Spooktacular Saturday

Happy Halloween!!!

Friday night we had our trunk-or-treat at church. I have to say Chandler's costume came out pretty awesome. If there were costume awards he totally should have won if I don't say so myself :) People still thought that Emery was a cow though. Come on people.....what else do I have to do, jk?!? Oh well, she was cute regardless. I was going to make her nose black but then I realized she is always putting her face into me and I didn't feel like having black smeared all over me.

We started off our Saturday dark and early. We got up at 6 in the morning and the kids were up at 6:30 so we could get ready to go run a 5K at the airport. I have to say it is one of Charlotte's best kept secret. It was the coolest 5K ever!! So much fun for the kids and us. They had airplanes all over and different old ones that you could climb on and look at from the museum. They even had a bounce house for the kids.
Chandler is in the cockpit of the F-4 Phantom. He is so funny because he always wants to do things but when it actually comes time to do it, he gets shy and scared and doesn't want to do it. I put him in and he immediately wanted to get back out. I think he is more of a spectator.
Here we are before the race waiting for it to start. This was only the 3rd year of the Airport 5K and I think they got a lot more people than they expected. They kept announcing the race would start in 5 more minutes. We didn't start the race until 40 minutes past the time it was supposed to start. I registered us just a week in advance and our numbers were in the 600's. The highest number I saw there was 2000. I think a lot of people showed up that morning to register. It must have caught them off guard. Thank goodness they had so many things to look at or I think the kids would have gone crazy.

Here we are after the race. I registered Steve as the stroller runner but we both pushed it. He pushed the first half and I pushed the second half. Our time was about 28 minutes I think. It isn't that accurate because you can't start running for a long time after the time starts when it is so crowded. Emery fell asleep during the run. I didn't even notice until we were done and I looked at her and she was sound asleep. It was kind of misty the whole time. But at least it wasn't freezing or anything. Kind of muggy and very foggy. We ran on the taxiways and the planes that landed while we were running you couldn't even see until they were right there touching the ground. It was so fun. It would have been really cool if it was clear though because than we would have been able to see the planes coming from far away.

On our way home, we stopped and got donuts. You know, since we exercised it was okay:) Then we just hung out picking up the house and washing costumes from the trunk-0r-treat the night before. We also finished carving our pumpkins. My pumpkin carving was a 3 day process. I cleaned out 3 of them on Thursday and drilled the holes and carved the spider. Then on Friday I cleaned out the 2 big ones and printed the patterns. Then we finally carved those ones on Saturday. I have to say I'm pretty proud of my pumpkins this year. They looked so so so so good. Chandler was the designer behind them all. He wanted the spider, and he helped design the pirate. He told me he wanted a pirate and choose the eyes and mouth and everything. I did the Mickey Mouse to surprise him since he loves Mickey. Chandler wanted nothing to do with the inside of the pumpkins though. He kept telling me he wanted to help but then wouldn't put his hand in. I don't understand why some people think it is so gross. It doesn't bother me at all. In fact I kind of love cleaning out a pumpkin.

After naps (well, Emery's nap. I put Chandler down and about 30 minutes later he started banging on his door saying, "mommy, it's time to go trick-or-treating at other houses!") I got the kids dressed in costume and took them to the fire station for pictures. Chandler was finally not too shy. He actually talked to the firemen.

Emery didn't even cry when I had them hold her. The firemen all LOVED Chandler's costume and called me Martha Stewart. I can't help but be a little proud over that. His costume did come out way better than I had ever imagined, a soda bottle for an "air tank" - Chandler told us he needed one, our hiking light on his helmet, colored electrical tape on his jacket, and boots. All we bought was the helmet and some tape. I don't know how I am going to top it next year. I'll just have to wait and see what Chandler wants to be.
We came home from the fire station and I got dinner ready. Which by the way was the tastiest dinner ever! I'll be posting it on my other blog soon. Right when we were lighting our pumpkins and getting ready to walk down the street to the fire hydrant for pictures, it started pouring. I never did get my pictures. I might have to dress the kids up again and go take them on a nice day.
We waited out the rain for a little bit but decided it wasn't going to stop. We then headed out for some door knocking. We left candy on our door step so we both could go with the kids. I only took Emery for a little bit and then brought her home and put her to bed. Steve and Chandler went longer. It actually did stop raining once it got dark.
After I put Emery to bed I came out to check the candy bowl and Chandler and Steve happened to be across the street. Chandler yelled, "hi mommy!" and came running. He said, "Trick-or-Treat mommy!, Thank-you for giving me candy". It was cute. I convinced him to come in for the night. We spread out his candy to check it out and he ate , oh about 5 pieces, and then I put him to bed. He was in bed by 8:00. Not to bad for Halloween night.

It was a super fun Halloween- Emery's first. She only has 3 more Holidays left before she doesn't have anymore first Holidays. She is growing up so fast. She also had another first yesterday.......and it wasn't a happy one. She fell a-l-l......t-h-e.....w-a-y down the stairs. It was horrible and I officially get the worst mom award. We were in the hallway at the top of the stairs and I was helping Chandler with my back to the stairs. I didn't notice that Emery had crawled behind me. I then heard a thump and wondered what Steve was doing. Then I heard another one and it clicked and I jumped up and looked and saw just as Emery landed at the bottom. It. Was. Horrible. She cried and cried and I finally got her to nurse to calm down and then kept her up for about 45 minutes before I put her down for her nap. It was so sad and I felt awful and it was totally my fault. You better believe we are getting gates this week. Thankfully she didn't have any bumps or bruises or red spots or anything. I am so glad she didn't go to the side and hit the wood railings or anything. She stayed on the "soft" carpet. I felt so so so bad about it.

Freaky Friday

She didn't fit:(

wordless wednesday

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movie time monday

Here are some cute videos to brighten up your Monday:

Grandma sent a little Halloween package and sent Chandler a singing card. Huge hit with both kids. Chandler was very disappointed when he opened Emery's card and it didn't sing too. He shared his with Emery though.

Chandler is telling us what happens when a police man pulls you over. He is always telling me, "no, no, no, mommy". I still have some finishing touches to their costumes but here is another sneak peek. I can't stand how cute they are. Unfortunately when we took them out to the Halloween festivities near our house on Saturday, I heard more people call Emery a cow than a dalmatian. Seriously?? I thought I did a pretty good job making her look more dalmatian than cow. I am redoing her hat and making a better one. What do you think?

daily happenings

Chandler and Emery entertain themselves so nicely while I'm cooking/picking up dinner in the kitchen. It is annoying to have them underfoot but so nice to be able to watch them and keep an eye on them. They were having a blast tonight playing in the cupboard.
This year the kids Halloween costumes just came together so nicely. I figured out what they were going to be and the costumes are turning out so so so cute. I am excited for the big reveal once I have them all done. Here is a sneak peek of Chandler and his costume. I tried on the kids costumes this morning and they were so cute. I couldn't stand it. I even had to call my mom just to tell her how cute the kids looked! (she didn't answer though:( So, in honor of Chandler's costume, we took a trip to the fire station. He just had to wear part of his costume there. The firemen loved him and thought he was so cool all dressed up. He was a little less shy this time. Still extremely timid though. People always think I'm crazy when I say that Chandler is a crazy dude. They don't believe me because in public he is very shy but at home or in places he is comfortable....he's crazy!
Chandler loves helping Steve do projects and fix things. He is so cute because he always goes and finds things that look like tools to use and copies everything Steve does. Steve blew into the hole to get the wood shavings out and Chandler was totally copying him and blowing on his side of the draw. It was adorable. Oh, and not to mention the goggles. Haha! (Chandler loves those goggles so much he actually wore them to church last week. I didn't really remember he had them around his neck and then while we were singing the opening song Chandlers sitting there belting out the song with the goggles on his face. I couldn't decide what was worse......making him scream by taking them away or letting him just wear them?.....he ended up wearing them. I did convince him to take them off during the sacrament.)
Chandler's fireman hat was a good investment. Ever since we bought it, he has worn it at least once a day. I was taking a picture of our dinner for my blog and Chandler said, "take picture of me drinking milk mommy". So that is what I did.
And of course Emery had to get her picture taken too. She was drinking water. I love how you can see her shiny hair coming in. I know this is what hair looks like on a newborn but you don't even know how excited I am that you can actually see some hair on her head. Sometimes it even sticks out a little on the top and back. I can't even tell you how ecstatic that makes me!
Last week we went for a walk in the woods to find leaves. We weren't very successful in finding anything but dried up brown leaves. Gross! Good thing Gramma sent us some pretty red Maine leaves. Thanks mom!
It was still a fun walk though. Steve had taught Chandler how to draw a line and then say, "ready, set, go!". It was so cute seeing him do it. Especially since it wasn't something I hadn't taught him so I had never seen him do it before. He was telling me to go in this picture. He got mad at me if I didn't start going when he told me to. Yes, that is a bungee cord in his hand. He is also obsessed with bungee cords. He uses them to pull things around the house and hook stuff up. He is always hooking something up. Cute but annoying because I think it is kind of dangerous.
Notice how Chandler is wearing his helmet again. He really does wear it all the time. Even to the store. "I wear my p-hireman helmet, mommy??" If only you could hear the way he asks me. So so so adorable.
Emery was on the walk with us too. She was wearing a new cupcake hat I knit her that came out w a y too small. Such a bummer that I have done that with 2 hats now! Makes me kind of mad when I put all that time into knitting something and then it is too small. I'm not very good on the measuring I guess.

I've been so bad about actually writing something real in my blog posts. I guess I have just had too many other things that I want to spend my time on. It seems like there are lots of things I haven't even mentioned. Lets see:

*I got a new calling...Sunbeam teacher ( I have mixed feelings about it. It isn't so fun once you have one of your own. But hopefully I will learn how to deal with Chandler better. I also LOVED my old calling so I'm sad to not be on the in with Enrichment stuff.)

*Steve got a new calling.....Scout Master (he seems to like it and so far nothing has really been different from what he was doing. He is still gone pretty much the same as before. )

*I taught two different things for our wards Super Saturday last weekend. It was stressful but turned out good. I think (hope) everyone had fun and enjoyed it.

*I didn't nurse Emery for 6 hours last Saturday while I was gone at Super Saturday. I was hurting......Emery attacked my chest when I got home.

*If you didn't see my super cool necklace on Krafty Katrina ..........you've got to go check it out! I have plans on making a tutorial soon.

*Ummm.....that's all I can think of now. I just want to finish this post so I can go knit and watch The Office. See-ya!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday evening, we went to the pumpkin patch. We chose a different one that was further away but it was so worth it. This place was AWESOME!
They are only open from 3:30-6 so I thought it would be super crowded on a Friday evening. We got there about 5:15 and there were only like 4 families there. It was great because we basically had the whole place to ourselves and there were tons of cool little things to check out.
All Chandler could talk about was going on a tractor ride. Of course, we got the trailer all to ourselves. We got on the last ride of the day. What I didn't understand was they had 3 of these HUGE trailers. My guess is they do school trips during the day and so they need the trailers for that.
The pumpkin patch was not so great but good enough. I got a much bigger and cheaper pumpkin at the grocery store already. We mostly just wanted the experience.My little pumpkin.
Chandler wanted to kick the pumpkins like soccer balls. We had to stop that.
After our bumpy tractor ride, we checked out more of the cool things they had.
Chandler loved pretending to plow.
By this time, there was only one other family with a little boy just younger than Chandler and a little girl just older than Emery. We ended up being the last people there. They close at 6 but let you stay and play for however long you want.
The coolest part was these neat slides they had. Chandler loved them, Emery not so much. I had set her down on the ground so I could take a picture and when Steve and Chandler came out, she just started screaming and crying.
I thought that maybe just that slide scared her, especially since I wasn't holding her. But I was holding her when Chandler came down another slide and she started freaking out again.
What a sad sad face. I had just finished knitting Emery's pumpkin hat the night before. Sadly when I tried it on her, it ended up being to small. I squeezed it on for our outing though because what good would a pumpkin patch be without a pumpkin hat??
We thought Chandler broke his ankle jumping off this ramp. Seems like kind of a dangerous activity to me but of course Steve had to point it out to Chandler and have him try it. After a few jumps he ran into a log and started screaming and wouldn't stand on his leg. He had me worried for a minute but eventually he calmed down and walked.

We ended the night trying to take some silhouette pictures. I'm not exactly sure how to do it. I know we needed to be higher up but there was no place to get higher. It was cloudy when we got there but it cleared and the sun came out just in time to set on the horizon. It was such a beautiful farm and I loved everything about it. I always beg Steve to live in the country. I hope someday we can live someplace where we aren't surrounded by houses but still close enough to all the stores I like:)

another matching outfit

Chandler and Emery have already worn these outfits but I never got a picture the first time. They wore them today and I remembered to try and get a picture. The kids weren't cooperating very well though.
So here is a picture of the matching things I made. I love how I was daring and did Chandler's tie in two different fabrics. I think it came out so cool. At first I was going to just make a striped tie but I didn't have enough fabric. Then I didn't even have enough to make the stripes diagonal. But I love them going horizontal!

ZOO

Last Saturday, we went down to Columbia, SC and went to the zoo, Joann Fabrics, and the Temple. It was a long day but fun. The zoo had different animal sculptures around and Chandler had to sit on every single one.
It was really nice because the day was cloudy and we got there right after it opened so it wasn't super busy or crowded. The kids were great. All Chandler wanted to see were the giraffes. After every animal he would say, "now go see giraffe?". We finally got to see them and even fed them a few lettuce leaves.
Emery was mostly in the stroller because I wasn't about to take her in and out. She didn't really care about the animals anyway. The amazing thing is she stayed awake the whole entire time. She went all morning without sleeping. I think we left around 12:30.
The flamingos were very interesting to the kids. They smelled gross though.
I think the penguins were the animal that they both liked the most. I think we need to take a trip to the Georgia Aquarium again. They both just loved how the penguins would swim in front of them. Chandler just laughed and laughed at them. Too bad it wasn't that great of a penguin display.

After the zoo, we drove to Joann's since we don't have one here. I stocked up on some fabric while Steve drove by some stadium with the kids. Then he came back and got me and we drove over to the Temple. I caught the 2:30 session and Chandler cried and cried when I left him and he couldn't come with me. It was sad. After I was done, we went and got Subway and then drove home. It was a long day but the kids were good and we finally got Chandler to the zoo. He always talks about it.