"This is Just Fun Trick-or-Treat!"

Timeline for our evening:

• 3:30pm - Picture time
• 3:45 - Kenzie has a potty-training accident in her costume
• 3:46 - Start a load of laundry
• 3:50 - Parker has a blow-out, rendering his pumpkin costume unusable (except for the hat at least!)
• 3:51-5:00 - Kenzie mopes, thinking I've taken away her Cinderella dress
• 5:00 - Dinner, and we watch the Ni-hao Kailan Halloween episode to take Cinderella's mind off the dryer
• 5:40 - Mommy saves the day with a clean dress, new pair of tights, and freshly disinfected dress shoes
• 6:00 - Kenzie informs me she wants to be Sleeping Beauty
• 6:15 - Cinderella and Daddy head out trick-or-treating
• 7:05 - Cinderella is back with a load of candy and a big smile
• 7:10 - After examining the contents of her bucket 45 times, she decides to eat the Halloween Pretzels, followed by a Fruit-by-the-Foot
• 8:15 - We run out of candy to hand out and turn off all the lights (I bought 5 bags, but I just couldn't resist all my Primary kids!)
• 8:30 - Cinderella gets in bed, still in her dress, after kissing her pumpkin bucket multiple times

Here are three of my favorite pictures!

Parker did start out in his cowboy outfit, but he could not keep his "boots" on even long enough to take a picture. Kenzie thought it was hilarious, and the excitement just made Parker kick harder... He spit up on that onesie so I went to the pumpkin outfit, but I already mentioned what happened to that, so by the end of the night he was back to his overalls and pumpkin hat.

Happy Halloween!! I'm tired!

Mommy's Little Pumpkin

It's Parker's first Halloween, so he's going to be tortured all day long with silly hats and costumes! Hooray! (I may be excited, but I'm not putting him in his "real" costumes until much later so he doesn't get the chance to annihilate them!)

"Pumpkin GUTS??!!"

While the pumpkin seeds are roasting I have a minute to post some pictures of our pumpkins. I had high hopes that we'd make it out to a pumpkin patch, but the bins at Macey's turned out to be just as exciting to McKenzie, thankfully.

"Kenzie, what shape do you want the eyes? Triangles?" "TRIANGLES!" "Or squares?" "SQUARES!" "Or do you want circles?" "CIRCLES!" So we did one of each!

Shirtless Pictures of a Handsome Man

See that look in his eye? Can't you just tell I'm in for it when he can move around??

Toughest Muffins Ever

Above: Kenzie stirs so vigorously she gets flour in her eye

Out of the blue this afternoon Kenzie pulled her stepstool into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, are we making muffins?" I was puzzled and responded, "You don't even eat muffins!" but it wasn't like I had a lot going on (dinner was actually already prepped and Parker was busy with his feet). Despite my best efforts to help her, we had some serious gluten development (and three extra eggs cracked on the counter). I gave her one of the finished products, expecting she'd crumble it all over the table like usual. But I turned around and it was gone. I asked, "Where's your muffin?" thinking I'd hear, "Muffy ate it," or that Barbie needed it for a chair. Instead she grinned and shouted, "My tummy is just HAPPY!"

Here's what you want to see from someone handling your food - their butt crack!

Kenzie the Muffin Thug

Parker's 5 Months Old

Yes, I do say, "Happy Five Month Birthday!" to Parker. But, I'm better than with McKenzie when I knew the weeks at any given moment! His trick for month five: blowing spit bubbles and laughing about it!

Happy Birthday Arnie!

"Junior" being restrained

"Junior" with his baby sister, Caroline

I wanted to find some incriminating photos but haven't had time, plus most of the really bizarre ones seem to feature Wes!

A Blessed Event, Just One Thing Missing

The only thing wrong is that I'm not in it!

How Did This Happen?

When Parker turned 4 months, he still wore mostly 0-3 month outfits. This week he turns 5 months, and just today I put him in 6 month clothes and they fit! His legs are too long for his 3-6 month pants already. My little man is getting so big! (Mommy is sad, except he's so dang cute, and there's a whole pile of 6 month clothes to put him in now!)

Halloween Cards

Kenzie loves to get mail, so when Halloween cards arrived from her grandparents today she was thrilled (Parker just drooled on his). To quote her, "For me?? Oh, that makes my heart feel better!" (She's so dramatic lately - she's even taken to groveling at my feet while saying, "Yes, your majesty." I confess I don't mind that one, though!)

An Interesting Position for Watching TV

Eleven o'clock at night is Parker's time to shine. He loves to drool on the remote, pass gas, eat about seventeen times, fill his diaper at least twice, drool more, watch TV upside down, try to grab my snack, succeed at grabbing my snack, pass more gas, drool more (ok you get it). I do smell something funny though so I'm guessing that diaper is at capacity again...

Parkee Discovers the Cat

Parker has just has enough balance to sit up with the Boppy's support, which he loves because it frees up his hands to reach out and touch things! Like the cat, for instance. This is Seiko, the only cat that purrs when being sat upon (Kenzie tested that theory once). Seiko has been trying to be Parker's buddy since day one (sitting on top of Parker while he nurses, for instance). Parker has just started to notice Seiko, though, and I think I'm going to have to keep a close eye on those two!

Books are My Friend

Kenzie has her own subscription to "Wild Animal Baby" magazine, and a new issue arrived today. I read it to her once, and then very hopefully suggested she read it again in her bed. She fell for it! I had to take a picture because I was so amused listening to her "read" it again (she already had the whole thing memorized: "Can you find the butterfly? There it is! Very good job.") I was rocking Parker when she yelled, "Hey Mommy, can you come move my books so I can be com-furt-ble?" Boy, I ran in there to make her comfortable, she hasn't taken a nap in a long time! I got the sheets cleaned, a load of laundry folded, and the dishes done during her nap. And I talked to my mom on the phone for 78 minutes at the same time. So it was a productive afternoon! (It was a shame, I spent so long blabbing that I didn't have dinner ready when Chris got home... too bad we had to get Cafe Rio!)