Happy Halloween!

Wow, we had a FULL day!  We started it off with a bang - quite literally.  Conner fell and split his chin open on the tile floor first thing this morning.  Ouch.  So we started our Halloween off with a trip to the emergency room.  Can you believe this is Conner's second set of stitches already?  He's not even 3 1/2!  I have a feeling this will not be the last visit to the ER we make with this kid.  But, if he handles them all like he's handled the first 2 we can take it.  He's a champ.  All the doctors and nurses kept saying what a wonderful patient he is.  If you've got to bang yourself up you've gotta be tough I guess!

His cut was 2 cm long, and required 4 stitches!

After that we had lunch at Nana and Pop's house.  Wow, we hand them Scott for a few hours then make them feed us lunch.  We are so lucky to have them right next door!

Then, we were lucky enough to get a visit from the other set of grandparents!  MamMam and Paw came and brought us dinner!  While they were here we carved pumpkins and relaxed for the afternoon.

Pumpkin seeds!  Yum yum :)

Enough pumpkin-carving.  I'm grilling!

Yes, Andy attempted to use a power tool to carve the pumpkin.
 (He soon decided a regular little pumpkin-carving saw was easier.)

Knock knock Daddy!  I'm ready to come back out now!

The finished product.  Good job Daddy!

Finally, of course, we went trick or treating.  What a cute little "belly dragger" and skunk!

Scott was less than happy when he first put his costume on. 

But he soon cheered up!

Conner called himself a belly-dragger (which is the alligator on "Land Before Time")

Scott chose to stick his face right in the window of all the houses.



Trick or treat Nana and Pop!
Or "trick or treating" as Conner said.



Happy Halloween!!

Just had to share...

...what Conner said to me this afternoon.  I must admit that I wasn't actually going to write anything tonight.  I took ZERO pictures today, so the post will be brief!  I just couldn't let this go without writing it down.  This afternoon we were outside throwing the ball for Cooper.  I said to no one in particular that Cooper was making me angry.  Here's the rest of the conversation....

Conner:  Why is Cooper making you annjjjrry, Mom?
Me:  Because he won't drop the ball!
Conner: Oh, I'll help you little lady.

Yes, that's right.  My 3 year old called me a "little lady."  I thought it was hilarious and even had him repeat himself to make sure I heard him correctly.  He's turning into such a little gentleman (well, when he wants to be anyway).

Okay, that's it....good night!

Verbal Progress and Another Park Day

Scott's speech has really been exploding lately and it's so fun to watch.  He tries to repeat a lot of what we say now.  His newest words are "tac-tor" (tractor) and "thank you".  Then, tonight at dinner I put some broccoli on his plate and he said, "broti" (broccoli).  Wow.  Didn't know he knew that one.  This age is so amazing!

In other news, we enjoyed another wonderful day at the park with friends Aunt Jami, Leyna, and Cora today.  The weather was questionable in the beginning, but it held out for us and we had a couple hours of great playing and a picnic lunch.  Here are some pictures of the fun times.

Mmmmm yummy cookies - thanks Aunt Jami!

I love the way they're looking at Leyna :)

Cora and Scott

This is when Scott was begging me to take pictures of him (so different than Conner!)
He pointed to the camera, sat down on the step, and said "Cheeeeee"

A Perfect Day at the Pumpkin Patch

It was a perfect day.  The weather was perfect.  The family was perfect.  The orchard we went to was perfect.  We could not have asked for a better fall day.  I'll warn you now that this post will be very VERY picture heavy.  I can't help myself.  I couldn't NOT include all of these pictures. 

We started at the petting zoo

  

Had to pause to play with the tractors

Picked some pumpkins

Yes, he's kissing the pumpkin.  Don't ask.

Played on the hay

More pumpkin picking.  We had to find the perfect ones!

I just love this picture :)

They are soooo proud of their perfect pumpkins!

Took a hayride

Played on the big wooden train

And sampled some apples.  These were seriously THE BEST apples I've ever eaten. 

A few random things...

Throughout the day, things kept happening that I thought I should blog about tonight.  So, I'll just write about them all!

First, Scott got his first pair of real shoes today.  He's been truly walking less than a month and he really seems like he's almost running sometimes.  So, it was time.  Boy, first shoes are expensive!  Especially when you have boys with wide feet :)  Luckily Scott is only extra wide, instead of triple wide like Conner was!  It gives us a few more options.  So, here they are.  Forgive the tired eyes, this was right before bath time tonight!

Then, at lunch today Conner was subtracting his grapes.  This boy seems to have a math-mind!  He counted how many he had, ate a couple, then figured out how many he had left.  It was very cute :)

This is how Scott finished his nap today.  He woke up (much too soon), fell back asleep when I was holding him, then let me put him down gently on my bed.  He slept there for probably about 1/2 hour! 

Finally, this is how the boys were while I was making dinner.  Amazing.  They each had a sticker book and were working on then very nicely!  It probably helped that the dinner was pretty hands-off once I got it going, so I was there to help when needed.  But seriously.  To have a stress-free half hour before dinner is almost unheard of....and oh so welcome.

So, there's our mish-mosh of a day.  It was a good one!

Crockpot Chicken Orzo

Tonight I made a recipe that I've had written down for years and never made.  Until tonight.  I don't know why I didn't make it earlier.  It was really good and super easy.  It may just become a regular.  I have no idea where I found this recipe.  I tried searching for it because the way I wrote it down was rather vague, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  So, I did with it what I thought would work and it did!  Wow!  Pasta is always a huge hit in our house.  This is just a way to make it a little different for a change.  Here's the recipe:

Crockpot Chicken Orzo

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 2 large, and mine were frozen)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Tomato and Basil)
1/2 lb. orzo, cooked to al dente
1 cup cottage cheese (I used 1% milkfat)
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Put the chicken in a crockpot and top with the sauce.  Cook for 4 hours on high, or 6 hours on low.  I definitely think this is one of those things you could let go all day also.  When the chicken is cooked (or 1/2 hour before dinnertime) shred up the chicken.  (As a side note, if you stop here, this makes a great SUPER easy and delicious sauce for spaghetti.)  Add the cooked orzo and cottage cheese and stir to combine.  Top with the mozzarella.  Cook on low for 1/2 hour.
I didn't get a picture before we dug in, but here it is with a few spoonfuls missing!

This recipe is not only really good and kid-friendly, but very versatile.  You could easily add a number of veggies (I actually meant to add some frozen broccoli when I added the orzo but forgot) and I think spinach would be really good.  Pasta is one of the few dishes that I can hide spinach in and the kids will eat it!  Here's proof of how good it was...

Scott literally licking his plate clean right before he requested "Mo" (more)

I'll leave you with a laugh for tonight (well we got a laugh out of it anyway).  Andy didn't get home in time for dinner so he ate his downstairs.  I just came down and asked him if he liked it. He replied yes, but had a smirk on his face.  I asked what that was all about, and he said until his last bite he thought the chicken was squash and the orzo were the squash seeds.  He said he liked it much more once he realized it was pasta :)

A Day at the Park

We met friends Reagan and Reed at the park this morning to enjoy what I'm sure is going to be one of the last "park-worthy" days of the year!  So dreading the winter when we're stuck inside all the time.  But anyway, we had a really great time today.  The kids played together wonderfully, and the mommies even got to chat a relax a little bit.  Here are some pictures from the morning...

Brothers :)

I love my boys

Scott and Reed

Fun on the slides - going up and down

The park is so much easier and more fun now that he can walk!

More slide fun

I think these two are going to be good buds :)

They played for a good half hour inside this tree



And Scott decided the playground would be way more fun than the tree - go figure!


To top it off, both boys took a nice nap when we got home!  It was a great day!!