trick or treat

so after i got done with the stamping stuff i moved on to getting halloween costumes ready. hooray that asher fit into mia's lamb costume. since that was the case we decided to make mia little bo peep. so, it was off to find a pattern. of course i just grabbed the one i liked. i mean why bother to look first to see how insane the thing is to make? where's the adventure in that? well after more hours then i will admit to, two sewing machines (the first machine being part of the reason that the hours were so many) and several trips to the fabric store (because why would the pattern actually call for the right amounts of things?) i got her costume done in time to go trick-or-treating downtown this past weekend. we called up her girlfriend kathryn and away we went. (for the record pete, kathryn's mom and her little brother robbie went too but they did not happen to make our picture). as you can see behind us the city we live in blocks off part of downtown by the square and the local businesses hand out candy to the kids. the fire department brings some of the trucks and there are hayrides around the square and apple cider. this is the first time mia has gone trick-or-treating and the conversation went something like this:

me: mia, we're going to go trick-or-treating. do you know what that is
mia: yes.
me: can you tell me?
mia: no.
me: when you trick-or-treat you put on your fancy dress (because this is what she calls her costume) and when you say "trick-or-treat" people will give you candy.
mia: they give me candy?!?!?!?!
me: that's right.
mia: i want to go now mama. let's go now.

it was so amazingly cute. she was also my big supporter when i was having trouble with the first machine. "mama, are you getting frusterated? (spelling intentionally wrong here cuz that's how she says it) don't get frusterated. it's okay. it's just my pretty dress. it's no big deal." i mean how can you not smile?

anyways, trick-or-treat was fun. mia got "alot" of candy (about 10 pieces) and has decieded that the peanut m&ms are her favorite. she can't wait to go again. although she has asked that it not rain this time as it rained on us a bit and cut our evening short. more pictures to come as we continue to wear the "pretty dress".

my new "job"

i like to make cards. i like to stamp. my best friend got me started when we made my wedding invitations and it's been a slowly growing hobby/addiction every since. in the last few years i have gotten most of my "fixes" from a company called stampin' up. great product, good price, i don't have to take the kids anywhere cuz it comes to my door. so my "supplier" has been telling me for awhile now that i need to become a "supplier" myself (they're actually called demonstrators but supplier seemed to fit more with the addiction theme). i've been toying with the idea and finally decided to do it a little while ago. i had my first little workshop about a week or so ago and it went well. i mean people learned something, i didn't sound totally crazy and everyone had a good time. this constitutes extreme success to me. i just want a way to pay for my "habit" and continue to suck my friends into my crafting world. it's always more fun to do things with other people. so that's the short version of my latest adventure. i'm sure there's more to say but i'm not feeling very wordy or clever today so we'll just stick to the facts and leave it at that. maybe if i fell clever i'll post a card later....maybe. =)

other fall activities

so it's actually been awhile since this happened but we went with pete's family to a corn maze in the area. they had a train ride for the kids, hay rides, and a corn box. now here's a new concept to me. it's a sand box that's made of corn instead of sand. an interesting concept and one the kids loved! i mean who thinks of filling a giant box with corn and letting children jump and play in it? one of those crazy ideas that is crazy enough to work. my nephew actually would not leave the thing to go into the corn maze. hilarious! the rest of us ventured into the maze for all of about 15 minutes. long enough for us to get a picture and for mia to decide she was done. what'd ya do? so back to the corn box we went...for the rest of our afternoon. they loved having grandma fill up the buckets and "shower" them. this was only slightly more fun then belly flopping into the box. it was hilarious and they loved every minute of it. asher was loving it until he tried to stand up in it and couldn't get solid enough footings to actually get to his feet. (the mom in me was a bit worried about corn going straight to his mouth...he had no interest in that though...whew!) needless to say we found corn for days hiding in pockets, shoes, socks (which of course also meant the washer later) and the van.

a corn shower for liam .... and one for mia

fun for asher

And he's off!

yep, he's walking! actually i'm a little late. he took his first timid steps a little over a week ago (just those first 1-2 steps that are kind of more falling into you with style than walking). now, he's giong a few feet at a time and building his confindence. it's fun to watch the differences. mia just took off. she went straight from cruising along furniture to walking almost across the room. asher's going to ease his way into this transition. =) he loves to practice and his smile just lights up the room. he wants to walk everywhere with a hand held. still more crawling than walking at this point but there's more walking everyday. maybe by his birthday. he's also now taught himself to go down the stairs (still not well but we're working on it). i'm breathing a little easier but still feel the need to be close. i can't believe how fast he's growing up. i was helding my friend kerri's little guy today. he's 5 1/2 weeks and it just amazes me to think how far asher's come since then. i still think of him as my baby (and he still is really) but he's just so far away from the newborn stage already. we're so lucky to have him (and his sister, of course!). i love to watch him learn new things everyday and explore more things. to learn new sounds and new experiences. it's amazing. i'm so very blessed. i love you doodle bug and i'm so proud of you!

bad about blogging...

oops. okay so i have not been that great about getting things posted on here. sorry. we've had a busy couple of weeks since our last update. there are a few sad notes as two very neat ladies we knew went to be with the Lord. we were glad to be there for our grieving friends and family. it's an odd thing when you know someone is now in heaven. you're sad for yourself and for those that are still here on earth but it's so amazing to think about where those people are now and how much better it is for them. it's an odd mix of sorrow and joy all rolled together.

okay so what have we been doing....i have no idea =) i'll just start writing and we'll see where this takes us. we've been going to the state park alot lately and walking along the beach or taking one of the hiking trails. the kids love it and it's nice to be outside...especially this time of year. mia has become infatuated with acorns and no matter how well i think i've gone through her pockets i still always seem to find one or two in the washer. (nice and clean but how clean does an acorn really need to be?) asher tends to prefer riding on pete's shoulders and trying to touch all the leaves as we go by. we're so glad our kids like to be outside.

us at the park

then there's our trip to the pumpkin patch. i love this! fall is my favorite time of year and i love to decorate the house with pumpkins and gourds and all the fun fall colors. i have no idea what it is about pumpkins but i just think they're fun. we bought some mums too to replace our poor sad looking impatiens in the front. poor things....not too sure i have a very green thumb. mia loved picking out pumpkins and adding them to our every growing pile in the wheelbarrow. oh my. she would pick each one up and remark about how heavy it was and then either drop it over the side of the wheelbarrow or hand it to one of us. asher just loved the fact that he was outside. didn't matter what we were doing.

mia looking for just the right pumpkin

asher's found the one he wants!

pete's been busy at work though he has new hours now. he's only working from 8-4 (not 7-5). it's so nice to have him home an hour earlier. it's amazing how much easier it is to make dinner when daddy's entertaining the troups. =) i've been busy making invitations for baby showers. something must have been in the water a little while ago because there seems to be another baby boom around us. it's been fun to have a stamping project again. mia's learning something new every day. she's learned to spread cheese on her crackers all by herself (needless to say we eat nothing but cheese and crackers right now) and is working on buttons. some days she's got it and some days it's a little trickier. we continue to go to baby talk (early literacy program that the kids LOVE) and mia is now enrolled in the toddler program at the library (which asher gets to tag along to). asher is standing by himself and constantly going up the stairs. he loves to wave to everyone and smiles all the time. it's hard to believe he's almost a year old! i think that's pretty much the picture of our lives at the moment...though i'm sure i'll post this and something else will come to mind. =) talk to you all soon!