Halloween Costumes!

So this year I suppose we went with the animal theme:) I had a bee costume saved for Preston from when Tanner and Logan were one...and I lucked out and found a lady bug costume at our mom-to-mom sale so I thought that would be a good match to the bee for Mallory to wear:) That was easy. Onto the boys...I had a heck of a time finding good costumes for the boys. First of all...now that they are size 5/6 I've noticed that many of the costumes are violent, scary, or dark, or have weapons or fighting associated with them. I refuse to have my four year olds wear that kind of thing. I was looking for something "friendly". Secondly, I refuse to spend over $20 for a costume... and third...all of a sudden the boys have an opinion about what they want to be:) (how dare they!)...so every costume we looked at it was a battle telling them they couldn't be certain things because it was too violent or scary. Anyways...after four different stores...we finally found the lion and the horse...wasn't in love with them, but they were "friendly", warm, the boys liked them, and they were less than $20...score! I didn't love them, but they would work:) Next year I will try to plan ahead better...maybe I'll get really cretive and make their costumes...Mallory could be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and the boys could be the scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man??...hmmm?...Or maybe I'll just check out all the costumes next week when they are discounted at 75% off:)...yeah, that sounds like a better idea:) hehe

Pumpkin Carving!

For FHE this week we carved pumpkins...I figured the boys would love this...getting all messy and digging out the seeds. Turns out they don't like getting messy all that much!...and MOM had to do all the messy stuff! They did like using their spoons and digging a bit and then they drew the faces on themselves and I cut them out:) We've almost come full circle. We planted pumpkin seeds and grew pumpkins in the garden this summer...so carving them was extra satisfying...and so we saved all of our seeds from the pumpkins this fall to plant in the spring to grow another batch of pumpkins:) The boys favorite part was when we lit all pumpkins and turned out every light in the house!...Happy Halloween to each of you tomorrow (or I guess since it's 2 am...it's today!)

Fall Pics of the Kids:)

As I am posting this post and the previous one...I am feeling terrible guilt. The last two days I feel like I haven't been very patient, kind, and loving with my kids. I'm not sure why...I've just been short with them and have not spent the time I need to listening to them, smiling, and giving them the love and attention they deserve. Do you ever have times like that? I'm sure everyone does...but I hate when I'm like that. Usually it's nothing they've done, but rather me just letting little things get in the way of what is really important...I end up getting impatient with them...that's my clue that I need to re-prioritize. As I just downloaded my pictures from my camera to post, I looked at all the pictures of my sweet children and just about started crying. My kids are all asleep...so I think I will go give them all a kiss on their foreheads and vow to be a better mom tomorrow...

The Joy of Raking Leaves:)

Yesterday was the boys first day of pre-school. They are going to Pooh's Corner at Brighton High School. It is actually a pre-school run by the high school students that are taking a block class in child development. So, the boys are going two afternoons a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yesterday was orientation...so they met their teachers...there are two "real teachers" and then they met some of the high school students. I like the ratio because there are always two teachers plus 4-6 high schoolers in the room at a time, who all seemed wonderful. They got to explore their classroom which is very nice (and big!)...and they found their cubbies, hooks, bathrooms:), and all the centers and play areas. They went right in with no hesitation and had a great time! Scott and I went to the parent meeting in an adjacent classroom while the boys were in the pre-school part...I am extremely impressed by the program...it is very organized with the themes, lesson plans, learning objectives, special days and events, field trips, daily schedule, etc.

One funny thing was that the whole time I had talked up this pre-school thing to the boys, they thought they would be riding the school bus! When I told them I'd be dropping them off and picking them up, they were highly disappointed:) Also, Logan was very excited to find out there are two other Logan's in his class so he gets to be "Logan B." (and we thought we were so original in naming him:)

So here are a few pics from their first day...

BHS Homecoming Parade

As a former BHS alum, I feel it is my duty to support our football team:) hehe...so tonight we went to the Homecoming Parade in downtown Brighton. It was fun for me to think back to homecoming when I was in highschool. I was a band geek, so I remember marching down the parade route looking like a dork just like the band did tonight:)...but oh, such fun memories...freezing my little rear off every football game:) My dad and two brothers LOVE Brighton football...and Gary and Brian each played on the team. I'm sure they would have liked to go to the game tonight:) However, we only went to the parade...it's a little too cold for my liking tonight:)

Anyways, so here are a couple pics...one on the porch right before we left for the parage(bad pic of the kids, but hey), one of us waiting for the parade to start, Scott on baby duty, cheerleaders mid-air jump (I thought this pic was cool...it was a total fluke that they jumped right as I snapped it:), and the boys with their candy stash. They got pretty good at soliciting candy from all the people in the parade as they went by:) We had a good time...then came home and enjoyed pumpkin pie (from Costco:)...yum, my fav. It was a fun night:)

Detroit institute of Arts

So I had never been to the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts)before and so yesterady I decided to take the kids and head down for a day of culture:) I love the free passes you can check out at the library. Yay for whoever thought of that idea!:) I wasn't sure how Logan and Tanner would do in an art museum. We've never really done a real museum. We mostly stick to hands-on museums, but they did great! The museum had these "eye spy" plaques around so Logan and Tanner liked looking at the clue picture and then trying to find the art piece in that room. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. We had a fun adventure heading to Detroit for the day and looking at all the art work. I was excited to see some pieces by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, etc. I also really felt like I learned alot about the different syles and periods of art. Then, at the end of the day...after feeling pretty good about our field trip and all that I had explained to the boys, I asked them what their favorite part was. They both replied that they liked the chocolate milk, cookies, and chips from the food court the best:) hehe...typical boys

Before and After...

My friend Courtney Gordon recently sent me a picture of us about 7 years ago. I about died when I saw it! I was about 35 pounds heavier than I am right now. So for those of you who didn't know me then...here's my before and after:) It's weird, but I think pregnancy and kids have acutally helped....Perhaps just chasing around the kids and also breastfeeding maybe?? I probably should have actually titled this "during" since I am still in the midst of my weight loss. Hopefully a couple months from now I can successfully post an "after" picture. I have lost 14 pounds in the last 6 weeks doing "biggest loser" with my family and am trying to lose another 15-20. Anyways, this picture gave me a good laugh (and additional motivation!!:)

Detroit Zoo!

Today Scott took a vacation day today and we took the kids to the Detroit Zoo. It's been a while since I had been there and it was much better than I remembered:) The weather was great and we had a fun time. Of course I took way too many pictures...but here are just a few.

Letterboxing Adventures!

Today we went on our first letterboxing hunt and we had a blast! Letterboxing is basically a worldwide treasure hunt. People from all over the world plant "letterboxes" (there are estimated over 20,000) and then they go online and write clues to how to find their letterbox. Thanks to my friend Carrie for introducing us to letterboxing:)...I went to the websites www.letterboxing.org and www.atlasquest.com and we printed off clues to a few locations. We started at Huron Meadows Metropaark (which we never found the one there), then went to the Wildernest Store on Main Street in Brighton, and then to the Red Caboose in front of the store Wood-n-things. So we found two out of three letterboxes. So basically, once you find the letterbox (which contains a stamp, notepad, and pen inside a waterproof container), you take them out and stamp your own "Letterboxing Trail Journal" with the stamp and write where you found it/location...and then you stamp the book in the letterbox with your own stamp, and sign your name and write a note. Then you seal it up once more and put it back for someone else to find.

Tanner and Logan loved this little adventure. They kept saying they were detectives. We went to Target prior to this so they could pick their "trail journals" and they were so excited about their little journals with their stamps in them. Although, I think I was more excited than the kids were each time we found a box:)

So now, on days when we don't have much going on, we are going to go letterboxing! I already printed off the clues for about ten new places to go search for letterboxes...I'd highly recommend it! Once again...thanks Carrie for the idea!

Little Stinker!

Tanner was playing with stickers while I was on the phone today...I turned around and this is what I saw...Little Stinker! Preston didn't think it was so funny when I had to pull all the stickers off!

Fifteen Minutes of Fame:)

Today we were featured in the newspaper in the "Our Neighbors" section. My friend Heather Aeschliman is the public relations person for church and always tries to highlight church members or church events in the paper when she can. So she called the paper a while ago and they recently contacted me asking if they could do a story about us having two sets of twins. Kinda fun:) The link is below:

http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS01/809210325

BTW, we don't subscribe to the paper...so if anyone wants to save the article for us to cut out for our scrapbooks, I'd greatly appreciate it...thanks!

~julie

Happy Wife = Happy Life:)

Ok, so normally I don't just put one picture on my blog postings...but this time, sadly, there is only one:( The reason being that about a minute after this picture was taken, my camera broke and I couldn't take anymore:( Yesterday Scott took a half day off work and we went to the U of M Botanical Gardens to check them out since we hadn't been there before. As many of you know, I love taking pictures and had thought this would be a great place to take some nice outdoor pictures...well, right after this first picture, I put my camera on top of the stroller and it fell off and broke:( For me, this is like losing a limb...I loved my camera and it was less than a year old. Anyways, so after my camera broke I was ticked and couldn't enjoy the day. I have to admit I sulked the whole way home. I was expecting Scott might try to be funny and say something like..."well, at least you found the cure for your blogging addiction", or something like that, but he didn't. He was very sweet and he knows how mch I love to take pictures and that it makes me happy...so on the way home, he simply told me to go that evening and buy another camera. He knows me well and knows I'd be sad until I got another one:) I ended up getting a nicer camera than the one I had. I hated to spend the money on replacing my camera, but I'm thankful for Scott, that he is always trying to make me happy...he has joked "happy wife = happy life:)" hehe...so...I didn't even skip a beat...and I can continue to feed my picture taking and blogging addiction:) I'm not sure why I like taking pictures so much and posting them various places...it's just something I like to do...my hobby in a way...but I'm grateful for a husband that knows what makes me happy and supports me in every little thing I do. Love you Scottie!