Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween from my three little dinosaurs!!

Wordless Wednesday

Super Hero

Happy last week of October. I can't believe it. This month flew by! This month has been crazy busy and next month will be too but thankfully everything will calm down after Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to it. On the one hand I enjoy being busy but rest is nice too.
Bennett, my little costume man, is having the best week because he is getting to dress up SO much. His school is allowing costumes both days this week and my bible study tomorrow is as well. Yesterday I convinced him to go to school in his pirate costume. He begged me to let him wear his Spiderman but his Spiderman costume is way too small. He has never noticed nor does he care but I just couldn't let him go to school wearing it because of how small it is. So he begrudgingly went as a pirate but once we got to school and he saw other little boys in their super hero costumes, he got the saddest look on his face. He didn't say anything but I knew what he was thinking and it broke my heart. As I was hanging up his backpack for him I started feeling guilty that I didn't let him wear what he wanted to. So I bent down and asked him if he wanted me to go home and get his Spiderman costume and bring it back so he could wear it. I could feel his heart leap with joy. He nodded yes and smiled with relief and I told him I'd be right back.

I normally wouldn't do something like that to be honest. But costumes are Bennett's thing. He wears them every single day so it's really important to him. And seeing his sad little face when he saw the other boys in their super hero costumes ripped me apart. I had to fix it. So I did. Except I still couldn't let him wear his size 2T that really looks like a size 6-12M Spiderman costume in public. So I ran in Walmart and got him a new Spiderman that looks just like the original Spiderman except it actually fits right. And while I was at it, I also got him the Iron Man costume he's been begging me for, for weeks. Bennett never asks for anything but we were in Target a few weeks ago and he spotted Iron Man and decided he needed that costume in his life. He's brought it up every day since and I planned to get it and save it for Christmas but he was tugging on my heart strings yesterday so Christmas came early.
When I showed up at school with his Spiderman he was so happy. And then when I picked him up from school and showed him his new Iron Man costume he gasped with so much sweetness and awe. When we got home he asked me if I would take his picture in it and of course I happily obliged. Sweet boy. He LOVES costumes. He literally wakes up and 15 minutes later he's got a costume on. They are his favorite thing ever and right now he is SO into the super heros. He isn't going to be a super hero for Halloween but I promise he is very pumped about his costume. Love this little super hero.

Trick or Treat

We had a fun weekend! We took the boys to trick or treat on the Bentonville square. It was wet and a little rainy but we had promised them we would go and we do it every year. It's become a tradition for us and we all have so much fun so even though the weather wasn't ideal, we still went! The boys didn't even notice the slight drizzle and they managed to fill up their treat bags with a whole lotta candy!!

Once they decided they had enough, we went back home and cozied up in our comfy clothes and stayed that way the rest of the day. The boys "organized" their candy and ate more than they needed to but Halloween only comes once a year so I let them go for it. As long as they gave me their snickers.

A simple little weekend making some fun memories. I love this time of year!

Counting Blessings

Early Monday morning our area of town experienced an EF2 tornado. The tornado narrowly missed our neighborhood by about one street. The damage is truly devastating. The path the tornado took is my drive to get anywhere in town and seeing the aftermath is so sad. Huge, several hundred year old trees are completely uprooted. Beautiful fall maples are sliced in half. Fences are down and some people are missing roofs. Even a few huge trees landed on homes. It is a mess and so heartbreaking. Every fall I enjoy taking a route into town where the street is lined with dozens upon dozens of glorious red maples. The trees are massive, the sun hits them just right, and the red leaves are vibrant. One year I got a photo with them because they are just so beautiful.Unfortunately, they are ruined. Not all of them, but over half of them.

We had no idea we were going to get such bad weather. Our phones didn't alert us and we didn't hear any sirens going off. Scott and I were awoken around 12:30 from the loud storms and also our power went out. It felt like we were up and down all night long. We kept looking out the window and trying to see what was going on, on our phones. Scott ended up going upstairs to sleep because our monitors weren't working. By the time my alarm went off in the morning I felt like I had gotten zero sleep. I got on Facebook to see if anyone was talking about it and everyone was wondering if we would have school since the school + all of the surrounding areas were out of power. We got a call from the school saying they did not have power but would still have school and if they didn't get power back by 10:00 the students would be sent home. They then called later that morning saying they had enough natural light in the school to continue the rest of the day and the kids would be served sandwiches for lunch instead of having hot meal options.
Meanwhile, I was home panicking about the 1000 ounces (or more!) of milk I have saved in my deep freezers. As soon as Scott dropped Campbell off from school I had him run to Walmart to grab ice. I was keeping a close eye on it to make sure it was okay. I would be devastated if something happened to it. Wells drinks a bottle before bed every night not to mention I pumped three times a day for 4 months to save that up!! Our power came back on after 13 hours and my milk was still frozen solid, thank goodness. We got our power back much sooner than surrounding neighborhoods. I think we were a priority since we are on the same line as Campbell's school. I was so thankful for power because our house was beginning to get really cold and we ended up spending a long time at Chick Fil A for some warm food, power and entertainment!!
We are so grateful that we didn't have any damage from the storm. We have so many trees in our backyard and not a single one suffered from it. So many were not so lucky. My old neighborhood had so much damage. I drove around and couldn't believe my eyes. One of Campbell's classmates home was so damaged they aren't able to live there right now. The class is coming together to do some things for the family that will hopefully be very helpful.
It's so crazy how you can be going about your day and it can change in an instant. The scary part to me is that I had no idea a storm this big was going to happen. I can't believe our phones didn't go off to alert us. It's so shocking to see the damage and will take a long time for it to repair. I'm counting my blessings this week.

Wells | 9 Months Old

Weight: Really anxious to know. We have our nine month appointment in Tuesday. Normally I'm really good at guessing but I'm not so sure this month. He seems to have really filled out a lot. If he isn't on the charts I will be shocked.

Height: Seems like he grew a foot this month!

Sleep: We are down to two naps a day at 8:30ish and 2:00ish and he sleeps for about 2 hours each time. He goes to bed at 7:00 and sleeps until close to 7:30 the next morning!

Eat: Give Wells ALL the food. He loves to eat. Loves. This kid can devour some food too. Wells will literally eat anything I give him. He loves to eat meat, carbs (especially muffins) and yogurt. I try to not give him breakfast because that is his best nurse of the day (who knows how much he's getting but I would guess around 8oz) and I feel like if he knew breakfast was coming he wouldn't nurse as well because he'd hold out for the food. But he eats lunch and dinner every day. Usually a peanut butter or turkey sandwich for lunch (smushed flat and cut into tiny squares) with fruit and crunchies on the side and for dinner he eats whatever we eat. This morning I was holding him on my hip and getting myself a muffin and he literally attacked the muffin like his life depended on it and grabbed the entire thing and put it in his mouth. Totally caught me off guard and made me laugh really hard. Nothing gets between Wells and his muffins!!! Besides all of this yummy food that he's suddenly very obsessed with, I'm nursing him 4-5 times a day and giving him a 5oz bottle before bed. He's becoming a very distracted nurser.

Clothes: Wells can wear size 3-6 and 6-12 month clothes. All of his pajamas are 6-12 months.

Diapers: Size 3 Honest as of this week.

Likes: Food, playing with his toys (his pop up train is his favorite which was Bennett's favorite too!), being held, being outside, bath time, watching his brothers, sucking his thumb.

Dislikes: Not being held from 5:30 to bedtime.

Milestones: Wells changed so much this month. He babbles all the time and says several things including mama, dada, and bubba (or maybe is baba but the boys think he's saying bubba!). He is so close to crawling. I'd be so surprised if it didn't happen this month. Wells is really good at feeding himself but he can't figure out the pouches or a straw cup. He's just changing and seeming so much more aware of life around him. Growing too fast on me.

Month Nine: This month felt different because he seemed to grow a lot. Wells is really beginning to understand the world around him. He's getting better about voicing his wants and "telling" us things.

All About Wells: Sweet boy. If I could sum this month up I would say it's been all about food!! Wells loves food and making his belly stuffed full of it. He is so good at being toted around and going with the flow. He still loves to be held a lot but he has a lot of moments where he's content playing in his jumper or sitting on the floor with toys. Wells doesn't watch Mickey often but sometimes if I'm desperate I'll sit him in front of the TV and he loves watching it. He smiles SO BIG and squeals with delight whenever we pull out all of our Mickey and friends lovies. He definitely recognizes them and knows who they are!! It's so adorably sweet. We love this angel and cannot believe he's 9 months old!!

Costume Fun

Bennett got a Spiderman costume for Christmas last year and thus began his deep, deep love for costumes. I'm not exaggerating when I say he dresses up in costumes every single day and our costume collection is quickly growing. He has a lot of cool costumes but his very favorite is his Spiderman. He isn't even a fan of Spiderman but he loves the costume. Since he loves it so much I decided I needed to get a photo of him in it so I will always remember his love for his Spiderman costume.

Earlier this week I was feeling inspired and thought it would be fun to get some photos and attempt to photoshop them a little bit. I never use photoshop, like ever. I edit all of my photos in Lightroom and only use photoshop when absolutely necessary. Photoshop is very time consuming for me. We got a family photo this summer at the beach that someone kindly took for us. The photo was great but there were so many people in the background. Since it was our only family photo from our trip I was willing to spend the hours (yes, hours!) to photoshop the people out. The final product was beautiful but it took me foreverrrrr to cut the people out then recreate the ocean waves, sky and beach, blend it all together, and make it look natural. You can see that family photo HERE if you so desire. All that to say--I don't use photoshop because it takes me so long to do it BUT photoshop can produce some super cool stuff and when I have the time to play around with it, I enjoy it. When Campbell saw what we were doing he wanted in on the action and thus we got some super fun photos!

I'm all caught up with my work (super busy right now with fall family photos) and I'm going to enjoy my free time for the next 15.5 hours (I have a sunrise session tomorrow morning). My littlest is napping and my bigs are watching Masha and the Bear (they love that show!) so I'm going to play around in photoshop some more to see if I can come up with some cool ideas for our Halloween costume photos! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Halloween Treats

With Halloween right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to share these fun, delicious treats with you today. My kids love baking and helping me cook and I enjoy letting them do it (when I'm in the right mood for it!). These festive treats are a great activity to do with your kids and bonus--you get to indulge in a delicious sweet when it's over. Click the link under the photo for the recipe.

I've shared Pretzel Hugs on here before. They're one of my favorite treats to make. They're super quick and easy to do and great for parties. My kids can easily help me make these and they love to do it. The great thing about Pretzel Hugs is you can easily theme them for any holiday or celebration. These Halloween ones are so fun! Bennett just saw this picture and declared "I want to make these!!" so it looks like we'll be making these later today. Honestly, can't wait! So fun!

Halloween Pretzel Hugs

Turn your leftover Halloween candy into brownies! So adorable and fun! Perfect for kids and adults!! Bennett and Campbell are having Halloween parties at school, I'm thinking Bennett's preschool class would love these treats for their party. I may have to make them for him and his little friends!

Witches Brew Brownies 

If brownies aren't your thing, stick your leftover Halloween candy into a pie! I've done this many times after Halloween in order to use up all of that candy. Now that my kids are older they are getting good at this trick-or-treating business and their candy buckets are now over-flowing with goodies--too many goodies. Using their candy for brownies or a pie is a good solution to make the candy go away quicker!!

Candy Bar Pie

Brownie S'mores with a Halloween twist. How cute! I haven't made this recipe yet but I pinned it years ago and I'm thinking it's time. My boys would love this treat and it sounds delicious. It's a little more time consuming than the other recipes but it would be a perfect thing to do on a cold, rainy October day. 

Ghostly Peeps: Brownie S'mores

Wordless Wednesday

Orange You Glad It's October

It seems like every fall I'm on the hunt for the perfect hat and never can seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. This year I found the best hat I've ever had. The color is perfect and the fit is just right!! I have so much new growth from my hair falling out postpartum. I lost it around 4 months PP and now it's back in and it is thick. Like, thick thick thick. I blame and also credit this to Monat. I'm glad my hair is coming in so thick but it looks absolutely awful around my hairline. I'm soooo ready for it to get a little bit longer so it's not as noticeable but until then--hats. 

 Hat | Top | Jeans | Booties | Baby Wells Outfit

My Favorite Childrens Books For Halloween

I love reading to my kids. We read before bed every night and have their whole lives. I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many books and I especially love adding to my kids book collection. Every fall I enjoy going to the bookstore and getting my boys new Halloween books. We do the same thing at Christmas. It's a fun little tradition that we all enjoy. I have a basket that I keep seasonal books in and I store the books away once that season is over. This way the books feel fresh every year and my boys are always so excited to see their basket full of "new" holiday books and are anxious to read them. Today I wanted to compile a list of my favorite Halloween books that we love to read year after year! I linked them all via Amazon. Simply click the title under the book.

One of my very favorite, possibly my absolute favorite, books during Halloween is Room on the Broom. This book is so cute. It's about a witch who is flying through the air, keeps losing items, and as she flies down to retrieve them, different animals ask for a ride on her broom. They run into a scary dragon who likes to eat witches but the animals end up saving the day! This book captivates my children and I never tire of reading it to them!

Room on the Broom

We love the Little Blue Truck series and the Halloween story has always been a favorite of my boys. Little Blue Truck is on his way to a Halloween party and your kids can lift the flap to find out who is hiding beneath the figures in costumes that he encounters. 

Little Blue Truck's Halloween

Snowmen at Halloween is the cutest imaginative story. Halloween brings a snowfall, children build snowmen, then after the children go to bed the snowmen have their own Halloween fun! The illustrations are beautiful and the rhyming storyline is adorable. If your kids like snowmen, this book is for you!

Snowmen at Halloween

Jellycat books are perfect for your tiny little readers! They are touch and feel and so sweet! The books have lovies to match and my babies love reading and feeling these. I read them to Wells now, even though he's only 8 months old!

If I were an owl

Spookie Pookie is another great book for the little ones! This book will always remind me of Campbell when he was a baby because he loved this book!! Spookie can't decide what he wants to be for Halloween so he tries on several different costumes until he finds the one that's just right! A cute little rhyming book your toddler will enjoy reading over and over.

Spooky Pookie

This book is new for us this year and my boys are enjoying it so much! If you're a Disney lover this book is for you. It's complied of 12 different stories from some of your favorite Disney characters. From Mickey and Pooh to Cinderella and Peter Pan, this big book is full of fun stories for everyone! We have all been climbing in bed together and reading one story each night. The stories are just the right length too--not too short, not too long. 

Five Minute Halloween Stories

The sweetest story. This book is about a teacher who asks his students to count how many seeds are in three different pumpkins proving sometimes big things come in small packages! This book is good for a little bit older children (I'd say 5+) because they do some math by counting the pumpkin seeds but the story is captivating and even curious little toddler minds would enjoy the theme behind it!

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin

The Scarecrow, while not necessarily a Halloween book, is a wonderful book to have in your fall rotation. This book is absolutely beautiful. The illustrations are gorgeous and the story will tug at your heartstrings. I won't indulge because I'd love for you to check it out for yourself and let the storyline be a surprise. Everyone needs this in their library!

The Scarecrow 

TGIF

TGIF and hallelujah it's Friday!!

This week went by fast! I am excited it's the weekend because next week is fall break which means Campbell is out of school Monday through Wednesday. When I first got the dates for fall break it seemed far away and now we're here. This school year is flying by. I'm super pumped for fall break. It will be so nice to have a few days to take it slow.

Let's talk about October for a minute. There is something about October and being a mom to small children that I love and that is all of the Halloween cartoon episodes on Disney Jr and Nick Jr. I know that may seem odd but it gives me the warm fuzzies. I think because it takes me back to that first Halloween season as a parent (well probably the 2nd when Campbell was a little older) and it's like smelling a memory. Something about these shows take me back and I love the sweet feeling it gives me. It will be a sad day in my house when Disney Jr is no longer the desired channel of choice. Some parents may feel like it will be a happy day when cartoons are a thing of the past but for me, I'll miss it. I think I've watched Mickey Mouse every single day for the last 5 years and even though I've seen each episode approximately 1 billion times, I'm somehow still not tired of it yet.

It is COLD here in Northwest Arkansas today. In the 30's! Again with the warm fuzzies…..I'm loving it. I am over the heat and humidity and need some cool temps in my life. Every fall I enjoy taking my boys to Barnes and Noble to pick out a fun new fall or Halloween book and I think today will be the perfect day to do that! Hope you guys enjoy your weekend!!