We made our traditional gingerbread train the other night. Everyone had a good time placing the candy. We have done this every year since the boys were RA's age.

Such concentration...

I love having the completed train in the house. You can smell gingerbread for several days . It's definately one of my favorite things.
We went to get haircuts today and when we got home C. said to me, "Mama the back door is open." I looked and sure enough it was. As I was walking over to close it this is what I saw...

The last few remaining pieces of our train. I stood there open-mouthed for a second in total disbelief, trying to figure out what happened. Then it hit me. The dogs. Our gate to the backyard has been open the last few days allowing the beasts into the backyard. Well, unbeknownst to me, the backdoor was unlocked. The beasts made their way in, undoubtly smelled the wonderful gingerbread and had themselves a party. I imagine the scene in my breakfast room was equal to the scene in A Christmas Story when the Bumpas' hounds attacked Ralphie's dad's turkey. Only without the hillbilly music.

Big changes for our house this month. First, as you may remember, this:

Now, this:

Yep. No more crib. We have graduated to a toddler BED. It's the same size of a crib, but a bed. No rails. Nothing to contain her. Not that having rails was a deterrant for her. She just scaled over the top and down and was FREE!! This is new for us because the boys never climbed out of the crib. We moved them straight from a crib to a full- size bed.

I am already envisioning MANY trips to return her to the bed. I sure hope we are all ready for this....

Trimming the tree...

Trimming the house...my own personal Clark W. Griswald!

She came, she sat, she conquered!

Lets get back to our visit with the Big Guy. Mr. Claus and RA had a very indepth conversation about her desires for Christmas.
She talked a little and he listened...

He talked a little and she listened...
very intently I might add.

This went on for quite some time. So much so that I think her bubbies were starting to get a bit bored...

Our goodbye pic..

Mom Note: This guy was by far the best Santa we have visited with! He listened with great interest and asked them questions. I was a bit skeptical when he arrived though. The kids saw him pull up in his white Toyota pickup and get out talking on his cell phone. I had to think fast because I saw the looks on their faces and knew what was coming... The first question: "Why is he driving a truck?" My lie/answer: The reindeer only fly on Christmas Eve, and it's probably a rental. The second question: "Why is he talking on a cell phone?" My next lie/answer: "The elves must of had a question about how to make a certain toy and needed his advice." That was close. I am wondering how much longer C. is going to fall for my answers.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We did! We were busy, busy, busy!! In a nutshell, we traveled, we watched, and we cashed in on our marble system.
Marble system you ask???
Let me explain.
I found this idea back at the beginning of the summer for a discipline/reward system. Each kiddo gets a jar with their name. They then get marbles for various things such as making their beds (RA is exempt from this one), putting away dirty clothes, picking up toys...you get the idea. Sometimes thier Daddy and I will come up with a special job we want done and then they can earn extra marbles. The idea is to fill their jar with marbles to the indicated red line, when this happens, they get rewarded. Now, here's the catch...if a kiddo displays a nasty attitude, poutiness, whineyness, etc. or gets in trouble in at school , we (Dad and I) will remove as many marbles as we see fit.
Orginially we decided the rewards would be something along the lines of a movie, or a trip to get ice cream, or running to WalMart to pick out something special. Ok. Well. We stared this in June. FINALLY in OCTOBER they had filled the jars up. It took them 5 months!
During the 5 months, C and D kept coming up with different rewards. One of which that kept coming up was a hamster. Everytime they asked Jamie and I would play it off and tell them he and I had to talk about it first hoping that would make them forget about it. Well, they didn't forget. Jamie and I sat down and discussed it. We decided that since it took them 5 months maybe a hamster was not such a bad idea. Then we told them that if they really wanted a hamster they would have to fill the jars up one more time. There was a little bit of opposition from D. on this but he eventually came around. While the kids were busy working on the second fillling I did a bit of research and found out guinea pigs are much more social and like to be around people. They alos will not bite and are NOT nocturnal. So we decided the guinea pig was the way to go. Well, the second filling arrived the week before Thanksgiving.

So today we went to get the newest member of our family.
Internets, please meet Astro.

For what it's worth, those green things are his treats, not poo poo.

I have alot of other stuff to share. We still have some Santa pics to share and some pics from our Thanksgiving break!! I'll try to get to all of that this week.

We know it's not even Thanksgiving yet. We are not trying to skip over it. But, well, HE was going to be downtown and we didn't want to miss out!

"I see him Mommy, I see him!"

The one and only..

This would have never happened last year!!

White Belt Black Striiiiiiiipe!

Thing 2 had his belt test tonight at karate. He did such a good job!
Soooooo proud!

These were the mystery bowls. The material had a slit in the top and the kids had to put their hands in and feel the contents. Of course the contents were gross...like, pudding in plastic bags to imitate body organs, peeled grapes to imitate eyeballs. Ever touched a peeled grape? It feels slimy and has veins...and the best of all...cold, over-cooked pasta. YUK!!

Hayride was a big hit...naturally.

Sister loved the spook house.

Here are some of the activities we had.
Pumpkin bean bag toss....

Spider walk....

Spook house...

A party woulnd't be a party without a pinata!

We had a great Halloween! Here are a few shots from our neighborhood party.
This year we decided to have it in Ms. Fran's driveway, since that is where it would've been if she were with us.

I think the kids had a great time. We didn't have a costume contest this year. Instead, we had a mini-carnival. There were games where the kids could win candy and prizes! We even had a hayride this year! When it was dark enough to go trick or treating, the little ones rode the hayride to each house while the older ones walked. All in all, it was a good night.
It was a good night for us, but not a good night for some friends of ours who were mourning the loss of their daughter. It was a tragic accident that took her life. Jamie and I went to the visitation after we got the kids in bed. A girl I once taught came over literally at the last minute so we could go. It was absoultely the saddest thing I have ever seen. When we got home, we both went to each bedroom and stood over our kids and just watched them breathe. I feel stuck in grief for this family.