Caving, and going political...

If you somehow missed the Obama primetime infomercial, you should check it out HERE It is the first time in 16 years a presidential candidate has done something like this. I think it was fabulous. He paid nearly $4-5 million on this, 30 minutes, over seven networks... and he's only used privately raised money. And he's making BIG RELEVANT arguments.

Also, if you are wondering how the Obama Tax Cut will (or won't effect) you, go to barackobama.com and see for yourself... worth looking into.

Pumpkin carving

The start, around 6:50 pm.


At 8:46pm Jacob is still working on this jack-o-lantern, so final pictures will be upload tomorrow (maybe!).

ETA: ack! red eye! sorry.

More trick-or-treating pictures

This afternoon the boys and I met Leah, Cal and Ike at Kowalski's (a local grocery store chain) for some trick-or-treating. The store handed out some great snacks - apples, juice boxes, cheese sticks, strawberry milk, yogurt, Cheetos and mini-Pepsi products. After trick-or-treating we sat outside and the kids basically ate/drank their way through the loot.



A classic preschool smile.


A skuffle over a mini-shopping cart


All the boys (I'm hoping Leah's picture came out better!)


Cal and Sammy

"Pop"

Freddie's new favorite thing is lolipops. We keep a treat bag on top of the fridge and he'll look up and ask, "Pop?" His favorites are DumDums, I think because he likes to take off the wrappers.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ike!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Isaac's second birthday at Choo Choo Bob's last Saturday.

Here is a picture of the birthday boy:

Sorry for the crummy fuzzy photo... off to look through the album and upload to flickr. I hope there are some better ones! (Leah has good pictures on her blog - check out Miller Time if you get a chance!)

In other birthday news, today is Freddie's half birthday!

Mega Blok House

For my mom friends. :)

I've been lurking through the Retro Housewife site lately (link at right) and I came across something that I thought I would share with you all, especially since it seems to come up frequently in our conversations. The full article can be found here.

The drive to bare children is so strong that it leads to all sorts of peculiar behavior, huge expenditure and also grief when the blessed event does not occur. At some basic level every woman wants to get pregnant even if the circumstances are not convenient, or her brain is adamantly against it. We can't help it....we were made that way.

I mean, if you look at life rationally, and especially if you live in a country of opportunity for women, why oh why would one choose to forego your freedom, much of your financial resources, and any chance of sleeping in for at least 20 years to have and raise children? Wouldn't it be more fun to travel the world, eat cake, go to the movies when you want, become a plastic surgeon or just nap on the beach?

There is really nothing rational about it, except for the fact that we need to do it, and that nature wants us to do it. The odds are completely stacked in the corner of the reproduction god. It would actually be better if certain people abstained from having children; and by certain people I mean people who really don't want to raise children, or are really, really bad at raising them, or want children for all the wrong reasons. ...

The manly way to ride a princess bike.

Sammy on Vica's princess bike., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

With skulls and crossbones and a Yankees cap, of course. Sammy had so much fun riding Vica's bike for about an hour at playgroup last Thursday. Thanks to Vica for such awesome sharing!

Kaia and Freddie

Freddie vs. Kaia, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Just cause it's funny.

Jacob asked me why it was funny this morning so I thought I should clarify - Freddie and Kaia are a mere six weeks apart in age.

Pictures from the Pumpkin Patch.

The fam, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Lots more for ya on Flickr. :)

Putting the boys to work.

more raking by Freddie, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Raking. It was raining most of the day yesterday, but when it let up the boys and I went outside to fill big pumpkin trash bags with just *some* of the leaves decorating our front yard. Freddie held the big rake and Sammy used his little yellow rake to collect enough (wet) leaves to jump in.

Boo at the Zoo

The fam traveled to Duluth to see Cody and Ashley and go to Boo at the Zoo this past weekend. It was a great test-run of the boys in their costumes, and overall fun way to kick off our Halloween festivities. Just Ashley and I took the boys, as Cody was suffering from a aching back and J hung around offering moral support by watching college football at his side (we left after the UT/OU game in case anyone was wondering).

The boys had so much fun trick-or-treating and checking out the animals. We saw kangaroos (super weird), a polar bear, a tiger, monkeys, and lots of other critters I'm forgetting at the moment. Sammy enjoyed yelling "trick or treat!" as loud as he could at each booth, and Freddie enjoyed about 8 lolipops and the huge rain puddles along the trail. By the end of the event Freddie was a muddy mess and I basically had to strip him down before putting him in J's new car. I had to wash the entire chicken suit and his shoes.









Thanks to Codes-n-Ash for having us! I wish I'd taken pictures of their house all decorated for Halloween - it was very impressive and festive. I loved it! And the boys especially enjoyed the special Halloween cupcakes Ashley made for them, complete with skeltons, holiday sprinkles, ghosts and their initials. yummmm....

More pictures in the Duluth set on Flickr. CLICK HERE

Push!

Sammy pushing Freddie in the car:


Freddie pushing the car:

Jump!

Sammy is becoming more and more daring in his physical feats!

Picture day!

Here is what Sammy wore for his school pictures yesterday.


And here are Sammy and Freddie, smooshing each other again (ie fighting over the red chair, in a friendly way):


And Mr. I Have The Chair to Myself

Bed head.

Just a funny pic of Sammy from Tuesday morning. He got a hair cut Wednesday afternoon (Thurs was picture day at school).

Extended Rear Facing (in car seats)

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, especially since I know a lot of parents of toddlers. But, here it is -- your PSA about Extended Rear Facing, just in case your pediatrician dropped the ball on this one and failed to mention it at your baby's one year well-check.

First, what is Extended Rear Facing?
From Car Safety 4 Kids (www.carsafety4kids.com):

Extended rear-facing simply means to keep a child in the rear-facing position after the child reaches 1 year and 20 lbs. One year and 20 lbs is the minimum requirement for turning a child to the forward-facing position. This means that the child must meet BOTH requirements before being turned. A 10 month old that is 20 lbs needs to be rear-facing in a convertible seat. A 14 month old who is only 18 lbs still needs to be rearfacing. The AAP now recommends keeping a child rear-facing until the upper limits of the seat are reached. Since many seats rear-face up to 30-35 pounds (depending on the seat), many children can ride rear-facing into their second, third, and even fourth year of life. In Sweden, it is common practice to keep children rear-facing until 4 or 5 years of age. The reason? It is the safest way for anyone to ride. Need proof? *From 1992 through June of 1997, only 9 properly restrained rear-facing children died in Sweden (*CPSafety). In the United States, the number one cause of death in children under one year of age is from congenital anomalies . At the age of one, when most children start riding forward-facing, the number one cause of death is motor vehicle crashes(Child Passenger Safety Fact Sheet).

From the AAP:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all infants should ride rear-facing starting with their first ride home from the hospital until they have reached at least 1 year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds. It is even better for them to ride rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer.

Please check the requirements of your seat! For reference Freddie is currently in a Britax Marathon, which he can ride backward in until he reaches 33lbs. 33lbs!

For more reading on ERF: http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx
For videos about ERF (if you need more convincing, links to other videos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo&feature=related

While the boys and I were in Wisconsin...

My handsome husband was in Trout Lake, MN, performing with Nate and our church band.

Here's the band. Jacob is the best looking guy in the band. Well, definitely in the top three. Good looking guys in the band. ;)


eta there are five dudes in the original pic. for some reason blogger is cropping my photos. I will have to investigate later. :p

A good one of the pumpkin hat.

pumpkin head, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

I think it's super cute. Freddie tolerates it. Ah, it's tough to be adorable.

I have the sweetest boys.

My cuties!, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

They did this all by themselves and I ran to get the camera. Of course, this is right before they started smashing into each other and wrestling. Boys are funny.

Our visit to Kennedy's House!

The boys and I traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend to visit KP and her new baby brother Gage! The drive took me a little longer than I would have liked (thanks to my terrible sense of direction, road construction and confusion, and my overall dislike of driving) but the trip was worth it. The kids had so much fun at Kennedy's house (Sammy loved riding bikes outside with Kennedy and he keeps asking to go back) and it was wonderful to meet Gage while he's still so itty bitty (weighing in at around 7lbs!).

Thanks to Holly and Jesse for having us! Your new house is lovely (and HUGE!) and the Wisconsin fall is stunning. But the local Catholic Church needs to work on their Pumpkin Fest, right Holly? (we walked into them blaring "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" if that gives y'all any indication) LOL!

Here's a cute picture I got of the kids on a huge rock in the front yard.


Sammy <3's KP! :D


Lots more pics of our trip on Flickr: CLICK HERE!

An attempt at getting a photo

of my two children together.


Sammy looks adorable. Freddie, uncooperative.


Bird on the head ???


Freddie, alone, at the bottom of the stairs. Smiling because he got there all by himself. And he likes to say "Cheese!"

"Cat"

Freddie's favorite item, aside from "Blankie" and "Om-meeee" (aka Mommy) is Cat. He loves this thing. He bites Cat on the face, pulls his whiskers, throws him around, cuddles him, drops him, but will not go to sleep without him. (Her?)

Freddie loves Cat.

Piano Boy

My little musical man.





Sammy loves to sing and play instruments. I keep telling Jacob we need to teach him more. Of course, I'm a musical dumbie so I have no idea what more is, I just know that my boy is SO interested and we need to get him started on... something musical. Suzuki method perhaps. Note to self: look into it!

I've fallen behind.

On updating the blog because I've been knitting. Check out my Naptime Knits album on Flickr if you are at all interested in my projects. :)

I also post pictures of the boys of Flickr, so that's a good stop if you see I haven't updated here in a few days.


Wha?! A cute hat for me? I won't wear it. Oh, but you will stubborn child of mine.