Handing out gobs of candy!

We started off by gathering at the neighbors. Azlyn is posing with Evan, otherwise known as Chewbacca. Then we headed out to collect as much candy as we could! Mason did very well!!!
We ran back to our house to hand out candy, went through about 700 pieces! Yes you read that right!!! Mason LOVED handing out candy to all the kiddos! Although, I kept asking him if he needed to go potty but it turned out he just couldn't keep his feet still from all the candy he and daddy had eaten everytime mommy walked out of the room...nice daddy, real nice! Slip your child into a sugar coma for your own sake of eating candy too!

Hope everyone had a great halloween!!!

Now we really didn't plan for Mason to be Bumblebee and Azlyn to be a ladybug to make them our little bugs, regardless, they were the cutest EVER!!! It's ok, I'm allowed to say that...I'm their mom;)

Ok, so Roth and Mason were having a little too much fun, especially with the easy cheese!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had our own little Halloween party, just the four of us, and got pretty creative with the food! Although, I have to admit that the pizza came from Papa Murphy's.

Azee's new dance moves!

Not only does she love to sing, but she can bust a move! Stayed tuned next week when she's got her new breakdance moves down!

When it rains, it pours!

I'm imagining looking back at this years later and saying 'it wasn't that bad!' or 'oh, what crazy times!' but tonight those weren't exactly my choice of words. No, what you may have heard would be very close to what a sailor would shout out!!!
Why, you ask? Well let's start off with the fact that Mason woke up Sunday night with horrible ear aches. We actually thought he was making a full recovery from being sick the week before but when I took him in yesterday to the doctor she said he had severe ear infections in both ears. Usually I catch these before they have ever reached 'severe' but this hit Mason fast! They put him on antibiotics and sent us home. That afternoon he did his best to sleep it off but whimpered the whole time from the pain. It broke my heart! We made him as comfortable as possible by putting his little Elmo couch in between us IN our bed so we could be right there in case he woke up with more pain. He actually slept the whole night so we thought it was on it's way to getting better. Roth left this morning at 5:30am to catch a flight to NY for a conference. When the kids and I came downstairs for breakfast that's when I noticed blood in Mason's ear. His poor little eardrum had ruptured! Because he's already on antibiotics there's not much we can do but hope it heals. While the pain seemed to lessen throughout the day, this evening his left ear started to build with pressure. Then, as we're finishing up dinner, our entire house is filled with the sound of our smoke detectors going off. No, it wasn't the battery! I put in new battery after new battery and it was still howling back at me. Poor Mason was huddled in the bathroom (the only place with no alarm) and covering his ears so the piercing beeps wouldn't hurt his tender ears. Azlyn was competing with the tones of the aweful siren and I'm running around trying to figure out which one is making the entire system go off. I finally pulled out the detector in our computer room realizing it's not the battery but the unit itself. I put Azlyn to sleep in her freshly washed sheets, gave Mason his meds so that he can hopefully sleep well tonight, called Roth so Mason and I could say 'goodnight' and now off to bed I go.
What new adventures will we experience tomorrow?

Azee's happy/mad face!

Azlyn's been working on this for a while and just recently mastered the "I'm happy, surprised...and now I'm mad" face. Cracks us up everytime!!!

October fun!

October fun...that can take on so many meanings. In the past years it meant carving pumpkins, trips up to Green Bluff for pumpkin donuts, corn mazes, jumping in piles of leaves in our backyard...you get the idea. This year, while we were able to get in a few of those things, our biggest accomplishment was making it through the H1N1 scare! While it was nasty, scary, and just plain exhausting, we made it! Three days of fever, two days of a yucky cold, and days upon days of the worst cough imaginable!!! Roth managed to stay away from it all but the kids and I were down for a good week and a half! Now onto the REAL fun! We attended our neighborhood pumpkin carving party. Twelve or so families participated in carving the most unique designs and lots of comfort food on the side! Mason and I also worked on pumpkin and ghost cookies. I think I've found my baking partner for life!!! I pray all of you are staying healthy and enjoying the last of these October days of 2009! God bless!

A tender moment...

So Azlyn and I were dropping Mason off at preschool this morning, just like every Tuesday morning. He walks into his classroom and takes his coat, gloves, and hat off. Then he walks over to the board to find his name to show he's checked in for the day. Next, he walks over to his table, finds the piece of paper with his name on it and begins drawing pictures and writing his name like he's been doing this for years. Really, this was a pretty ordinary day, very routine until those big hazel eyes looked up at me and said "Mommy, I'm really going to miss you today! But it's o.k. I'll be fine, you can leave now."

Did I forget to remove the sign on my forehead that said "Mommy's heart breaks when I have to leave you!"? I would have thought that by now it would have been easier to drop him off and go but I wanted to stay! I find myself standing outside of his classroom looking into the big window just watching his every move. Not because I wonder if he'll be a good boy or not, but simply because I'm not ready to let him go into the big world. Yes, I know it's time but sheesh! No one warned me how hard this would be!

So it all ended well! Two and a half hours passed. Azlyn and I grabbed our coats and drove off like a crazy person just to go pick Mason up! Now one would hope that after missing someone so much they'd get the opportunity to grab the first hug from their little man! Well, not today, or any day for that matter! Mason came running over to Azlyn and gave her a big hug and kiss. "Oh Azee, did you miss me? I missed you!!! O.K. mom, we can go home now!"

...and that's when I realized that while I have to learn to let him grow and find his way, he knows where home is and who's waiting for him. And that's a good feeling...

A cold October day!

How deceiving! Not a cloud in the sky! The sun is shining through our windows...it is truly inviting! Ha! Until I slip my flip flops on and go outside to place our decorated pumpkins out on our porch! In a brief moment my toes are nowhere to be found and my nose looks similar to a famous reindeer! Where has fall gone? Was it ever here? We went from 80 degrees to 38 degrees. How is that possible? Now I realize that some of my fellow readers are sitting in single digit weather over in Montana and I am sorry for that, but can someone take us back to last year when Halloween was approaching and we were still wearing light jackets? I am NOT ready for snow yet, let alone the cold that chills you to the bone!

So I decided to stop my whining and make some delicious homeade potato soup! My mom gave me this recipe years ago and I have finally mastered it! This soup definately hit the spot on this cold October day! My only issue is that the mass population did not show to eat the gallons of soup I made! Mom, I blame you for this! No matter how hard I try, I cannot cook for four but rather for an army! When sitting down for dinner at my mom and dad's my husband's exact words are "Will there be more showing up for dinner? This could feed the entire reservation!" Can we say yummy leftovers?

Mr. Pumpkin Head

Like the days of "Where's Waldo?", it's "Where's Mason?"

What you may assume as a special, tender moment of decorating pumpkins with each other really turned out to be "Azlyn Lorelei! Do not take his eye off! Azlyn where did you put the ear? Azlyn get the nose out of your mouth!" Mason did his best to hold his alligator tears back as his sister tried her best to destroy his great masterpieces.

I give much credit to the person who created these clever pumpkin decorations! The days of gutting out the seeds and hours of carving are behind us!!

I think Mason thought his sister was a pumpkin...squeezing the seeds out of her!

Green Bluff

A family trip to Green Bluff to gather a few pumpkins!

If you notice Mason's shirt, he just finished a great soccer game! He did really well, almost scored a goal. Actually, it was a great assist...he 'passed' it to his opposing teammate and that little guy 'scored' for Mason's team!

Azlyn couldn't wait to get into that wagon!!!

Really?? Who was the genius adult that thought they'd section off an area for kids to throw hay around? They must not have kids of their own! I'm still finding hay on Mason!

One happy boy, despite the very cold weather!

Azlyn's 1st haircut!

Holding my breath and scissors in hand, I gave Azee her first haircut! She didn't even flinch! She officially has bangs which fits right in with the fall trends. It did make me a little sad to be cutting off a few strands of her angelic blonde hair but I knew it was for the better! Poor thing had hair poking her eyes out!

A girl and her hats...

After trying on all of her hats, Azee decided she wanted Mason's! That didn't go over well with big brother...sigh.

Go Tigers!!!

If you ask Mason what his most memorable moment was today it was that he got snacks after the game!!! What else would you expect from a four year old?

A healthy Mason finally played his very first soccer game today after sitting out half the season. He had a blast! He almost scored and did a great job keeping up. There is nothing more adorable than watching four and five year olds play soccer!!!