Halloween 2016

October is always a fun and super busy month between three birthdays, activities at school and around the community we usually have a packed calendar.  First event to celebrate this spooky holiday, the annual preschool hayride...

Here is a picture of Grayson's class, what you may not be able to tell from this picture is that there are 13 kids in his class, 10 of which are girls and only two of the 13 kids have brown hair.  The rest are little blondie girls.  I thought that was pretty funny and hadn't noticed before.

Nena got to come with us on the hayride before she left for Arizona...

Owen with his best buddy Carter....

Next we went to the Headless Horseman at Connor Prairie with our neighbors, the Bell family...

Then we went to the haunted house at the Children's Museum.  We had never done this before and the kids LOVED it! 

Then we headed to Spencer Farm to pick pumpkins...

 That one doesn't look so great Gray...

Then it was time to carve...

Next came the big day with these two dragons...  Halloween night!

We met a group of neighbors and headed to the neighborhood pre party...

 We had a taco and hot dog stand as well as a barista this year...

Then it was time to trick or treat...

Here is our crew...

 Owen and Hogan were running literally going door to door so quickly we couldn't keep up.  Grayson, on the other hand was very poky until we finally talked him into sitting in the wagon and eating some of his candy...

Then we went to a neighbor's house to hang out after the night was over.  Owen was proud of all of his loot...

It was a fun and beautiful evening.  We are thankful for such a great neighborhood and such good friends surrounding us.  

Grayson turns 3

My sweet baby is now 3 years old.  This is bittersweet because, while I love my boys being tiny I also love how much fun we have as they get older.  It is also nice when they become more independent and can do things for themselves.  One day I will miss the constant need for mommy but for now I am trying to teach these boys that they can do quite a bit for themselves.

I will always remember the day this big boy was born.  He was right on time on October 28, 2013, weighing in at 9lbs. 4 oz.

 We were all so happy he was finally here...

And Owen didn't quite understand how his world was about to change...

Now these two are the best of buddies.  They still love to fight with one another but that is happening less and less and there is a lot more interactive play between them.  Grayson is completely enamored by his big brother.  Every morning for all three years of his life he wants to know where Owen is first thing.  

 This year Owen is in school one extra day so Grayson and I have one day to spend time with just the two of us.  Grayson really struggled with that at first, he did not want to spend a day without his big brother.  Now he is getting used to it and doesn't cry when we drop Owen off.

Here are some fun facts about our big boy...

1.  Grayson loves to be outside.  His most favorite toy to play with is a shovel.  Give this boy a shovel and some sand and he will be busy for hours.  His favorite park in town is Founder's Park which has sand running throughout the center of the park and kids can sit in the sand and dig and build.  

2.  Grayson loves to dress up and become different characters.  Each day he gets a new costume and wants to wear it wherever we go...

3.  Grayson loves football and the Carmel Greyhounds football team.  Each night at dinner we say who our prayer intentions are for.  Every single time Grayson tells us that he wants to pray for the Carmel Greyhounds.  Here he is playing football in the backyard with our neighbor Stella...

4.  Grayson is very cuddly and sweet.  He loves to snuggle before bedtime and often cries when it is Brad's turn to put him to bed and says he just needs one more snuggle with mommy.  It is hard to say no to that request so he will climb in bed and give me a hugs and kisses a few more times before finally heading off to his room for bed.  

5.  Grayson has officially reached the terrible three's.  Some of my friends call their three year olds -  threenager.  In between being sweet, he wants so badly to be independent and be the boss of the himself that he gets frustrated and will throw a tantrum or two or three.  Since we have been through this before we often just let him go at it as long as he is not hurting someone else.   Here is one of the great tantrums...

Questions for my three year old.  This is the first year I asked Grayson these same questions I asked Owen so I was excited to see what his answers would be.  

1.  What is your favorite color? - yellow

2.  What is your favorite toy?   - superman

3.  What is your favorite movie? - Anna/Elsa movie

4.  What is your favorite thing to wear? - football clothes

5.  What is your favorite animal?   - horse

6.  What is your favorite book?   - Anna/Elsa book

7.  Who are your best friends? - JD and Rory

8.  What is your favorite snack? - graham crackers

9.  What is your favorite fruit? - apples 

10.  What is your favorite lunch? - tacos

11.  What do you want to be when you grow up? - a ninja or Olaf

12.  What do you sleep with at night? - baby, hushy and blankie

13.  What scares you most? - tigers

14.  What makes you proud? - I don't know, maybe my baby and hushy

15.  What do you like to do with mommy and daddy?  - go to the store

16.  What do you do really well? - pooping

17.  What makes you sad? - I don't know

18.  What did you dream about last night? - getting a shot and my band-aid

19.  What makes you happy? playing outside

Owen turns 5

As if I thought Owen couldn't get any sweeter, the moment he turned 5 he has been sweeter than ever!  We had a rough patch right before Owen's birthday where he reverted back to the three year old tantrums.  It had me very worried but luckily I think it was only a phase.  I should know this by now but with my oldest child I seem to take his behaviors so much more seriously thinking they will never end.  He is my trial and error child, sorry Owen but you are helping me learn how to be a mother.  We had a nice long birthday week, celebrating for days on end.

First we had our birthday breakfast (yes we celebrated Grayson's birthday on the same day as Owen's.  I thought it would be confusing to him because their birthdays are so close and everyone was coming in to celebrate that weekend)...

Then we had a visit from Max and Luke.  They were on fall break and came to see us during the week.  As always, we had a great time...

If you didn't know, my birthday is the day after Owen's so we went to a ladies only dinner to celebrate that...

The Majors family had to leave to get back for a weekend of soccer games.  After they left the Drapp family came in for the weekend.  We had so much fun taking them to one of our favorite places...Connor Prairie...

The following day it was time for the big Batman vs. Superman birthday party.  We rented a room at the Monon Center indoor water park.  What was nice about this is that they provided a cakes and an employee who helped move the party along.  I really felt like I didn't have to do too much, which was exactly what I was going for this year...

 It happened to be a busy day in Carmel too, it was the last day of soccer games and the Colts vs. Bears game so we were missing several of our friends but we still had a great turnout....

It was a busy and family filled week, which was so much fun for all of us!  I have to say I was ready for a nap after it was all over.

The next day this little cutie wrote me a note, yes it is written backwards but something I will always cherish.  He loves his mama...

 He leaned over to me at church the Sunday after his birthday and said "I'm going to pray for you mommy because I love you".  I am so thankful for him!

Every year I ask the boys a set of questions (beginning at their third birthday).  Here are the Owen's answers...

1.  What is your favorite color?  - Orange and green 
2.  What is your favorite toy?  - Batman (same as last year)
3.  What is your favorite movie?  - The Lego movie (same as last year)
4.  What is your favorite thing to wear?  - Soccer clothes
5.  What is your favorite animal?  - Tiger and a shark
6.  What is your favorite book?  - Pop up dictionary books
7.  Who are your best friends?  - Carter
8.  What is your favorite snack?  - Oranges
9.  What is your favorite fruit?  - Strawberries (same as last year)
10.  What is your favorite lunch?  - Chicken nuggets and french fries
11.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  - Chef
12.  What do you sleep with at night?  - Knuffle bunny and other baby
13.  What scares you?  - the dark
14.  What makes you proud?  - "That I have golden stuff"
15.  What do you like to do with mommy and daddy?  - Go on a hayride
16.  What do you do really well?  - Play with Grayson
17. What makes you sad?  - When I get hurt
18.  What did you dream about last night?  - "I dreamed mommy ran away from me" - this has been a common dream lately that I am going away or something happens to me
19.  What makes you happy?  - "when my tooth falls out and I put it under my pillow" - not sure where this came from

Here are some interesting facts about our 5 year old...

1.  He loves telling jokes and luckily he has a good memory because he will remember jokes we told him months ago and can recite them perfectly.  This usually makes us laugh, not because of the content but because he told the joke on point.
2.  Owen no longer naps but he does have one hour of quiet time every afternoon while Grayson takes a nap.  
3.  Owen loves to play with legos, he is actually an amazing master builder!  He can follow the directions for any 5-12 year old box of legos without any help and puts it together perfectly.  He will also spend hours in his room taking apart old legos and creating his own lego cities.
4.  Owen goes to preschool three mornings a week.  Although I know he loves it once he is there, he never wants wants to go and requests to just stay home.  He will have a rude awakening next year when he goes to kindergarten all day 5 days a week.
5.  Owen can ride his own bike which he has been able to do since last summer but now he can ride a long distance.  He rode 5 miles round trip one evening.  2.5 miles to go to dinner and 2.5 miles to come home.  We were all shocked and expecting to have to call in back up to come and get him if he couldn't finish it.