A "Boo"tiful Night

This is a bittersweet blog to write because it will be the last of the Halloween posts.  Most of you are breathing a sigh of relief that you don't have to see anymore Elmo costumes!! (well after today). Saturday night we had our annual Halloween party at Debbi and Dayton's house. The decorations looked amazing, the food was perfect, and the costumes were spooktacular!!  Mike made some trophies for the costume contest... well we failed to get the trophies out and vote!! Therefore, I'm electing myself as the voter of all costumes (since I'm the only who writes a blog).

First Award is given to the "other" Wood Family for best costume coordination between a family.  Everett was the perfect strong man...but I have to say the lion outfit was my favorite!! Maybe because it looked so comfy.

Auntie Blam wins for the only costume that would make the kids smile!! A bunch of grapes!! She is such a teacher and all about the kids all the time!!

Hands down the most creative costume goes to my cousin Tyler. He was Elliot from ET. The fact that he even remembered the kids name from a movie we watched together when we were 5, was amazing!

I'm gonna vote Mike and I as the best couple costume. 1950's housewife and the milkman.

There's no surprise here... these two were definitely the cutest costumes there!! Granted Jacob was naked most of the night, he still wins.

Some of the Honorable Mentions were Jaybee- a mime (she actually went a whole 20 seconds without talking!!), Dayton- as a clown (I didn't get any good pictures of him otherwise he would have won the most dedicated to his costume award), Tweedy- was the walk of shame (she would have won funniest if she came in basketball shorts...the girls will get that one), My dad- was backwards man (definitely most unique).

I just love this little Elmo!! I was actually a little sad packing that costume away today.

Another successful Halloween Party night!!!

All Hallows Day

 After days of preparation and anticipation, Halloween Day finally fell upon us!!  Although I used the word preparation, I should be clear that I had to place Jacob in daycare and recruit Grammy Sue to come up and help me get everything finalized.  As most of you know, I am not one for baking/cooking...boiling water for that matter. However, with being 36 weeks pregnant something has shifted in my mentality and I am in full nesting mode!! So what did this "Susie Homemaker" try and do? Oh, bake approximately 120 cookies for all the neighbors and teachers at Jacob's daycare!! I chose two different recipes, one for the kids in the house and one for the grown-ups. I think they actually turned out rather tasty and super cute!!

 I love the picture at the top. Jacob looks like he is the Halloween Santa Clause!! Although this was a major feat and took ALL day long...I am so glad that I did it. We got to meet most of our neighbors and have an actual conversation with them. It was a great way to extend our hands to people that we really want to get to know. I already have one mom mentioning organizing a block party!!! EEK I'm excited!!

 After we delivered all our cookies and treats, we went to Gabby's neighborhood to trick or treat. The amount of children in both our neighborhoods was insane!! I thought we had traveled back to the 1950's!! It was awesome to see so many kids and parents out and about having fun. Jacob got a little intimidated at the doors if there were a lot of kids, but he got through it.  He enjoyed placing the candy in the bucket himself.  He made an adorable Elmo (again). I think that was the best $12.00's I have spent in a long time. He has worn it 4 times this week!!

 An added bonus to Halloween night in this area is the firefighters come out and hand out candy!! They let the kids climb into the driver's seat, they kept their lights flashing, and they handed out stickers!! Minus the whole stranger danger part...Jacob had a blast!!! He kept saying "wee-woo, wee-woo." Needless to say Jacob had a great night!! He slept in until almost 10 the next morning!!

Trunk O' Treating

Yes, you did read that title correctly and no I did not mistype (as I often do). If you have never heard of Trunk O' Treating before reading this blog, you are not alone. Before moving to this area I had never even remotely heard the term, but come Halloween 2013 in Rocklin, this is the big thing everyone does for the week leading up to Halloween night. The idea behind Trunk O' Treating is that you go to a parking lot (it's organized, not just random people), and people decorate the trunks of their cars and hand out candy. It's an idea that can only happen during Halloween time... when else can you tell your child to go up to a trunk of a car and get candy from a stranger (that may or may not be in a cage in their hatchback).

 

This Trunk O' Treat was through Gabby and Jason's church. They had a chili and cornbread contest before... so naturally free food and candy, the Wood family was there!! After the wonderful food we started the real fun. Jacob and Memo had been practicing all week on how to say "Trick or Treat!" They both did quite well with thee phrase. Memo was very good at saying "thank you," whereas Jacob just took the candy and ran. 

 I forgot to mention that Memo was Boo from Monsters Inc. She was absolutely adorable!! Jacob's favorite thing there was the giant pumpkin (as seen in the picture at the top). Every time he saw it, he made a bee line towards it. Watching Elmo run was hilarious!! Speaking of which here are two videos of Boo and Elmo just running and being funny...

 

The kids were so tired by the end of the night. Jacob didn't get up until 9:30 the next morning and still took a 2.5 hour nap!! It was a great warm-up to trick or treating!! we will definitely be doing this again.

Pumpkin Carving

With it being four days before the greatest holiday on earth, we decided to carve our pumpkins!!! Gabby, Jason, and Memo came over for the fun festivities. The kids spent the time painting pumpkins and playing outside, but today was more about the grown ups getting their crafts done. Mike bought a dremol tool (I have no clue how to spell that word) to carve his very ambitious pumpkin. About 20 minutes in, Mike got frustrated and abandoned his pumpkin idea. He did however, still make a pretty awesome pumpkin.

One of these photos may not look like the other... and that would be correct. I did end up carving a very lame pumpkin (my mother would be disappointed). But I had another craft on my mind!! I wanted o make a recipe...GASP!!! It must be the fall air combined with my pregnancy that is making me become quite domestic. I wanted to make salt and vinegar pumpkin seeds. Getting the seeds from five pumpkins, according to Gabby, is like getting rice from a rice field. Talk about tedious!! It took forever and I don't even know if it was worth it because I just took them out of the oven today.

Memo and Jacob did enjoy painting the pumpkins. Memo would get upset when she got dirty while Jacob would sit and continue to paint himself more than the pumpkin. They did have a blast together!

Here are the final products from left to right... Mike, Ashley, Jacob, Memo, Jason, Gabby. It's amazing that Mike's pumpkin still turned out amazing even though he was so frustrated and just did this freehand!!

Pancake House Marathon

Two of Jacob's aunties ran a marathon this weekend.  It was their first one and they trained really hard for it!! We are all very proud of Auntie Towee and Auntie Beeze!!! Apparently Jacob really wanted to show them his support by having a marathon of his own. His marathon did not involve running or any physical activity for that matter...it involved eating. This Sunday morning we decided to go out to breakfast as a family, to our local favorite breakfast place, The Pancake House. We got there about 9:30ish thinking that we could be home for most of the Niner game. We had no idea that at 11:00 we would still be sitting at the table.  Most people would think that it took so long because of the service... nope!!! Our child was just eating for that long!!!

He had 2 pancakes, 1 1/2 sausages, some eggs, and almost all his milk.

He really enjoys the process of eating... stopping to read, saying hi to his table neighbors, or just leaning back to take a breather from his wonderful food.

I was unable to catch the true face of Mike at the table. When Jacob asked for "more pancake?" Mike had the most shocked face!! I couldn't stop laughing!!!

When we arrived the resteraunt was completely full with a line waiting outside... this is what it looked like when we left. The waiter was even impressed with Jacob. I think he may be destined to be a food critic...although I am not sure there is any food he does not like!

Fall Brings Colds..

As much as I love this weather and love this time of year, I can't deny the fact that I am not a huge fan of the illnesses it brings. It not only makes my work life busy, but it also makes my personal life busy. Jacob has had a "cold" off and on for almost a month. His humidifier has become a staple in his room. When he woke up Monday morning with his eyes glued shut by eye boogers, I decided it was time to bring him in. The doctor prescribed us antibiotics and eye drops. I asked the doctor if there was any tips on giving the eye drops to a toddler. His response was, "It's easy for me to prescribe them, but hard for you to give them." LOL!!! Thanks for the the advice!! Jacob has always been a good medicine taker, but I thought this would be different. It cracks me up because I tell him its time for your eye medicine and he points to his eyes and says "eye."  He actually enjoys it!! I thought this video was too cute not to share...

 

I love this little guy!!! He is just so easy going!!

When your BFF is a girl...

Sometimes your manhood gets a little compromised.  For Memo's birthday we bought her six pairs of high heels. Now, when I purchased them I never thought my son would be wearing them!! LOL. The funniest part was when he first put them on he was slipping and sliding all over the place...I guess he does take after me!! After a little practice on the carpet he was ready to cruise...

Yes he is pulling a pink wagon!! We were able to get him to change his shoes before going to the park, but the pink wagon had to come with us!!

He did strike a pose before we left...

VOGUE!!!