New Slideshow Feature

I really like our new slide show feature. This way I can post numerous photos for you to see using minimal space. I never really liked having to fit the photos in with the blog text, so this is a solution that I actually love. I would really like to slow the slide show down a bit, but the third party site that created it doesn't give me that option. So if you'd like to browse them at your leisure, just click on the show once to activate the feature, then again to go to the photo site. (And just in case you didn't know, you can click on any photo on our blog for a high resolution version.)

Joy is a pile of leaves

My handsome boys

Their portraits came out so cute, I just had to post them:

Next step: crawling

Yesterday during Thanksgiving dinner, Owen started scooting backwards across the floor. Today, he was up on all fours rocking back and forth. That boy is ready to get moving.

Our first skate party

The boys attended their very first skate party. Brandon watched the other kids for a while, but he still wasn't interested in trying to skate. He just wanted to go pump quarters into the games. Dylan, on the other hand, was willing to try. It was so cute watching Russ hold Deets up and push him around the rink. They made it half way around when Dylan decided he was done. I was quite impressed with my little man. He didn't take the skates off until it was time to leave. He even played games in them.

Happy Halloween!

Soooo much trick-or-treating today. It started at 10am this morning at Brandon's preschool. They marched around to the local businesses in their costumes trick-or-treating. The parade of costumes was so adorable.

When we got home, we tried to carve pumpkins with the kids, but they got bored and wandered off. At least it was a Mommy-Daddy team effort: Daddy gutted and Mommy carved a ghost and a bat. Then during the kids nap time (all three were, thankfully, asleep), Russ & I finished decorating the front of our house: spider webs with spiders big and small and the inflated spider & Frankenstein. Russell made sure all trick-or-treaters knew they could stop at our house. Apparently, people were taking pictures of their kids in front of our house. Our boys loved all of Daddy's decorations.

They completely loved going door to door. Dylan actually lasted through our little circle of houses. Since my mom was handing out candy for us, we trick-or-treated our own house last. Mom loved our surprise. She screamed and then couldn't stop laughing. I thought we were done for the evening, but Brandon was ready to hit some more houses. We dumped out his pumpkin, and hit the neighborhood two more times. He would have gone all night if I let him. Now we have candy to last us until spring.

Another All Hallows Reunion

This is the third time I've gone to a get together with the people from grade school. There was a nice surprise waiting for us this time. Two of our teachers joined us, Mrs. Kassis (1st grade) and Mrs. Freeman (5th grade). It was so great to sit down to talk with them. Lots of laughing and reminiscing and gossiping. One of the girls took some photos. Hopefully this link to the pics will work:
http://www.costcophotocenter.com/share/p=567291193723308368/l=15625223/g=53006802/cobrandOid=1008/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

D's birthday party

We gave Dylan a puppet birthday party today. I put together paper puppet crafts as party favors. One of the guys I work with is a puppeteer who makes his own puppets. We asked him to do his puppet show for the kids. Brandon's favorite was the 3 little pigs portion of the show. He kept checking on Dylan throughout the show to make sure he was watching and enjoying the show. It was so sweet.

Dylan loved his cake. We made sure he had his Dora ice cream cake. We went to a birthday party two weeks ago, and they had the Dora cake. He loved it so much, we got one for him too. We also found a Diego candle and popped him on there. He had no problem blowing out his candles or eating his cake.

We let D open his presents after the cake. He let out little screams and squeals of delight every time he opened a present. It was sooo funny! He loved all his presents and wanted to open everything. He had a wonderful day.

Dylan is 2!

Our little Deets is two years old today! We made sure he felt extra special today, and pretty much let him call the shots. We took the boys to Fairy Tale Town for a couple of hours this morning. Dylan had the best time leading us around the park doing everything he wanted to do. Brandon, on the other hand, had a very hard time following D. They spent most of their time on the many slides, the train and Cinderella's coach. We left right when a flood of school kids showed up. Too many big kids pushing their way through the park. So we piled everyone back into the car and drove to Gunther's for cheese sandwiches and ice cream. The ice cream was soooo good! The boys looked like they were in heaven. After naps, Dylan opened our present: a puppet theatre. I think he liked the Sesame Street wrapping paper better than his present. I don't think he knew what it was when he unwrapped it, or even after Russ put it together. Deets wanted Daddy to do the first puppet show. Now, when Dylan wants to do a puppet show, he doesn't have to use their play kitchen as a theater.

Who's your daddy?

What can I say? My man was hot in his tight white polyester pants and wide collared shirt! We went to a friend's 40th birthday party last night, and the party theme was 60's & 70's. Russ dressed the part. He had the best costume hands down. The best part of the evening was when we stopped at the store on the way home. People were staring at Russ and trying to look like they weren't laughing and talking about him.