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