Friday, November 26, 2010

It's Beginning to Look a LITTLE like Christmas!

Sooo.. I'll admit it-- I did a LITTLE Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving... but I haven't done my tree yet. I love my tree; what I don't love is the idea of Braxton ripping off all my lights ornaments and ribbons. We'll see how this years Christmas goes...

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Just Messing Around






Fall Around our Home....

It's been a pretty low key November for us. The weather has finally cooled down in the Portland Oregon area and we've actually had to to turn on our heat! We've been enjoying watching all the trees changes colors and the leaves fall off.... we've been enjoying fires in our cozy wood burning fireplace... we've been enjoying waking up at 7:00Am EVERY day with these two boys:

Quincy's little smirk.
This is one of Braxton's choice spots in our apartment. The coffee table/ our make shift TV stand is the perfect height for him to stand up on. I am frequently spending my days walking over to take him down from here.

This is Quincy's Thankful Calender. We wrote down something he was thankful for each day... among some of 'thankfuls' were: noodles, crayons, and leaves. :) Kids are appreciative of lots of things!
This is one of my favorite smiles from Quincy!
Quincy can now read all of these words, I think around 80 on these papers and others too! He is SO smart.
Look at that happy face!! This is also the joy he radiates when he knows he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing.

Quincy's hand turkeys up close.
Fall is coming to a close around our parts, but we are excited for the winter festivities to begin.

My baby Boy is Getting Big!

Everyday I look at Braxton and think to myself: "Where is my baby?" He getting to be like a little toddler. In fact I often get funny faces from people who watch him army crawl. I know they are thinking, why isn't that kid walking? I have to explain that he's only 9 months and they usually reply with an "Ah, well. He's a big boy isn't he?"






Yes, Braxton Kaleb Howard you ARE my big baby boy!

Halloween Day and Trunk or Treating

This year's Halloween was truly successful! We did all of our Halloween trick or treating on Friday and Quincy STILL has candy to this day (which goes to show we totally scored with our cute trick or treaters). We found Tyler's old Chicago Bulls jersey and Quincy decided he was going to be Micheal Jordan--Worked out nice for us because we didn't have to buy a costume. We found a perfect froggy costume for Braxton... it kept his nice and warm!
[Fit into my old Cheerleading skirt from high school! Whoo hoo! Kudos to me for having two kids and still managing to get into it. :) ]
[I tried to get a decent picture of them at Tyler's work... this was the best one, sad.]
[This was a little more accurate of what was going on between me trying to get a decent photo. ]
[Picture taking is just SOO much work!]
After dropping Tyler off at work we went home and dressed the boys up for their first part of trick or treating at the businesses next to the mall. It was awesome! Not only was the weather cooperating nicely, but it was practically effortless taking the boys from store to store. I don't think I ever want to trick or treat house to house... that adds up to a lot of walking with little legs. After trick or treating at the Clackamas Promenade Shopping Center we headed over to the Damascus Shopping Center to do MORE trick or treating at their business center. Tyler's Key Bank is in this business area. It was awesome that the City of Damascus handed out KING SIZE candy bars! We got SO many treats after these two trick or treating adventures....
[One of Tyler's co workers was nice enough to snap a picture of our whole family. We've got a sort of sports theme, minus our frog-- we'll just say he was our team mascot. Tyler was a blind referee, but didn't have his cane and glasses in this picture, too bad. A lot of people thought it was funny.]
The fun didn't stop there! After Tyler got off work we headed over to our ward's annual chili cook off, cornbread dinner, and Trunk or Treat Party. All in all it was a long day... but it will be a Halloween to remember.

Halloween Festivities Continued...

This year our pumpkin carving was much more sucessful. Last year Quincy wasn't too thrilled about the idea of sticking his hand inside the pumpkin to take out the guts. This time around he agreed to help de-gut it with a spoon. As you can tell from the picture below Braxton was all too happy to get in on the action as well. He's under the impression that anything we are doing HE should be doing as well.
Quincy making an angry face like his angry pumpkin!

Quincy posing with his pumpkin.
Our little Pumpkin Family.

All the boys getting in on some pumpkin carving action.

This pumpkin was our angry pumpkin...

This was our funny pumpkin...

Quincy wanted to carve a happy pumpkin...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Every Day Motherhood...

So many days my house is filled with things like this:


And I think to myself... I can't WAIT until I don't have to see:
And won't my house be beautiful when I don't have this in the way:

And wont it be grand when I can keep my door open if I want to:

And someday I won't have to worry about tripping on little shoes:

And won't it be lovely when I can see out my windows:

And someday we won't have a trail of baby products cluttering our dining room:
But you know what... after living with the slobbery windows, the piles of mess, the ways we have to baby proof everything, the milk stains in the fridge from bottles, and the toys everywhere.... I have come to realize that at least I get two SWEET little boys to look at... and you know what... then I tend to forget all that other stuff-- if only for a moment, anyways. :)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Wedding Season?

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Early in the beginning of October Tyler and I went to one of my closest friend's wedding. We had the boys stay with Nanny and Pappy while my parents and us went to the wedding reception.

Needless to say it was a rough night for the great grandparents and the little boys. Braxton was teething, Quincy was hyped up... Braxton bit Pappy's leg (obviously a great teething ring)... Quincy forgot to go pee in the toilet and peed his pants.. Braxton freaked out when they tried to feed him with a bottle.... Pappy was sick... and Nanny looked like she was going to have a panic attach when my parents showed up to relieve them. I guess it will be a bit before they stay with Nanny and Pappy again.


Tyler and I DID have fun at the wedding though.... so Thanks Nan and Pap for taking such torture from our little angels. :) We love you!