trick or treatin'

What a great Halloween. Finn was a train engineer and Burgundy was a froggy - thanks to Erin for both costumes! I was an army person or something...

Well, this was a great first year of trick or treating.Finn's 1st Halloween we spent at Cody's parents', his 2nd we went to 2 or 3 houses of friends, last year we actually didn't go out at all, we just handed out candy, but this year was great. We have been practicing saying "trick or treat" for a few days, and we started with our neighbors that he knows. He knew just what to do. So when we went to the next house where he doesn't know the people, I wasn't sure if he would get scared or if he would keep going. But he amazed me. Every house I stayed back on the sidewalk and he just went right up, knocked, said "trick-or-treatin'" (yes trick or treatin - not trick or treat - so cute) and then said "thank you" after he got his candy. What a big boy.

We covered about 2 square blocks, and he had a lot of fun. Cody stayed home to hand out candy since Burgundy decided to take her nap at that time. But she did get to wear her costume while we went and voted this morning.

So, without further ado, pictures:

outgrown

I tried to put cute Halloween jammies on Burgundy the other night. They say 12 months. Her feet say otherwise! We had to cut out the ends of the feet. Finn got to dress up in his costume for school on Wednesday and they even had a little costume parade down the sidewalk after school. As hard as it is, I will wait until it is actually Halloween to post pictures of him in his costume. It is the cutest freaking thing though.

I will also refrain from putting progress pictures of the basement up because we are this close to being fully framed. Just a few more hours tomorrow and it will be framed en total. So I will wait until I can put the complete job up. Along with pics of our cute handy-man, Jeff. Thanks for all your hard work, Jeff. You've done an awesome job.

So I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween! Be sure to put pictures of your little costumed ones on your blogs or myspace pages so I can see them!!

before

Here are the before pictures. ( Though it is after the clean up!)

Bedroom 1:
Bedroom 2:Hallway:
Hallway from the other end:Bathroom:
Future theatre room:
Future game/recreation room:

Utility room:
Fruit room:Future play room:

field trip

Finn had his little class field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was fun and the tractor driver picked some carrots and onions right out of the field for the kids to see and smell. Then they went to get their own little pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, the only unfun thing was trying to hold onto Burgundy the whole trailer ride - squirmy, heavy little bugger!

This is the little pumpkin that Finn picked out. And here he is carrying it back to the trailer.

Finn's favorite part was the little tractor-pulled train. They called it the cow train (see how some of the cars are painted like cows and they had rope tails). I asked Finn if he thought instead of "coo choo!" it might say "moo moo!" He was not amused.

They had a big pumpkin jumpy house

Burgundy had fun watching Finn have fun. She also enjoyed chomping on a fresh carrot that had been picked just that morning.

Here is his class and the Tues/Thurs class. Can you find Finn?

The End.

shiny

so I changed my background - obviously (unless you are reading this via an email update - then you would have to actually go to my page to see it). I'm not sure if I like it yet but I thought I'd change it up. Add a little bling. Plus the sparkly diamonds on the side look like my ring sort of. I love my ring.

I digress! Well we have most everything out of our basement and in a storage shed down the street. What a project that was! You don't realize how much crap you've accumulated until you start to look though it. But we can see the floor in our basement, I have given away probably more then $1000 worth of toys and clothes (worth that much when they were brand new probably), thrown away a ton of crap and have some stuff up for sale on ksl.com. We sold our baby swing today for $45. Not bad seeing as it's been through 3 kids (Spencer used it too!). Both the lady who called me and her mom who came to pick it up were very nice so I threw in a baby bathtub just to be nice. ksl is pretty cool that way, though. The swing lady called me an hour after I put it on there. After all is said and done if all the stuff sells for what I'm asking, we'll make $250 out of the deal.

So we get the remainder of the HVAC done tomorrow and framing will hopefully begin on Tuesday. After 4 years of tiny bits here & there it's amazing to think it's all happening! It's exciting. I bet my parents are excited too! No more sleeping in the dungeon with insulation falling on their heads when they come visit! I probably should have taken more "before" photos to put on here so I can track the progress. I did take a video with the camcorder but that doesn't help for the blog now does it? But I will take some as it goes along now.

Tomorrow Finn has his first little school field trip to the pokin patch. That should be fun. Other than that we have just been working hard all weekend getting the basement cleared out so that the "real" work can begin - although my sore neck and Cody's aching legs muscles sure feel real to us!

And one last, very important thing: it's my mom's 64th birthday today. Everyone say "Happy Birthday, Mom!"


Happy birthday to a woman who works very hard in her life to make sure that everyone she loves is happy. You are a strong woman, a great person, and a wonderful nana. I have learned a lot from you in this life, mom. Thank you for everything you showed me and everything you tried to protect me from. I love you, mom. Happy Birthday.

Dreams. and Dreams of Dreams.

I am very excited that the end of formula is nigh. Seeing as it is roughly $100 a month, this is a very good thing. It is very interesting to have had one baby who breastfed until 15 months of age (and who would probably STILL be breastfeeding if he could) and one baby who decided she was done at 4 months. I did continue to try until she was nearly 6 months, but she decided she had had enough. And so I have been able to see the advantages and disadvantages of both. Both are the most convenient - when you're doing them. When you're breastfeeding, it seems easiest just to "whip out a boob" (as Cody would say) and not have to make a bottle. But when you're bottle-feeding it seems pretty dang easy to make a bottle and not have to mess with nursing bras, nursing shirts, privacy, etc. I do like how I was back down to pre-pregnancy weight pretty much when Finn was a year old after breastfeeding. That certainly hasn't happened this time.

Anyway, I am thrilled with the prospect that we will be done with the big yellow can in a month. I had tried to give Burgundy a few bottles with milk and she didn't like it at all. So, today I started making her bottles with 1/2 formula 1/2 whole milk, and luckily she didn't balk at all. So that is heartening. So I will do that for a week and then go down to 1/4 formula, 3/4 milk then hopefully we will make the switch. It will be a red letter day.

In other news, last night Finn woke up from a scary dream. It was about 3 in the morning and that sucked. I heard him crying and coming out of his room and I was out of bed and out the door before he even got to my door (don't ask me how I managed to do that from a dead sleep). It took me a while to even realize he had had a bad dream (since my body was awake but my brain, clearly, was not). He had a dream about a robot and a blue light, but then the kitties were biting it and protecting him. So that's good - maybe he'll think twice about torturing the cats next time... doubtful. So I think he may have had one other scary dream in his life that I remember him waking up from but it was a long time ago and he couldn't even talk yet so that is just a guess. Usually every night we kind of talk him through a visualization of choo choos and airplanes, and bright sunshine, and playing with friends, etc etc. It seems to help him wind down and transition to sleeping time. Whatever works, right?

We went to eat Chinese food with Jim tonight and Finn ate all of his food (and some of everyone else's as well) and was just such a good boy all day. I love days like that. Happy Friday, everyone. Sorry the flow of this post is choppy at best, but I guess that's how my brain is working at the moment!

nothing

I don't have anything special to write about today. Just today, I can't type with my fancy nails. This is a drawback I am discovering. There are drawbacks. A few. Like I think I am allergic to the stuff, the acrylic. So for a few days afterwards my fingers are sore and then a little puffy and itchy and then they get little blisters under the nail. But then they go away in a day and are fine. TMI? sorry.

Anyway, Cody went 4-wheeling with Bart & his dad today. I am very glad he got to do that - he hasn't been in a few years. And in the meantime both Bart & his dad have gotten new 4-wheelers so I figure it can't be fun to watch them get new toys and he can't even go ride his own, old one. So they went today and I think he had a good time. (not like he ever comes bouncing in the door like a giddy school-girl to tell me what a good time he had, but that's probably most men for ya)

So this morning we went to Paula's to play with cousins before Paula leaves for Florida tomorrow. Finn & Burgundy had a good time. Seems like forever since we've been up there! I was hoping that would be our fun with playing with others today but, as soon as we made it down the driveway, I hear a little voice from the backseat, "can we play with Crystal?" UGH. As you, my faithful blog readers know, Crystal is Finn's little girlfriend next door. And I don't mind him playing over there, in fact it's pretty nice when he goes over there in their backyard and I can still watch and hear him and can also get stuff done around the house. But it's EVERY. FREAKING.DAY. that he asks. So we went to the new post office in Syracuse and afterwards we went to knock on their door but they were painting so he couldn't play. So then the rest of the day it was "are they done painting? are they still busy? can I play tomorrow?" It is enough to make me really hate the name Crystal (my apologies if anyone named Crystal is reading this)

I am also hoping that tomorrow's drop off for preschool will be uneventful. I volunteered at his school on Monday and did a little recycling lesson and project with the kids (which went very well), but I am really hoping he understands that that was only a once-in-a-while thing. We will see. And I could be optimistic and think he will be relieved that I am simply dropping him and not staying since he didn't seem completely thrilled with the idea that I was there anyway! ha.

So, other than that, we are just here, travelin' along, singing our song... side by side.

the new machine

So, (ever notice how I start a lot of these posts with "so"? I do.) on Wednesday, our vacuum blew up. It has been getting louder and louder and sucking less and less, and finally when Cody started it up it just kind of decided to blow all it's dust out rather than suck it in. I can't say I was surprised, or even that disappointed. We bought that vacuum 2 years ago with our tax return and I didn't love it pretty soon after I got it. It worked great for the first few uses then it just started going downhill. And it was heavy and big. So I'll spare you the saga, but suffice it to say I have been annoyed every time I had to vacuum with that machine. That could be why I didn't vacuum very often!

So, because Cody & I have gone through 3 vacuums since being married for 4 years (must be the cat hair), we decided to bite the bullet and get the Cadillac of vacuums: a Dyson. And I won't tell you the unGodly amount we spent on it, but I will tell you that it is awesome. My old one was 23 pounds - this one is 16. When I took the old one out of the closet to put the new one away - holy crap - I couldn't believe I was even able to push that behemoth around! I stopped counting after 6 times, but we had to empty the canister at least 10 times in the course of vacuuming due the amazing suction and how much stuff it was able to pick up that the old one had left behind. It also has the ball so it corners so well. And it's small so it fits places my old monster couldn't.

The only problem I have with it is the cord is a few feet shorter so I was able to get the whole house from the hall outlet with the old one, and I can't quite reach the far living room wall from that outlet with the new one. But it is a small price to pay. So here is a picture of my new love... I mean my new vacuum. Maybe I'll vacuum more than once a month now! (maybe)

Also an observation: this is from the Pumpkin Patch (pokin patch as Finn calls it) last year. A few changes this year - Finn is a little bigger & I am a little smaller!!

Pumpkin Patch

Pictures from our annual family pumpkin patch trip.
Saturday, October 18th.

hormones

so here's a weird thing. my body thinks it's pregnant, but it's not.
my body is very sensitive and tends to have overblown reactions to things. So, when I got pregnant with Finn, my stomach swelled up to where it looked like I was 4 months pregnant. And this was BEFORE I even knew I was pregnant. So I was quite confused, (I was like WTF? if I am quite frank about it) and couldn't figure out why my stomach was getting so huge. Plus, I was working out at the time, so it was pretty irritating. Well, it turned out I was pregnant. Same thing happened with Burgundy, only this time I recognized what that meant.

So, recently my stomach has been doing that. At first I thought, wow have I been eating more junk food than normal or what? And I recognized it as the same thing that happened with both pregnancies, but obviously didn't relate it to that because Cody had a vasectomy 5 months ago. But recently it's just been crazy, because not only am I all swollen-bellied, but I have also been ravenously hungry. Like I just can't satiate myself when I eat. Sounds like pregnancy, right?

Well, I went to see Marcy, who is this fabulous nurse practitioner who is just so knowledgeable and helpful. And I was kind of thinking she might be stumped, but I should have known better. She always seems to know exactly what is going on. See, several months ago, she put me on progesterone cream. I was feeling lethargic and fuzzy-minded, and quite irritable - especially around PMS time. So basically she told me I had estrogen poisoning. And that progesterone is the body's defense against estrogen, and if your body doesn't make enough... well you're in trouble. So I have been on it for a few months and it has made a world of difference. A couple months ago she raised the dosage a little. And I guess it was a little too high because what has been happening is my body thinks it is pregnant. When you actually become pregnant, your progesterone spikes giving you all the symptoms. And so with my dosage being a little bit too high, I have been getting pregnancy symptoms. Hormones are crazy things.

So just so you can rest easy, I am definitely not pregnant, because she did a test to make sure at her office. My body just thinks it is. So I will just go on to a lower dose and hopefully lose the bulge. So if anyone has seen me lately and wondered why I look 4 months pregnant, it's just because my body thinks I am. But I'm not. So there you go.

Sunday Snow

Well I woke up at about 5 this morning and thought there could be snow outside for some reason. But as A) I didn't even have my glasses on and B) our bedroom blinds are such that when closed I often think there is snow outside and when I open them am disappointed to find no snow, I didn't look, I just crawled back into bed. Then Cody came in the room (not sure where he came from!) and told me to look outside. Well it was snowing quite nicely and everything was covered in a beautiful white blanket of snow. And as the day has gone on, it (as the song decrees) doesn't show signs of stopping. After breakfast, Cody & Finn went out to play and Burgundy had fun standing at the window laughing at Finn & Daddy outside in the snow. Won't be long now until she can go run around in it with them!!


Finn remembers throwing snowballs with Nana and Sydney and that's the first thing he wanted to do today. (and he can put his mittens on and even get his thumbs in the right place - Hallelujah!)


I know a lot of people don't like the snow - but I for one LOVE it. I love everything about it. I don't even mind driving in it. I have so many wonderful childhood memories of playing in the snow, of sledding down our hill and trying to make it all the way to the creek (without falling in), of building snowmen and being sad when they melted, of the silent, wonderful mystery of a yard full of giant trees covered in ice and snow, and when we were done, of putting my wet mittens and scarf on the radiators to dry... I think I will always love the snow. It just makes me happy and it makes me feel like a kid again.


So it is a lovely Sunday afternoon. We are all just home enjoying the snow. We are making a roast in my new Pampered Chef deep covered baker (shameless plug) in which we have included the crazy carrots we got from our garden.