before there was snow....

...this is what we did most afternoons.

Halloween

See this sucker? It was at least the 10th piece of candy
eaten by this little princess before even getting home from trick or treating!

This tootsie roll is scrumptious!

Of course, our tomboy daughter, Joanna, requested an Ironman costume!

Jaclyn, true to character, chose a Cinderella costume. She loves wearing dresses every day of the year, so why should Halloween be any different?!

And Jayden dressed up as a grizzly bear.
Or, as my brother Derek suggested, a grizzly bear dressed up as a Jayden. Well, he has definitely hit his terrible twos, so there ya go!
Jayden even walked around all night growling like a bear! It was so cute in his little boy voice.

Pumpkin patch

We explored the pumpkin patch this year with the girls' preschool and some good friends.

"I choose this one!"

On a hayride

That's my friend, Anna, with her sons, Zack (the baby) and Levi.

Jayden is enjoying his roasted marshmallow.

September celebrations

I recall a day when I was about 16, I made a comment to my mom, "Mom, between holidays and birthdays, our family has something fun to celebrate in every single month of the year except for September. September is such a boring month."

Fast forward
about 8 years
to 2003......

Josh and I got engaged in August of that year, had an insanely/stupidly short engagement of 6 weeks, and got married on September 12th.

....and then I remembered my comment to my mom about nothing cool ever happening in September. And I thought to myself, hey! Now there's something to celebrate every month of the year!! Little did I know that our September nuptials were only the beginning of September celebrations for our family.

Fast forward 2 more years....Joanna was born on 9.10.05.

......then 3 years later, Jayden joined the fam on 9.1.08.

And in a matter of 5 years, our little family now has three good reasons to celebrate in the month of September. And eat tons of cake. ;-)

Jayden's 2nd birthday

Funny story about this dinosaur cake. My parents were in town for a couple days in-between the two birthdays, so we celebrated with them the last night they were in town. (which meant that we had even more birthday cake that week!!)

When it was time for Jayden and Joanna to blow out the candles, we told Joanna to make a wish. I wasn't sure if she'd know what that meant, but apparently she did because she proceeded to close her eyes, and whisper in a nearly inaudible voice, "I wish for twinkle toes shoes!!"

Josh and I chuckled to ourselves because she'd been asking for these shoes all summer long.

Twinkle toe shoes

Looks like her rich fairy godmother granted her wish this year. She was SO thrilled so I guess it was worth the steep price tag. (have you price checked Sketchers twinkle toes lately?! Talk about highway robbery. At least I had a coupon.) :-D

And for those of us who grew up in the 80's and remember the hideous fashions like those of Punky Brewster, you'll look at Twinkle toe shoes and want to barf all over them. At least they're on her feet; not mine. ;-)

Joanna's 5th birthday

It's Potty Training Time Again

It seems like forever since I've had to think about the whole business of potty training. Life sure gets a little easier when two of your three kids can do their business without interfering with all of my busy-ness all day.
Lately Jayden has started to tell us when he needs a diaper change. He'll find me and say, "Mommy, I kinky." Oh really, son? (he means stinky!)

One day I came into the bathroom and found Jayden chillin' on his new potty chair with some light reading material. He'd taken his diaper off himself and grabbed the most suitable book on the subject at hand, and proceeded to do his business!!!