Happy Halloween! (and All Saints' Day)

I hope you all did not eat too much candy...Hobbes came very close, but does not seem to have gone over. I got so excited when I was getting the kids' outfits ready today, that I had to dress up as well! Bray was at school till 5:30, so we surprised him and picked him up in our costumes-all ready to trick-or-treat! I dressed up as a 50's Alabama football cheerleader (in case any of you DON'T know, Bray loves Alabama football) to show my hubby just how much I love him. We then went downtown, kicked some leaves, ate some candy, said the 'treat' part of trick-or-treat, and then went to 'Ama and 'Ampa's to eat Halloween Hamburgers with Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Mike.
It was a fun evening, and the kids looked adorable! The fun will continue this weekend at the NSA fall carnival-I am not creative enough to come up with 2 costumes for each kid, so they'll be the same thing, but I think it'll still be cute!
The fam.


Uncle Jordan-or should I say Sweeney Todd?
So cute...
Alabama football cheerleader!
My pretty little pink butterfly-yes butterflies can be pink.
My lion.
Glittery butterfly!
Kickin' the leaves-better than eating candy!
After the fact.

Metropolitan Opera District Winner! (WA, MT, ID)

As I may have mentioned in my last post, Bray, Madeline and I went to Missoula, MT for the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions this past weekend. There were 20 singers of extremely high caliber competing, and Bray took the cake! (or in other words, won!) This means we shall get to go to the Regional level in Seattle in January. We are very thankful, encouraged and excited, to say the least.:) Here are a few pics of the trip, plus a few random ones I haven't had time to post. Enjoy!

The Winner with his girls:)

One of the COOLEST coffee shops I've ever seen....it had wine, tea and beer, too-this was 1 of the wine racks-I want one!
Part of the beer wall...
The tea section...and then we were told we couldn't take pictures:(
We had breakfast with Mom, Pop and Carolyn in Spokane before we took off-so cute!
Madeline cheered her Daddy on-literally.

This is just a pic of a Thai dinner I made for Bray one night-I actually had time to make the table cute!
On a late night errand-Hobbes wanted to wear a hat since Daddy was!
Who do you see here? (hint:the correct answer is Bray)

Play Doh!

I finallly found the real, cheap little tubs of Play Doh at our Walmart. Perfect timing, seeing as the cold weather is truly upon us! I got it out for Hobbes to try the other day, and though he can't play for it as long or as well as Daddy, he does enjoy it! (I just have to make sure he doesn't try to eat it when my back is turned....boys!)
Here are just a few of the pics from our first trial run-I was lazy and used cookie cutters for him. However, I did freehand a ball and a car-but they were not picture worthy.

Oops...here's the rest of that post

Last Sunday we had a bday/games and cards party at Kathryn and Mike's, to celebrate my bday. It was a lot of fun-we ended up eating a lot of food, drinking lots of apple cider, and playing cranium...may I add that our team won? (course that was due to Kathryn and Katie Grauke-I didn't realize my little sis was such a whiz at games!) The only thing I was sad about was the fact that I forgot to make homemade donuts (an annual Kajsa-bday tradition) until it was too late!
Sooo now I shall have to have a fall/donut party!:) Hope you all are enjoying this rapidly cooling weather!Holding the smile for just a little tooo long.

Kathryn, Paige, Kirby and Laura....cute!
The boys-trying to figure out how they can win:)
The game board.
Katie and I-after winning!
I'm not exactly sure what was happening here...but I thought it was funny, so I put it up! Enjoy!

Cranium=crazy

Perfect moments...

I know it seems like the last several posts have been about Hobbes, but I feel like I go in phases. 3 for Madeline, 3 for Hobbes,etc. It's hard to be perfectly fair, right? As my mom always told me, "Kajsa, nothing in life is ever fair." Just another one of her sayings that I have now discovered is true. It's amazing how right your parents were/are...and now I also understand what my mom meant when she said, " You'll understand when you're a parent." Sheesh-prophetess! But, I digress.
We have (finally) gotten rid of the paci. It's weird, but I feel almost a little nostalgic about it- besides being fully potty-trained, it's the last of Hobbes' baby-ness. I never thought of myself as someone who looks back, who gets nostalgic, but with kids, all that goes out the window. Hobbes is my 1st, and now I feel like we're on the fast track...I know he's only 2, but he's a little person now, no longer a baby. I'm excited and a little sad at the thought that he'll never again be 'our baby.' He is so independent-I quote Toys 'R Us, "I'm a big kid now!"
The first few nights without the paci were quite rough...he woke up a lot, and so, to distract him, we brought in our little CD player, and some soft music. He was fascinated and excited by it. As soon as we brought it in, he came over and sat down in front of it, listening in perfect silence, with the night light shining on his little face. We just had to watch him for a minute-and Bray grabbed the camera, to try and capture this sweet, almost perfect:), moment.

Photo shoot with Dad...

So, tonight I trimmed Hobbes' hair (Bray wants to see what he'll look like with it a little longer), and then I ran errands while Bray bathed him. When I came back, I found these pictures on the camera-obviously, they had fun with water, hair, mirrors and cameras. Natural-born entertainer? I think so. Like Father, like Son.

yikes.
oh my.

Hobbes makes soup

Because it has been POURING rain here the past few days, I have been racking my brain to find activities for Hobbes. He usually spends a great deal of time outside, expending boy energy, and as he cannot do that (although Grandma says rain boots are in order, which will mean puddle-splashing) he has extra energy and time for me to keep him busy. He has a fairly good attention span, but he does not seem particularly interested in coloring. He likes to look at books, play with cars, play with the fishing game,etc, but today we decided to try cooking with Mom. Here are the results:As soon as I put him up on the chair, he grabbed a spice and began 'seasoning...'
Needs more variety of spices...
Stirring after dumping in the water and the split peas...he loved it!! He helped me make the soup and the french bread- he didn't want to get down the entire time! I guess we'll have to do this again!

And so it begins...

Madeline is now able to sit up by herself, and often likes to play with her toys that way. The other day, we were in the living room with Hobbes, and she was in the kids' room, playing with toys-Bray walked in after a few moments, and found her like this. Note the mischievous, yet very satisfied, smile. It has begun.

My 24th Birthday!

As I had mentioned earlier, we went on one of our late night 'adventures'(i.e. a walk, drive,etc) with the kids all jammied and bundled up on Friday night. As we were driving home from our walk, we heard a loud boom, and saw a flash of light. We looked to our right, and lo and behold there was a major (for Moscow) fireworks display going on! Hobbes was really excited, and kept saying "boom-boom, boom-boom!" It was so fun-we parked by the side of the road and watched the show for about a half an hour. Bray said it was to begin my birthday celebration, but it was really for Vandals homecoming. Still-lots of fun, and it made the evening more special.

Trying to get a picture of the fireworks from the car...Hobbes staring out the window at the booms.

Madeline trying to sit up and see the fireworks, Hobbes, Mommy, and of course-the camera.
On Saturday, we had a crazy busy day,as both Bray and I had to work some, but we managed to do fun things in between. My mom took my sisters and I out to lunch at West of Paris (a fantastttic French restaurant in Moscow), while my wonderful friend Helen watched the kiddos, and then Bray and I took the kids for a walk in the arboretum- a gorgeous park on UI campus. The leaves are all changing color, so it is absolutely amazing there right now! Here's a picture of the little girl and I in front of it.
That evening, Mike and Kathryn took Hobbes to the championship volleyball game of the Logos tournament, and my mom watched Madeline. Bray and I went out to dinner at Lefty's, a good ol' burger joint in Moscow, that has fabulous milkshakes (note below) and then we just wandered around, window shopped in the mall, got coffee, looked at movies and books, and just kind of did nothing. We haven't done 'nothing' since before we were married! It was relaxing, and the perfect end to my birthday.
Sharing the milkshake-I love my husband!

The Kiddos:)

We've been pretty busy, so I haven't had a chance to post as many pictures. I've been trying to get a good one of the kids together-as it's been awhile- but this was the best I could manage. Hobbes wanted to 'help her?' as he calls holding her, for the picture.Madeline likes to help Mom with the laundry....especially when it's warm out of the dryer!
Tubtime! Hobbes lovvvesss splashing in the tub- but Madeline can match him! She kicks her legs so hard and fast, she gets more water out of the tub than he does! I need a waterproof poncho or something for bathtime!
This was before one of our late night 'adventures,' but Hobbes didn't want to wait for Madeline to get put in her chair...Bray decided to take a picture at the opportune moment. Hmm...I don't know what I think about it- except that it's very realistic!

'Panks...

Like most people I know, I keep my spatulas and wooden spoons in a jar by the oven. When occasion calls for it, we get one out to help Hobbes through a difficult moment (i.e. disciplinary action). If we've had a rough couple of days, where it seems like the spoon doesn't even need to be put back in the jar, Hobbes will come into the kitchen, and say, "play?" By this, he means, he wants me to get the jar down and put it on the floor for him. When I do that, he chooses a wooden spoon, and begins what I call his 'acting-training.' He says "no-no. no-no. pankin," while hitting his leg with the spoon. After that, he says, "I sorry, it's ok, it's ok," puts the spoon back, and chooses another one to reenact the same thing.
That's our little drama-king.:)

Forts with Daddy...

Hobbes loves to find pillows, blankets, corners,etc to hide in- so a few days ago, Bray made him his first 'big-boy fort.' Here is a picture of what was left of it after Hobbes began playing in it. (it wasn't much, but I'm sure there will be many more!)

Little 'Helper'

We have really been emphasizing picking-up, whether it be toys, things he's dropped, things I've dropped:), or just helping clean up in general. Well, yesterday, I was doing laundry, and I had sorted it into all the piles in the bathroom. I was feeding Madeline, and Hobbes was playing-I thought- in his room. Well, I come into the bathroom, to find him putting the last piece of clothing back into the laundry hamper. He looked up at me, and said "Help-helpin. Clothes-in here." What could I say? I wasn't even upset about having to resort 4 piles of laundry-it was too cute. Besides, when I resorted the laundry, I discovered 2 cars and a juice cup that he had decided should go in there, too.

Learning to pray...

Every night before bed, we have Hobbes pray. Usually, he prays for Lulu,Mommy, Daddy, Ama, Ampa, Gege, Bop...the fam in general. Last night, as he was 'whispering' his prayer, and Daddy was helping him, he finished the Amen, but didn't seem like he was satisfied. He looked up at Bray and said, still in his whisper, "and Maggie?" Bray, trying not to laugh, said, "and help Maggie,too." Then Hobbes rolled over to go to sleep. You see, Maggie is Carolyn's dog-but Hobbes still wanted to make sure she was prayed for. What a sweet, funny boy.

Tackle!

The kids love 'tackle Daddy' time...and Hobbes always makes sure Madeline is included. How...sweet?

Sideways Bouncing...

like I said before, Madeline never stops moving...she doesn't even really NEED a johnny-jump-up, so we tried to get her jumpin on video-only Bray held the camera sideways to get the full view-so it's 'sideways bouncing!' Enjoy!

Cold Weather Cocoa...

Today was pretty chilly, so Hobbes and I decided to warm up with some hot cocoa-in grown-up cups and with whipped cream on top! Yum!