Lucys

The boys thought my Lucy wig was funny...

I thought it was funny to see it on their little heads.

I can hear my Ricky saying I have some splanin' to do for posting these...

Bummed...

...to be on the "losing" side. Lord help our country.

ABF Costume Part-ay

Lucy & Ricky!

small town (and/or 80's) weather lady with a chance of rain

Chef Boyardee and Betty Crocker (complete with cans of Chef Boyardee stuff)

Adrianne and Peter - as each other - hilarious

Alfalfa and Darla

Nick and Scarlett

Drew Carrey and contestant - perfect

Deanna's 80's hair and makeup killed me!

Tony Romo and Jessica - HA!! also perfectly done

LOVE this shot - Alfafa was very bothered by "Adrianne's" advances

pictionary

LOTS OF FUN!! Thank you sweet Parkers for opening your house!

I love our ABF!

Trick-or-Treating

We went to a neighborhood not far from ours, and got SO MUCH candy in just a few minutes. At the rate of 1-2 pieces a day (if Jake behaved well that day) I'll never get it all out of the house! I did go through and pull out all the good chocolate for me and Andy. :) I also ate the Swedish Fish - I love those!

There was one house we went to - so weird. Some people go way overboard with the scary stuff. (Do they go all out for Christmas too, or just Halloween?) Anyway, the lights were all off, but it was decorated with the fake cobwebs and other scary stuff. As we got closer to the house (he was definitely watching us) a smoke machine filled his yard with smoke. He had one of those two-story, really tall archways leading to his porch. He had hung black fabric like curtains over the entire archway - like 15-20 feet, and it was really dark. It kinda looked like heavy wooden doors.

Anyway, Jake was a little spooked, but I told him I'd go up to the door with him. In retrospect, this could have been a bad move - who knows what kind of crazy scary thing this guy could have put in my 4-year-old's mind! But we walked up there together and he jumped out from behind the curtains, standing on something with this crazy mask and big crazy plastic hands. I kinda screamed which made Jake kinda whimper and cry. :) Jake said something like, "You shouldn't do that." But then they guy took off his mask and let him touch his hands, then gave him candy. Later we saw that guy really having fun with a big group of teenagers. Later Jake talked about how he was a silly guy...

Hope you all had fun too!

Brotherly Love

Lately, Jake and Max have really been buddies. I love it. When I sit at the computer I hear little boy giggles from across the house. Usually they're chasing each other (now that Max walks!), and of course Jake is faster so he tackles Max and they both laugh. Or they hide behind Andy's hanging shirts in our closet and reach out and tickle each other. I love that Jake is being sweet with him, and I think he loves the companionship. And Max thinks Jake hung the moon. It's great for me because they entertain each other. All this rough-housing, though, makes me think we'll need padded walls when they get bigger. :)

Just a few minutes ago I heard Jake singing a lullabye (original lyrics). I didn't want to ruin the moment so I didn't peek until after it was over, but they were both on Max's bedroom floor (Max with paci and blankie) and Jake was rocking him. Awww....

This is a game they played the other night. Jake was rocking them in the recliner and they were laughing so hard.

Check out Max's laugh!

Teaching his little brother tricks... And, yea, I know it's gross to put your mouth in bath water, but I'm sure they'll do plenty more gross things.

Thank you Lord for silly boys.

Optimus Prime...doing his chores

This is one of Jake's chores (which he still thinks is fun - need more chore ideas and a good way to handle allowance, giving, etc.) - unloading the flatware from the dishwasher.

Drinking through the hole in the mask on the way to the Fall Festival. :)

YAY Max!!

He's a little walker!! These videos were from last night and today he's been walking around even more - maybe 75% of the time. For a few weeks he's been taking steps, more and more each day. Yesterday and today he's been walking, almost everywhere. He'll just come from around the corner walking. He loves it. He's finally realized, I think, that it's so much better than being low to the ground. We're so proud of you Little Man!

Our Weekend

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We had a great camping trip. Because all the state parks in the area we wanted were booked (crazy, huh?) we ended up at this RV park. It ended up being great. There were 2 families with 4 boys around Jake's age and they had a blast together. Cool how kids strike up friendships so easily. We slept in our cool big tent (cheap at Sam's!), I cooked on our newly purchased propane stove, and of course, we had LOTS of smores.

All the animal pics - a really pretty wildlife park. The boys loved it. Jake even got to "drive" a little on Daddy's lap. Watch out for the ostridges and zebras, though! They'll get ya! Jake learned the word "aggressive" this weekend. :)

Oh, and poor Max! He must have his Mommy's allergy issues. The first night at camp - no, the first 10 minutes after we pulled into our campground - he got a mosquito bite on his forehead. It didn't look bad until the next morning. It was so swollen, even to the back of his ear and his eye. He looked like a little Rocky. He was a trooper! Just today (3 days later) has it mostly cleared up. Why do some bites swell up like that and others don't??

Anyway, we had lots of fun. Good little family get-away.

Banner Fun

Needed to change out the summer-y pictures. (not satisfied with background yet, but need sleep...)

And I did find cheerios in my purse. :)

Max-isms

Max, being the 2nd child, hasn't gotten as much written in his baby book, poor guy. I haven't recorded every little word or new trick. (In fact, horrible -- he has about 4 new teeth that haven't been written in his book!!) But I started thinking about all Maxer says and wanted to blog it...I think I'll even print it out and stick it in his book!

Words and signs used together (not all official baby signs or even exact ASL):

• bye
  
• ball ("ball-ball")


• more


• teet-teet (with sign for bird)


• kack (with sign for duck, which is basically the same as bird)


• banana ("nana"), his version of the banana sign is really cute


• airplane (accompianied by the vrumm noise)


• hi! ("ah-uh!" with a little inflection and a wave)


• yes (with big head nod)


• rain (says "ra-ra")


• no-no ("nah-nah") with little wagging pointer finger

Words only:

• Mama! (he's been yelling this from his crib or highchair)


• Da! (for Daddy)


• "sat?" "sis?" (what's that?/this?)


• moo (for cows)


• cookie ("du-dee!")


• "vrumm" for cars or trucks


• no ("nah") when he doesn't want something


• water ("wa-wa")


• bubbles ("bubba")


• "weeeeee" going down slides or swinging
  

Signs only:

• eat


• drink


• paci


• blankie


• outside (one of his FAVORITE things)


• bath


• please

(saying please)

• thank you (only when he feels like it - working on this one)


• finished


• help


• book


• light


• hear that? (puts hand to ear - here, the train in his hand was making noise)

Among his favorite things also - the vaccum, swiffer or dirt devil.

Sweet boy...