This is it!

The last day of November is finally here! :) As promised, pictures from yesterday...

The snow was so beautiful clinging to the trees!


Bailey waiting for Jeremy to throw a ball for her and Connor playing behind her


Connor was having so much fun running around and throwing snow balls that it was hard to take his picture! This one gives you a good idea of how much fun he was having though!


Last year Logan didn't like the snow very much - he does not like to be cold! Yesterday, though, he was having a ball making snow balls and throwing them!


After dinner the boys wrestled in the living room and I got a couple good pictures


So, that's it! November is done and another NaBloPoMo is over. Yay! I made it! :) Don't worry, I'll keep up with the posting but just not every day because, really, our lives just aren't that interesting! haha :)

Saturday

Sigh. It's that time of year again. I think I pretty much said the same thing I'm feeling today almost exactly one year ago in this post. Only this year it seems worse...only one child has RSVP'd for Connor's birthday party which is only week away. Whine. I've heard a lot about how Thanksgiving is closer to Christmas this year so there's a lot more to pack in to every weekend, it's the busiest time of year, blah, blah, blah. Sorry...it's just so depressing! He's looking forward to it so much and it makes me sad that so many of his friends aren't able to join in the celebration of the big o-5!

On a brighter note it snowed last night! We played outside several times today and had fun throwing snow at each other and taking pictures. Unfortunately Jeremy is reformatting my laptop tonight which is the computer with the camera dock and photo software on it so, rather than try to get that stuff working on this computer I'll just make you wait for tomorrow!! :)

We also watched a movie this afternoon. All four of us, sitting in the living room, all looking at the tv at the same time. I know, that doesn't sound very interesting but if you know our boys you know that they're really active and can watch tv only in really short spurts combined with running, jumping, singing, playing, etc. We watched the first Home Alone movie which was the boys' first time to see it (Connor loved it) and was just the first in many cheesy Christmas movies I'll be watching over the next few weeks! I love cheesy Saturday afternoon Christmas movies :) I already have something like ten more set up to record on the DVR so that the fun can last well into January if I plan it right. haha

SNOW!

It is finally REALLY snowing! Not just flurries but actual accumulation! Yay! Now it feels more like the holidays are here :)

Thanksgiving yesterday was great! We had tons of delicious food and lots of fun. My Dad, Connor, Logan and I went on a little hike after lunch and it was funny to see more differences between the boys - Connor loves setting out on an adventure and discovering new things while Logan would much rather stick to the comforts of home. :) He had to hold someone's hand the whole time and was really uneasy walking through the forest. He learned a new word, bumpy, and used it over and over again! We roasted marshmallows in the big stone fireplace and had a great time!

Today we continued the process of decorating for Christmas! Last weekend Jeremy and Connor put up the Christmas lights. I know, it was early, but last year it snowed the weekend after Thanksgiving and that snow stuck around for a long time so we never got around to decorating outside. This year we wanted to be sure it got done so we took advantage of the good weather to put up a few strands of lights and two reindeer. Today we set up the Christmas tree! For some reason we're dragging out the process a bit so tomorrow we'll add ornaments and maybe even the train around the bottom!

I didn't think I was going to do any Black Friday shopping today but I did end up going to Walmart early this morning to get some very discounted kids stuff - slippers, hoodies, etc. The lines were crazy but nothing like that crazy incident at the Walmart in New York thank goodness! We also went to the dollar store later and found some cool Spiderman stuff for Connor's birthday party next Saturday.

It's hard to believe it's just Friday but I'm looking forward to two more days with the family! :)

Thankfulness Turkey

Here's Connor's Thankfulness Turkey!



Clockwise from lower left:
1. DSBA - Connor's attempt at writing "December" when no one was around to spell it for him!
2. Fire Alarms - A fireman visited Connor's school in October and handed out calendars with reminders that you should test your fire alarms on the first Saturday of every month and change the batteries twice a year. Since then, Connor has reminded us nearly every day to check the smoke alarms and was super excited when we changed all the batteries!
3. My Thanksgiving Party and Play - the party they had last Thursday at school when he played a house! :)
4. My best friend, Logan - this was the first feather we made!
5. Connor - I added this one :)
6. MOM - Aww!
7. DECEMBEr - He's thankful for December because his birthday AND Christmas are in that month!
8. DADDY - Aww!
9. Logan - He made the thankfulness turkey twice!

I wrote the first few feathers for him and then one day he just took over! Here he is holding it...



Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll post pictures of Connor's Thankfulness Turkey later but wanted to take a minute to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully he'll become an artist....

Logan loves to color.


Here's a recent masterpiece...



One which we will apparently get to "enjoy" until such time we take on the task of painting the largest wall in our house.



Sigh...

We've tried to clean it off with several different concoctions but nothing has worked. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser has been the best so far but this picture was taken after using that. Yeah...I think it'll take some primer and paint to really get rid of it. Connor suggested purple paint. Did I mention it's the tallest and longest wall in our house? And over stairs? Maybe we should just put a frame around it and pretend it was done on purpose? :)

I got nothin... :)

Nothing to post about. At all. Ack! There are only 5 posts left after this one so I can't stop now!

I worked in the office all day today. Nothing exciting there...busy busy busy. Came home with a splitting headache. We all went to the Y - the boys played in the childwatch area, Jeremy played racquetball and I spent lots of time on the cardio machines. Dinner was enchiladas and the boys went to bed. There was some laundry in there somewhere. Boring, huh?

I technically have tomorrow off but already know that I have some work to do that can't wait until Monday. Sigh...

On the bright side, the weather finally felt like November today! There was a definite chill in the air and it smelled like Thanksgiving. No, not poultry seasoning or cinnamon or something but that crisp clean fall air smell :)

Connor has been asking to make rice krispie treats all week so we'll hopefully do that tomorrow. We'll also fix a pumpkin pie and maybe something else to take up to Grandma and Papa's house for Turkey Day!

Sorry, that's all I've got today.

Ooh! Wait! I'll be informative! :)

Going shopping on Black Friday? Check out http://www.bfads.net/ and see the Black Friday ads before they're in the newspaper! I don't think I'll be going Black Friday shopping this year (even though I love it!) so if you go tell me all about it! :)

Looking to save money at the grocery store with great coupons or get free samples in the mail? I've been doing this a lot lately and it's fun! I've gotten some cool free stuff and have used lots of coupons I wouldn't have seen if I'd only used the Sunday paper! These are some of my favorite sites:

Freebies 4 Mom
Money Saving Mom
The Bargain Shopper Lady
The Freebie Blogger

And of course you can go directly to coupon sites like coupons.com or shortcuts.com (where you can put coupons directly on your King Soopers card!).

Need a good laugh? Visit Cake Wrecks. It's a blog full of hilarious cake mistakes - I especially love it when they misspell a word or misunderstand a decorating request. That blog makes me laugh out loud every day! :)

Maybe tomorrow I'll share with you all my favorite blog reader so you can add all these and not have to add them to your favorites and remember to go to them all to check for updates :) Betcha can't wait...haha

Boy, meet Kid

Remember Connor's imaginary friend Boy? He's still around. :) I still think it's strange that Boy is never in the same room as us but Connor talks to him on the phone or walkie-talkie and tells us about where he is or what he's doing all the time. Since I'd read that imaginary friends are more common in first borns, I guess I never really expected Logan to have one. However, it seems he does! Today Logan was talking on his play phone to someone named...get this...Kid. We asked if Kid was his friend and he said yes. We asked if Kid was a boy or a girl and he said kid. :) So we thought it was bad enough that Connor's friend didn't have a normal name but now we have another one who doesn't yet have a gender :) I wonder if Kid will be around for as long as Boy has!

Only one more week!

This "post every day for a month" thing is over in one week! Wheee! :)

Clever subject here :)

I started working right after the boys went to bed tonight and just now looked up and realized that Sunday is almost over and I haven't blogged yet! Oops! Just some quick pics for ya tonight from the birthday party Connor and I went to yesterday...
The birthday boy, Micah, and Connor


Connor and his friend Sean waiting for their turns on the zip line


Riding the horse tire swing


Relaxing for a few after riding the zip line several times and before roasting marshmallows! What a life!

Saturday

If you've ever been to our house you know that our living room has to be arranged just right in order for our Christmas tree to fit. After a fun birthday party at Sunflower Farms this morning, we spent most of the rest of the day cleaning and rearranging the living room so that next Friday we can put up our tree! It seems so strange to be thinking about Christmas when it hasn't even really snowed yet but the calendar says Thanksgiving is next week so I guess it's true! :)

Jeremy has all of next week off of work and the boys don't have school either so we're trying to figure out what to do all week. I'm sure there will be trips to the library, the Y, and the mall play area but we're also hoping to do some fun things like ice skating at Roosevelt Park and baking some pies for Thanksgiving!

This is the discussion we had about dinner tonight:

Me: What should we have for dinner?

Connor: Noodles! [as in Noodles and Co., one of Connor's favorite places to eat out]

Jeremy: But we had noodles last night.

Connor: No we didn't, we ate at home.

Jeremy: Right. And we ate noodles.

Connor: Nooo, Daddy! We had psquetti!

Jeremy: What do you think spaghetti is made of?

Connor: String. Oh, and sauce.

Haha!

Thanksgiving Play

I posted the cast list from Connor's Thanksgiving play last night. Did you see which role he played? Yes, he was a house. A log house, to be exact. During the Thanksgiving story he started out as a pilgrim on the Mayflower. When they made it to land and made friends with the indians, the indians taught them how to fish, hunt and even build houses. That was Connor's big moment! :)
Connor (far left) and some of his classmates singing and waiting for all the parents to get there


Connor in his pilgrim hat


Our son, the house


I imagine getting into character was tough for him - houses are still and quiet and those words do not usually describe Connor! Luckily he only had to hold the position for a moment and then it was time to become a pilgrim again and feast with the indians.

He was very proud of his house, though, and would tell me each day when I picked him up which part he had completed that day :)

The class had a little feast of their own afterward and then both boys came home and took a great nap! Acting and eating is hard work :)

A star is born

It's late because I've been working forever today. So, this post is just going to be a tease and I'll post the full story tomorrow :)

Connor had his Thanksgiving play and feast at school today and Jeremy, Logan and I went to watch. The pre-k class put on a play about the Thanksgiving story and this was the cast list part of the program (with last names redacted to protect the innocent).



We couldn't be more proud! haha

Random

Just some random thoughts today...

1. The high temp here today was around 70 degrees. We're still in Colorado and it's still November, right? I get my answer tomorrow when the high drops to 35 with "flurries, fog, reduced visibility and freezing drizzle" according to Kathy Sabine. :) Yikes! Better gather up the boys' coats, hats and gloves tonight!

2. Last weekend we went to Party America to get the invitations for Connor's birthday party and as we were walking slowly through the card aisles Logan was quietly studying all the cards at his eye level. He reached one with a bikini clad woman on it, stopped in his tracks and said "Ohhh, WOW" :) He's only two and is already drooling over the opposite sex!

3. We're making another Thankful Turkey like we did last year. Today I asked Connor what he was thankful for and he replied "I am thankful for...my best friend, Logan." Awwww!

4. Logan can count to ten! I'm not sure how it happened but Jeremy was counting with him while Logan was taking a bath the other night and Logan only missed a few numbers. Since then he's been saying them all more consistently! Yay! I haven't counted his words lately because there are just so many of them! Did I tell you we're reducing his speech therapy to every other week? It's so exciting that he's making such great progress :)

5. No matter where you stand politically, how cool is it that Obama is so technologically inclined? "Radio" addresses posted on YouTube, he wants to be the first President to have a laptop in the Oval office, and he's disappointed he has to give up his Blackberry for security reasons! I think it's great and makes him feel more accessible and intelligent. Though, if it were me, I'd probably be caught harvesting crops on my Facebook farm or checking my Google Reader during important security briefings!

6. Connor has been working hard on writing his letters recently (I know, despite his being challenged and all! haha). On the way to school today he asked me to spell several "L" words (L is the letter they're focusing on this week). First was lollipop. Then he asked for look. Then lick. Finally lady. When we got to school I read his paper which appeared to say:

L I C E
lolliPoP
LOOK Lady

I couldn't help but laugh :) The letters were really great though! Well, the k in lick looked strangely like an E or an F but k's are pretty hard. He did much better on the uppercase K he made in LOOK!

Wow I could've stretched that into six posts for you but I crammed it all into one since I'm feeling bad for the super short one last night! Don't say I never consider your feelings, my faithful fifteen readers! haha

Oops...

Me - worked in the office today, won a $25 Best Buy card, have a huge headache, forgot to blog, going back to bed

boys - all 3 already asleep :)

Yeah, not a good post today...better tomorrow I hope!

Connor's almost 5!

So we finally caved on Connor's request of birthday party location and activity. Yep, our December baby is turning 5 (yeah, I know, not a baby anymore!) and for the last couple months he has been asking for a pool party. In Colorado. Did I mention his birthday is in December? Yeah...

We went to a party at the Erie Community Center last month and, even though that party wasn't a pool party, Connor saw the pool from the party room and immediately decided that was the place he wanted his party. Then Jeremy took the boys there a couple weekends ago to check out the pool and swim and they loved it! Jeremy talked to the lifeguard who said that lots of 4/5 year olds have their parties there and they have a blast! The water is really shallow so I guess they don't have to be great swimmers which is good. So I guess we're having a pool party with a Spiderman theme!

Connor and I narrowed the guest list tonight (since our package only allows for 10 kids) and as I was writing out the invitations he read his name and was very disappointed that I'd only written Connor and not "Connor Spiderman". :)

He has the whole thing planned out and adds some new detail to the plan all the time...

He wanted me to write on the invitation that everyone should wear their Halloween costumes (since he dressed as Spiderman he thinks that everyone has a Spiderman costume) and bring a musical instrument for the parade he plans on having after he eats cake. Oh and I'm supposed to take Logan to the party room, make everyone be quiet, turn off the lights and then call Daddy on his cell phone to tell him we're ready. Then Jeremy is supposed to drive Connor to the place (while we all sit in the dark I guess!) and we're supposed to jump out from behind tables and yell surprise! He did say that I would be allowed to be standing while the lights were off so I would be ready to take pictures of the surprised look on his face when people yell surprise. Logan, too, can be out from under the table because he might bonk his head if he stands up underneath it. That's very thoughtful but I don't get the whole surprise thing - he knows he's having a birthday party! He's even practiced his surprised look! He knows he's having a Spiderman cake (it comes with the party package) but he wants to bring two raisins from home to put in the eyes. No, I don't know why. He wants Spiderman candles but said that if we can't find any then he won't be sad. Oh good. He also wants to play a game with his friends in the water so we'll have to think of something for that one.

I guess it's good he knows what he wants, even if they are pretty strange ideas! :)

For those of you who remember the survey you took at his first birthday party, yes we'll reveal the results around his birthday. We'll also have another one for people to make predictions about what 2013 will be like (when he turns 10)! I only remember a few of my own answers but I'm sure it'll be fun to look back and see what people thought the gas prices would be, who would be the President-elect (I'm sure no one guessed Obama!), etc!

Sunday

I'm over half way through this whole NaBloPoMo thing. Wheeee!

I went to a baby shower for my friend Heidi this afternoon. She's having her fourth child, the third boy, in February! I was also fortunate enough to spend several hours at a coffee shop with my good friends Taylor and Kristina tonight. I love spending time with them and really hope Kristina gets the job she's interviewing for tomorrow so that we can spend more time together! Spending time with them was just what I needed today!

I have laundry and cleaning to do still tonight so I need to stop this box 4 stuff and get back to boxes 1 and 2 (that was for Kristina!) :)

Boring Saturday

If it weren't for NaBloPoMo I wouldn't be posting today because nothing exciting happened! We spent most of the day pretty much emptying out both boys' rooms, cleaning everything and then organizing things so that one room is now the boys' bedroom and the other is a playroom. The boys were excited to find toys they'd forgotten about and I was excited to have everything clean and put away for at least five minutes :) I should have taken pictures during those five minutes but I'll try to take some tomorrow to show you the rearranged rooms. Both rooms actually feel bigger even though they have the same amount of stuff in them, just in different places now!

Night one went well!

The boys did well sleeping in the same room last night! In case you were thinking they might wake up earlier than usual or wake each other up, no worries there - that happened before they were in the same room! Since Logan has been in the toddler bed he goes straight into Connor's room when he wakes up and vice versa. We tried putting a gate in Logan's doorway to deter him a bit so we'd hear him before he made it to Connor's door but it didn't help at all; he'd just stand at the gate and cry out for Connor which would wake us all up!

Nap time was pretty normal but they just switched rooms for it - Logan slept in his bed in Connor's room and Connor "rested" in Logan's old room. Connor is slowly dropping his naps so he spends some of rest time reading, some playing quietly, and some time sleeping on most days. Now he'll just do that in Logan's old room so that he won't disturb Logan's nap and can still have access to all the books, toys, etc.

So, sharing a room is going well so far! We'll probably spend some time tomorrow cleaning and rearranging both rooms so that one is officially the boys' bedroom and the other is officially a playroom!

Together

When Ben, Naomi, Christopher and Jonathan visited for Christmas last year, we put Connor's toddler bed back in his room so that his cousins could sleep with him. When they left, Connor wanted to know when Logan would get to sleep in the toddler bed in his (Connor's) room. We didn't think Logan was ready to move out of the crib yet so we kept putting Connor off but every so often would let Connor sleep in the toddler bed in Logan's room.

Then a little more than three months ago, we moved Logan out of his crib and into the toddler bed in his own room. Since then, Connor has been asking over and over when he and Logan can share a room. I think this is adorable because I always wanted someone to share a room with! I love that Connor loves Logan so much that he wants to sleep in the same room with him and share his space. However, I wasn't sure when or if this transition should be made. I know a lot of people wish they hadn't had to share a room with a sibling so who knows if it's a good thing or not.

Anyway, we decided to bite the bullet this week and, since Jeremy has tomorrow off, we moved Logan's toddler bed into Connor's room tonight. They were both really excited to have their beds in the same room - so excited that it was hard to calm them down long enough to get them into bed. :) Logan was confused - he thought sleeping in Connor's room meant sleeping in Connor's bed - and kept saying Connor bed, Connor bed over and over.

It didn't take too long for them to fall asleep, though. Let's hope the rest of the night goes as smoothly and that they don't wake up at 5 to play. I'm hoping they do well over the next few days so we can rearrange their rooms and have Logan's room be a playroom/office. I'll let you all know how it goes...

name change

I called Connor "Connor Matthew" today (and no, he wasn't in trouble) and he quickly corrected me...

"Mom, my name is not Connor Mafew [that's how he says it!], my name is Connor SPIDERMAN!!!!

Sorry I don't have more time to post tonight...work is absolutely crazy and taking up every potentially free moment I have. Ugh...

Our poor challenged child...

I went to a handwriting workshop last Sunday. It was free and held at an educational store in Boulder that I've wanted to check out anyway. This is how it was advertised to a mom's group I'm in:

Designed primarily for parents of children K-3, this handwriting workshop will cover strategies you can use at home to help improve your child's handwriting and increase their enjoyment of becoming a writer!

Topics of discussion will include:
· Why handwriting instruction is important
· Why handwriting has a positive effect on writing
· Work with your child's teacher to get results
· How to help your child at home
· What about cursive?
· BVSD's handwriting standards
· Helping the left-handed child
· and much more!

It sounded great! Connor's a lefty and we're working hard on improving his fine motor skills but I figured attending this would give me some hints how to help him in general but also specifically because "helping the left-handed child" was listed as a topic of discussion.

The first half of the lecture was great - lots of tips and suggestions how to start teaching writing, what they should be able to do at each age/grade level, ways to improve fine motor skills, etc. I took copious notes and will definitely apply some of the things I learned.

One of the things the instructor focused on was how learning letter formation early is great because then as their vocabulary expands and they want to write longer words and sentences, they don't have to waste time remembering how to write each letter if they learned well early and it becomes automatic. There was a lot of emphasis on making sure their letter formation is correct in the beginning so that mistakes don't have to be "fixed" by a teacher in a later grade.

Then one of the other moms asked the instructor to talk about left-handed kids and differences in teaching them, especially as right-handed parents. These were the instructor's words (yes, I wrote them down), "Left-handed kids have so many special challenges in life that writing is just one of the many things they'll struggle with. If they don't form their letters the right way, just go with it. Don't try to teach them to write each letter perfectly because they can't."

CAN'T? I actually said outloud (which is so unlike me) "WOW, THAT WAS ENCOURAGING..." I was sitting in the back so the other moms turned to stare at me. :) The instructor backpeddled and gave some tip about placing the paper to the left of center. I mean, come on! Surely a left-handed child can have decent penmanship, right? I just can't accept that he'll never write clearly and that that's just the way it is and that we shouldn't try.

Connor's letters are not bad now and the tips she gave for those blessed right-handers will generally apply to those "challenged" left-handers, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Plus, it was free and the store was really cool.

If the lecture had ended after a half hour I would have left encouraged and energized and ready to practice letter writing with Connor. The last half hour left me feelin a bit discouraged and yet rebellious and wanting to work with Connor even more just to prove this crazy instructor wrong! :)

Sigh...it just shouldn't be this hard!

Happy birthday Rhyann!

Tomorrow, the 11th, is Connor's friend Rhyann's 5th birthday. They've been friends since they were tiny babies but this is the first time they won't spend a birthday together! Connor wanted to go to her birthday party but unfortunately this is as close as we can get right now...

Part 1


Part 2

Sorry for the 2 parts - my video editing skills aren't very good!

Happy Birthday Rhyann!

We love you and miss you!

All the -ings in our house

This mom has FOUR little boys but even with only two I can totally relate today! See this post: http://www.pennypinchingdiva.com/2008/11/cry-for-peace.html.

Perhaps it's the changing weather or something but today our boys were SO LOUD! If they weren't crying or yelling or singing at the top of their lungs they were playing with their loudest toys - microphone, guitar, whistle, etc. Even when reading tonight after dinner they had to argue over who got to sit on which side of me! They're usually pretty good at sharing (especially now that Logan can say things like my turn, please and thank you) but today they were both in rare form. :)

Pictures!

More leaf pictures from last weekend! Sadly, they are probably the last leaf pictures of 2008. The leaves are quickly being obliterated by time, wind, and maybe rain or snow tomorrow. I'm sad that September and October are over as those are my favorite months but I'm looking forward to turkey and snowmen and Christmas lights. Though, I heard my first Christmas carol of the season the other night and thought it was way too early for all that!










Logan really wanted to swing from the branches like his big bro so Jeremy held him up to one and let him hang there for a second :) He was so proud of himself but didn't want to try again!


These are a couple of pictures from just before the Veteran's Day parade. It was so nice out that we didn't really need coats!

Computer problems...

We went to the Veteran's Day parade in Longmont today and the boys had a ball. Police cars, bands, soldiers, flags to wave, what more could a little boy ask for? I took some pictures but my computer is not cooperating tonight so you'll just have to wait for tomorrow :) For now here's a shot of Connor from last weekend...

TGIF!

I'm so thankful this week is over! It was way too busy and I miss my family!

Logan had speech therapy this morning and he's doing so well that we're going from meeting once a week to every other week! Jeremy also took the boys swimming this afternoon and now Connor wants to have a swimming party for his birthday :)

I was at work all day, again, working on this crazy software that's being installed at a customer's site next week. Frustrating...

Tonight was fun, though! I went to a Mom's Night Out and hung out with about ten other moms for a few hours. It was so much fun and great stress relief after a long week.

Tomorrow? Hopefully sleeping in and then, if it's not too windy or cold, watching the Veteran's Day parade! We love parades! I still have pictures from last week to post so I'll try to get caught up on those too!

Thursday

I almost forgot to post today! Oh no! :)

Nothing very exciting happened today. In fact, the differences between yesterday and today are are very minor...both days I went into the office all day and Jeremy juggled his schedule to pick the boys up from school so I could stay there. Both days were filled with meetings and discussions and bugs and new versions and frustration that we're racing toward a deadline with software that doesn't work right. Tomorrow? More of the same for me, speech therapy for Logan and Jeremy has the whole day off to have fun with the kids :) At least when the day is over I get to go to a Moms Night Out! Woo hoo!

Sorry to not have anything more exciting today...it's late and I'm tired! More tomorrow...

Oh wait - did you watch The Office tonight? It was even more hilarious than usual - I loved Jim and Pam talking on their bluetooths! Hysterical!

Wednesday...

Wow another day so busy I haven't had time to stop and think about a blog post! Did I mention my company has a major software release next Monday and I'm the primary tester for it? The software is new with parts written by 4 different programmers and has big changes made to it every day still so it's really stressful and time consuming...

Jeremy has juggled his schedule so much this week to make it possible for me to be in the office every day except Tuesday! I miss snuggling with the boys when they wake up from naps :) Today Jeremy picked the boys up from school and I missed hearing about Connor's day as we walk to Logan's class to pick him up. I also missed laughing with Logan's teacher about how they can set their watches to his dirty diaper schedule. Too bad he still has no interest in the potty!

I ended up with an extra "I Voted!" sticker in my pocket when I got home last night so I left it on Connor's chair and he was so excited to find it this morning. He wore it to school and still had it on just before bed tonight. He took it off his shirt and put it on mine and said, "Mommy, you need to wear this tonight. Don't take your shirt off and put on your jammies because you have to be able to see this sticker all night. Every time you wake up you should look at it and think of me and also Logan, Daddy, Bailey, Rock Obama and God and then me again. Ok?" So cute!

Whew...

I am extremely tired, but I had soooo much fun today!!!! We only processed 136 voters in my precinct but it was not without drama - there were squabbles between poll watchers, frantic phone calls to the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's office, one party's reps attempting electioneering multiple times, attorneys on the phone and showing up at the polling place, etc. I'll post more tomorrow sometime but just wanted to say that I'm home and had a great time! :)

Just in case

I'm posting now just so 1) you can see that I'm up and ready to go to the polls and 2) I can fulfill my NaBloPoMo requirement early just in case I collapse when I get home! :)

GO VOTE! :)

Monday...

Today was an absolutely crazy day. I had to go in the office for a few hours while the boys were at school. We have a big software release next Monday for which I'm the primary tester and since I'll be gone tomorrow there was a lot to do. I've worked most of the day and just stopped a few minutes ago to read over my 2000 General Election Judge Manual. :)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow but I have to be at the polling place in less than 8 hours so I'll make this a quick post.

Funny story from tonight...

Connor: Mommy, where are you going tomorrow?

Me: I'm going to help people vote.

Connor: Oh, so they can vote for Rock Obama?

Me: Maybe. Or whoever they want to vote for.

Connor: Well, I already voted.

Me: Oh? Who did you vote for?

Connor: Rock Obama, Mom! I already told you!

Me: Oh, right.

Jeremy: I already voted too.

Connor: You did? Did you vote for Rock Obama?

Jeremy: Actually, no.

Connor (very loudly): WHAT?? But our whole family has to vote for Rock Obama! I chose Rock Obama and everyone has to vote for him! John McCain is going to lose. I decided that our family is voting for Rock Obama. We can't vote for different people!

Jeremy: Well everyone can choose who they want. We don't have to choose the same person.

Connor: Yes we do! Daddy, Rock Obama is going to win. You have to vote for him.

Jeremy: Why?

Connor: Because if you vote for John McCain he's going to take your tax! He said he was going to take everyone's tax and I don't want to give him my tax. [Uh, yeah, he watched maybe ten minutes of the second debate and this is what he took away from it.]

Me: Do you know what a tax is?

Connor: Well, no, but John McCain is going to take all our tax. You shouldn't vote for him.

Hilarious :)

Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you haven't already! My post tomorrow may be short depending on when I get home but I'll try to let you know how it went!

Halloween recap

Trick or treating Friday night was so much fun! Grandma and Papa brought pizza for dinner (yum!) and then the boys got their costumes on.
Connor in his Spiderman pose


Spiderman and spider boy setting out to get some candy


After all the festivities

The boys each got lots of candy! The strangest part was a house a few blocks away - they usually try to scare each group of kids by wearing elaborate costumes and screaming and jumping out when they open their door but this year was entirely different. They set up a barbeque in front of their house and were handing out hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs. I've gotten lots of things other than candy while trick or treating - homemade popcorn balls, candy apples, cans of pop, pencils, pennies, stickers but...hot dogs? Interesting :)

Logan was good at saying "treat" and "tank you" at each door. He needed help up and down the stairs at some houses, though - I think he felt unbalanced with extra legs and a candy bucket!

The boys picked out their favorite pieces of candy and then put the remaining candy back in their buckets and put them by the front door for the Halloween Fairy. They were excited to come downstairs in the morning and find that she had turned all their candy into toys! They each got a coloring book and a small toy car. She even left fairy dust (which felt a lot like flour) outside our front door and on the tile just inside! The Halloween Fairy works so well in our family - the candy disappears (or will on Monday when Jeremy goes to work!) and the boys love the magic of it all. Connor was completely into it this year and talked about it a lot. He wondered if the Halloween Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy all know each other and if they check to be sure they aren't going to give each child the same gift. Uh, yeah, they talk :)

NaBloPoMo Day One!

Today is November 1st and therefore the first day of National Blog Posting Month! This is my second time trying to post every day for the entire month of November. Wish me luck! :)

First to catch you up a bit, here are some pics from Anderson Farms last Sunday...
Connor's most vivid memory of our visit last year was apparently this cow you can pretend to milk. It wasn't working last year and he searched it out first to see if it was working now. It was! He was so excited!


The boys on the tractor we rode out to the pumpkin patch


Connor dragging a big pumpkin


Connor made friends with a little girl named Skylar. The two of them pretended to be "police girl and police boy" - they "drove" the wagon using pretend steering wheels and jumped on and off the back to put people (Logan, Daddy, themselves) in jail

I have more to post about things that happened this past week but I'll make you wait for tomorrow :) Besides, the thought of having something fun to post about every day is a bit daunting so I have to drag it out! haha!