A Scooby Doo and Bam Bam Too

Halloween felt like a marathon. Probably one of the most longest days of my life. It just kept going and going. Heidi and I had this great idea for the longest time to dress Cami up as Pebbles and Brecken as Bam Bam. Brecken looks and acts just like him. It was fitting. The problem is that Heidi is no crafter. We all know that. So that responsibility rested on me. Cami's outfit was pretty quick to make. No big deal. Brecken's was a little more involved and I waited until the night before to even start the thing. I had to make the skirt, hat, sash, bone and club which took me about 3 hours until 1am. I felt it the next morning badly. Gunnar also did not have school on Halloween or the two days after so that just adds to the craziness in the house.

The day before I contacted a local publication for advertising with Paparazzi. The lady wanted to me Halloween morning at 11:15am. I already technically missed the deadline for their holiday gift guide edition but they were letting me in. I needed to be in that edition so I made it work. We met at McDonald's so the boys could play and we could actually talk about everything. The interesting part was that I did a Paparazzi Open House for her last November so it felt like a full circle moment for us and made the meeting really relaxed and fun.

After McDonald's we had an hour to prepare for the Canyon County Courthouse trick or treating and I had to make 3 Paparazzi gift bags for a fundraiser Jeff's work was putting on this weekend. I should not have put that off too but I did. We got it done, dressed, and headed over to Jeff's work with Probation and the courthouse. For the last few years, it has been fun to trick or treat with Jeff while he works and his coworkers love seeing the kids all dressed up. It's very fun. We got to trick or treat all 3 floors of the courthouse where many departments decorated in Halloween fun. Total hilarious side note, one of our really good friends April went over there with her girls. Her husband also works with Jeff so she was excited. She talked to another friend beforehand who said it took about an hour to go through. It took April about 10-15 minutes to go through. Later that night as we all met up to trick or treat the neighborhood, April learned that she missed two of the floors. She seriously missed most of the fun! It was pretty funny and now she knows for next year.

After that, Brecken needed a nap SO bad if he was to make it the rest of the night. We stopped at Sonic for the $.50 corndogs and hit it just right for half off drinks and grabbed a couple of slushes and headed home. Brecken went right down after we ate. I wanted to head to our local salon and say hi at their halloween party and vote for the best dressed stylist. The winning stylist won a Kindle Fire and then one lucky person that voted would win one too. Why not. She I woke Brecken up, got them dressed, to the salon and then back home in time to meet up with everyone to trick or treat the neighborhood.

Okay, so here is my rant. I know Trunk or Treats are the thing, its safe, yada yada, yada...but I am not a fan. It's 30 minutes of speed trick or treating. Pretty much after 10 minutes the same kids go through over and over again and it drives me nuts. I guess I remember the good old days where I had to walk from house to house. Yes, it seems like that was the only thing to do (no trunk or treats) so almost every house was participating but now its hit and miss or maybe it is where we live now. We live in an older established neighborhood which I LOVE! I can see where back in its day there were kids every where but all the kids have now grown so its different now. However those many houses that do have their lights on love it when we knock. They get so excited! There was an older lady giving out cookies and fig newtons, literally out of the packaging. So sweet. Brecken thought it was great because he had an instant snack on the go. We had 5 kids total (and a baby-so six) and people thought we were a neighborhood group of sorts. Nope, just a bunch of friends and family. We had fun and the weather was in the 70's! Awesome!

Heidi and I lucked out on a shopping trip and found this Scooby Doo costume at a local kids consignment place. He was so happy. He didn't have any ideas what he wanted to be this year. He told me this is what he always wanted to be. I was worried about sizing. It looked like it worked from the neck to the crotch area but I could tell it was made for a very short child or they chopped the legs off. Thank goodness it fit overall and he work brown pants underneath which worked for warmth too.

Brecken was hilarious. He was SO excited the entire month. He LOVES pumpkins the most by far. At the courthouse, he was way into the decorations and not so much into the candy. He was the same way and every persons house. It got to the point that he was also into knowing if the owner had a dog and would look into their house for one. He is a nut. Cami kept saying "Beckie dress." Yep Cami, he has a skirt on and I used one of yours as a pattern. He is also wearing girls leggings. haha. I didn't want anything baggy. It was just there for warmth. I used a dog bone cookie cutter we have as the pattern for the bones. The club I drew freehand. I used a Paparazzi cardboard box as stability on the inside, wrapped it with the pink foam that comes in the boxes so I didn't have to stuff it a ton and then added extra stuffing to round it out. I also stitched a wood grain on it which was fun. Jeff said that is not what a club really looks like. Whatever...

Gunnar told me later in the day that everyone says Brecken is so cute and they know what he is. Nobody knows that I am Scooby Doo. They think I am a dog and that makes me sad. I told him that not everyone knows Brecken is bam bam. They think he is a caveman. Gunnar had no idea what that was and I had a good laugh and told him that he'll be fine.

 They saw each other for the first time. It was funny and they were excited! At one house, the lady said that Cami was such a cute pumpkin. What!? If anything, she could have been a watermelon. As we were walking down the step, she commented on the bone in her hair. I really don't know if she made the connection at all. We had a good laugh with that one.

I love how Cami is standing there by herself. She started out quite grumpy. Gunnar with his buds-Paige (Belle), Jayden (Batman) and Gunnar (Scooby Doo). We had such a fun group with us this year. The older kids had a blast!

Afterwards, we headed to my mom's like we always do so the kiddos can show off their costumes. With two trick or treaters, we came out with quite the haul this year.

Total rant (and Heidi and Jeff agree): It bugs when people come up with catchy little things to get rid of their kids Halloween candy. We have a local dentist that will buy back your kids candy at a certain rate. I think they donate it to troops overseas or something but still. Then I read the idea on Facebook last night of Switch Witch. Let the kids pick out their 8 or 10 pieces of candy. Then set out the buckets of candy. The next morning a present/small toy will be in its place. Okay, irritating. If you only wanted your kids to have a few pieces of candy, maybe you should have trick or treated that many houses and then stopped. Then let the kids help pass out candy or something at that point. I refuse to go out and buy a toy or something additional for something that I allowed them to do. Dumb in my opinion. What am I going to do with some of the candy, I am going to save some for their stockings at Christmas time. Then I don't have to buy anymore. Now I read that somewhere and I thought that was smart...save yourself some money...

4 Days Apart

In the middle of November, Heidi and I headed over to Meridian to visit one of our friends from high school that we had not seen in a while. Kimberly and I had babies 4 days apart from each other so I was really interested in seeing how Brecken and Gage compared. From everything that we had written on our blogs, their stats were almost identical. She was actually due about 4 days after me. It was fun to read about our pregnancies. We both have c-sections and we both had ours scheduled and ended up going early.

Cami and Brecken are so cute together. Brecken is so interested in her. Funny to see a baby interested in another baby. I love how he tried to hold her little hand. Cami was about 2 weeks in these pictures.

Great Friends

Boy am I thankful for such good friends that bring me back to more of what is important. Since my mom's stroke, my world has been turned upside down. Part of the previous me has been neglected. One of those things is creating in my craft room. Yes, I have many projects in the works but when it comes to scrapbooking traditionally or digitally, it has been neglected. However a bigger part of me has been neglected and that has been talking and being with friends. I have this one friend in particular where we are close. We did everything together and talked 1+ times per day. Things were crazy right before my mom's stroke and I think that it was because of the holidays. Time flies during that time. But after my mom's stroke, everything has stopped. It has been my fault. My life has been so consumed in family. It has taken over. On my off time, I am so busy doing things at home. I need to catch up there.

My friend was the bigger person and emailed me to find out what has happened between the two of us. I am grateful for that email and for her bringing it again to my attention. When my mind was allowed to rest just a little I would think about her and I often. Now we are both moving forward and getting together this weekend which I am so excited about. I greatly appreciate her!

Fun Playdate

This afternoon I met two of my fellow PFOP group members at McDonalds to chat and let the kids play. It is just amazing to me how three of us actually lived miles from each other and none of us knew each other before joining the group. Neat! Anyway, we had a blast. I love spending time with Camille and Mandy. They are so fun and we have great conversations. One of them was of this lady that Cam and Mandy know that she decided she did not like her teeth, so she had them all removed to get dentures with perfect teeth. Is that crazy or what. She has to wait like 8 weeks to get her dentures. So all that she has is gums. Mandy had actually heard of that happening a lot in the East. Too strange for me. Anyway, something funny that happened today was with one of Mandy's little boys. He is about three and Mandy looks across the play area and spots Braeden eating someone elses Sundae at their table. It as SO funny. Cam went to grab the camera but she was too late in getting the picture. The other funny thing that happened was with Aaron, Cam's little boy. She all of a sudden spots him straddling the bottom of the slide with a very long, steady stream of urine coming out of one pant leg. Of course she left and thankfully we had already been there for quite some time. Mandy and I chuckled as she walked out of the place with a very stiff walking Aaron.

I just love spending time with these guys. They are such amazing, strong women. They have so much to share to the first time mommy in me. I love listening to their stories and hearing what I will be experiencing in years to come. Thanks guys for such a fun afternoon. We will have to make this a consistant thing.

There is a baby!

For today and tomorrow I have a good friends 3 kids. Fortunately one is in school full time and the other part time. The youngest and Gunnar are best of buds and that makes that easy. Shelly my friend was induced today with her 4th sweet baby. She just had her about 1/2 hours ago. I am so thrilled and excited. They names her Leah Mae and she was 9lbs 10oz and 22 1/2 in. long!! Holy Cow that is big. The doctor didn't even think that she would be that big. She was actually induced a week early because she tends to have big babies and not go into labor on her own. We are all very excited to go into Boise and see the new baby after dinner tonight. I am also just elated that everything went well and that Shelly and the baby are healthy. Hopefully I will get pictures of her tonight.

**After note: We went to the hospital and saw cute Leah. She is really heavy and big. Shell kids kept commenting all night and this morning about how heavy she was. Quite funny!

Dylan (the youngest-now the big brother) giving baby Leah a kiss

Kaetlynn holding Leah for the first time. She is quite the little mommy.

Brian the older brother of them all. He has so many questions about everything in the room.