Halloween!

It is fall.  Or almost winter - high in the 20s later this week - BRRRR! 

Halloween is officially over.  We did some trick-or-treating at my work, at Daddy's work, at Nona and Papa's and finally to three houses around us.  I have already managed to give away most of the candy Jr. collected.  Tonight was crazy.  It makes me want to invent an antidote for sugar.  Jr. was literally vibrating. 

So, the other day, I realized that I haven't posted anything about Graham's milestones.  Well, we decided that his first word was Ed - it came a long time ago.  Second was Daddy.  He is now getting very good at animal noises and can say some names, finally, Momma, Nona, Nanny, Papa and Da (Selma and Jr.?).  He also declares Uh-Oh after he throws his food or drink on the floor.  He can blow kisses and give awesome high fives.  He is walking with very little crawling and only has two teeth left to get before the dreaded 2-year molars.  He loves to give hugs and look at pictures of animals.  He loves his books and spends hours in his room looking at his books.  He initiates wrestling with his brother and rarely cries when Jr. plays rough with him.  It makes me fear for our lives this winter.  Well, I have a plan - gut the garage and turn it into cold weather play land.  Bikes, basketball hoop, slide. . .

Jr. has also achieved some pretty amazing milestones, besides his amazing vocabulary and incredible syntax, he is also starting to recognize letters and numbers.  His drawings are fantastic and always come with great stories.  He frequently sits at the table and draws and cuts out paper to make "ART!"  He figured out how to play the computer by himself.  He can get the computer started, open the Internet and connect to PBSkids.org to play games.  He can almost unplug the regular mouse and plug in his own.  We are a little scared. 

Speaking of scared - beware of the scary photos below - Happy Halloween!

Triceratops!

Dragon!

Mission Impossible, give kids candy, ask them to sit still for photos.

Plumpquins

Scary Plumpquins.

Alien scary plumpquin.  So you know, a damn deer knocked Jr. and Daddy's pumpkins off the deck and ate the faces off.  Damn big buck.

Baby pumpkin.  Check his face for the shiner.  Poor little man had a broken nose.  He recovered just fine though.

The small green ones were from our garden.

The shiner.  So sad.

Cissie and Jr. at the corn maze.

Our corn maze guide.

Taking up the rear.

It was an amazing night.

Smile.

Corn sand box.  Graham was a huge fan.

No, she doesn't get tired of hanging out with us.  Hint, we keep feeding her.

Last coatless fall day.  Helping Papa rake leaves and throw rocks in the pond.

Helping with the leaves.

Photo credit - Bill Bahr.  Nicely done dude.

Fall


Every year, Aunt Liesel and I try to get together to celebrate our birthdays.  I usually go to Missoula, that town is the BEST in the fall.  My dad used to take me there every homecoming for my birthday, it makes me love fall even more.  We had a blast.  Carousel, farmers market, epic nap, birthday party at Tower Pizza complete with moustaches and video games, park, lunch and REI.  Love you Aunt Liesel, thanks for a lovely birthday weekend.

You know what else makes me love fall, now that we have moved, I don't have to rake leaves from that &%*$! maple in our neighbors backyard.  Beautiful tree, three trucks of leaves to the dump.  I am not exaggerating.  We have some leaves here, but they will blow away, it is the pine needles that need to be raked, we will see if that happens.  It will be winter soon, I can feel it.  We still need some outside time.

We pulled the tomato plants and hung them upside down in the garage in an attempt to turn the green tomatoes to red.  Stinkin Graham sneaks out there every time he can and eats green tomatoes.  We still have 3 pumpkins in the garden (only one orange one), some carrots and onions.  We still dig back there when we have a few free moments.

Anyway back to fall.  It is getting cold, but we are trying to get out as much as possible even though it requires so much negotiation.  Jr. put your shoes on - repeat a million times.  Jr. find your coat - repeat one million times.  Graham, get back here, you need a coat - repeat one million times.  Jr. put your brother DOWN!  Selma - GET!

Missoula's Carousel. 
Aunt Liesel asked me if Jr. was okay to ride by himself and I said - oh yes, TOTALLY.  She gave me the weird eye.  Then I saw the carousel take off - it is about 3x as fast as the one here in Helena and takes off like a rocket. 
Woah.  Jr. was totally fine though.



Happy Moustache - I mean, Happy Birthday Aunt Liesel.

Psst.  Don't tell her her stash is upside down.

Ron Swanson Jr.
I BARELY got him to put it on and he BARELY let me take his photo.

Park photo.

BFFs

The boys love the carrots from the garden, I helped Graham pick this one and he at it, dirt and all.

"Look Momma, the perfect carrot!"  Repeat 100x.

That carrot went everywhere with him.  Up the play land, down the slide...

Carrot boys. 

Happy Birthday to us!

The end of September marks the glorious birthdays of the jokers otherwise known as mom and dad. We celebrated this year. Actually put the babies down and did something for ourselves. It was cool. We kept saying - wow, we love those boys so much, but we need to do more things for ourselves. For ourselves or for ourselves together. It is hard to not feel guilty about leaving them behind but I think we make better parents because of it. Now some photos.

Oooh my big boy can put his own socks on.

Monster drawing.

Nanny and Graham and Graham's favorite book.

Graham got a red sucker from the bank.  I took it away and threw it in the garbage.  HE WAS SO INCREDIBLY PISSED OFF FOREVER.

Back in the saddle.

Our rafting buddies - Brian and Angela.

Fatty rainbow hog that I caught.  I call him Steve.

Chick boat.

I know - cute - right?

Jokers.

Brian said I couldn't pull it off.  Group photo.

Nude ATV.  That is how we roll around here.

The big news around here, Graham decided on Saturday to spend more time walking than crawling.  24-7 head injury watch.  Love the baby - hate the head wounds.

Summer. Summer. Summer.

It has been a long time since I rapped at y'all.  Dang, we have been busy.  I will say a very few things and then try to paint a picture of our summer with some photos.  Make sure to check out the Picassa photo stream at the bottom of the page for lots more photos and lots of videos.  I especially LOVE the ones of Jr. and Graham dancing to the music of the new toy excavator.

Although very busy, he will occasionally stop moving to take a sweet photo.

Loves to wear sunglasses - you are obliged to say "OOOOOO SO CUTE!!!" 

When they aren't wrestling, they pause to snuggle.

Impossible to get him to pose for a photo, you have to catch him off guard.  Here he is cooking with his Grandma Sheila, yelling at me not to take his photo.

Uncle Bean and Jr. trying to figure out what Graham is pointing at while yelling NANANANNNAAAA.

Cuz.

Practicing for her school photos - did I mention she is in KINDERGARDEN?

Artiste'

Jr. LOVES having his photo taken.

She kind of likes him.

Nona and Faith glamor shot.

Faith wanted her photo taken with John and Shelia.

Three hour tour.  Three hour tour.

Gilligan and the Skipper.

Ginger. . .

The Professor.

Small blue eyed version of his daddy.

The boys.

Hang on Grandpa!

He was pretty nervous - for his first time on the carousel.

Leaving Helena for Yellowstone!

45 minutes later.

He climbed in there to read his books.

Camping at Carbella.

He LOVED those binoculars.  He wore them all weekend.

Maybe one of my favorite photos - ever.  Photo credit - Cissie!

Binoculars and Ballcanos.

She is pretty cute.

Hot.  Baby.

Nice little hike - Jr. was very good.

Impossible to get a decent family photo.

Pushing the naptime.

Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone.

We had to drive almost all of the way down the Lamar Valley to see this guy.

Baby in a field.

Thanks Cissie.

Yay!  Yellowstone!  Yay - we are going to Chico tomorrow!

Jr.'s family portrait.  His dad is the biggest one, then Jr., then Graham and lastly me.  I have spiky hair though!

Naked baby!

Lochlin's play date.

Four wheelin buddies.

"I am going to kick the camera Momma!"

I swear he was having fun.

Oh HUG Amelia.  Took this photo just before he started to hit her in the head.

He is taking two to three steps.  He will be fully walking soon.  14 months old - just like his brother.