Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We've had a very fun Halloween this year! Brennan went trick-or-treating for the first time and loved it. I got to meet a few neighbors and visit with others that we don't see often. He also loved handing out candy once we got home. He dressed as a "vintage" clown. I wore the clown costume here:

And here he is for his second Halloween:

And with Mae Mae the sock monkey:

And with his Jack face as he calls our jack-o-lantern:

We had a lot of fun carving Jack also. He had to bring his little pumpkin inside to sit beside the big one. He wouldn't put his hand in the pumpkin, but wanted Mike to take the seeds out and give them to him. It didn't take long for him to get bored with waiting for the Jack face, so he just put his feet up and constantly asked, "Ready to go outside?"

He ended the night with a little candy which couldn't even make him happy or keep him awake he was so exhausted.

On the Town

This weekend Mike and I celebrated our 3 year (and 11 day) wedding anniversary. He was out of town on October 11th, our actual anniversary, and we wanted a little getaway to celebrate. Boy did it end up to be good timing! In the last week our lawn mower quit working, vacuum belt broke, and washing machine went kaput. LOL! So we just left it all behind. Brennan has only stayed away from us once (last weekend, ha ha), so we didn't plan to go far or for long. We had dinner at Bonefish, dessert at Maggie Moo's after listening to Big Band music outside,  and stayed at the Westin at Bridgestreet. This morning we went to Starbucks for breakfast, then relaxed with a stack of magazines and books at Barnes and Noble. It's amazing what becomes a rare pleasure once there's a precious toddler in your life! Of course we probably had the most fun picking out a book for Brennan. We ate lunch at Nothing But Noodles and headed out to several Parade of  Homes tour houses. The parade happens this weekend and next. We spent our time today on the west side of Madison County. Our favorites were Shiloh Run and Olde Cobblestone. If we were actually in the market for a home I think Shiloh Run might have been a pretty good value after seeing several others. It had some neat added touches. Olde Cobblestone blew everything else away in our minds. Since we are just looking for remodeling/updating ideas we probably have a different outlook than an actual buyer, but these houses are way cool! If you haven't visited the area, the houses are close together with small yards (not necessarily my favorite part) and made to be like older homes (LOVE) on a main street. I loved the colors they used, the tasteful decorating, and all the details put into the building. In one house the master closet and laundry room shared a wall. In the closet there was a tall shelving unit and dirty clothes bin under it. In the laundry room there was a tall, double door cabinet. When you opened the laundry room cabinet it opened to that closet shelving unit and the clothes bin pulled out to the laundry room side. No more carrying laundry from one room to the other! They had also put in amazing outdoor living rooms. I really liked the feel of each house. We ended the day picking up our two favorite boys, dropping the furry one off at home, and grabbing a quick dinner before relaxing together for football. It was a wonderful break from routine. It isn't often that I get my sweetie to myself without interruption for an extended length of time. It felt good to be a couple without responsibilities for a little while.

Just For Fun

I thought I would share a couple of Brennan's recent funny shots.

One night I was going to sneak away for a relaxing bath. I started the water and then Mike and Brennan came in the bedroom to ask something. I answered Mike and  turned around to find Brennan here:

In the bathtub, pj's and all! You can see that mischievous little grin peaking from around his paci. He knew exactly what he was doing :). He is so quick to see an opportunity and take it.  I have to stay on my toes!

This is just a funny picture:

If you can see his hair, it's standing straight up all over. I don't think I could have gotten this look for him if I tried. He had spent his first night with Nonna and Papa, then came home and took a nap on the sofa. When he woke up we were eating, so he came and sat down oblivious to his nice do!

Over On the Pumpkin Farm

Today we made our annual trip to Tate Farms for pumpkin time. Brennan enjoyed his trip last year, but was too small to get into much. I think he was more impressed this year. He had taken a nap on the way there, so he wasn't real excited when we got him out. In fact, his first melt down started in the parking lot. By this time Mike was already saying this might not be a good idea and Brennan was begging to go to the car.

As soon as we got inside the farm he was real happy! He took off to the wooden tractors, and would have been happy to stay there all day.

We did convince him to try a few other activities, but his next favorite was the real tractors.

We did finally make it to the pumpkin patch. Brennan loved the wagon ride behind the tractor, and then wanted to get right back on when we got to the field. It took a lot of convincing to get him out to the pumpkins. He did agree to show us a few.

Then he announced he was going to the tractor.

We didn't ever get a pumpkin, but we did stop to play in the corn, measure for the year, and see the animals before we convinced our little farmer it was time to go. 

Fall Fix Ups

Here are a couple of projects I've been working on this week. The most involved was painting parts of our screened in back porch. I painted the walls a cream using this opaque stain.

It is Cabot solid deck stain, but I call it MaGiC! It goes over painted, stained, or unfinished wood with no priming. It worked on our unfinished white cedar siding like a charm. I did have to use two coats on a small part that had been painted a dark color. Next I painted the porch floor an aqua blue. I used this solid stain for that part.

It is Cabot Pro V.T. solid stain. It is suppose to be a little tougher and goes on a little thicker. It is actually not made for horizontal surfaces, but because the floor is covered I think it will work just fine (so far so good). It covered the previous stain wonderfully. 

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

It's not totally complete. I plan to paint the screen framing when we replace the screen soon. The progress so far already makes it seem brighter and  larger. 

Another quick project I completed was a magnetic area for Brennan's play room. I have wanted to put something on the wall where he could play with letters and numbers. I had a couple of ideas but they just hadn't happened. Finally I was at the Dollar Tree this week and saw round pizza pans. I decided three of those would be fun and easy. 

Ta-da:

FUN in the SUN!

We ended our summer fun last week at the beach! Our little family was joined by Nonna, Aunt Mandy, and Maeleigh (or Maeleigh Ann as Brennan liked to say) for the first half of the week. My Aunt Lucy and Uncle Rob stopped by for a day at the end of the week. From being lulled to sleep by the waves each night to spending each day with our toes in the sand, we had a fabulous trip!

We played, shopped, ate, played, ate, and shopped a little more. The highlight of the week was seeing two cousins love each other so much. They wanted to spend every minute together. On the first night we all went out crabbing. What we actually saw was a huge surprise! A red fox was lounging just outside the pool fence on the dunes, only a few yards from us. He layed down when he saw us, just like a dog might do, and finally sauntered on his merry way. It was when he stood and we saw the pouf of red tail that we knew for sure he was a fox. The security guard told us that they have also seen coyote and black bears in the area. We spent time on the beach each day. I am always amazed at how the water changes from day to day. The first day there was a 3 ft. drop from the beach to the water's edge. By the day we left our tent, that had been several feet from the water, would have been in the surf. We saw dolphins most days, found loads of seashells, and learned first hand how fast a storm cloud can move across the water. We found a new favorite place to eat, Desoto's. They had great lunch specials, including fried shrimp and sweet potato casserole, at very reasonable prices. Mike had to endure a lot to enjoy his much needed vacation. While eating lunch at Lu Lu's he dropped the bottle of hot sauce. It splattered in his eye and burned for quite a while. Then he was laying behind Brennan while I changed Brennan's diaper on the bed. Brennan raised up and head butted Mike in the nose. That bled nicely for a while as well. Overall, I think he had a good time too, after the pain subsided. 

During our beach trip last year Brennan was a little roly poly on a quilt. This year he tried it all. Each morning he would awake and announce his plan for the day, "Play sand, play water, see waterfall." Most every time we went to the beach he would immediately announce he was going to go inside. He often had to be retrieved from the boardwalk. He did like to play with his truck in the sand, run toward the water, and pick up shells after he got warmed up. He learned what french fries were and decided that's all he needed to eat. He had tried them before but had never asked for them or thought they were so great. Luckily they seem to be forgotten now that we are home. At The Hangout he got to pick out a truck as his souvenir. He hung onto that truck the rest of the trip, including sleeping with it nightly.

A few more Brennan highlights from our everyday life: He is getting carsick more often :(. He did great on the trip down to the beach, but got sick once while we were there and again on the way home. He also got sick during our errands around town today. Another fun quirk he's acquired is being "scared" of the dark. He won't go into the kitchen if the lights are off, and doesn't even like it during the day if the blinds are closed. On the brighter side, his language is bubbling out. He is using several new phrases and everything is more clear. The phrase I hear most through the day is, "No Wells, that's mine!" It doesn't really matter if Wells is even awake. I think he just likes to lay claim. I also hear "watch" a lot. That is usually followed by him running a truck into something (all boy).  He is crazy about trucks and large equipment. He can spot and name a bulldozer from anywhere. He has the book 100 Machines, which he calls his Papa Book, that we read a million times a day. At the beach he found a sales paper with lawnmowers and studied it many times each day. He can hear the trash truck anywhere in the neighborhood and recognizes fire truck sirens, but is most interested in "hairplanes" and choo-choos. In three short months he will be two, but he's practicing his independence and strong will regularly. He doesn't just say no, but "no uh-uh" with a head shake and frown face. It's pretty cute actually, most of the time at least.

A few pictures out of the 600+ that I took :).

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Another cute Shutterfly card, AND yes there is a reason I am posting these examples :).