Day 365 - Happy 365 Halloween

Here is to 1 year (365 days) of pictures. While it didn't turn out exactly as I planned, I did take 365 plus pics and now I have roughly a year documented of pictures. It was definitely a lot harder to do than I would have thought and much more time consuming, but it was a fun goal to have.

Day 364 - Doctors

My dad (or Grandpa to them) had to spend some time in the hospital recently. Grandma made friends with the nurses while there and picked up these for the kids. They have loved playing doctor ever since.

Day 363 - Date Night IN

For the last 2 months, my hubby and I haven't gotten out of the house much and never together without kids. So we decided to have a date night IN. We picked up this delicious gem (Godiva Chocolate cheesecake, Mmmm) and a Redbox. We put all the kiddies to bed and enjoyed a wonderful break from Mommy and Daddy for awhile.

Day 362 - Chill

We have loved this fall weather. Just hanging outside and chilling.

Day 361 - Happy/Scary Face

We were carving pumpkins.

I asked, "What kind of pumpkin face do you want to carve?"

Boy: "I want a happy and scary face."

Me: "What does a Happy/Scary face look like?"

Day 360 - Carving fun

This girl was not a fan of pumpkin innards. Notice the progression as she carved this pumpkin.

Why the spitting you ask? She said she had to spit because it was so gross. Hmm.

Day 359 - Sisters

My girls. I like the sound of that.

Day 358 - Profile

Sweet baby's profile. I have been eating up every minute and baby cuddle I can get and loving it. I especially love those chubby cheeks and double chin.

Day 357 - Trellis

My husband has had a vision for our yard from the get go. I have let him run with it mostly, adding my two bits occasionally. Sometimes he will come to me with an idea that I am not really sure what to think. He mentioned this trellis for our grape plants and what he wanted it to look like. I really couldn't envision it, but due to past experience I trusted him. He has such a great eye for landscaping. I think it looks amazing. I can't wait to have it filled with delicious little grapes either.

Day 356 - Watching

Day 355 - Baby legs

Notice the similarities?

Day 354 - Baby

I have been a little M.I.A (missing in action) and here is why. A beautiful little girl.

Day 353 - Ready

I am ready! The car seat came in the mail last week. Both the kids rooms are painted and sleeping arrangements ready. I have done about 10 loads of wash. Purchased diapers and wipes. My chubby pregnant feet have cute glitter toes (thanks Dear). Cleaned all of the baby gear...swing, boppy, high chair, toys, etc. Now all that is left is for this baby to come.

Day 352 - Back to School

Grandma sent the kiddies the cutest little care packages of goodies for their first days of school. It wished them luck and most of all made them feel important and excited. Thanks Grandma!

Day 351 - Nostalgia

I was at the store the other day and saw these lips and was feeling a bit nostalgic. I remember a family at the end of our street growing up that turned their garage into a spook alley every Halloween. As a reward for making it through, they passed out these wonderful wax lips. Sure my children would love them as much as I did, I bought some for them. Apparently, chewing wax is much less fun now days then it was when I was growing up.

Day 350 - No Girls Allowed... Sort of

We reassigned bedrooms, finally splitting up the two little ones. We have been painting and decorating each room, but apparently there was one thing we neglected... the above sign made courtesy of brother. This is the sign he put on his door. If you can't tell it is a "No Sister" allowed sign.

Day 349 - Signs

If you have ever seen the movie "Signs", you may remember the little girl in that movie who left cups of water all over the house because it was "contaminated".

We have our own version of that going on at our house. Today I counted 10 cups just in the kitchen area! I suppose in the event of an alien attack will will be able to safely ride it out due to our "precautions".

Day 348 - Little Critter's potty woes

I love, love, love the Little critter book series! However, I recently came across a book that makes me love them even more and possibly feel that I should be seeking some sort of royalties from the sell of this book since it seems to have come straight from my children's lives.

It is...

Case 1 - My children were actually playing trains last week, when sister made a stinky and this looked about spot on.

Case 2 - What is my child's all time favorite thing in the world... Ice Cream. (Notice little sister critter asking for it)

Case 3 - Which I really think is the biggest selling point. Look at my picture and the one below from the book.

And finally, this is my absolute favorite picture from the book and I just had to include it. I love this shot, it cracks me up just looking at it.

Day 347 - 1st day

This guy started kindergarten this week. Looking at this picture makes me realize that one day down the road he will come to me and say "I can't believe you sent me to school with my hair looking like that!" I am apologizing in advance. Anyway, I was so excited and worried (enough for the both of us) that I think all I left for him was curiosity about the day. From what he has been telling me, it all sounds very fun. This week, he got to chase a gingerbread man around the school, draw letters in applesauce (mom never lets him play with his food at home, so this was huge!) and bite letters into cookies. He made friends and put out fake fires on the playground. He even got a Slurpee from his carpool mom on the ride home. Talk about a successful week and we still have a few days left!

Day 346 - Sour

I gave the kids some sour candy - here is brother's reaction

1. Excitement "yea, I get candy!"

2. Confusion - "What is this?"

3. Cringe - "Sour!!"

4. Realization - "I don't like this candy!"

Day 345 - Sister's reaction

Sister's reaction to the sour candy wasn't quite as jovial...

Following this face, she attempted to hold the candy in her mouth with her hand (you know how she feels about candy), took it out, and then promptly threw up. Yes, threw up. Luckily, she was in the shower when I gave it to her. Then she took the candy and threw it across the room.

Where it landed here. I think mom has learned her lesson.

I thought it was interesting how she didn't just take the candy out, but actually threw it as far from her as possible. Are there any bad things, influences, sour situations that we need to get rid of or do we hang on to them?

Day 344 - Pumpkin

A friend gave me this fabulous recipe for pumpkin cookies that takes only 3 ingredients (all of which store nicely in your food storage) and are weight watchers amounting to only 40 calories per cookie (although, there is no way I can stop at 1 or 2, but it sure makes 6 cookies a lot less stressful :)

The ingredients are: 1 box spice cake mix, 1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips, and 1 - 15 oz can pumpkin. Mix and bake. Yum.

However, since I could not find a 15 oz can (I went to 3 stores) I bought the larger one and we have been having a pumpkin good time for breakfast. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes (to die for) and Pumpkin spice waffles (Yum). It has put me in such a good mood and I really can't wait for fall. Now I just need some recipes for pumpkin bisque or pumpkin ravioli and I will be set. (If you have a good pumpkin recipe, feel free to submit - I would love to try it!)

Day 343 - Cookies

Thank you Britt for the cookie sampling and for introducing me to my new great love. This cookie (The Frida) is a Mole dough with a chile de arbol ganache center. Topped with cinnamon toasted pepitas. Arriba! So yummy!

Day 342 - Sunflowers

I love, love, love freshly picked flowers! These came from my garden.

Day 341 - Aloha

Since I can't go to Hawaii, might as well bring Hawaii to me.

Day 340 - Fresh

Dear Summer,

Why did you take so long to get here? I have been waiting for these tasty treats all season and am only now beginning to harvest them. They certainly are worth the wait. Do tomatoes actually have flavor at other times of the year?

Please keep the sunshine coming so I can keep plucking these little gems from my garden.

Sincerely,

Me

Day 339 - Early riser

I was awaken this morning to an odd noise I couldn't quite place. Upon researching it, I discovered my little boy using a pencil to poke holes into this box. When I started questioning, he informed me that when he woke up this morning he: made his bed, brushed his teeth, dressed himself, emptied the dishwasher, and found this box to turn into a robot. I am impressed he did all of this before the rest of us even got out of bed!

Here is sister being a stink and pushing over box man.

Day 338 - Summer Salad

This salad was amazing! Mango Grape salsa with a lime vinaigrette, bell peppers and grilled chicken.

Day 337 - 1st day of school

Today was a momentous day! My little monkey started school today! Everyone was excited, but probably no one as much as mom. She certainly keeps me on my toes and having a 2 hour break was heavenly. We have a tradition of getting a little treat afterward and breaking down the festivities of the first day of school. What I found out over Gelato was Alex was naughty and got sent to time out (also, Alex is NOT a boy). Lexy kicked her in the face and she was mad about it. Me: "What did you do when she kicked you?" Sis: "Nothing, I was just mad!" Finally, She got a treat from "those" boys and she really, really liked school! Sounds like a success - minus the kick in the face.