Comments and Dates

I have received many many emails and even some phone calls to my mother (JESSE) about fixing the date on the camera. It is correct. You see in China they put the date/month/year. I have tried to fix it and there is no way to change it...that I can figure out. I am some what technologically challenged so maybe in the future when I have time (YEAH RIGHT) I can sit down and figure it out...lol

I know that many many people look at my blog...please feel free to comment on how beautiful my children are...or how crazy I am! I am really learning to love criticism...they should offer a college course on it. I would get an A!

Love you all...I will find time to post after Thanks Giving and before finals!

Tarah

Brock is FOUR!

I find myself very sad today. Everyone told me to slow down and enjoy the younger years. I tried to do just that. Now I am a little teary eyed...what the heck I am bawling like a baby. I feel the time slipping away so fast. I have one more good year left in the 'little boy' phase. One thing no one told me was that once your kids go off to school and fall in love with their sweet Kindergarten teacher you are no longer the love of their lives. The 'other woman' is now the smart all knowing leader in their lives and you are close to chopped liver. Its the natural progression of things I suppose. Maybe I can hold off teaching him to tie his own shoes so I will still be needed....lol. I never thought I would be so emotional.

Brock is saying some really cute things right now. We were heading to the park the other day and he ran in and grabbed a piece of Haloween candy and jammed it in his pocket. I have had enough of them eating candy and I told him to put it back. His response? "This chocolate eye ball might really come in handy if I get hungry at the park." I thought it was so cute I let him take the candy. It really did come in handy during the wash cycle later that evening! He never has called me 'ma ma' instead he calls me 'me me'. I don't really know why. This week I have graduated to Mamacita. Its cute and it rhymes with margarita. :)

So now we are moving into the next stage of parenting. Things are good and it has suddenly become very easy. I feel like I have so much more time to myself, which is good considering it has been nearly 9 years of me on the back burner. I can almost get through dressing myself with out interuptions...thats a big step. Now we get to sit back and watch all of our hard work in motion. Chase is reading and we rarely have to spend time reading to Brock. That is now Chase and Brocks bonding time. Brock has FINALLY started to sit and play alone for more than five mins. Life is good!

Basketball!

Chase is having so much fun playing. This year his coach was our good friend Mike Turco. I can see a big improvement in his palying abilities. He has gotten a grasp on the basics of the game traveling, which way to go with the ball and he knows what a rebound is. The poor kid. We are not big basketball fans so we just let him go blind into this. He is now a wonderful guard. He rocks.

When Life Gives You Lemons!

Make Lemonade! My dear sweet gardener! The tag said to only pot the lemon bush but Gardener Joe decided to put in the ground. For years it was just this small little bush in the garden. Well it kicked in. We have HUNDREDS of lemons. We will have lemonade, lemon water and WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO WITH LEMONS? Someone told me they take the hard water spots off the shower door. They are organic so I guess Chase can give it a try! He does get an allowance now and as you can see Joe and I are all for child labor!

Adult fun!

Are we not gorgeous? I love Joe dressed like this. He is the most conservative man so seeing him with a pocket full of oregano just cracks me up. This is our first adult costume party in our married years. I had so much fun. Everyone's costumes were so great but we were the hairiest! Check out some of this great creativity.


Here are some of my favorite spooks. (the ones that look cute are really scary....hehehheehe)


An adult Halloween party is not complete with out a banana! Thank you Tom for the nightful of laughs.



Micheal Phelps and Hannah Montana...ummmmm... expecting???

Grandma Kalynns box!

My boys are madly in love with my mother. She sent a box for Halloween and they were absolutely so excited. We had bats, rats, spiders and all sorts of decorations. Not to mention a wonderful music CD. So we played with bugs and did the Monster Mash. Then (sadly) it was time for Chase to do homework. What a wonderful afternoon we had. Then we ruined it by going to the school's fall festival! It was not really that bad. Now that I am on the PTO board I need to start planning on implementing a beer garden. That is a must have for events involving hundreds of children.

Pre Halloween fun

We took Brock to the pumpkin patch. Normally we would all go together but Chase had other plans or shall I say better plans to go with friends to the Renaissance Festival. Brock just could not wait to get his pumpkins. It was so sunny he could hardly open his eyes...he is not asleep. I would have enjoyed the trip better! JUST KIDDING. He is just a handful to take to outings. Especially when we have to wait in line. He really enjoyed the train. It was nice to take him out with out Chase and give him some extra attention. This first picture is of Chase when he came home that night. He was so tired. He wanted to sleep with his face paint...A NO! So we had to take a picture to memorialize it. Don't mind the dirty bathroom in the background!

Halloween

We had so much fun. Chase was the grim reaper. He has wanted to be scary guys for the last few years. I begged him to be Batman again just once and he looked at me like the insane person I am becoming. Brock was Darth Vader. He did not care much for the mask. His friend Cole came to trick or treat. They had a blast. At one time running ahead of us and into our new neighbors house. When I walked in looking for them I could hear them telling the lady "We need candy not that!" She did not speak much english and was trying to give them a large bag of cheetos! Poor lady. I told her if she shut off her porch light the kids would go away. I dont think she understood me.

Enjoy the pictures. The dog was so mad that he refused to move in his custome. He still has not sat with me all weekend so I am sure he is holding a grudge. He pouts when he has to wear his collar!

Carving Pumpkins

We always carve pumpkins before Halloween. As a kid in Idaho it was always done the weekend before. Here we have to do it the night before as it seems the pumpkins rot in records time here is Texas. This year Joe let Chase use a real (steak) knife. I was a nervous wreck. How am I going to feel when he drives a car? Anyway we had a blast. Neither one of them will touch the pumpkin goop so Joe and I always have to scoop them out. Every year I toast the pumpkin seeds. This year Chase and Joe told me they are gross so I threw them out.