Our town is just the coolest. They took the splash pad that we have loved and frequented all summer and turned it into a beautiful Christmas light plaza! The pictures don't do it justice at all. But it was so beautiful and Jude, how is now old enough to understand that something special is happening, is losing his mind. "MOM DAD!PRETTY!" He would just run from tree to tree in amazement and wonder. I love love love Christmas and seeing Jude get so excited brought a tear to my eye.

Derek and I took the kids for a family walk and we ended up finding the most beautiful yellow trees and frolicking in the leaves. Jude was so confused by the changing of the leaves. I kept pointing to the trees and asking him what color the trees were and he kept insisting that they were green. Finally I pulled down a leaf and handed it to him to look at. After that he told me the trees were yellow. But we didn't really care what color they were, they were just fun. I couldn't resist weaving some through Dereks big burly mountain man beard. I guess now he is treebeard(LOTR shoutout) and speaking of trees! Jude climbed his first ever tree! I was playing with Alice and then Jude cries out to me to look at him and there he was a couple feet off the ground up in a tree. The child in me got all warm and fuzzy about it. I was just so proud and excited! He asked me to help him go higher but I told him that if HE couldn't go higher then HE probably shouldn't. I also warned him that what goes up must come down and sure enough he fell out of the tree. Luckily he was only a couple of feet of the floor. It wasn't the first time and it most certinly wont be the last. I LOVE FALL!

Get ready for the sundance film festival cause there are about 6 videos to watch today. BECAUSE WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!! We went to the Sand Dunes today and it is the best! The sand dunes are so soft and so fine that it is hard to walk. But it feels so good on your feet that you don't even care. The kids had a great time running, digging, jumping tumbling, falling and all over playing.

We buried Derek and he made a very dramatic breakout. So awesome!

Then Derek started screaming "I am having the time of my life!" to which the other kids started copying.

Then we started cart wheeling all around! Well I tried to cart wheel, can't quite do it as well as those Olivers.

And I also can't jump, just for the record.

Just random randomness in this post. A decorate your own snowman kit....complete with Snowman.
The most popular gift for all the children. All the collective children.
A crazy hand chair that was at DI.

And good old fashioned rule abiding citizens.

Alice is such a little stinker. She is such a head strong little spit fire. She does what she wants and nothing else. She is always stealing food from the pantry or climbing up onto the tables. Shewill make demands of us and if we don't listen she will hit us. Or she tells US no. Like she does in this video. She is so funny.

The Jubilee of trees. I so look forword to it every year. And this year I was especially excited because Jude is old enough to get excited for Christmas. He is obsessed with snowmen, trees and trains and there were sure to be tons at the jubilee. I wasn't dissapointed. And neither was Jude, he had such a good time. We spent the first 10 minutes standing at the entrance which was a gaint castle tunnel. We had only seen about 3 trees when we ran into the Bowles. The boys were so excited to see eachother and just being around eachother upped the fun for them. We got to see so many coooool trees. There was a Harry Potter tree, a phantom of the opera tree, and all sorts of crazy artistic trees. The boys favorite was a tree that had a train going around the base. They sat at the base of it for 20 minutes just waiting for the train to come around then watching it go. Then waiting for it to come around and then watching it go. It was all they could do to not run in and grab it. We went to the kids zone and got to play with bells, and see santa and get our pictures in giant christmas lights. We got to see gingerbread houses that were so intricate. They had multiple floors, yards, interiors, lights and some even had stained glass windows. Then we went to the cake shop and got some yummy treats. We ate them while watching some dancers and Jude just couldn't resist the girls. He wanted to dance with them and kept creeping closer and closer to the stage until I had to go grab him. We had such a great time and it was a great starter to our Christmas season.

Here is Jude not being able to resist the dancers.

This is my own stupid fault. I know better but sometime things just happen. I was doing painting with Jude and I stepped up and walked away. I know it was dumb but it is what I did and then this is what happened with Jude.

I come around the corner to check on Jude and not only is he covered in paint but he has snagged some candy off the counter. I say "Jude what are you doing?!?!?" he turns around looks at me and with panic in his eyes, reaches out his hand and says "I was getting for you." I started laughing and laughing and laughing. I had to leave the room. It was straight out of a Bill Cosby sketch and was even funnier in real life. Cheeky little thing.

We were having a good time at our Costco trip. Jude was playing some drums.
Jude loves Mickey mouse and we found a huge bin and were letting the kids play with them but then we just tossed them right in. They had such a good time and were laughing it up.

Derek and I got invited to a murder mystery and we went all out. I was supposed to be a snobby French perfume lady and Derek was supposed to be a crashed british pilot. We had a really good time and I even figured out the murder!

WOOHOO! Smooch city!

Poor Jude. He is having a really rough time right now. He wants to be big and be done with nap time but sometimes he can't quite make it. We have been putting him in "quiet time" were he can read books in his room or watch a show. Something low key. I had set him up to watch a show on the computer and it was one of those days where he couldn't make it. Poor thing conked out right on the computer chair. I ended up moving him to the couch little cutey pie.

Random acts of mischeviousness. We were spending time at Tati's house and Andrea's bathroom had some bathroom crayons just lying around. We just couldn't resist. We decorated all her bathroom for her. First the tub, we drew a bunch of faces and eyeballs all aound with a big sign that said "We are watching you" Jude and ALice were helping as well.

Then Derek and I really wipped out our artistic skills and started decorating the mirror. We drew all sorts of "costumes" we had kittys, vikings, gentlemen, frankenstien, pirates, mad hatter, Harry potter, and all sorts of other things that we could "put on." It was so much fun!

This was supposed to be a Halloween activity but we ended up not having enough time so we did it a day or two after. We made slime. It is just glue, dye, and borx mixed with water and it creates a gacky, slimy, silly putty type substance. Both Ollie and Jude really had a good time.

It was one of those moment s when everything was nice and quiet. Too quiet. I stumble into my bedroom to find both Jude and Alice ransaking our pantry!! He had ripped off the lid to a rain box and scattered them everywhere. It looks like we have somesort of vermin infestation. But the joke is really on them. They are the ones who are going to be eating fuzzy floor raisins for the next week. Ha~

We had SUCH a fun halloween!! I was so so so excited for this year cause it was the first time I was going to go trick or treating with my kids. Everyone dressed up which made it even more fun. Jude was a pilot, Alice and I were ballerinas, and Derek was a cast away. Our best friends the Bowles came along for the party to and they were dressed up so fun. Oliver was a purple crayon, Dexter was a blue crayon, Angie was a renaissance maiden, and Brian was a bear. Everyone looked so festive and off we went. First we went to the library where they were having a carnival. There were games, trick or treating, and even a haunted house. The kids got to fish, bowl, and do a miriade of throwing games. When it started to get dark off we went for trick or treating. The boys quickly caught on to it and began running from house to house. They each must have fallen 5 times in their haste to get more candy. Very successful, very very successful.
Then we went to Tati's house to show off our costumes and do some close up shots. We all look so cute. Happy Halloween!

Alice looked so cute as a ballerina, and I loved being buried in poof!

I thought Derek's costume as a cast away was so good. He even put on makeup to make it look like he had cuts and dirt on him. And he got a fishing spear complete with felt fishies. Unfortunately he kept getting complimented on his "moses" costume.

And Jude loved being a pilot. And I made the hat! I was so proud of myself and it ended up looking so good!

Angie and I were frustrated with all the tacky Halloween shirt options that they had for boys so we set out to make our own cute halloween shirts. We picked up some white tshirts tie dyed them orange and then drew pumpkins on the tyedye part. It was so much fun and it ended up being so cute. We gave each of the boys a chop stick and told them they had to stir the "shirt soup." The boys were so excited to wear them. Angie and I even made one so that we could all be matchy. It was so much fun!