Trick or Treat 2009

Two-year-olds only need so much candy, but no one could resist this king of beasts. Colter proved to be a very successful candy hunter; his Halloween haul will last for weeks! We'll have to send some to school for John's students. Hopefully, the lion won't notice if some of the candy goes missing. :) One would think an elephant would be wary of lions, but instead running in fear, Dumbo the elephant a.k.a. Colter's buddy Carter, gave the lion a big (slightly sticky) hug. Cute!

Halloween Party!

Happy Halloween! Over the past few years, it has become a family tradition to have a Halloween party each fall at my parents' house. Costumes are required and the menu features creepy cuisine. Even though the party is a fairly new tradition, there's been lots of fun memories and hilarious moments--like my grandfather not recognizing my aunt because of her hilly-billy-man costume, my uncle being pretend slaughtered by my hockey-mask-wearing sister and giving the little kids nightmares, a poor motorcyclist just happening to have a wreck on the highway my parents live on the same night as the party and opening eyes to see a bunch of ghouls and goblins trying to offer assistance, etc. etc. etc. Lots of fun times that get crazier every year!

Colter's grandma and grandad gave Colter a lion costume this year, so I decided to be all adorable and choose themed costumes for our family. We were The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe! (Can you tell I'm a book worm?) Colter was the lion, I was the evil white witch, and John was the wardrobe. He wore a robe, and we put a sticker on him that said "ward." Hee hee. :)

BOO! Oh, wait. These cutie-pie cousins aren't very scary--they're just darn CUTE!Costumed Cousins--Oh, and Uncle Sawyer the mummy.

Part of the fun is making "gross grub." Most of is doesn't actually taste gross if one and bring herself to swallow it. Some of the food looks pretty disgusting, like this kitty litter casserole. Eww! It actually wasn't bad. We dine on things like simple pimples, skin and bones, eyeballs, witch's brew, monster toes, etc. It's pretty interesting.


We play games like bobbing for apples, and this year Poppy took us all on a very eventful haunted hayride. Lots of silly (scary!) fun!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday, so I got to do what I wanted to do, and I wanted to go on a family hike and go shopping, so WE DID. First, we made the trip to Ha Ha Tonka State Park, and I got to go on a nice stroll through the fall colors with my two favorite boys. The trails were a little wet, but there happened to be a break in the rain while we were at the park, so really, the weather was pretty much perfect! We took a trail to a natural bridge that we weren't able to make it to during a previous visit to the park.

Weird, red, Ha Ha Tonka bugs

We are super smart hikers and didn't look at any maps before we started walking down the trail and didn't know exactly where or how far we were going. We thought we were walking to the natural bridge and back, but the trail actually went on past the bridge and circled around another route back to the parking lot. When we first passed the bridge, we didn't realize that's what it was--it was cool, but I think we were expecting something a bit more dramatic or at least a rock formation over a creek. Maybe in the spring there's running water for the rock to form a bridge across, but we didn't take the rock that we walked under as a bridge since it didn't go over any water. Anyway, we walked passed what was the bridge, but we didn't know it, and I didn't take any pictures, partly because I didn't realize that was the bridge and partly because I thought we would walk under the cool rock again on our way back. We didn't. We ended up walking around back to the car and I hadn't taken any pictures! So while I ran down the slippery, rocky hill to take pictures, John and Colter lounged about on a bench and played with the leaves for a few minutes.

Colter found a giant leaf bigger than his head! It's hard to tell how big the leaf was from the angle in the picture, but trust me, it was a big leaf. It was a bit windy, and we had fun trying to catch leaves as they fell from the trees.After our walk, we got some frozen custard to celebrate my second 29th birthday and then hit the outlet mall in Osage Beach where I bought my own birthday presents. It was a good day!

Amazing Maize Maze

Surprise! Instead of being rainy and cold, today was beautiful! It was an awesome autumn day--not too hot, not too cold, and the sun decided to come out from behind the clouds for once. It was a perfect day for playing in a field of corn, so we visited a local farm with a pumpkin patch, corn maze, and other fall activities.

First, we saw a few animals. I'm pretty sure this guy is scheduled to be a guest at the farmer's Thanksgiving dinner.Then we ran around in a hay bale maze. Such memories! My siblings and I used to run amok in my dad's hay bales all the time. SO fun!Guess who we randomly ran into at the farm! We had no idea that Rachel's family would be at the farm at the same time we were. We would have went at a different time if we had known. JUST KIDDING, Rachel my love! I was so excited to see our friends at the farm and that we got to spend a bit of time with them.Mom, Courtney, and Sawyer were at the farm with us, but they ended up leaving after we waited for the hay wagon ride to take us to the corn maze for around 45 minutes. Overall our visit was fun and worth the trip, but the wait was ridiculous. Thankfully, there were things for Colter to do while we waited.

Colter loved running around in the corn!Fun times!

A New Nephew

Hi! I'm Tanner, Jenelle's newest nephew. I was born around five this morning IN A CAR!!! For real! I'm so speedy, my mommy didn't have a chance to make the five or so miles to the hospital. Mommy and Daddy only made it a few miles from our house when they had to pull over. I was born within seconds after they stopped with the cold wind blowing in my face. It was quite a shock!

What is even more of a shock is that this is not the first time my mommy couldn't make it to the hospital! How many woman do you know that haven't made it to the hospital to have their babies? Not many, right? My mommy has had two of her four babies in places other than a hospital room! I was born in a car, and my older brother, Tristan, was born in the bathroom!!!! My mommy has babies faster than anyone I know! She should be in the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest deliveries. This is my brother Tristan, the bathroom baby, holding me. We're going to be track stars someday.

Here's my mommy, Jessica, a.k.a. The Amazing Slippery Vagina Woman. She doesn't look like she just had a baby in a car does she? This woman is made to have babies. She doesn't get morning sickness, she only looks 5 months pregnant when she's actually due any day, and she pops out 8 pound babies in minutes without feeling any contractions until it's almost time for the baby to come.

Check this out--I'm not sure what I've signed up for--I have two older brothers and one older sister! They better help Mommy take care of me.

My brother, Justin, sure thinks I'm sweet. He doesn't realize that he's not the baby anymore. Heh, heh, heh.

This world sure is noisy! I am only a few hours old, and I have already gotten a taste of what life is going to be like at my house. My brothers were running all over the hospital like nuts playing with some balloons.

I'm not sure what my crazy cousin Colter was up to--why was he crawling all over the floor?

He only let his mommy, Jenelle, my favorite aunt, hold me for a few minutes. Then he started whining and said, "Put that baby down, Mommy!" Darn it. I wanted her to keep holding me. She was nice.

At least my sister, Alexis, got to hold me then. She's pretty nice too.

What a day! I need a nap.

Sunday School Hooky

My boy loves Sunday school, but today he must not have been in the mood. Usually, when we drop him off at his Sunday school room, he goes right in and begins to play with his friends. Today however, he immediately started screaming when I dropped him off and did not want me to leave. I tried to calm him down and convince him to stop crying, but no such luck. I was assured that he would stop crying and be fine, so I went ahead and went to my Sunday school class. I was there, perhaps, three minutes when someone came to get me because Colter had gotten so upset he puked! ICK. His classroom was filled with the not-so-pleasant aroma of curdled milk and regurgitated waffle when I rushed over to retrieve my vomit-covered kiddo. My poor boy! He was a teeny bit congested, and I guess he just got so upset that he choked on some phlegm and threw up, because the rest of the day he was his usual hyperactive self, so he obviously wasn't sick, thankfully.

Needless to say, we couldn't remain at church after Colter threw up on his Sunday school teacher in case he really was sick. Instead of spending the morning at church, we played hooky and visited the park! Feeding the geese and playing at the playground made Colter feel better after his yucky puking experience.

The fall leaves are beautiful!Catching Daddy on the SlideI'll Catch You, Mommy! Yellow

In Sync

On Thursday mornings, Colter's friend Carter often comes to visit for a little while. The boys have really started to get into mischief together as they get older and actually play together more. On this particular Thursday, the boys appeared to be playing peacefully with Little People, so I went into the kitchen to do some dishes. When I started to hear lots of giggles and banging noises, I ran back to Colter's room and discovered this....Two monkeys jumping on the bed! One of which, Carter not Colter, is picking his nose by the way (I'm sure Carter's mommy loves me bring attention to that). They had filled the crib with toys and climbed in. I didn't know HOW these wild apes got into the crib so quickly; Colter had only climbed into his bed a few times before, so I got them out and stood in the hallway peeking in to see what they would do.

They moved Colter's toy piano right by the crib to use as a step. Colter climbed into the crib first, and then Carter climbed up on the piano. Carter lifted his legs up to climb over the crib, couldn't quite make it, so Colter pulled Carter the rest of the way in. What teamwork!

Check out this series of pictures taken one right after the other. Did they plan this?

Eyes closed...Mouths open...Serious faces...
Seriously? How did that happen? Can you imagine what these guys will pull off when they're in high school?

A Fish Story

Once upon a time there was a man who loved aquarium fish. He was a true aquarium fish enthusiast; at one point, he even had four (maybe five?) fish aquariums up an running at the same time! Basically, he was a fish nut. Which is odd, because this man who enjoyed fish so much, doesn't like the water. He doesn't like water sports at all. Hello....fish live in the water. Oh, he doesn't like to go fishing or to eat fish either. It seems strange that the fish man likes fish in some situations but not others. I bet the bass in the nearby lakes were jealous of the attention fish man paid to his guppies. Anyway, whether it makes sense that the man who hated water like to have gallons and gallons of it sitting around his house or not, the fish man had lots of time and money invested into his fish habit. In fact, that just may be why when fish man got married when he was almost 28 years old, he didn't own a house or have any money saved up. He had invested all his moola into fish (or fast food and pizza).

After years and years of caring for fish, the fish man finally burned out. When the last tank he had set up only had one fish in it for over a year, he decided he wanted to take down his family's pretty 45 gallon fish tank and put it into storage! Fish man's wife, who really hadn't messed with the fish much decided she must take over. The house would seem so strange without a fish tank! His wife read about fish care and decided it wouldn't be too difficult to start maintaining the aquarium. She learned about nitrates, nitrites, ph, and other stuff that affected aquarium water and became.....FISH WOMAN!

The pretty tank...

Resident CatfishBabies!

The funny thing is, after fish woman started caring for the tank, fish guy suddenly became interested in fish again! Now that he no longer has to worry about vacuuming up fish poo and making biweekly water changes because fish woman takes care of that, he is back to enjoying fish. Several fish have had babies (one guppy had over 35!), and the fishy couple have had fun taking care of the fish together. The couple's son, fish boy, loves the hobby too; the local pet store own even gave him two fish yesterday for free just because he could tell how much the boy liked fish. Maybe hobbies are more fun when the whole family participates.