A night out with the mario brothers

Halloween this year was SO much fun! The boys were incredibly excited to wear their Mario and Luigi costumes... Don't know if you can tell but Owen's Mustache covered his mouth and adhesived his mouth shut. (he could still breathe out of his nose... but his "trick or treat" call- sounded more like "mm-mm-mmmmmm"). He just absolutely wanted to wear it and ran the other way when we tried to fix it so he could open his mouth.
We went with cousin's S and S, and aunt C and uncle M. Also, Uncle W. was able to join us this year (he was in town for grandma's funeral and so he wasn't able to go trick or treating with his girls in Cali- so he decided to go with the nephews.) I think a fun time was had by all.
It was pretty cold- but it made it easier to get the boys to come in after their fun was had. They are being amazingly controlled about the candy consumption. They don't ask for it that much- a couple of times a day- but we have set a limit to only after they eat something of some substance...and it really hasn't been a hassle. They really aren't candy guys yet. Mommy... however... where's that halloween candy??? It's like stealing candy from a baby... (just kidding- kind of)!

In memory...

Grandma F. passed away last week. Her services were yesterday- many family and friends came to share their memories of her. It was a very nice service. I had a hard time finding pictures that you could see Grandma F very well- but I did find the following with the boys- she loved pulling a ball out and playing catch every time the boys came over. We will miss you grandma!

4am

Early Sunday morning, about 4am- I was awakened by Aidan crying- sobbing. I quickly went to the boys room and found Owen jumping from Aidan's bed. I was still half asleep, but did surmise that Owen must have somehow hurt Aidan, probably by accident- trying to wake his brother to play... I immediately started to comfort Aidan stroking his hair and asked him what happened. He told me he was sad. I asked Owen to say he was sorry. Owen immediately said, "I didn't do it!" Then Aidan explained to me, "you are mean mommy! You hurt my feelings! You were grouchy with me downstairs! Why did you do that?" I tried to in my half asleep way explain to Aidan what dreams are- but I didn't even understand my explanation.


I told Aidan I was sorry for hurting his feelings in his dream and kissed him on the cheek. He said, "mommy, that's not my feelings, kiss my feelings!" I kissed his chest (above his heart.) He was calmed down and closed his eyes.


Before leaving the room, Owen asked me for another pacifier (yes, he still uses a pacifier- let's not go there right now- another day...). We quickly looked for the one he went to bed with and had no luck in finding- so I just went to get another- and went back to bed for my last couple of hours of sleep.


When we woke in the morning, Aidan took his jammies off and we found a pacifier in the foot of his jammies. I asked Aidan why he had Owen's pacifier. He said, "when you were grouchy and I was crying, Owen brought me his pacifier and I put it in my jammies."


Immediate guilt and melting all at once. Little Owen, who I assumed was being a stinker and causing his brother to cry last night, was actually giving his brother his pacifier that he has a major addiction to. (To give you an idea- if Owen loses his pacifier in the middle of the night- we have the same sort of sobbing/crying from Owen that Aidan had the other night and he will come to get me). Awwww....




Here they are- pacifier boy loving his big brother!

Four generations...

Sadly, Grandpa D. passed away at the end of last month. As with many sad occasions, it did provide an opportunity to spend time with those that we love so much, but don't routinely see. The night before the funeral, we went through many family photos which made me realize- we don't have a "generation" picture. I was able to get a picture of the four generations of the kids, my husband, his mom and her mom.

September walk

A walk at the state park- with some hugs along the way...


Some rock climbing...

Some balancing acts...

Some posing for family pictures...

And more posing...

Fun times!

Visit by G-ma M

Grandma M. came for a visit. Unfortunately it was under less then ideal circumstances (great gma G (grandma M's mom) experienced congestive heart failure and great gpa D had a stroke... gma G health is doing pretty well since, gpa D still trying to rehabilitate as much as possible).

We were able to have a day visit with Grandma M. when she was here. It was cut a little short due to a quick trip to the urgent care clinic with Owen because it looked as if he had an eye infection- they gave him some eye drops... Aidan and I spent the time goofing around in the car- (bottom picture)-we were taking pictures of eachother's funny faces.

FOUR... really???!!!

Aidan turned 4 on Monday. Wow. The little guy is growing up. I wish I could capture/bottle his excitement at and before his birthday party. He was bouncing from the inside out- so was Owen. They both had such a wonderful time. We were a little concerned because for some reason Aidan woke up at 3am the morning of his party and was up for the day. His party wasn't until 3pm-he didn't nap after his early morning wake up...he said "I really don't need much sleep," in a matter of fact, 'my body is just made that way,' sort of way, when I was trying to talk him into the beauty of sleep. He wasn't buying it. He opted to play quietly until the late hour of 6am, when the rest of us pulled ourselves out of bed. But, the lack of sleep didn't, in anyway, impact his fun. Here are some pictures:

Happy Birthday to you big boy!!