Halloween

This morning started off with pancakes and cinnamon apples, yummy! Then we remembered that we did not carve our pumpkins. So when daddy got home he had to help.

The boys had fun pulling out the "Stuff".

J#3 had to help too. It was their idea to use latex gloves.

Daddy doing the cutting.

Then afterwards J#1 wanted to do more drawing on it.

J#1's finished pumpkin

J#2's finished pumpkin.

I tried to find J#3 a small pumpkin, but they were out. He really didn't care he just wanted to pose with a pumpkin.

Then later on it was Trick or Treat time!!

Ninja

Iron Man

Zebra

"This is my tail".

Striking a pose.

Enjoying the fruits of our labors. We have way too much candy, and of course that is what I will hear for the next week or so "Can I have some candy?"

I hope everyone had a good and safe Halloween. Here is J#3 saying some new words for Halloween.

What was I thinkin'...

Tonight was "Downtown Trick or Treating" at the city next to ours. We got there right when it was supposed to start and it was PACKED. We had to park about two blocks away and walk among the hundreds of parents and kids. We got in the line with a friend who was already the line. Places like that make me a nervous wreck. Just trying to keep my children moving with me and not looking at something and wonder off is enough to make you want to poke your own eyeballs out! There were just so many people and you were either running into someone or someone was running into you. When we were close to the end of the line I thought to myself this event is a real beating, but wouldn't you know this is the third time we have done it. Each year I think it gets worse though. Then I hear J#3 saying, "Nana" which is what he calls his pacifier and it is no where to be found. Oh HELP Me!! My kids are sugared and my baby is wanting his "nana" that is lost and if one more person cuts in front of me I might lose it!! The kids had fun though and of course that is what matters. Happy Halloween.

Please Pray..

The family on my sidebar is about to welcome little baby Stellan in the world tomorrow morning. His tests have been good and they will be running a battery of tests after he is born for his enlarged heart. Considering they were told he would not make it to delivery says a lot for God's grace. There are many people praying for this little one and for the doctors as they assess what they need to do to help him. If you would like to know more about the story click on the pic of them and it will take you to her blog. Please pray...

A Night Out...

Last night Mechanic Man and I actually went out with some friends, by ourselves, with no children. Aunt D and Cousin K came over and watched the boys for us while we had a night out on the town. Here are some pics...

MM was excited to be going out with his wife :)

I was ready to go eat somewhere and not share my food and have my arm pulled at every 5 seconds while I was eating. We ate a great seafood place. Then we checked out this club that had a live band, dancing and pool tables. It was great music that you could really get your groove on with!

Aunt D planned on making dinner with the boys. Here they are fixing to make there Tostada Things. She called me soon after we left and said that J#1 said something funny. Here is how it went:

J#1: "I love it when you come over!"
J#2 and J#1: "Yeah, we get to drink Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper." (which is something I never give them)
J#1" "It's like having a party with no rules!"
Aunt D: "Well, there will be some rules."
J#1: "I said it was "LIKE" a party."

Cracked me up. They were so excited that even J#3 just waved at me when I told him bye :( It makes you feel good and bad at the same time.

I was glad that Aunt D took some pics for me. Here they are making their meal.

J#3 even got in on the action.

Then I saw this pic and was thinking "they are stirring on a hot stove". I had to take a deep breath it was all good I know they can handle it and they are being supervised. They made some dish that Aunt D's husband makes often. Hamburger meat and BBQ sauce, sounds like a good dish in a pinch.

Granny even came to visit with the boys.

Always have to have some wrestling.

Of course, J#3 has to get in on it.

Aunt D brought the movie Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2. Old movies that the boys had never seen. They loved it and are still talking about the movies. Then Aunt D called an intermission and they made popcorn balls.



We got home around 2 am. We had a blast. The boys were out like a light when we got home and they had so much fun. It was hard getting up at 6:45 am this morning when J#3 decided to get up. It is something I could not do very often, but it is fun when you get too.

Happy Fall Ya'll

Finally, it is officially cold here in Texas. Can I get a yee-haw?

Anyways, it really is momentous when you can bring out the winter clothes here in Texas that have been stored up for so long and put on a sweater and slip the knit hats on the kiddos when they go outside. It actually got up to 80 degrees right before noon then the bottom dropped out and it is chilly. I am so ready for the cold weather and I am hoping it stays here, but as the ole' saying goes around Texas "if you don't like the weather just wait a minute and it will change". Unfortunately we can't put away the shorts just yet, but for now we will enjoy it while we have it. Maybe even get a fire going, curl up with a good book and a hot cup of tea. It just doesn't seem right carving a pumpkin while wearing shorts, it's just wrong or eating Thanksgiving dinner in flip flops, but it is what it is. Can't say I would want to live anywhere else though, I mean we are so close to oil refineries and are in the top states for the lowest gas prices right now. That stands for something, right?

Going to sew....

I have some experience in sewing, I wish I knew more though. Once in awhile I get the itch to cut something out and sew it up. I happened to come across a couple of patterns at Wal-Mart the other day. One is for a jacket and hat for me and the other is for pajamas for the J-Boys. So I am going to be cutting and sewing over the next several days and I'll post a pic of the end result, hopefully it will turn out :) The J-Boys had fun picking out the material for their flannel p.j.'s.

We will see how it goes, but now I feel some sort of accountability since I posted it on here. I am also going to try and bake something with my pureed pumpkin this week. I don't know where this June Cleaver has come from and how I have had the energy to do these extra things, but I think it will be fun. One thing though I am not wearing heels while I do it.

Doing the homemaking thang....

I was inspired by Pioneer Woman this week to puree pumpkin. She talked about how it was so easy and that it tasted much better then the canned pumpkin. I have had experience with pureeing fruits and veggies when I made J#3's baby food. I thought I would give pumpkin a try this time for myself. It really is so easy. Check out my pics...

I forgot to take a pic of my pumpkins before hand, but here is what is left of them, just the skins.

J#3 just had to get up on the counter and "help". Look at that face, makes you want to nibble him up :)

I got J#1 to hold the bag while I poured it in. He said it smelled funny. Which it didn't.

Monkey see, monkey do!

So then I got J#2 to help. I froze about 6 cups. Can't wait to make pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread..............

I also decided since I was in the making stuff mood, I would try my hand at making my own spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes. I got them at a good sale price. I visited a few websites to get tips on what to do. I boiled them and took the skins off.

Chopped them up and put in some spices and let that baby cook for about two hours.

Then I added some more stuff and let it cook another hour.

The verdict: This is some good sauce if I do say so myself. It does take some time to get it together, but it was worth it. If I had the time to have a garden it would be worth it to grow tomatoes and make this sauce. Now that is one thing that I can mark off my lists of things that I wanted to learn. I have about 7 cups of this sauce frozen now and I can't wait to make some spaghetti with it:)

Wordless Wednesday

Arboretum

Yesterday, the J-Boys and I went to the Arboretum along with a lot of friends. That place is so beautiful and we had so many great backgrounds for pictures. I wish I had a better camera to take clearer pics, but I have to work with what I have. The weather was nice and we stayed out there almost all day, we had a picnic in the grass. It was a fun time. Here are some pics...

J#3 was cracking me up. As the third child he just knows what to do when it comes to picture taking. I would tell him to sit there and say "cheese" and that is what he did!

There was a lot of different kind of pumpkins there.

Here are the J-Boys in the pumpkin house and some boy I don't know. I didn't realize that J#3 was eating the pumpkin!

They were getting tired of saying "cheese".

There is also a section there that has replicas of frontier life.

In the chuck wagon.

This was the path to the water toads. It was a beautiful scene of crepe myrtles trees. It could have been a great pic if there wasn't all the other people in it.

J#3 playing peek-a-boo behind the trees.

Only in Texas can you go to take pictures with pumpkins for the fall and then take your shirt off and play in the water!

J#1 cooling off.

J#3 acting like a frog.

J#2 taking his turn.

Getting our feet wet.

Last big soakin' before we go!