Happy Halloween!

We took Andrew trick-or-treating for the first time tonight and he had such a great time! He only backed out of one house and that was because there was a scary lookin' statue by the door. He was great, though! Everyone was so impressed with his little costume and his manners (I was quite the proud momma--he said please & thank you without my prompting!).

I think next year will be even better when he can help Tori! Such Fun!

*deep breath* *count to ten* *deep breath* *more counting*

Today was an exciting day in the Hanson household. I was folding laundry, Andrew was napping and Tori was crawling on the floor chasing toys. I took a pile of clothes back to my dresser and heard running water in our bathroom. SPLASHING running water...I was totally confused. I walked in and a waterfall from our toilet greeted me. I gasped (okay, screamed but WHATEVER!) grabbed a pile of towels to barricade the water and grabbed my cell phone to call the manager. She immediately sent Gustavo, our maintenance guy to my door. He ran down the hall and into the bathroom to shut the water off. He then busted out a plumbing snake and went after his shop-vac. He worked and worked and worked for over an hour. Fortunately, Andrew slept through it all and Tori was content to watch the action from her exersaucer while I helped mop up the sea before us. What did we find? One of Tori's plastic toys...

SO...my conclusion: It wasn't Mark (he has denied it and I have no reason to doubt him) and it wasn't me (I prefer NOT to entertain myself this way). Tori isn't QUITE that tall yet. She crawls, but....yeah. SO...that leaves one little two year old boy who squeals with delight when the toilet flushes. However, he had been napping so *when* did he do this? By the amount of water in my bathroom, I would say sometime between lunch & nap.

*deep breaths*...

*i love my kids* *i love my kids* *i love my kids*

A parade and the park!

Andrew put together a "parade" of toys and then went to the park with his dad-doo. What a fun day!

Today with Tori:

We introduced her to one of Andrew's favorite toys when he was her age. Based on the following photographs, I would assume she likes it. :)

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!

Today, I decided my son is a genius (of course!). I looked at Mark after dinner and said, "How 'bout we have a little i-c-e c-r-e-a-m?"

Andrew yells out, "ICE CREAM!!!"

Nothin' gets past this kid!

Noah and the...bus?

Apparently Andrew was learning about Noah's Ark at church recently because he's very interested in one of his Noah's Ark sets and knows who Noah is. But today, rather than taking the boat, Andrew loaded everybody on his little people bus and "drove" them all over the house. He stopped in the kitchen and said, "Look, Mommy! Noah's Bus!" I smiled and couldn't help but laugh a little bit. I asked him what happens if it rains. He said, "Then they take the boat. Right now, bus! Rain? Boat!"

Hey--works for me!

Someday I'll sleep all night.

I swear, at least once a week, my kid decides to get up for at least two hours in the middle of the night. I try everything to get her back to sleep but, eventually, we end up making our way out to the living room where she gets to wear herself out in her exersaucer while I sit here and complain to all of you about how she's not sleeping. Here we are again--it's 1 AM and I've been up for over an hour with her. I've folded laundry, balanced the checkbook (I'm off by $8 which is making me insane!), sorted the kids' basket of toys out here, read, crocheted and cross stitched. I've also asked God why...WHY...doesn't my child sleep? Andrew slept just fine starting at 4 weeks. Is Tori making up for our good fortune with him? Is she really thinking she's just taking naps? How can THAT be when, other nights, she'll go to sleep at 8 PM and I won't hear from her until well after 3 AM and that's just for a quick "snack" and she goes right back to sleep until after 6 AM. But not tonight. Tonight, I fear, I may be up for the long haul...

Let me teach you about these tractors...

Andrew was "reading" to Tori. He chose the book, which means she was learning about tractors. Hey--she's getting an early start.

Picture time!

Barn Party Fun!

Whew! What a fun night! Well, mostly. Andrew had a fantabulous time at the barn party--he got to see his Abu, Papa Marv, Auntie Stacy and he ran around like a spazzy little boy completely out of control. The best part? He was dressed up like a little cowboy and was running around in his wrangler jeans, flannel shirt and cowboy boots. He was doing so much running he decided he couldn't wear his hat or vest anymore--they were just getting in the way!

Tori, on the other hand, didn't enjoy the "festivities" quite as much--she spent the entire evening either crying or being walked by Mark. *sigh* Silly girl! She's normally so happy and fun, but tonight she just couldn't handle it.

My chili for the chili cook-off was popular, but didn't win because I didn't enter it. It would have won, right? :) I'd like to think so. I tried four different kinds of chili and it was all yummy! But I have to admit, the sweet & spicy was my fave. A little hint of sweet with a kick of spice to make it interesting. Mmmm....it was yummy!

I took some great pictures of my boy running around like a wild child but wouldn't ya know it, I forgot the cord to upload the pictures. Grrrr!!! Will have to wait until the end of the weekend to finish this post...

"EW!" said the young girl...

I went to the post office this afternoon and watched a young girl (10-ish?) put some coins in the machine and take the stamp. She tried, three times, to get it to stick to her envelope before looking at her mom and saying, "It won't stick! What's wrong with this stamp?!" Her mom told her she had to lick it to make it stick. "EW!" she said and handed the stamp & envelope to her mom. I remember the days when ALL stamps were the lick 'em stick 'em kind. She's spoiled!

That just made me laugh. I'll post more later tonight--maybe even a picture or two.

Keep wishing...

I wish for a few things, just like everyone else. Right now, I simply wish for a full nights sleep. I wish for going to bed at 9-ish and not waking up until I want to wake up the next morning. I am tired! When I get to heaven, I'm asking God why babies just don't sleep through the night.

Tori's on the move...

Yep, she started crawling today! YIKES! I was hoping to get a little more time out of her, but no such luck. The little stinker isn't even five months old yet and she's already tryin' to keep up with Andrew. *sigh* And people wonder why I don't want anymore! SHEESH!

Pictures SOON!

Hide & Seek!

Today Tori & I had some "playtime"...I was cleaning in the kitchen and looked out the living room where she was happily playing on her blanky:



And then I looked again and she was gone:



Where did she go??? She was hiding under a chair:



So we went back to our blanket:



But then she went missing again:



I had to work a little harder to find her this time, but I managed. Sneaky little thing!



What was she after? Andrew's bus! ATTACK OF THE BABY!




*Sorry all the pictures are sideways...I wasn't paying attention when I was editing them. OOPS!*

A clean house is a happy house!

Ahhh...Mark went to Albany to help his brother with some stuff on their house and took Andrew to Nana's house on the way. Which meant I had the ENTIRE day to clean and hang out with Tori. The nice thing about Tori (aside from her adorable smile and winning personality) is that she sleeps A LOT. SO...I finished unpacking (yep! I'm DONE!), hung some more pictures, cleared out some boxes, dusted, vaccuumed and am now sitting down for a quick break before I head into the kitchen to do some dishes, start dinner and finish up the odds & ends that make the house CLEAN CLEAN.

I'm so excited to FINALLY have things in order. It's actually rather relaxing to be at home!

Some children should not be allowed out of the house.

I was at the store tonight and was followed around each and every aisle by a woman and her cart full of screaming children.

"MOM! Sarah hit me!"

"Well Jack pushed me!! OOOO! Can we get ice cream?"

"No! We got ice cream LAST TIME! I want pudding!"

And then they proceeded to argue about it. What was mom's response? NOTHING. Not once did she say a single word to her children. Even when Jack (who was 5-ish?) opened a bag of spaghetti and dumped it out of the cart, she was silent. Okay, not SILENT...I believe she said, "Now, Jack! What did you do that for?" He proceeded to inform her, loudly, he was SO DONE with shopping.

WHAT THE HECK?!?! I came home and hugged my babies and thanked God for blessing me with well behaved children.

Why are these people allowed to have children? And why does this woman feel the need to sick her children on the public? I even heard her say, "Why didn't I leave you two home with Daddy?"

YES: WHY DIDN'T YOU?!?

On a more positive note, my son made me laugh again today (as always!). He ate lunch, pulled his shirt off over his head and said, "K, Momma. Nap." and walked into his room, climbed into bed and blew me kisses.

The best part of their day:

My kiddos love bathtime!