Happy Halloween!

Typical.

I have to be honest, until we had kids I wasn't a big fan of Halloween.  I think I mentioned this in my previous pumpkin carving post.  Have a litter of kids and your perspective on the Holiday changes.  They get SO excited and are irresistibly cute all dressed up.  Thankfully the household plague of HFMD cleared up just in time.  This year we had a beautiful flower princess, a brave fireman and a stinky skunk.

The "best" of the group shots.

Our Halloween went like this.  Wake up, drop Brooklyn off at school, head to the gym to be proactive about the amount of candy we wanted to consume, head to Grocery Outlet to finish our candy collection for the evening, pick up Brooklyn, eat lunch, naps, wake up from naps, costume prep and then the fun began!

Our beautiful princess.

We kicked off the evening by driving the six minutes to my parents so they could trick-or-treat at Papa and Mimi's.  They had been waiting for weeks to take Mimi's candy.  They rang the doorbell, took a handful of candy, ran to the table and ate the candy.  They really have no patience.  I am not sure how they inherited this trait, ahem, Brett.

Getting ready to knock on Mimi's door.

They are sorta looking at the camera.

And they switch.  Story of my life.

Ring!  Ring!

Skunk baby and Daddy.

Eating of candy...

Cute Skunk being naughty.

Trying for a group photo.

Such a struggle.

The boys.

We loaded back in to the car to swing down the hill to see the Springer's.  After a quick visit with the family we headed back to our house to divide and conquer.  Brett took the "big" kids trick-or-treating while Emmett and I tended to our 200+ trick-or-treaters (we ran out of our four Costco bags of candy by 8:00 p.m.).  After an hour Brett returned and we switched jobs.  At this point, Emmett was tuckered out and in bed.  The kids were hilarious.  Jameson was scared out of his mind but somehow managed to put it on me.  He kept saying, "Don't worry Mommy, I will protect you."  Such a little man.

More group photos.

It just gets better.

Brooklyn has had enough.

As you can see, Emmett and I had a lot of alone time while the big kids were trick-or-treating.  But, seriously, how can you not take a million pictures of this chunky skunk.  He makes my heart melt.

Binky Skunk.

Walking Skunk!

Tired Skunk.

Skunk profile.

Cheeks!

Ridiculous.

Get-a-way Skunk.

So cute.

Male skunk model.

Angry skunk.

Skunk thief.

Tired skunk.

Skunk bedtime.

Up to Speed

And we are up to speed folks.  I have updated all of September and October.  Whew.  Take that off my shoulders and I am going to hit the sack so I can get ready for another day full of tears and crankiness.  No, no...positive thinking, they will all wake up in full health!

Pumpkins Gone Bad

Wanna make your kids cry?  Open the front door and reveal this:

Those are our pumpkins that we carved on the 14th...apparently WAY too early.  Brooklyn's is on the far right and as you can imagine it caused full hysterics.  By today, the other two have also melted down to nothingness.

To bring smiles back to our adorable kids faces we hosted pumpkin carving party part two with the Horschman's.  We picked up two more pumpkins and had at it:

From left to right we have Brent's scary faced pumpkin, Brett's IAFF logo'd pumpkin (he is so proud of this pumpkin it's ridiculous), Lisa's kitty bat and my freaky skeleton face.  Brent and Lisa brought amazing carving kits...genius.  I actually enjoyed carving the pumpkin!  Okay, okay, I was getting Emmett ready for bed while they were de-gutting the pumpkins so I "accidentally" skipped the gross part again.  :)

And, yes, the kids are smiling.  And so are we because we have more roasted pumpkin seeds! 

Thanks for joining us Horschman's!

Outdoor Soccer Season

End of Season Soccer Cupcake Cake.

The Yellow Lions have wrapped up their season.  If you have been wondering where all of the updates have been, well, to be honest soccer drove me a little nuts.  My inner-crazy soccer mom, that I wasn't even aware existed, came out during every practice and game that I attended and I would have to check myself.  You heard that right, check myself. 

Yes, they are three and four year olds.  Yes, it was most of the kids first exposure to soccer.  Yes, the coach sucked.  Yes, Brooklyn is a bit of a drama queen.  But, it drove me nuts to see the coach not encourage the kids or offer some sort of positive reinforcement.  Luckily I wasn't the only one that felt this way and I was able to bond with some of the other parents by the end of the season about how bad the coach really was.  It's always the coach, right?  :)  

Rant aside, Brooklyn had a blast.  Our pre-game pep talks were always to try her best, listen to her coach, stay on her feet (she loved laying on the field, i.e. dramatic), and have fun.  Inside I just wanted Brooklyn to try a little harder.  When she tried, she kicked ass.  But it was 10% try.  See, crazy soccer mom.  I have learned, after having three kids, that my expectations are far too high for my kids.  Heck, my expectations for myself have always been unrealistic.  Believe me, I am getting better at being realistic every day.  It's a learning curve.

Mental problems aside, like I said, she had a blast which is all that matters.  She made fast friends with the girls on the team and they were pretty adorable when they were on the field together.  So, I think we'll stick with soccer and see if she can drop the drama and use those buff legs to score some goals.  I am going to hire a Michaud girl to coach her.  They have the gusto I am looking for.  And, heck, if she can't drop the drama I will just do what one of the soccer mom's told me to do, "get her off the field and get her in acting classes!"

Most importantly, here are some pictures of our season with the Yellow Lions: 

A typical pre-game pose.

Gettin' Serious.

And she's down...

Another pre-game pose.

Must hug all babies that are close to the field...even during a game.

What?  These girls look ready to kick some butt. Committed.

Game face.

Cheering her team on!

Almost a goal!

And He's Mobile!

Big Bad Baby Emmett is 95% walking.  I say 95% because he can walk, he just thinks crawling is a more efficient option.  He loves to play the walking game.  Brett and I sit across from each other on the floor he will walk back and forth for the fantastic prize of kisses.  He is such a goon.  He still likes to cruise along the furniture and then bolt off in some unknown direction only to fall on his face.  Apparently, he is still learning that he can't lead with his gigantic head/chest.  He'll get it soon, I'm sure.  It has made life interesting, that's for sure.  I can never predict when he is going to walk/fall/crawl so I am always on the lookout cause he is Big, Bad, BABY EMMETT!  :)

HFMDx3

Ugh.  That is all I have to say about this week.  The last few weeks have thrown us for a curveball and Sunday brought in the ever-so-lovely hand, foot and mouth disease.  Awesome.  Not only did Jameson wake up with it, so did Brooklyn and Emmett.  I will not post pictures of my kids or the sick pictures on WebMD but will let you build your own mental images of open sores on your, you guessed it, hands, feet and mouth.  Open sores people.  Sick.  It is just our luck that the majority of our kids sores are in their mouth, the most painful place.  Poor Brooklyn couldn't even open her mouth today so she is surviving on liquids at this point.  Well, that is, if yogurt counts as a liquid.  Maybe a semi-solid?!?  Tomato, tamato.  Our pediatrician said it should only last a week so come Sunday this disease will no longer be welcome in our home.  Please, please, please.

To boot, I decided that this would be the perfect week to try the cleanse/detox I mentioned awhile back.  I mean, we had to stay home anyway, right?  So, I chugged down the murky, green liquid detox on Tuesday morning and followed it with the packet of pills and felt fine.  Ate lunch of a delicious organic brown rice cake topped with all natural, sugar-free almond butter and still felt, well, fine.  Headed out to run errands with green tea in hand...started to feel a little parched.  About an hour in to my errands I felt like all the water was being sucked out of my every cell.  I was pounding water and it made no difference.  Halfway home the headache hit, like a Mack truck.  BAM!  Worst headache I have ever had.  Okay, second worst.  I don't think anything will hold a candle to the headache I endured when I had viral meningitis.  So, I barely make it home only to pass out on the couch at 6:30p.m.  I crawled to bed at 8:00p.m. and struggled all night with the headache and feeling like my insides were getting an indian rug burn.  So, let's be honest I quit that cleanse this morning.  I have six days left of green detox drinks and pills if anyone is interested.  I'll give them to you for free.  Although I am fairly certain there was a misprint on the label.  The crap is toxic.

And that folks is the end of my rant.

Can I see?

Jameson has a new found interest in pictures of himself.  He asked me to take his picture this morning and immediately followed up with, "can I see?"  So, here are a few of the many poses he pulled out for me:

Back Update

Last Thursday I saw my Spine Doc and have procrastinated blogging about it because I was hoping for a solution (I'm a problem solver) and instead walked away with basically, well, deal with it.  Long appointment short, my Doc said that I have injured a section of my back that will be a recurring problem.  I can do a handful of things to try and prevent flair ups but if I deal with the fact that it will flair up and have an action plan, it won't catch me off guard. 

So, I will be a good patient and do the handful of things to prevent flair ups (exercise, a regular sleep schedule, live life according to my level of pain, etc.) and have mentally adjusted my thinking.  There is no fixing it.  There, I admitted it.  Thankfully he thinks I will never need surgery if I stay active.  Not a problem.  So, that fear has been put to rest.

As far as my pain right now, it's still there.  It's getting better, but is still there.  The doctor actually said it could be there for a few months due to the size of Big Bad Baby Emmett.  I just have to take a muscle relaxer at bedtime to give my back a chance to recover from lifting and having him on my hip all day.  So, I'm still poppin' pills but am at peace with the fact that chronic back pain is a part of my life.  Bring it on lower back!    

Tom's

 I. Love. My. Tom's.  It's true.  I write this now because I just realized that with the rain settling in...my Tom's will have to head back to the closet until the warm weather comes back.  Tear.  I have but one pair of Tom's and they endured a roofing project, part I of the cabin build and the entire outdoor soccer season.  Anytime they got mud (or tar) on them I'd just throw them in the wash machine and they'd come out looking brand new.  Amazing.  Not only are they amazing shoes but they are a philanthropic business.  If you don't know their story, you can read up on it here: http://www.toms.com/our-movement/.  Do it.  And then, when the sun comes back, head out and purchase a pair.