Merry, Merry...

Have a very Merry Christmas!

We're leaving in the morning for Tallahassee (if we don't get snowed in, it's really coming down out there) and am sure that between the visiting, drinking, eating and general r&r that I get when I'm with my family I won't have much time to get back here, so please have a great holiday and I'll chat with you in the New Year!

Here fishy, fishy...

When we moved to MN, we brought the whole gang, fish included and since we just have the tanks, no stands, the bigger one is sitting on the floor. Sparkles loves playing with the fish (we had to move the tank away from a dresser where we caught her on the dresser one day about to fall into the open tank to get those fish!).

(and if you were wondering don't I have anything better to do with my time, well I probably do, but I'm not only using my blog to "chat" to friends and family, but I'm also using it as a "journal" for when I finally get to scrap these pics and know what the heck we were doing at the time)

House for rent, cheap....

For rent: perfect one room starter home, the walls might crumble, and the roof is so decorated that it might just slide off, but it was built with love by my "future chef".

Alex just had to have this hat/apron set when he saw it today at TJMaxx (the one here rocks!!), although the hat is a little small he still looks stinkin cute:

One for the roof, one for my mouth:

This is the point that he abandoned to go play the deer hunting game on tv with Daddy:

But I think he was pretty patient and did a great job with those little balls, although if they rolled away, the were "dirty" and needed to be eaten.

The finished product (totally staged pic, but going to need it for the scrapbook!):

Now that I've got it on film, I'm sure that it will start to "lose" some decorations, but that's all part of the fun!! Off to watch Boston Legal - nite.

Loomin...

I've had a couple of people ask me about the scarf that I was making, so here is the link to see what the tool is that I use (no crocheting or knitting for me): http://www.provocraft.com/products/catalog.php?cl=knifty%20knitter&scl=looms .

It is a loom, SO super easy. I make the scarves on a 12" rectangular loom. I also have the set of four rounds to make hats on, but I haven't got around to using them yet - my sis has and she's whippin out hats for her whole family! She's a scarf / hat makin maniac (and it's only been a year since she started!!).

So, check it out, it's fun and easy!!

I forgot to add this when I posted this morning:

Happy Birthday Krista (bff!) and Earl (bff's super-cool dad!)!!

Sorry I missed the celebration, but I had a foo-foo drink at dinner in honor of your special day! 9 years ago yesterday, I was able to share their birthday dinner with them in Mount Zion, GA (a suburb of Atlanta) at our fave restaurant, Carrabba's - such a fun night, especially since Krista was timing her contractions (false alarm) the entire meal (she was about to pop with her son Ashton, who's birthday is this week). Good times, good times!!

Holidazzle & Hard Rock Cafe...

So now that we've found a house, the fun has begun! Now we can go do the fun things around town to check out the area.

Last night we went to downtown Minneapolis - this was the view as we drove in:

Stunning!

Andy wanted to walk on a skywalk:

We actually walked across half a dozen before the night was out - so great that you can walk around the downtown without ever going outside thanks to the skywalks (but had to walk through Macy's and two malls in doing so since we're not familiar with the shortcuts - didn't hurt my feelings;).

We happened upon the Macy's Holidazzle Parade that we watched from a Skywalk:

It was SO cool how the light turned red, here came some floats, the light turned green, here came the traffic - Alex's favorite part was when a bus came right under him!

After the parade, we headed to Hard Rock Cafe!!

It was my first time going to a Hard Rock and I loved it! Alex and I loved walking around looking at everything (not to mention it made the waiting for our food to come time pass quickly, so he didn't get antsy!).

On our way back to the parking garage, we passed the Macy's windows - they were beautiful, but this was my favorite:

Have a happy Monday...we're off to Walmart to buy ice scrapers (silly us let the movers pack ours, like we wouldn't need them in the land of snow and ice???? HA!) and to get a tray/platter to build our gingerbread house on (you know I'll post pictures of our creation!!).

Finally, a prince!!

(It cannot be a princess because the fixtures are no longer in style! Hehe!)

Yep, we found one, we found this house online last night, looked at it first thing this morning and again in the afternoon. Tomorrow we're signing the paperwork to fax to the bank, so they have our offer first thing Monday morning!

Now we're just saying lots of prayers that this house is the one for us and the bank will accept our offer or at least acknowledge it in the next week. What a wonderful Christmas present for our family to have our house in OK taken care of (we'll take the buy-out before we leave on the 24th if we don't have any offers this next week) and the bank works with us on a price on this one.

They don't have Lowe's up here, there is Home Depot and a store called Menard's, which is the equivalent to Lowe's...why am I telling you this? Well, if you were in the market for buying some stock, both of those would be good ones, since their sales will be goin up in the new year if we get this house - it has all brass fixtures - YIKES and I'll be putting all of my previously budgeted for scrappy stuff money towards getting new hardware for the house (and that's a BIG budget;).

Good night!

Taking a little breather...

So no looking at homes today, thank goodness! It was so nice to have the break, especially after seeing the 9 that our realtor has scheduled for us tomorrow - it should be an eye-opening experience for hubby!

So what did we do on our "day off" this morning? I started working on a scarf for myself (it matches the super cool plum colored hat that I bought for myself with my birthday money from my parents - I'll post a picture of me with both the scarf and hat on when I get done - btw, the yarn for the scarf was purchased with my gc from Hobby Lobby that my sis gave me for my b'day...so happy belated birthday to me!)...

Alex played checkers on cartoonnetwork.com while I worked on my scarf and watched some food network (LOVE temp housing for cable - if you didn't already know, we don't have cable in our homes, Andy will not pay for cable when we can pick up the major channels, with HD from a big ole antennae that he puts up...(and we don't even live in a trailer, surprising, I know!) and laughed out loud at Paula Deen. Here's two things that were so funny from her show that I had to write down...

"I've never knew a pig that I didn't love off of the grill."
"Add a pat of butter - you could make it without the butter, but who would want to?"

Good times, good cable tv!

Today I took Alex to the school district to have his speech tested...they are not as quick to get him into a school as I was led to believe they were when we were still in OK. I reminded them that he has an IEP, so by the No Child Left Behind Law, he should not have any lapse in services and it's now been over a week since he's been out of school. Her response was that he is their top priority...we'll see.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King for an early dinner and LOTS of play for little man! There was a nice family there - Alex loved chasing the 7 year old boy around with the 5 year old sister, but my little love bunny was caught smooching on the girl in one of the tunnels - her mom laughed about it, but still asked him not to kiss on anyone, especially during cold season. (I think he's having Joshi girls withdraws - I know I am!!)

Well, eggnog is waiting for my next to my scarf...nightie-night!

Baby it's cold outside....(w/pics!)

So we've kissed two dozen toady houses and NO princes, yet! I found our dream-house, but no deck (don't step out of the sliding glass door!) and an unfinished basement, BUT sideyard has a pond, there are tons of trees and best of all, it has a WOLF stove and a HUGE island with granite! No go though unless they'll add a deck and a basement, leaving it at the same price - not.

Andy is off today - he hooked up my computer, so I can now post pics! Yay! But back to him...he's going to take off maybe tomorrow, but definitely Friday to look at houses, so he can see for himself that I'm not being dramatic by saying that if you're insisting on a 3 car-garage, a deck & a finished basement in HIS price range, they're dumps!

Alex and Andy are out on the deck of our apartment, sweeping it and smoking a cigar (I'll let you guess which one is doing what!), so I took a few shots:

The beautiful view from our apartment

Why can't you see Alex's face?!

Because he's all bundled up - hehe! (although daddy says it's because mommy's a bad photographer - blah.)

Well, I guess they're cold because they're coming in! Time to unwrap the little man...

New email...

So for some reason my Cox account isn't working even though we're paying for it - arrrrr.

Anyhow, I've got a new email and unfortunately don't have access to my email address book, so please help me out friends and family and let others know - thanks! mommy2alex@live.com

Off to rest up for a looooong day of house-hunting tomorrow in the snow!

Greetings from the land of snow and ice...

Well, we made it, but it was only because God answered my many, many prayers that I said while skidding down the interstate - we had two bad incidences that could have very easily turned into accidents, but luckily we stayed on the road (barely) and said prayers for all of those cars turned upside down and on their sides as we went past.

On top of the move, Alex got sick and had to miss his last two days of school, very sad. And being the sweet sharer that he is, he passed it on to me, so I was swiggin TheraFlu the whole trip! I've retreated to my grandmother's medicine - a hot toddy, it hits the spot and makes me feel OH so good! (apple cider with gold rum - yummo!)

My car has finally turned on us, it wants to go back to its original home of South Carolina where is balmy & warm (so do I!) - it's thermostat has quit working and the car sits on cold and blows cold air through the vents, except when you idle, then it heats back up - yikes! And on top of that, when we came out of the grocery (where you bag your own groceries - I knew to expect this, but Andy didn't so it was quite a sight, no more sweet Publix bag boys who not only bag for you, but carry it out to your car and load it, but won't ever take a tip! God bless Southern hospitality!) we had a flat tire! Luckily my ever-ready-handy husband had a can of fix-a-flat and a portable air compressor and fixed us right up!!

Our apartment is nice and I even have an underground parking spot for my car - Alex gets a kick out of me getting us one of the shopping carts that they have for us to tote our stuff upstairs in the elevator. Today with Daddy, he discovered that there is a car wash area in the parking garage, oh what fun!

I have no pictures to post right now, but I will soon because it's truly a winter wonderland here - we're in the woods...Alex and Daddy watched an owl from our window this morning, so exciting!!

Well, my cornbread is done cooking - we're having white beans with ham...you can take us out of the south, but you cannot take the south out of us!

Wrapping up...

I need to be wrapping up Christmas gifts and getting them in the mail, but I had two bracelets to make that my friend ordered...

isn't that little girl one the cutest? I love making ones for girls, they're so fun and quick! Now I need to get my beads all ready for the movers to pack up, I know I've got loose beads hanging out in my cubbie, so I'll add that to my ever-growing list of things to get done. So at least my last bead order is wrapped up and ready to deliver. Now to get to some presents to ship to K-ville and Tally...

Last night I finally got started on my Christmas cards for our Secret Santa/Christmas card swap at J4K...

I totally lifted the idea from super-scrapper Jessica! I have to make 21 to swap, but I'd like to make some extras because I'm just lovin them. And don't expect to get one of the 21 that I get from the swap in the mail, I've seen a few of them and I know that I'm not going to be able to part with them, they're all SO stinkin cute, but I will take pics of them and post them here so you can see how talented all of the scrappy ladies down at J4K are.

Okay, time to get goin...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Even though I'm not decorating this year for Christmas, I've decided that I still need to treat myself to some of my favorite Christmas-y things. So this morning I ground my last little bit of Barney's Santa's White Christmas Coffee (thank you Leah - yes it's the same batch that you sent me when I was in VA, so that pound of beans won't be making it's third state move!!) and put it in one of my Christmas cups that I got from my Maw years ago. Love it when one little cup of coffee brings SO many warm-fuzzy memories!

So back to Santa's White Christmas Coffee - it's delish, I suggest you get some BUT you have to brew it with some reg coffee since it's very weak on it's own. Enjoy!

I'm starting to pack up some things to take with us to help us feel at home in the apartment, but at this point, I think that Andy should just agree to pack all of our Christmas stuff (it's really not that much!). Luckily we'll be in Tally with my parents for Christmas, which being with them IS Christmas to me, so I'll get to drink eggnog out of Leah's reindeer glasses because there's no way I can fit those in the truck without Andy raisin a stink and I know she'll make pecan tarts so I don't need to take my mini-muffin pan and my little wooden tool or my kitchenmade mixer so I can make shortbreads or my loaf pan to make lemon bread. Yes, our family definitely has a lot of traditional Christmas family foods - gumbo on Christmas Eve (YUM!) and dead cow with a jug of red on Christmas night (a filet tenderloin with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau) plus all of the things I mentioned above. Ahhhhh...love a Chapin Christmas....I cannot wait!!

Oh toot, Alex just spilled sprite in the kitchen, so I have to begin my Monday morning by mopping - yay! What is he doing with sprite anyhow??? Ugh....happy Monday friends and family:)

Enjoyin our last week in Edmond...

There are SO many things that we're going to miss about Edmond, but here are a few:


1. Super-mom/friend/scrapper Jess
She does the cutest thing for her girls at Christmas - she takes 25 Christmas books, wraps each of them up and every night they unwrap one and read it, like an advent! SUPER cool idea, so while shopping yesterday, I picked up some books so we'd have close to 25 and I'll wrap them up today - such a great idea!!!!!!!


2. Running errands
Everything here is SO close, we ran a TON of errands yesterday, even trecked down to downtown OKC yesterday to go a store and then back up to Edmond, getting home before 4! Not to mention a Sonic stop for a late lunch for Alex - we loooove Sonic, I wonder if they have them in MN? I'll have to check on that.



3. Our neighbors
We pull up after our errand marathon and of course our neighbors are outside, the dad and the two boys are always outside playin and piddlin in the yard. Well yesterday was quite the sight - the dad was on a ladder that was in the back of their pickup so he could hang the Christmas lights at the tippy top of the roof - what a sight! Alex got to play with Gavin and Aaron for about an hour and I got to chat with their mom about decorating/shopping - fun girl stuff (she lives with four men and I have two men, so we have to stick together!!). And yes, it was cold, but the boys were bundled up and playing their little gun shooting hearts out until the mommies were done with the cold and ready to go in.


4. Our house
Yes, I did the unthinkable when I moved to Edmond, I got my dream house! One of the Navy wives in our neighborhood said, "Honey, until they retire, you don't ever buy your dream house - you always make sure there's just a few things that you don't like about it!".
So with less than a week left in my gorgeous house, I'm trying to find faults with it...there are no big trees in the yard and the houses are too close together unlike the ones that I've been looking at in MN BUT, go back and read reason #3 and that overrules it!

Possible fault: Andy's theater is too close to Alex's room so when he's watching a movie Alex cannot sleep BUT, that just means that Alex gets to come sleep with me on my side of the house until Andy comes to bed and moves him - over-ruled! (at least until he's in high school because at that point, he cannot really sleep in mommy's bed - can he?!?!)

Possible fault: the fire place is gas, flip a switch and it's on, not the wood burning, listen to the crackling fire places like they have in the MN houses BUT, how fun is it to tell Alex to start us a fire in the morning:

flippin the switch: look mommy, I started the fire:


warmin my tooshie:


Over-ruled! I LOVE my house, but will take enough pictures and save the floor plans so that when Andy retires, he WILL build me one just like it on a lake lot with tons of trees and a wood burning outdoor fireplace!!


I'm off to sit in front of the fire that Alex has started for us and loom a scarf! Ahhh, this is the life, at least for another week....

3 Store Openings!!

Happy Black Friday!!

Last night before going to bed I set the coffee to brew @ 3:00, set out my clothes, put my shoes/purse/coat by the door and set my alarm for 3:20! I was a woman on a mission.

I met my friend Jess at Kohl's at 4:00am (luckily it's only about 2 minutes from my house!). Jess had gotten there EARLY because she was in the middle of the line, so we got in fast. We had a plan and were out of there by 4:20, just in time to drive across the street to Walmart!

Walmart was open, BUT they wouldn't let you even TOUCH anything on super sale until 5:00 - seriously! We found the $3 pj's - character ones (Transformers and Lightning McQueen!) and stood there waiting for 5, luckily the other ladies that were hoovering around it were nice and we stacked what we wanted in a spot, so when the gentleman came over the load speaker, we grabbed and ran to toys!

Well we made our way to the toy section and wouldn't you know that all of the sale toys were in the center isle at the grocery side - I know:0. After fighting our way back across the store, we got everything that we wanted, checked out and headed to Target.

We got to Target before they opened at 6:00, so we opened store #3 (I know we didn't technically open WalMart, but I'm counting it!). Got our stuff and headed to another WalMart to get Tabitha her set of pots and pans that she wants (shhhhh, don't tell her!) that they were out of at the 1st Walmart.

I got home at 7:30, Alex & Andy were still in bed (Alex had made his way into our bed after I left!), Alex was just waking up and asked, "mommy where were you?" HaHa, little man, mommy was buying ALL of your Christmas gifts - bwwaaahaahaaaa, I love shopping on Black Friday, SO fun!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello friends and family...I'm SO thankful for all of you today and every day!

It was a chilly day here in Edmond, but the sun was bright, a perfect Thanksgiving day full of watching the parade, turkey, dressing, and the dessert that flopped...

Yes, the picture behind it is what it's supposed to look like...urrrrrr. So, I figured out what I did wrong, so I know what to change if I were to make it again, which I probably won't - I'll go back to Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Cake ...I mean why not go with what you know on Thanksgiving? I'm thinking that before I start my New Year diet, I'm going to make her version of the peanut butter/chocolate gooey cake - yum!

Yes, I said diet - bluck, I hate dieting, but I cannot buy another big girl bathing suit again next year, so I figured that I'd actually join Weight Watchers when they have all of their big New Year specials. Also, it will be a great way for me to meet friends in MN. So I'll be broadening my friend circle, not just mommy friends, but I'll have fat friends also plus I know me, having to go to a meeting once a week will guilt me into staying on the wagon.

Okay, it's pie time...I hear Andy in the kitchen rustling around, so it must be time for dessert. I hope that my cake tastes better than it looks;)

All better...

Well, after missing school Thursday and Friday and not leaving the house on Saturday, Alex is ALL better!

We had a fun night tonight - we had dinner with the Browns and 2 of the Joshi girls! The Browns are leaving OK in the morning for a 3-week road trip taking them to TX, the Grand Canyon, California, Colorado and South Dakota! Yikes - I cannot wait to read all about it on their blog (hint, hint!), it should be quite a fun adventure though since they're not planning on driving too much each day.

So, we dropped the house price down again! Maybe someone will want to come look at it this week, although my plan to leave it a wreck because it'll be Murphey's Law that no one will want to look at it when I'm ready with it all cleaned is about to end since Andy will be home on Tuesday. So no more scrapping for me, it's all about cleaning from here on out. Shoot!

Off to play Diego checkers, then bath and bed for my little man - woo hoo!

Extra, extra, read all about it...

So I open my email yesterday and almost deleted a message from this stranger - luckily I didn't because it was Memory Maker's magazine requesting a scrapbook layout that I had submitted!! Ahhh! It's going to be in their May issue and I was just excited about being published, but they are actually going to pay me $50! Get out!! They're actually paying me to be in their magazine - well, I guess you can figure it as they're paying you back for shipping because you know I'm going to send it priority with insurance and delivery conformation!

I just hate that I'm not going to get to have my picture taken in front of Just4Keeps WAll Of Fame when they hang my publication, but Jess promised that she's going to take a picture of the wall once my layout is up there! Hopefully by then, Jess will be up there and I'll be on my way to having more stuff published (***wishful thinking***).

On a bad note, my little guy is sick...he fell asleep early (on the couch because it was way before bed time), so I get him up after I watch the news, head to the bathroom to make him go potty and he starts vomiting. UGH, I know! So he gets it all out, potties, brushes teeth, goes to bed, and is snoring away - I don't think he was actually fully awake for any of it. He got his flu shot this morning, so is it that? He's always gotten a flu shot and he's never had a reaction to it. I just hope he's good as new when he wakes up in the morning.

Speaking of waking in the morning, I'd better get to bed, so I will be able to crawl out of bed when he rises - nite!

Whew...

I've been on the phone all morning with the Dakota County Public Health System and then the Eagan School district trying to get Alex set up for school in Minnesota. I finally got to speak to a lady in the Early Childhood Special Education office. She gave me the name and number of the 4 year-old program director so that Alex's current school can send them all of the necessary paperwork.

I really feel anxious about moving him to a new school, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that he will receive services and they'll have a spot for him in one of their schools. Luckily since I am a SAHM, I can get him to and from any school in the district, so he should have his first day of school in MN before Christmas break! I'm just so thankful that we had him tested and he's in a special education program here in OK because without it, he wouldn't be assured a spot in a school.

The Edmond school system has truly been a blessing to our family. Whew, I think I finally feel a good cry coming on about this moving stuff. (but that's okay, it's a good thing to get it off my chest!)

My Naughty MOMS Club!

No, no, no, not that kind of naughty (shame on you if that's what you were thinking!!)...the sneeky kind of naughty!


Our monthly meetings are held on the first Friday of every month and this month was my last meeting. My MVP said she scheduled the speaker, I called her the day before because I didn't even know the speaker's name to introduce him, so she gave me the info. Jessica calls me the night before the meeting to tell me that the church that we hold the meetings at is having a meeting and we cannot get in until 10! Our meetings start at 10 and she and I get there at 9:30 to set up. Well, you know me, never on time, I show up at 10 on the dot. Everyone is there! The room is set up! There are balloons and streamers and the all yell, "SURPRISE!" I'm a little confused (well, okay, a LOT confused) and ask Jessica if the speaker has arrived yet - there's NO speaker, my awesome MOMS Club mommy-friends have been planning a surprise going away party for Alex and me, complete with a snowflake theme - haha!

Here's Jessica and Rachel playing "Jonnelle" trivia:






One of our members baked two HUGE delicious cakes for us








Sneaky Jessica has been planning this in her mind since the day I told her we were moving and she was to take over the Presidency!! She ROCKS!!!! And those of you who know her, know that she is the MOST talented scrapbooker ever...well, she made us a scrapbook of our life in Edmond and with the MOMS Club. She asked the moms to each make a page for the book with pictures of their family. It's SO incredible - the BEST gift ever!!!! I've looked at it a million times and will look at it millions more!!


Then after yummy cake, we went to CiCi's pizza, as planned, so it was THE best day because you know that's Alex's all-time favorite restaurant!! And to make the day even better (I know, it's almost impossible), Jessica brought all three of her girls over to hang out with us and have dinner while she went to work (sorry you missed all of the fun Jess!). Maddy got to stay the night, but Vinod came and got Tabitha and Abby. It was great!


We had awesome weather yesterday, so all four of the kids had a great time playing out back - we're going to miss those Joshi girls SO, so, SO much!!! Alex and Abby are starting to hug on each other for 5 minutes every time they leave each other, it's so sweet, they all treat Alex like he's their brother.


Sniff, sniff...it's going to be hard to leave Edmond....

A tisket, a tasket, there's a Tabby in my cabinet!

I got to watch Tabitha one night while Jessica worked - we had such a fun time! She goes straight to my cabinet that has Alex's cups, bowls and plates and starts handing them all to me, saying, "tank you". She's just THE cutest little thing, I could just eat her up!!!

Baaaaaad, bad blogger

I am the worst blogger, it's November and I'm just now updating, sorry!

We were busy the week before Halloween with so many fun things - the first is that my mom came to visit, so nice to have another adult around. We had a great time having her here and of course the time flew by.

Soooo, where to start....

MOMS Club Fall Party: super fun, lots of yummy treats and TONS of cute costumes.

What a coincidence that the only other Ninja Turtle is another Alex! Alex Trant is on the right in the blue and our Alex is on the left in the red.

Reagan and Harrison were the CUTEST 50's couple - complete with Reagan's poodle skirt, saddle-oxfords and Harrison's leather jacket and black penny loafers!! Cute, cute, cute!

They set up a photo shoot area (clever idea JDJ!) and of course Alex didn't want to take time out from the festivities to pose with mommy, so this was the best pic we could get (little stinker!).

My friend Kristi came as "Smartie Pants" - yes she is!!! She's so creative! (she pinned smarties to her pants!)

The crowd waiting their turn at the pinata!!

Pajama Day at school: Alex's school had Red Ribbon Week and one of the days was Pajama Party! Of course we had a little cold snap and he's grown SO much that we were running up to Kohl's an hour before school started to get some pj's. He chose Spiderman and had to have a spiderman little figure from the toy section to go with it (yea, mom's a sucker!).

This is Alex's teacher, Mrs. Jill (she's SO sweet!)

Storybook Forest: At the lake here in Edmond, they make up the coolest Storybook Forest for the kids, it's not scary, but oh so fun, especially since they get to dress up (I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of this year's costume!). Our MOMS Club went and it was great.


This is at "Little Miss Muffett" - Alex is checking out the big black spider!


"The Sword in the Stone" - Alex gave it his best tug!


Okay, this kid is not part of our group, but I just had to take his picture - can you guess who he is??? This costume was his idea, not his parent, what a cool kid - he's Homer Simpson!!


After seeing all of the stories, going on a hayride, playing some games, we roasted some marshmallows - YUM! (and yes, that's grandma in the background!)




Spending time with Grandma Patti!!


We had a little craft time - Mom decopauged a basket with scrapbook paper (yes, craftiness runs in the family!).



Alex wanted to carve pumpkins, but with Daddy not here, I was not willing to go there, so I gave him some paint and his little pumpkin and he decorated it up - very cute (plus the paint washed right off his hands, arms and no one lost any fingers this way)!



The finished product...





Story time at Barnes & Noble:
This was a huge day for us, Alex actually participated in the story time. I've been taking Alex to story times at the library, book stores, MOMS Club since he was 9 months old and he NEVER sits still for the story. Well, today, he did - YAY! The guy that leads story time at B&N is great with the kids and we knew he'd be dressed up for Halloween and he was, as the Cat in the Hat!






When they took a snack break, Alex sat up on the stage to look at some of the books that were up there and when the story time resumed, he just sat there and enjoyed a front row view of the book!













TRICK-or-TREAT, smell my feet, give me something sweet to eat!!

Happy Halloween, Dude!



Alex and his trick-or-treat gang, our neighbors: Jillian the cat, Aaron the OSU football player and Gavin the Thomas the Tank Engine.












As if we didn't have enough sweets, we headed over to Reagan's house afterwards to roast marshmallows for samores in their fire pit - FUN and yummy!!


Roasting the perfect marshmallows!