Happy Halloween!!

Just thought I'd share a little glimpse into our Halloween festivities. We had a big day, full of lots of fun stuff, and ended up on a candy high for a couple of days! Oh well, it only comes around once a year!

Our goblins in their costumes, getting ready to trick-or-treat at an adult day center with our MOMS Club friends.
We tried for Lions & Tigers & Bears (oh my!) but couldn't find a bear costume to fit anyone anywhere! So, Austin is a Dragon!At Daddy's birthday lunch - lots of fun!
Dancing and singing our Halloween song!
They were so excited to go out and get candy!


Trick-or-treating at our friends house.
Gretchen learned very quickly what this was all about!.
Taking a quick play beak from mall trick-or-treating.
From one lion to another....

Having fun at the church Harvest Party.
Here is the bean bag game....

....and here is the apple toss game.

Eating our spoils with Daddy.....

....and Mommy.


We finished the evening by trick-or-treating a few houses in our neighborhood, where we got some of the best candy (full-size candy bars, with mom and dad's names all over them!). We had three very tired little pumpkins by the time we were done, but I know they all had a fantastic day!

A day at the farms

We took the kids to a couple of local farms for some fun fall activities today. Corn maze, pumpkin blasting, lots of animals, and pumpkins galore. We had a great time!

Great Photo Display Idea

I found a great idea for using shadow boxes and photos. Please follow me to Vintage Mommy to see what I'm talking about. I think I'll try it with some of our adoption photos.

The Official Family!!!

It is official - all our children are now really ours!! We completed the adoption today, and it's just amazing! So many years of waiting, and now Austin, Daniel, and Gretchen are really our children legally. Even though the proceedings went very quickly, it was a joyous occassion, and tearful too. Here are some photos of the fun event!

The Courtroom Scene

With the judge

With our Lawyer

The Future Lawyer!

Gretchen & Mommy

Daniel & Mommy

With Grandpa & Grandma

The Official Family!

With Grandpa, Grandma & Great Grandma (Gram)

Celebrating in the Ball Pit!

Back to the Eighties

As promised, here is a photo of me dressed up in my 80's costume. My hair doesn't look nearly as big in the photo as it felt when I was fixing it. And my outfit is on the preppy side of the 80's, but it's the best I could put together at midnight the night before the conference!

Off to Reno!

I'm headed off to Reno this morning, leaving for three days for an American Cancer Society "Relay for Life" Summit conference. I've never been to Reno, so I'm excited to go. Hopefully it will be lots of fun. Friday night should be interesting, as the theme for the big party is "Back to the Future" and we are all supposed to dress 80's style. Yikes! I've been working so hard to shed my 80's everything, and now I'm supposed to bring it back? Trying to find an outfit to pack for Friday night was not easy, probably mostly because I left it to the last minute (like midnight last night!) and had to be really creative. I'll have my friend take a picture at the party, and I'll post it here later, and you can all tell me if I resemble the 80's at all!

James will be on his own with the kids, except for today. He's at work today, so Gram is coming over. But he's taking Friday off to stay home. So please say a couple good prayers for him - he's a great daddy, and takes care of the kids really well, but it's still got it's challenges! At least I'll be back Saturday night, so he doesn't have to do church with all three by himself, although he can do it - he's done it before!

I'm so glad that I've had lots more visitors to my blog lately! Feel free to leave a comment if you would like. I've had almost 100 visitors come by my blog since Wednesday. Of course, that's the day I sent out my big e-mail announcement about the upcoming adoptions, with a link to the blog, so I was kind of expecting that! But, welcome anyway - glad you came by to visit!

OK - I'm off to do some last minute packing, get breakfast for the kids, and say my good-byes before my ride gets here in an hour. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Get a free subscription to Parenting Magazine when you click here. I found out about this through Money Saving Mom blog - I think this is going to be one of my new favorite blogs!!

The County Fair

Well, we finally made it to the county fair. We had intended to go last Monday, when it was free for everyone, but Daniel decided to spike a 102-104 fever that day. So instead, we went on the very last day of the fair, which actually wasn't too bad. We missed seeing the pigs and chickens, as they had gone home, but we saw lots of other animals. The food was great, of course, and I couldn't believe how much Gretchen was eating. She had to have bites of everything - chicken nuggets, french fries, ice cream, noodles, salmon sandwich, funnel cake - you name it, she ate it! How she still only weighs 20 pounds is beyond me!

The kids got to ride a train, too, and they loved that. It was our last thing to do before leaving around 8pm, so it was starting to get dark, but the kids enjoyed it, and the conductor gave us an extra turn around the track because it was the last ride of the fair this year.

We had a really great time, and even got in free! There were some people getting in just before us that had extra tickets that they had already bought, so they gave them to us. I think we'll go on the last day from now on - you still get to see most everything, but the crowds are less.

We have a court date!

Just a quick note before I head off to church - we finally have a court date to finalize the adoptions of all three of our kids! Our lawyer called us on Friday to say he had our paperwork on his desk, and to give us our court date - Monday, September 22 at 3 pm! The kids will officially be ours! We are so excited to be at this point finally!!! Now to plan adoption day and the big party!! Woo Hoo!!

Auntie Brenda visits!

Auntie Brenda (Meegan's long time college friend) decided to visit today before heading out to the airport to pick up a friend. We had fun catching up and yakking, and the kids had fun playing with her. Here are a few pictures of the visit.

Austin's first day of preschool!

Wow! Austin went to preschool today! How amazing is that?! He wasn't nervous at all, in fact, he didn't even turn around to say good-bye. Just jetted right into the school and up the stairs to his classroom. Daniel cried for quite a while though, because he thought he should be able to go, too. Austin was all smiles when I picked him up. The first thing he told me was "I listened to the teacher!" which was a good thing, since his daddy had a nice talk with him about it last night. He also said that he painted, sang songs, and played. We went to McDonald's afterward for a celebratory lunch. So here's to preschool - may he always have a great time!

Here's what's cookin' for....

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I posted my menu plan. Can you tell that summer was very, very busy!! This is a big week for us - Austin starts preschool tomorrow morning! I'm going to make him a special dessert to celebrate, although I haven't picked out anything yet. Maybe even balloons at dinner time!

Here's our menu - let's see if we can stick to it!

Monday - Spaghetti & fesh fruit/veggies
Tuesday - Homemade Grilled Hamburgers & Oven Fries & Special "First Day of Preschool" Dessert!
Wednesday - Pork Chops, Applesauce, & Broccoli
Thursday - Sweet-n-Sour Chicken & Pasta
Friday - Ravioli Casserole
Saturday - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Sunday - County Fair Food - yummy!

To check out some other great menu ideas, go to
Organizing Junkie - lots of links to great menus for families of all kinds!

Bad Sunday

Yesterday, at church, we were told that Austin is too busy and hard to control in preschool, and it would be best if we could find a personal helper for him in preschool because he is too disruptive. The whole time I was being told this stuff, all I kept hearing was "you are a bad parent, you don't know how to make your kid behave". I know that is not what she was saying, but that is what I was hearing, and it made my whole day go bad. I guess the best thing to do would be to have him sit with us in service, because I doubt I'll be able to find someone who wants to give up their Sunday morning church service to sit with Austin in preschool. He starts his own preschool on Tuesday - Montessori preschool - so we'll just do our own Sunday School type lessons at home on Sunday afternoons. James is going to sit in on preschool with him next Sunday, just to see what's going on, but I'm sure that just having him sit with us on Sundays will be what will happen. He's just so busy. Hopefully this Montessori preschool will help him focus better. At least he's not being disprespectful to the teacher - just can't sit still! It still makes me feel like a lousy parent - especially when paired with the fact that I just can't seem to get him to potty train completely. Somedays, I tell you, I wonder if I really know what I am doing!

And it's off to the doctor....

Yesterday at lunch, James noticed that Daniel's eyes were a bit goopy, but we thought it might be that he was tired or something. After his nap, Daniel's right eye was very swollen and full of yellowish discharge. Oh, great - pink eye - just what we need! So this morning, I took him to the doctor. What he actually has is Periorbital Cellulitis. The doctor even considered admitting him to the hospital right away to start a 24-hour IV antibiotic! Shocked the heck out of me! But because he was so lively, and didn't have any pain to the touch around his eye, she just prescribed a heavy-duty antibiotic and made an appointment for us to come back in the morning to have it checked out. He's also got an ear infection in his right ear. He's been a bit fussy lately, and had a runny nose and low-grade temp, but I thought it was because of the molars he's pushing through. But now, I've been totally educated on this eye infection! He's taken one dose of the medicine, and already his eye isn't nearly as red around it as it was this morning when he woke up. So hopefully, when we go back tomorrow, the doctor will say that it is getting better and to just continue the meds at home. I'd hate to have to put him in the hospital! The good thing is that he is not contagious, so I don't have to worry about the other two getting it. A huge relief!

Please keep him in your prayers! Thanks!

We have a new child in the house!!

And the child's name varies, but mostly goes by "Nobody" or "Not Me"! This child moved in about a week ago, and really causes a lot of mischief - always knocking things over, losing toys, making messes, even getting in fights. But the good news - this child doesn't eat anything and doesn't need to go to the potty 14 times in an hour!

I'm sure this child has many siblings, all with similar names, living in houses all around us. Do you live with a Nobody? Although frustrating at times, it is quite funny too! Yesterday, apparently, this child filled one of our window wells with all the toys they could find! But the kids were really good, and helped Nobody clean out the window well, although it took a little convincing. Oh, I'm sure we'll have some fun days with Nobody - but I'm on to their antics, so I'm prepared!!

Potty Training Boot Camp?????

OK - I'm fed up, frustrated, at my wit's end! Oh, how I really, really dislike potty training! If there was a weekend camp to send children to - with or without the parents - to do the potty training - I would SO be on the top of the list to sign up! Uffdah!

Austin is now 3-1/2, and supposed to be starting preschool next month. HOWEVER, preschool requires children to be potty trained. We have been working on it, and we've been somewhat successful at it some days. But it's SO HARD! I know, I know - I'm whining. But seriously - how do you get through to them? We talk about it, he is ok with wearing pull-ups or underwear, and for the most part tells me when he needs to pee. Or, his newest trick, he tells me he needs to pee every 5 minutes, and then does nothing. And Daniel, bless his heart, at 2-1/2 is doing better at it than Austin. But there is just something in Austin that has not clicked yet. He seems to want to potty train, and talks about it often, but the follow-through has me baffled. If anyone has words of advice, I'm all ears. Do I let him go in to the bathroom every 5 minutes, or do I wait and make him go in every half hour? Do I let him run around naked, or is a pull-up the best, or underwear? Or do I just hide in the closet until he's 5 and hope he figures it out on his own?? The closet and chocolate - that sounds like a deal for me right now!

So, it looks like preschool will have to wait, and a wig is on order for Mom after all the hair she has pulled out.

Nope, no pictures to post for this one. Oh, I do have some, very funny ones, but I don't think my children would appreciate those kind of photos showing up online!!

PS - we do use a reward system for going potty - one M&M for potty, one penny for poo. Sometimes I think they just go in to piddle a bit to get the candy!

My rock stars!

This morning, the kids decided to rock out and be rock stars with their guitars - so fun to watch! I'm sure when they are teenagers it won't be as cute anymore, as we're yelling at them to turn it down! But for now, I get a big kick out of watching them dance and sing and play.

Little Picasso's at Work

I finally got brave enough to let the boys paint. I know, I know - it took me a while! The certainly had fun with the paints! Our MOMS Club is having an art contest for a cookbook we are putting together, so I got out the paints and paper and let the boys create their works of art to submit for the contest. Now, of course, they will want to paint every day! Maybe that's how we'll do our Christmas cards this year - paintings by the boys. We'll see.