitchen sink and are not very good to drink but that's kinda the point.) It's a "game" where if you don't follow the rules of the mess (the dinner) then someone can tell you to go drink the grog. It makes for a fun evening. When the evening officially ended many people who weren't sent to the grog , including us, wanted to taste the it. While some thought it wasn't so bad I did not like it. Every ingredient in the grog had some sort of meaning and while vodka, Hawaiian punch, brown sugar, blue curacao, raspberry schnaps, hot sauce, and all the other ingredients would be fine alone; together - yuck! Oh and I couldn't get past the pecans floating on the top either.The boys were very happy to see us today but I don't think they missed us too much. They had lots of fun with their Mimi and a surprise visit from Aunt Lisa and Cousin Tyler.

Friday funny

This morning the boys were in our bedroom while daddy got ready for work. (He's usually gone before they wake up so this was unusual.) They are very interested in any motor kind of sound and were watching closely when daddy turned on his electric razor.

Zach: "Zoom zoom mow grass."

Alex: "No, mow cheeks."

I heart Nicholas Sparks

I love Nicholas Sparks. Sshhhhh...don't tell my husband. His new book The Lucky One came out yesterday. Other than the Harry Potter books his is the only one I wait patiently for the release date and rush out to buy the first day or two. I got mine yesterday and I get to start reading it today. Although with two toddlers in the house it may take a bit longer than usual to read.