Tricky treats

My little pumpkin the day before Halloween.

An attempted picture with Nora on Dane's lap. He escaped shortly after this was snapped, and Nora was left wondering what happened!
There's a cute little elephant loose in our backyard!

Another attempted photo of the kiddos together. This was the best I could get!

Mommy and her little peanut.

Some redneck with the same sweet peanut. I honestly could not get close to Mike when he was wearing this wig. The mullet just isn't for me!!

Candy snatcher! We started out with all this candy plus a few more bags that our friends brought, and we gave it all away! We get so many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood because the street behind us does a special Halloween theme every year.

Some of our evening guests: pink poodle Trelise.

Trinity, the cutest little witch of the West.

Spiderman Jhett and his hippie parents.

The "Poo Kids on the Block" rock band.

I didn't get any pictures of Bryanna and Ellie, but they joined us too!

Here is an idea of what the line outside our door looked like most of the night. Even the parents dress up.

One of our favorite home-made costumes.

Midway through the evening, this scary man came to the door. He was initially amongst a large group of little kids, and I couldn't help noticing that he appeared to be a little too old for trick-or-treating! He also didn't have a candy bag. He simply held out his hand for a piece of candy, then walked into the house after Mike placed some in his hand. As my jaw dropped, my brother Ben removed his mask! I got both a trick and a treat!!

We took the kids out for a little trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Dane had to show Uncle Benny the green mummy.

As I was attempting to make this post around midnight last night, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and surprised me yet again! Somehow Mike and Ben had snuck Sarah in as well without my knowledge. Ben had pretended to be asleep in his room and went to pick her up at the airport. I literally fell on the floor in surprise, and I think Sarah was almost as surprised by my response. We are in for a fun weekend!!

Raspberries!

Raspberries are my favorite fruit, but these are even sweeter!

Random overdue

Here are some pictures from our past week. It has been rather busy, so blogging has fallen by the wayside!

Dane and Daddy shoot hoops at the park.

Dane takes a break to go plant a smooch on Baby Nora.
Teddy stands guard over Nora.

Bubbles and eyelashes. She really has quite long lashes, but they are still very light. The sunshine behind her really seemed to highlight them.

Happy girl.

Taking a spin on Dane's four-wheeler.

Babies, babies...

Beautiful Ellie Jade made her debut yesterday. We can't wait to meet her! And we're very excited to meet these babies in about 6 more months!!

4 months

It's so hard to believe our little peanut turned 4 months old last week already. Today she had her 4-month check-up and shots. She now weighs 13 pounds, 1 ounce, and is 24 inches long. She has started scooting herself around on the floor, is trying to sit up, and discovered the joys of the Jumperoo this past week. She also has really taken interest in her toys and dolls recently. Napping with her dolly after a long day!

Getting the hang of the Jumperoo.

Dane

Dane has had some memorable little quotes recently.

Daddy: "Dane, why are you making a mess?"

Dane: "I make a mess for me!"

Dane: "I want to be perfect, Mama." (I'm still not sure where he heard this.)

Mama: "Who's perfect, Dane?"

Dane: "Me. I'm perfect."

Allysa, our neighbor and helpful baby-sitter, is a senior this year. She and her friend Sarah got all fancied up for their homecoming dance on Saturday. Dane offered to take them to the dance in his dump truck, but they politely declined!

Dane, Allysa, and Sarah

Pumpkin patch

Last evening we visited the local pumpkin patch with Jeff and Renee.

Dane seems to be saying, "Don't worry Carter, I don't really like having my picture taken either. I just pretend for the adults!"

Carter took Dane for a little drive. Look at the grins on those boys (big boys included)!
Carter takes his driving seriously!
Train ride.

Cutie-pies

Just Mommy goofing around with the camera and photo editing.

Giggles!

Nora started her little baby laughs on Thursday evening. Jeff and Renee were visiting, so you can hear all the chaos of the boys playing in the background!

Busy girl

Nora is becoming more interactive and busier every day! She really enjoyed the balloons that we picked up for Camden's birthday party and made sure to tangle herself up in every single string!

She also has started scooting herself down in the Boppy every time I try to prop her up in it. She did this four times in a row for me last evening.

We're back

Last week, we flew home to spend some much-needed time with our families. Our trip there was a bit frustrating. We got up early and Renee picked us up at 5:15 am to head to the airport. Our flight left almost on time at 7:40 am. Twenty minutes into the flight, the captain announced that there had been an error on the plane's maintenence log, so we would have to turn back and switch aircraft. This was not easy on Mike, who is not so fond of flying in the first place. I was more concerned about unloading and reloading all of our things: two kids, two larger carry-ons (we only checked one bag since they charge so much these days!), a diaper bag, Dane's backpack and very large and heavy carseat, Mike's personal bag, our jackets, and a blanket for each child. Thank goodness for helpful and patient flight attendants! Three hours later, we were finally aboard the new plane and in the sky. I must say that both Dane and Nora were troopers and flew very well. Dane does so much better now that we buy him a seat and buckle him into his carseat.

Mike's parents picked us up at the airport, and we made the 3-hour trek back to their farm. This became a 5 1/2 hour trek because of crabby kids and hungry and exhausted parents needing frequent stops! Our 5 days with family were lovely, and our return trip was thankfully uneventful. We've now been back home for 4 days, but time has been filled with catching up at work, Mommy on call, loads and loads and loads of laundry, and Camden's first birthday party. I will post those pictures when I get a chance.

Small town living

Nora meets Great Grandma for the first time.

Benny and Sarah in the smoke from the outdoor fireplace.

The cuties again after Sunday lunch at Hodenattes.

Dane gives me a cute little sideways grin.
Nora meets Lillianna and Brooklyn, the daughters of Jessica, the little girl next door that I grew up with. Hard to believe we're now the Mommies!
Grammy brought out some of Uncle Benny's old toys for Dane to play with.
We took a walk uptown to see Grampy at work. Along the way we stopped at the grocery store to replenish our dwindling diaper supply. During the walk, Dane started asking for some more chocolate milk (even though Grammy still had plenty in the fridge at home). At the store, he made a beeline for the dairy case, and came lugging this gallon of chocolate milk to me!
Grampy and Grammy have lots more pictures of our visit and some of the fun times we had together on their blog.

Time on the farm

So much to do on the farm. Dane's favorite activities were riding the tractors, lawnmower, and 4-wheeler with Grandpa, even if he doesn't look too thrilled in this picture. He still talks about the tractors every day.

Dane's pants kept falling down (he's still too thin for 24-month pants even though he's 30 months old already!), so Daddy rigged up Grandpa's suspenders. Dane didn't care that he looked ridiculous- he was just happy to not have to keep hiking his pants up every few steps!
A view of the old dairy farm site where Mike grew up. Nora all cozied up for the cool fall nights.

Little Vikings fan.
Two goofy Vikings fans.
Grandma would take Nora for outside walks if she was a little fussy. Worked like a charm!
Skipping rocks.
Being silly with Mommy.

Beautiful still water reflecting the sky.
The farm site where Mike's parents have lived sinced they retired from dairy farming.
Old lightning rod on the farmhouse.

Just 2 days before we arrived on the farm, 8 kittens were born in one litter. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures!