Various Pics

The kids liking their new trucks from Christmas.


Landon posing for the camera. Yes, he's wearing pajamas. He LOVES pajamas. When I go away for a weekend, I bring him pajamas instead of a toy, because he loves them that much!! lol


Hallowe'en 2010 -- we held the block party, and here are 4 of the 5 gals all dressed up.


Landon dressed up as a Fireman for Hallowe'en. He may love his jammies, but he LOVED this costume and wore it non-stop for about a week ... until it was just too grubby to be worn anymore. Great Costco value :-D

Hallowe'en Pics

I hope I don't scar Arlan for life with him being the Hunny Pot!! LOL
I just love these costumes -- so cute! Arlan thought he was quite something, posing and giggling with his costume on. Landon has been wearing his since it arrived, so it's getting a bit grubby, but still cute!!
So this pic doesn't accurately reflect Landon's mood. He was SO excited for Trick-or-Treating this year!! He was sick of pictures though - which is likely where this face comes from!! LOL

Things are plenty slow...

We are having some slow days around here. Mostly Landon just wants to go out back and play in the big pile of shale on the ball diamond - so we do that every day or so. Or go to the park, that's always fun.
Today has been really slow though, as Landon has a cold that is keeping him to a more normal level of activity! He has mostly been laying on the couch watching tv, although he did help me mop the floor, and we spent some time at a friend's house (she had an Usborne Books open house, so we ordered some). I must admit, I'm looking forward to the boys' bedtimes though!! lol

We decorated for Hallowe'en yesterday -- there's not much to it really, a few things up on the doors, our t-shirt ghosts in the tree out front. Landon loved the window clingies the most -- they're all piled on top of each other on the living room window, really high so Arlan can't reach them.

Well, I hear Landon crying, Arlan must be paying him back for something. Better run, until next time...

Another new tooth!

Arlan is continuing on his tooth-popping expedition, with another molar. The top left this time :-) He seldom lets us anywhere near his mouth, but I managed to feel it in there yesterday!! Could explain why he's been crying out in the night, maybe. He likes to cry out, but we try not to go in there too much. Usually a soother plug and he's back to sleep, but it'd be nice if he'd just quit throwing the soother out of the crib -then he could find it and plug it back in himself!! LOL But he doesn't sleep with a night-light, so it's very dark in there at night - no wonder he can't find his soother.

We've been having fun with swim lessons. Arlan goes Thursday morning, Landon on Friday. Because John hasn't been working Fridays, we all go swimming together, and that is a really nice time. Landon is doing SO well ... he can 'swim' with a life-jacket on, loves going down the slide, can almost relax enough to do a back float. He loves loves loves to swim, and I love watching him. He's splashing along, swallowing water and the whole 9-yards, and is completely happy. Next summer will be even better at the lake (assuming it's not miserable the entire time we're there!).
Arlan's doing well too. He'll let us get his head wet, and today I dragged him through the water for a couple of seconds (under the rope) -- no resulting tears!! He loves to fall off the edge, with me to catch him. And even was standing up to fall to me today. But most of all he loves going down the slide. Today we had him in a life-jacket and I'd almost toss him off the slide to John in the water. Then he'd get out and have huge smiles anticipating all that fun to happen again. It is such a fun time to swim with those stinkers!!
Must be tiring too - Arlan has nice long naps, and Landon is quietly playing play-dough with John!! LOL

Other than that, we are seeing winter settle in ... BRRRRR! Landon had fun playing in the snow this afternoon for a bit ... driving his loader around the backyard making tracks. I'm not ready for it though! In more ways than one ... primarily I need to get winter boots for Arlan!! Poor kid, can't get out to play yet ... Maybe I'll have to make a concerted effort to get them this weekend.

Our weekend will be quiet. Mom & dad were going to come up, but plans changed, so we're hanging out at home ... nice and quiet. Hopefully get some shopping done, and I'm planning to do a good long run in preps for my 10K race in 2 weeks. I contemplated painting, either our bedroom or Landons....we'll see if I find the energy to pick out paints today or tomorrow.

Oh yeah, we got the boys' Hallowe'en costumes in the mail the other day (ordered on ebay). Landon has been Winnie the Pooh ever since! He wakes up and wants his Pooh costume! I hope it lasts until Hallowe'en!! We put Arlan's "hunny pot" costume on him, and he loved it too. He's such a ham -- he knows he's adorable, and parades around for our entertainment!! LOL But at least he's not wanting to ALWAYS wear it, so he'll be good for Hallowe'en. I'm sure Landon will be fine too, although he may be a bit dirty...

Other than that - life is good :-) Until next time...

Not so much news...

Life has just been plugging along here. We had the time change on the weekend, so now Arlan is going to bed at 6 pm, waking between 6:30 and 7 am. I'm hoping he'll gradually move back ... I liked 7 pm to 8 am ... but I can live with this. He's had some good nights too, where he's woken only once or twice (and when the first awakening is before I go to sleep, that makes the second one much easier to handle). In fact last night I would've had 6 solid hours, had Landon not woken me up moaning and groaning cold!! :-/

The potty training continues to progress very well. Landon wears a diaper to bed overnight and at naps, but has woken up dry from his naps the past 3 days in a row. He is wearing diapers at all other times, including today when we were out running errands for 2 1/2 hours (no accidents!!). Of course, he's slightly dehydrated now as I am not as liberal with the juiceboxes!! But we're getting better :-) Now if we can get him comfortable with pulling his own gotches down to pee (so that we don't have to take him to the pot every time) that will be good ... but hey, this is significant progress and I'm happy to make it!!

Landon seems to have recovered from the Hallowe'en scare :-/ At least he hasn't mentioned the green paint again!! LOL But he's still scared of the Thomas Hallowe'en episode ... maybe I'll have one of those kids that just doesn't like Hallowe'en (could I be so lucky? Maybe ... then Arlan will LOVE Hallowe'en right!! LOL)

We bought a replacement betta fish today ... half price Tuesday at Petland (call me a mennonite ;-D ). He's beautiful ... an irridescent teal colour, I love it. Landon couldn't have cared less ... he was way more excited to see the crickets in the frog container (luckily the frog didn't eat any of them while Landon was watching!!). So let's hope I don't kill this betta as quickly as the last one :-/

We picked out flooring for the basement on Saturday, they came to measure today. We should have a quote in the next day or two, and then we can get it ordered and a target install date. That means we'll be getting our butts in gear to paint. We've picked our colours, I plan to go and buy the paint and supplies tomorrow. That'll make for some tiring times!!

And my Xmas parcels have almost all arrived (I ordered so much online ... WAY easier with 2 little ones!). I'm just waiting for 2 e-bay purchases, and I'm set. I still have to buy a couple of things that I need to go to the store for, but then I'll be done. Except maybe for a garbage truck that Landon insists Santa NEEDS to bring for him ... he just might wear me down because I'd love to see the look on his face. *shrug* Am I a soft touch or what!! LOL

And really, that's all the news there is. Lots happening, nothing too major. Until next time....

Hallowe'en 2008

Well, Hallowe'en was a bit different this year than last, that's for sure. Firstly, I actually went through the trouble of getting dressed up as the Hulk ... and I think my costume was pretty good (except for the hair, didn't have time to do the hair :-/). apparently it was too good -- Landon was scared $hitle$$ of me!! LOL So I had to wash my face off - with Landon watching so that he knew that it really was me - and remove the muscles. I was the Hulk, from the waist down heh heh
Incidentally, Arlan was fine with me ... he must've been cueing on my scent and sound more than sight *shrug*

Here's our jack-0-lantern. Landon sort of helped to carve it this year. Well, he stuck his spoon into the pumpkin twice to help clean it out!! LOL Then he ran around the house, as usual. But he was adamant "No (s)cary faces!!" So we did a goofy one (much to John's disappointment).

And here is Landon as the black cat. This was taken this morning as we were getting ready to go for a walk. He was very excited to be a kitty! But it was so warm out that he ended up taking the kitty costume off as soon as we got to the store :-/

Tonight however, Landon was Tigger. He was so traumatized from the Hulk costume that he didn't want to go trick-or-treating at all, and certainly wasn't going to wear the black cat costume even if we did go outside with mommy (who had already washed her face!). But he did think he could handle the Tigger costume (same as last year) ... so we squeezed him into it. Poor kid. He wouldn't have gone trick-or-treating at all except some kids came to the door and got candy -- he wanted the candy and we told him the only way to get candy was to go out with mommy. So we did ... to about 15 houses or so. We didn't even finish one side of the crescent and he was ready to go home. But I guess ... enjoy the short nights while I can, right??

And here is the cutest little dalmation ever!!! I may be biased, but man is he CUTE!! Arlan was wearing this all day long ... from our first walk this morning, and then to the carpet store in the afternoon, and to go trick-or-treating with Landon. Arlan's such a happy baby ... Landon's melting down and we're trying to placate him and wash my face etc, the whole time Arlan's just hanging out on the floor with his costume on waiting to go!! And when Landon was ready to come home it worked well as Arlan was ready for bed too. But I gotta' admit, he is frickin' CUTE!! Did I mention...heh heh