Halloween 2012

Tonight was the night the kids have been looking forward to all month long. 

The costumes on were on, faces were painted, and candy buckets were ready.

 

They were ready to go get treats!

Simeon 

He had his heart set on being Drizzt from books written by RA Salvatore. His white hair, black face, twin swords and black cape completed the costume. Simeon started reading these books a few months ago, and instantly became obsessed with them. Johann read these books when he was a teenager, so we already own all the books. Simeon has dove in head first into them and is loving them. He's also  gotten his friend into them too. He's been talking about his costume for a few months and was so excited when it all came together and especially when we bought him face paint.

Corrine 

She had a change of heart on her costume after I had her cowgirl vest made. Last year she was a cowgirl, and decided to just be that again. Then a few days after finishing her vest, she told me she might want to be a vampire. I wasn't sure we could make the switch so close to Halloween, but luckily for her I found a vampire cape for $2 just days ago. She liked putting fake blood on her face. A friend gave her some "vampire blood" hand sanitizer today from Bath & Body works.

Ammon 

He had 1 plan in his mind for his costume and it needed to be home made. I took him to the fabric store to pick out material for his costume. We had the store worker laughing over our conversation about what this robe should look like and what type of material it should be made out of.It was a comical interchange trying to figure it out! I tried to buy a pre-made robe, but it wasn't right, so I needed to make one. Ammon wanted silver on the shoulders and hip. We worked together to figure out how big and where to put them. When he saw the robe ready, he was SO EXCITED! It was exactly what he wanted! He had elf ears, but they wouldn't stay on to save our lives. We tried everything from duct tape, to sticky goo and ended up taping them on across with scotch tape. We tried to tape his ear pointed, but he said it really hurt, so that only lasted for a few minutes for the pictures.

Rebecca 

She was our sweet and sassy cowgirl Jessie. She got her Jessie hat at Disneyland this summer, and her Woody & Buzz boots were from last winter. I made the chaps 1st and loved how they turned out. Her chaps were out of the same material as Corrine cowgirl vest that she decided not to wear. The shirt top was a bit harder to make for some reason. Sewing the shinny red ribbon on the front made it all come together. She has been wearing this everywhere the last few days. It's gotten pretty dirty and now that Halloween is over I can finally wash it. The hat was hard to keep on, so instead you got to see her ringlet pigtails-and yes those curls are completely hers! She sweet talked her daddy into being Woody. How could he say no to her. I was suppose to be Bullseye, but got away just carrying a Bullseye toy!

Tonight was the end of an era for our family. We made a decision years ago that the kids can trick or treat while in elementary school, and after that they get to hand out candy. So this was our last time going out trick or treating as a whole family. Simeon is actually really excited to stay home and give candy out next year. We came home for a short time tonight and the kids so wanted kids to come over so they could give them candy!

After trick or treating the kids all dumped their spoils in the front room. Ammon quietly went through his stach, then told us that he took out all the he wanted and we could have the rest. He only took about 20% of his candy and it was almost all sour candy. He left all the chocolate!! Rebecca did a similar thing separating her most wanted candy from the rest. When Johann said then he'd take the rest, she got very protective and started collecting and laying on it like a mother hen. She decided that she did want it all after all! Corrine was so sweet with Rebecca trick or treating. Rebecca got tired and wanted to ride in the stroller, so Corrine collected for her. If a house said take 2 or 3, she would keep one and give the other to Corrine. Corrine is a great big sister!

The kids said their favorite house was one by Grandma and Grandpa Smiths who let them pick out a Matchbox car or a beanie baby. Rebecca carried her duck holding an Easter egg the rest of the night. She's in love with that little ducky!

We love Halloween!!

Size 7 black boots

These sweet little size 7 black boots have been around for a long time. 10 years to be exact. They have been worn by Simeon, Corrine, Ammon & now Rebecca.

And Rebecca at 3 years old is about to outgrow them. 

This has made me quite sad. Very sad. 

I LOVE these boots! 

They have been LOVED and LOVED and LOVED some more by all 4 of our kids. They were used as firefighter boots, puddle stomping boots, bad to the bone motorcycle boots (complete with leather jacket), grabbed as the quickest shoes to put on, and of course became a holder of the many things the child wearing them wanted to stash or carry around.

I know I'm going to cry the day I hear Rebecca is her sweet 3 year old voice say:

"Mom, these boots hurt my toes." 

Because then and only then will I fully understand that our days of having little ones in our house is over. My little ones won't be so little anymore, they will all be "big kids". Right now we have 3 "big kids" and Rebecca. It will stay that way for a while longer, but not long enough.

The days of little feet and little hands in our house is growing farther away already. The 2 biggest kids and I could share shoes if needed to. Corrine has already put dibs on my purple Keens sandals for next summer. I secretly am alright with that because then I can get another pair. From the kids section I might add, because I have small feet!

 Rebecca LOVES these black boots as much as her siblings did. They have seen many adventures, have been filled with puddle water, had socks stuffed inside of them, have been lost under a pile of clothes, been found and been loved some more. They have helped her chase her brothers in the yard, protected her toes, climbed into the club house, played in the dirt with Corrine, been filled with dirt, slid down the slide and have sailed through the sky on the swings.

Oh man I'm going to miss the days of these boots being so loved and all the memories made in them. They will live on someday somewhere on another sweet kiddos feet.

They are the perfect childhood boot to be forgotten.

 Rebecca put them on in a hurry to get outside and play, since mom is insisting that she wears something on her feet so she will stop getting her sweet little toes hurt and she put them on the wrong feet. I hadn't even noticed until I looked at the 1st picture and obviously she didn't notice them on the wrong feet either!

I'm a BIG Girl Now

Rebecca's newest accomplishment is: WEARING UNDERWEAR!!! What a HUGE step this is, and we can't be more excited for her to take it. This summer she wore a diaper, but she used the potty at times, and we talked of wearing underwear like a big girl.
Last week we watched our friends Nathan and Clara. Nathan is 3 1/2 years old and is potty trained. The 2nd day watching him, he went and used the bathroom. She saw that he wore underwear and used the bathroom. She asked to put underwear on right then and she hasn't looked back since. She was ready to be a big girl all the time and ditch diapers (except at night time, but even then she wakes up dry more often then wet).
To help encourage her we made a simple sticker chart. When she got 5 stickers she earned a Toy Story fruit snack. Since I don't buy fruit snacks this was a BIG reward that she was excited to earn.




Within a few days her 1st chart was filled up, she had earned 3 fruit snacks and she was working on her 2nd chart. 3 days after going fully underwear we took our 1st trip out with her in underwear. We realized after getting out that we were very unprepared if she had an accident. We didn't have an extra change of clothes or even a pull up. Luckily for all of us, she stayed dry the entire time.

It's been a week now and diapers are part of the past. She picked out some very cute Minnie Mouse underwear last weekend to add to her pile of BIG GIRL underwear. I am so exited to be done with diapers completely, totally, forever!!!