Boo

Happy Halloween!

"Boo" - I'm a ghost...in a tutu

No, this is not my child pictured above. I had to share my latest craft project because let's face it...I'm not that crafty. I had seen these ghost costumes for sale on Etsy and Ebay and considered buying one for Eden to wear Halloween. (And, yes, I have always dressed my babies up for the occasion even though they do not trick-or-treat.)

I thought they were cute and girly at the same time. While shopping at Wal-Mart I found the ghost onesie for $3.00 and decided then, that I would attempt to make a tutu for the first time. I found directions on the Internet and purchased my elastic and toile.

While Michael and Ryan were enjoying the haunted sights at the camping trip last Saturday, I made the tutu while watching football.

I am excited to say that it is finished and it looks like a tutu! I even made a toile poof bow for her to wear on her headband. I can't wait to try the whole costume on Eden. And she will get lots of wear out of it...We are having a Halloween party for neighborhood kids and parents on Friday, and Saturday we are attending a wedding reception where costumes are encouraged and of course, she can show it off to trick-or-treaters as she helps Mommy hand out candy.

I'll share pictures once I try it on her. Right now Avery is napping in Eden's room, so I do not dare try to pull it out of her closet. The best thing is...I only spent $7.00 on the entire thing, including the onesie!

The haunted trail

Since Ryan joined the Cub Scouts this year, he has been able to participate in all sorts of new activities...shooting BB guns, archery, fishing, and camping.

The camping trip that he has been wanting to do the most was the Haunted Trail trip at Camp Barstow. So Michael registered them for the trip and set aside the fact that he was going to miss watching the Clemson versus Miami game since it was held that same Saturday.

They didn't arrive until early afternoon due to Emma's Nutcracker dance practice and pictures afterward but they missed the rain that fell all morning and got there in time to enjoy the activities.

Later that evening they got to participate in the Haunted Trail. Let's just say that the trail was much more haunted than Ryan had anticipated and the poor kid attempted to ward off scary mad men trying to attack him in the forest with his flashlight! The creators of the Haunted Trail accomplished their goal and obviously, the trail was truly scary. Ryan was reduced to tears and now refuses to participate in anything "haunted."

3 months old

O.K. so I am a few days late with this...but I didn't completely forget...I am just slow to post things lately. Eden is 3 months old!

You can always get a big smile out of her just by grinning at her.

You can also get her laughing at times and it is hysterical sounding. Avery has a knack at it and for the last two weeks at church has had her laughing for awhile. It is so funny that I can't help but laugh at her...in the middle of church. Very cute!

She is my little sidekick on all of my many errands. A normal day when the other kids are in school, we might hit up five or six different places.

Eden is sleeping through the night (most nights anyway.) A normal bedtime for her could be as early as 8:00 p.m. and she usually wakes up around 7:00 a.m.

She is starting to notice her hands now and spends large chunks of time moving them around above her and inspecting them. She still loves her mobile in her crib and if you need to take care of a couple of things and need a place to entertain her, you can always lie her underneath a ceiling fan. She finds them fascinating! Lucky for us, we have one in almost every room!

Eden is also following in her big sister Avery's footsteps and seems to be a thumb sucker. I guess if she is not going to take a pacifier, it is the next best thing.

Finally, please excuse the fact that she is in the same outfit as she was in the previous post. I promise she does have more than one outfit - it just worked out that way!

Pump up the volume...

"Pump up the volume, pump up the volume, pump up the volume...dance, dance!"

These are the lyrics that have been playing in my head all day since I washed Eden's hair earlier today.


Or I keep picturing her on a shampoo commercial with a voice over saying, "Don't you wish your hair had this much volume?"

Even the pest control man who was over spraying inside of our house today saw Eden swinging in her swing and had to stop and laugh..."That hair!!!"

Someday she will probably look back at these pictures and think, "Wow! I wish my hair was as cool as it was back then!" Ha, ha!

Big girl

Here are a couple pictures of Eden taken this afternoon. I know I keep saying this over and over again, but she is getting so big!

The weather has been cooler the last few days so we have been able to bring out our new fall/winter clothes...and today we broke out the Mary Jane Trumpette socks! I have way too much fun getting this little girl dressed everyday!

My three sweet girls

Avery has been sick for the last few days with a stomach virus, but has been fine all of today. Still, I kept her out of preschool today but she will return tomorrow. Thursday will be bliss for me...After cleaning up puke and nasty diapers, waking in the middle of the night to change sheets, and repeating myself over and over - "Stay away from the baby!" - I will finally have a few hours to myself (and of course Eden) to run errands. I can't wait!

Emma got home from preschool today and so wanted to hold Eden. Actually she wanted to carry Eden up and down the stairs and I had to explain that was not an option, so she settled for taking a few pictures with her precious younger sisters. Aren't my three girls sweet?

At least they have their moments.

It's that time of year again...

Apple picking and visiting the pumpkin patch at a country farm is up there on my list of important activities for the fall. As you can see from the number of pictures I took (and these are just a few), I absolutely love taking photos of the kids in a scenic environment like this.

This year we decided to visit Niven's Apple Farm in Moore, SC. Although it is not as scenic as the mountainous Skytop Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC, it is still very country and not quite as far of a drive for us. Plus with a newborn, we wanted to avoid some of the major walking up and down hills that is necessary at Skytop.

Plus, they have a huge (several) pumpkin patch and an apple orchard for picking apples.

We took a lot of pictures with the pumpkins, but ironically did not actually purchase any to bring home. It is hard to carry heavy pumpkins around while watching over four children so we will pick out some pumpkins nearby at our local farm in Lexington.

They had some really interesting shaped pumpkins, such as this one that Emma is standing by.

The two girls loving the pumpkins...

The kids were able to run around the pumpkin patches and the farm also had farm animals to visit and an old-fashioned playground area for the kids where they could jump on old tractor tires and crawl through black tubing.

This older gentlemen greeted guests outside of the country store...

Eden was decked out for the occasion and several people asked if they could keep the "pumpkin" with them. Obviously, we declined their offers.

Sweet big brother...

And of course, what visit to the farm is complete without a hayride?

Our kids are rather spoiled and by the end of the fall season have generally been on several hayrides during their multiple visits to farms. But I figure, there is much worse things to be doing with your time.

The hayride dropped us off in the apple orchard so we were able to try and retrieve the few available apples left on the trees.

They were rather picked over already, so most of the apples were at the very top of the trees. Not the most practical of things for a bunch of small children (and small mom).

Michael lifted them up so they could pick their own apples.

And there were a few trees that had apples still well within reach for the kids.

Emma picking an apple by herself...

The kids posed for this picture towards the end of our visit. They were all getting tired and irritable and at one point Ryan and Emma were fighting over who could "sit" in the pretend driver's seat. Emma was asked to take a turn and got mad and stomped off. But she eventually came back, and this is the photo we got...Ryan's expression driving was funny and Avery is barely peaking out of the window.

And then we headed home, hot, tired and dirty. And got ready for our 1 1/2 hour drive back home - now that is always fun!

Ryanisms

"Ryanisms" - otherwise known as "the funny, off-the-wall things that come out of Ryan's mouth."

Earlier today I was reapplying make-up since we were all going over to Ryan's elementary school tonight for Family Reading Night. Ryan comes walking into the room with a cowboy vest, gun holster, water gun, part of an iron man toy on his arm and rubber bands around his arms and feet. He starts taking the fancy ensemble off piece by piece explaining that he is dressed up like Star Wars: The Clone Wars character Cad Bain.

I have no idea who Bain is - I have never seen "The Clone Wars" shows or movie.

So I ask Ryan, "Does Bain wear rubber bands around his arms and legs?"

He looks at me like that is the strangest question he has ever heard and replies, "Of course not, Mom, they don't have rubber bands in the galaxy, far, far away!"

Stupid me...

So we make it to the Family Reading Night at Ryan's school, have dinner and hit the book fair. Ryan decides to select a book by the local visiting author, Anthony D. Fredericks, called Under One Rock : Bugs, Slugs and Other Ughs, that he wants to have autographed.

We go into the room where the author is signing books and magically, don't have to wait. Ryan thanks Mr. Fredericks for signing his new book and the author reminds us to catch his presentation at 7:30 in the cafeteria.

Ryan responds, "Yes, I've heard that you are full of all sorts of entertainment!"

Of course, the author and everyone else in the room starts laughing and Ryan gets embarrassed. He didn't mean to be funny.

Kmart - the place to shop (if you are 4 years old)

Emma's preschool class just finished a unit on families and getting to know one another. They each created their very own picture of themselves and this is what Emma designed! I love her multi-colored outfit - so creative!

The funniest part though, was when I read her description of her favorite things. When asked to complete the sentence, "I like to...," Emma says "go to Kmart because they have cool stuff!" What!?!

I just started laughing when I read that because we hardly ever go to Kmart. It's not like I have anything against the store, but I just generally can find what I am looking for more efficiently at Target or Wal-Mart. Kmart, huh?

Very cute project! It was one of those that I saved in a drawer to share with her when she gets older.

Show me that SMILE

My, how my baby is growing up! Eden's looks seem to be slowly changing a bit - I guess she is rounding out a little more now. We are still stylin' with the headbands but she seems to like the smaller, more narrow bands more than the huge bows - surprise, surprise.

And she is smiling! (She has been for awhile but it has always been so difficult to capture on camera.)

On a completely different note, we have been busy, busy, busy. Ryan is participating in Boy Scouts and spent Saturday morning selling popcorn as a fundraiser outside of Lowes. Michael was with him and said he has excellent salesmanship qualities. I guess he asked every person as they left the store if they would be willing to help a Boy Scout out. He even brought home popcorn that random strangers bought for him!

Emma is still doing her Nutcracker practice each Saturday - what a cute dance - and she had a birthday party right after dance practice last Saturday.

Michael, Eden and I went to our local town park where the Rotary Club was doing an oyster roast fundraiser. We ate our share of steamed oysters and walked around with Eden.

Sunday we met up with a real estate agent to look at a few homes in our area. There is one we have found that we really love and it is in a great neighborhood at a killer price, but I'm not sure if all things will come together to make it work. It is so hard finding a home big enough for all of us!

However, our house does have a FSBO sign out front now. I also listed it on Craigslist and did a blog page to use to advertise and promote the house: http://buy409faskin.blogspot.com/. We'll see if we get any interest. If not, I assume things were not meant to be right now.

So that is what we have been up to - like I said, busy. I have many more pictures that I will try and post soon. I'm just having a difficult time finding time to work on it lately.