Cool Halloween crayons!

Thank you Aunt Janet, Uncle Kent, Tate, Anna, & Sarah for the cool Jack-O-Lantern Crayons and the candy you sent us! We ate the candy imediatly and had a lot of fun drawing with our crayons. What a thoughtful and fun surprise!
~ Dane & Cody

Getting ready for Halloween

The kids are getting really excited for Halloween. They love all the decorations, especially our candy bowl with the grabbing-talking hand. We went to get their costumes today. Why I waited until the Saturday before Halloween I'll never know...it was a mad-house! Oh yeah, now I remember! We've had the Swine flu! I'm glad they will be all better for Halloween...(knock on wood)...next to Christmas it is our favorite holiday.

Mom! Mom!

"Mom! Mom! Take my picture for our blog!"
Your wish is my command buddy!

Sweet Joelle

Everything is a phone to Joelle these days. She will pick anything up and put it to her ear and say "Hi Dad!" So cute!

Cody's new bike

Cody got his first big boy bike for his birthday this year.

Of course he loves it.

We let him ride it up and down the hall way on his birthday because it was raining that day.

Dane and Cody "fixing" the bike.

Thank you!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Stevens for the pirate ship set that can even go in the bathtub! Every time Cody has seen the commercial for this toy he would say "I want that for my birthday". Dane asked me all afternoon "Mom, is it time to take a bath yet? Because I'm feeling really dirty. I think I need to go take a bath NOW." The boys were pruny by the time I was finally able to get them out of the tub that night.

Cody with his cake

Cody with his cake.

Cody wanted a fire truck cake, and a basket ball cake, and a cat cake. So this is what I came up with. Firefighters putting out a burning tree full of kittens, accented with edible sports decals. He seemed really pleased with it so what more could I ask for.

Blowing out his candles at Chuck E. Cheese's.

3 years ago

Here I am posing with Cody on the exact spot that he was born 3 years ago. I wish we had taken pictures that night while we were still at home but we were all in a bit of shock. I told Cody that this was where he was born and he just looked at me like "whatever Mom, I don't know what you are talking about!" He is really talking a lot more these days and it is such a blast getting to know more about what he is thinking about. He is such a fun little guy. Yes, it's true, he is a bit of a trouble maker but he makes us laugh every day and brings us so much joy. I just can't imagine a world without Cody in it...how dull it would be! His favorite game right now is to wipe off my kisses and then I have to say "Swiper, no swiping!" (A line he got from the cartoon Dora the Explorer). We love you Cody! Happy 3rd Birthday!

Safety first!

Well, at least if he falls off the ladder he's wearing his helmet!

A day in the life...

Joelle loves to visit the statues next door. Probably because they are just her size. I just love this picture because with her hat on she looks just like the the one she's standing next to. What a doll!

Joelle wishes she could be just a little bit bigger so she could get this tricycle going all on her own. She fits into our bike loving family just fine.

I love when kids are this age and they explore every little thing and find it so fascinating. She was picking the green berries off this bush and saying "ball". It was really cute until she started putting them in her mouth and we had to move along in our adventures.

Teddy Bear parade

Dane had a Teddy Bear parade at school. Tyler helped him make the float for his bear. (Actually, Tyler did all the work and Dane stuck on a few stickers!) He was so excited about it that morning when he woke up. He jumped out of bed and said "Today is the day! It's the Teddy Bear parade!" You would have thought it was Christmas or something. Of course it was an army themed float, which ended up being very apropriate because I found out after that the parade was in support of our troups.

All played out!

They played 'till they dropped! The tricky part was getting them up to bed without getting them going again!

Just a note.
You should be able to click on the collages and bring them up in a new window that will blow the pictures up so you can see them better. At least that's how it works on my computer.

Rescuing a baby squirrel

Joelle, Cody and I found a baby squirrel that had fallen out of it's nest after a bad storm the night before. We brought it home and after looking online for advice, gave it some clear gatoraid and then called wildlife services. They told us how to make a nest for it in a shallow box and put it back in the tree where we found it so that the mother might come and find her. She was still there the next morning however so we brought her back home and called around until we found a lady here in Flower Mound that is with an organization that rescues wild baby animals and takes care of them until they can survive on thier own. Something got lost in translation because the boys kept asking when we were going to get our squirrel back. She sure was a sweet little thing. We were glad we could help her out and give her a chance to live a full squirrel life.

Walking with the little ones

Tyler is on vacation this week. We didn't go anywhere since Dane is in school now. On Friday Tyler decided to take the dog for a walk out at Grapevine lake, which is just a couple of miles from our house, and he invited us to go with him. We had a great time until Joelle decided she had had enough of the back-pack and wanted to walk on her own. Another stubborn independent soul...I wonder where they get it from? Must be from Tyler...LOL! I'm afraid all our kids get that stubborn independent streak from BOTH of us...as much as I'd like to blame it all on Tyler...I'm afraid I can't. The kids had a great time, unfortunately our walk cut into Joelle's nap time and she got a little crabby at the end. She fell asleep a second we put her in her car seat. This was my baby girls first hike. I hope there are many more to come.

 

Dane and his dad

Tyler is a great dad. He spends a lot of time with the kids doing his best to ensure they have a happy childhood.