Halloween (finally)

After regularly blogging our pre-Halloween fun, it's certainly taken me a while to blog the actual holiday! We had a pretty normal Saturday, ate dinner early, dressed up & headed out. Spiderman was, once again, a hit.
Kevin & I got into the spirit a little more than we usually do. Funny, though, with Kaleb most people didn't even notice Kevin's extra head. Kaleb was so excited & knew just what to do this year. Most people were not anticipating many tirck-or-treaters and gave generous amount of candy. He got used to it, so the houses that let him pick he would pick 1, 2, 3 , 4, and we'd finally stop him by 5 peices of candy. (He was fast....I was in no way trying to get more candy for my own selfish enjoyment).

We only made it up 2 streets and he got all this loot! One house filled his bucket all on their own!!! We just kept heading home & emptying his candy into a bag. Despite a couple weeks of gorging, the bag still looks about this full. That's a succesful Halloween!

We hit up the sales & here's a sneak preview for next year. I just need to make sure Start Wars stays cool for another year.

A few days later we made a D-land trip with Barb & her boys (and 1 month old Shea). Their passes expired & they just went for Josh's bday, so this was the last trip with them for a while.

We had tons of fun & will miss them in future D-land trips. I've been meaning to get this on tape for a while. He wasn't very excited about it in this video, but sometimes he tells me out of the blue what he's going to be when he grows up. I'm not sure what they're teaching Sunbeams these days, but I think it's cute :)

Birthday Bash(es)

We started Kaleb's birthday out right. I set a presant in his room (a Buzz shirt I wanted him to wear that day). I thought he'd wake up & tear into it, but my thoughtful boy found me & asked "What is that birthday thing in my room?". He was bummed at first that it wasn't a toy, but when I told him he'd get toys later he got really excited about his shirt. I made muffins for breakfast and he (eventually) blew out a candle after my Mom & I sang to him. He slept in so Kevin & Grandpa weren't home anymore.
We had a great day with friends & family at Dland, CAdventure & out to dinner. He got to blow out another candle at dinner. He wore a birthday name badge all day & got very excited whenever anyone wished him a happy birthday. He would try to tell them all about his birthday shirt & the transformer Grandma got him.

Yesterday was crazy fun. We woke up and made Kaleb's green bakugan cake (Spidey to be added later as a candle).
Then we rushed to Josh's birthday party for some much needed down time.

Then we rushed hom again to do all the party prep for Kaleb's party.

Guests showed up about 10 minutes after I finished getting stuff ready, which is great timing. I usually don't get to finish everything I had planned for parties. Chaos ensued. I tried having some structured activities, but it might have been better to just let the kids run around and play. I think everyone had a good time; I know Kaleb did.

Now that our birthday celebrations are over it's time to party for Halloween...such a great time of year!

Birthday & Memories

Happy fourth birthday to Kaleb! We are so excited for his "Green Spiderman Bakugan" birthday.

I have never written down Kaleb's birth story and am going to use his birthday as the excuse to do so. Unless you're like me & enjoy this stuff feel free to scroll through the pics or skip this post, because I'm going to write down pretty much everything I can remember.

We had been trying to get pregnant for 8 months and were really hoping it would happen. I realized I was an hour late (yes, I was that anxious). When the test resulted in a positive i got nervous, told myself that I had to wait the full three minutes for a correct result & went to change out the laundry. Of course, the test was still positive, so I walked into the room holding it to show Kevin. The smile on his face erased all my worries. I loved every minute of my pregnancy. I had morning sickness for 8 months, pregnancy gingivitis, heartburn, acid reflux, back pain and plantar facitis, but I was so happy to be pregnant and to feel Kaleb moving inside me that I didn't mind as much as I probably should have. It was kind of ridiculous how excited I was. The hormones did make me emotional, but only in positive ways. True, I did get so emotional that I cried when I let a truck in front of me on the freeway and the driver waved a quick thank you (how sweet!!!!), but it's better than it could have been.

For the record these pictures were taken 2 months before Kaleb was born, but the ONE picture I have that shows how ginormous I really got is packed away & I really don't like how swollen my face got towards the end anyways.
October 26th Kevin & I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up sometime to drag my huge body to the bed & practically had to yell to get Kevin to wake up and come to bed too. I was awoken at 3:30 AM by an internal popping & gush of water. Not too hard to figure out. I whispered Kevin's name and his eyes flew wide open. Somehow he knew it was an important whisper.

We rushed to the hospital & the whole way I was saying things like "Ooooh, that was a good contraction". Poor girl, I had NO idea what was in store! I remember screaming at the top of my lungs for the epidual, but everything kind of ran together. Twelve and a half hours later (Two and a half of them pushing) Kaleb made his debut at 4PM October 27th.

I wish I could say I was filled with love. I certainly thought I would be, and I loved bonding with him in my belly, but sadly by the time he was born all I wanted was a drink of water. I felt kind of guilty about feeling like that, as everyone rushed over to take pics and get a good look at him. Everyone except Kevin's Mom. She is the most awesome person & has this amazing ability to know when people need hugs, extra loves...or a drink of water :) She stayed by my side & asked if she could get me anything & made my transition to motherhood smooth and relatively guilt-free.

Kevin, my Mom & Kevin's Mom were all amazing the next few weeks. I had no idea how hard having an infant would be & was completely overwhelmed. I always enjoyed other people's infants (and still do), but didn't have time to enjoy mine. When I was pregnant everyone told me to enjoy every moment, but I honestly think the infant stage you just have to endure. The baby is precious, but the lack of sleep and healing body were just so hard I wasn't enjoying much. My milk also didn't come in for 10 days, so I was working like crazy around the clock to get it to. I can't beleive I was so dedicated and probably wouldn't do it againk, but I'm glad I did.

I started enjoying motherhood when Kaleb was around two months old. I was still pretty anxious about taking him places and driving in the car. Ok, fine, I was completely paranoid. We spent most of our days at home and going on walks aroud the block.

Kaleb was a very happy and easygoing baby. He usually slept through church...and most other places we went. He hated diaper changes and loved looking at his mobile.

He also used to be really good at smiling for the camera...his stubborn refusal to smile didn't happen until he was older.

When he first started crawling he could only crawl backwards and ended up halfway under the couch alot.

I think it's so funny when babies have no fear and they will do stuff like this. Kevin enjoyed every minute of that.

Look how much fun he had with a 10-key. He used to come to work with me & just play with toys while I worked. I know, what a great (quiet) kid. The only time people would hear him was during diaper changes, because he still didn't like them and made sure I knew about it. He came to work with me until he started walking and distracted the attorneys from getting their billable time. He figured out flirting and eating other people's snacks was more fun than quietly playing by himself.

Can you see his "golden glow"? He ate alot of baby food and the carrots started making his skin orange. Some people were worred and others asked if I took him tanning.

He took his first step at his first birthday party. We had a party with family only...so of course it was a huge party :):) I think all the excitement and other kids got him to really go for it and walk. He also rolled over for the first time while we had friends over and their baby (10 days younger) was rolling over. Kaleb checked him out & rolled right over too. Way to perform under pressure, big guy!

Kaleb used to fall asleep carressing my hair. He was always very gentle and it was sweet, but it was hard to set him down, because he would reach for my hair and wake up when he didn't feel it. Someone gave us a bag of toys they didn't want anymore and there was a stuffed animal horse in it. I figured Kaleb could stroke the horse's tail/mane when I set him down and stay asleep. It worked and he still can't sleep without horsie. We are on our third horse, but we can't replace this one, because he'd old enough to tell a difference now.

Kaleb loves this picture of himself. At least he's confident, right?

My beach boy.

Oh look, there's horsie! He's changed a bit since he first joined the family...total different coloring.

Don't let this picture fool you, he's still scared of his bike and doesn't understand how to steer. Yes, even now at four years old. Maybe we should work on that.

The last memory pic. I figured I'd cut it off here, since I posted so many pics and I started blogging when he was about this age, so there are other pics of him on here.

We love our boy & can't beleive how lucky we are to have him in our family. He bring so much energy and life; I really can't imagine life without him. He is very loving and it's not unusual for him to randomly tell me that he loves me. He's usually pretty well behaved, and grocery shopping with him has become a pleasure (quite a change from his 2 year old days...the ones where I couldn't shop for clothes because it always resulted in me chasing him out of the dressing room with less clothes on than I would prefer). He has an independent streak and will often tell me "No. Ok, now.", just so things can be done on his terms. He's really enjoying video games right now, which I'm trying to keep under control. He loves helping me bake and made some gingerbread with barely any help from me this week. True, it was from a box, but he can crack the eggs without making a mess, which I think is pretty good. He is good at dressing himself, although his pants are usually on backwards these days. He has come out of his shell and is kind of a show-off now. When people come over he runs around in circles, bounces on the couch and does anything else he can think of to show his amazing skills. Happy birthday Kaleb. We love you!!

Crafty Halloween

I figured I'd post pics of this week's crafts, even though I really can't take credit for them. I stole the ideas from thisrandom person's blog. http://matthewandjess.blogspot.com/ Sometimes blog stalking pays off :) This cupcake might be from somewhere else, but I don't really remember. We made these for activity day girls (before painting pumpkins). Super easy & cute.
"Ocean animals" lesson craft. It's supposed to be a turtle, if you can't tell :)

"Wild animals" lesson craft. It's an alligator, but Kaleb kept calling it a dinosaur.

We're keeping up the weekly Dland trips.

Kaleb looks much more comfortable with a cute pixie than a mean pirate, wouldn't you say?

This week was momentous. Kaleb has always been a little reserved and distant towards Grandma. He's always been a Momma's boy & I think maybe he resented that she was the babysitter while I was at work. This week I was holding him (Because he's a spoiled only child. I know he is old to be holding) and he reached over to my Mom so she would hold him! He did it twice. I know it doesn't sound big, but it's huge. Finally she gets to be the typical spoiling Grandma!

What would the week before Halloween be without as many fun (free) activities you can pack in?

Spidey must be a popular costume this year (or every year). There's even another one in the background!

Kevin & I got to go to a grown up party last night. I was the same thing I am every year, because I spent too much on this costume & don't see the point in spending more on being somthing different. Kevin was Michael Scott from the Duali episode. Where he dressed up in a costume for an Indian dinner. The paint on his paper mache head was still wet so his shirt is ruined, but I think he was successful in not touching anything/anyone else.

Once again a video that is hard to see, but is pretty funny. I gave Kaleb a sour licorice, even though I know he doesn't like sour stuff. I'm just so mean!

Today was the primary program & Kaleb's first time being part of it! He did such a great job & enunciated his part perfectly. He wore his suit & tie and took it so seriously there was some chuckling from the audience. Of course, he was bouncing up and down with the rest of the Sunbeams the rest of the time. I wish I could have seen him from the audience, instead of seeing the back of him. Kevin & I got called as Valient 9 teachers a couple weeks ago & most of the activity day girls I have are in our class. We're really excited about it & excited to be team teching once again.

Craft update: kitty face masks for our "domestic animals" lesson
and tress for our "seasons - winter & spring" lesson. Both times I used elmer's glue & even though the crafts had 1.5 hours to dry I sent the kids home with sticky, falling apart crafts. Lesson learned: always stick to glue sticks or tape!!! I have some fun ones planned for this week :)

We took advantage of a slightly rainy day & met up at Dland with some friends, Melanie & her daughter, Adelyn.

To be completely honest I'm just posting this pic because I love Kaleb's outfit. He did too. Spiderman undies, socks, shirt, boots, beanie & gloves. Of course the cheesy shirt is hidden by his cute pea coat. It was so fun to bust out the fall clothes!

They didn't stay out for long because 2 days later it was 99 degrees! I am usually a summer-lover & am so sad to see it leave. The holidays are the only thing that make me welcome fall, but this year I am welcoming the cooler weather too.

Kaleb spent this whole ride running into that other kid...who returned the favor alot too. Not sure if it was against the rules, but they were having fun. Thank goodness Kaleb is reasonable & was willing to leave after 10 minutes of sweating at the pumpkin patch.

We carved our pumpkin, as Spiderman of course. I was inspired by the Disney pumpkins, but this was hard work. If there is some easy way to get the pumpkin skin off let me know, because it was hard to cut off the skin without taking too much of the fleshy part off. I originally planned for him to have a nose and facial features, but he's just lucky he got webbing. Now we'll just see if he lasts until Halloween or if we need to carve out his inside & light him sooner due to mold. I put lemon juice on, thinking that might help. No idea if it really will.

Thank you, corporate America

for all the free stuff:

To be completely honest I did pay $3 for the hoodie after my free $10. What did I do to get all this? Just provide some businesses with my contact info & bask in the freebie coupons. Check out my reciepts from 2 of the stores. Gotta love it!

Kaleb is the littlest (and I hope most manly) activity day girl. He goes with me to every activity & doesn't mine being surrounded by cute, older girls :) This week we made gingerbread haunted houses. Only they were made out of graham crackers. It was a fun activity & I kind of wanted to make one too. I made one for Kaleb, but controlled myself so I could interact with the girls instead of going to my happy decorating place :) Thursday we got Kevin to come to Dland with us after work & we watched the fireworks from in front of the castle. I feel almost silly for thinking it was a good show when I saw it from the other side of the park...we missed so much! I wish I had captured Kaleb's face when Zero came out, but, as usual, I got a pic of him blinking & grimacing, even though he was ecstatic in real life. I only took one pic, because I'm sure all the people around us watching the show & taking pics of it thought I was crazy for taking pics of a kid with peanut butter on his face. What can I say...it's motherhood.
Friday our little "joyschool" had a field trip to the zoo. See that adorbale girl on the right? She's in love with Kaleb. I know, right? Go Kaleb! :):) They are so in love that there was no opportunity to get a cute pic of them together, and she's not even next to him in this pic. I guess that's love when you're three & it's just fine with me. If girls like that are in love with him & keep that kind of distance until he's in his twenties I think I can handle it :)
I teach for a two week block starting tomorrow & I think it will be fun. I need to come up with some fun animal crafts, so if anyone has ideas let me know. I'm sure I'll come up with somthing...I just want somthing really cute...you know?

Saturday we got to try our hand at being soccer-mom/dad's. Ok, soccer-aunt/uncles is more like it. The hard part was getting there on time, and the game was at eleven. Pathetic, I know, but Kevin is marathon training and ran 17 miles that morning, which really takes up a chunk of time. Especially because I need to go on a short run afterwards & I can't get ready for the day in 5 minutes like he can. I'm also not willing to wake up at 5AM just so the day goes smoothly. Props to my knight in shining armor who is!

The game was fun to watch & Taryn did amazing...she almost scored 3 goals! Kaleb was a good cheerleader & kept saying "go Taryn!"...even when she was sitting out during the 2nd quarter.

Here's my handsome hubbie hiding his face from the sun. I forget about sunscreen because Kaleb & I don't burn, so poor Kev had to get creative.

We might go to the game again next week & there are finally some fun (free) Halloween activities coming up. I love the free activities holidays bring!