Our Tale of the Leprechaun

The easiest way to wake Keagan up in the mornings is to tell him something he can be excited about for the day. Yesterday morning I went into his room, shook him good morning and told him, "Guess what!? When you get home from school today we're going to build a leprechaun trap and catch us a leprechaun." He didn't buy into it and told me leprechaun's were way too fast to catch. I told him that was not so....Just wait and see. I looked up to see Aaron staring at me most likely thinking,"What are we going to do now??!"
I put together my plan at work and this is what we all collectively came up with:
The long trail to nowhere....

We had our trap sitting on the tv stand and in ordered for the little guy to be able to get to it we built a really tall ladder for him to be able to climb on up.
The trap...

We painted an empty box of grits and then decorated it with things that would be charming to a little leprechaun. The leaves hold some lucky charms for bait. Little does he know that when he steps on the leaves he'll fall into the hole and not be able to get back out....
Morning:

Keagan was shocked! It looks like we did indeed catch a leprechaun but he used his shovel to dig himself out....And left gold chocolate coins along the way. I thought that was the cutest shovel I had ever seen. It was pure luck that I found it on my lunch break and knew exactly what I'd use it for!!
After all the excitement Keagan collected the coins and said, "I must have had a nice leprechaun because he didn't turn anything green." I just nodded and went about my business for the morning.

A few minutes later I hear, "Ok....The leprechaun peed in my bathroom!!!" haha! I thought that was so funny. He actually refused to use it until I cleaned the green out.
Breakfast time:

You've got to have Lucky Charms on St. Patty's day, right?? I sat Keagan at the table and poured the cereal into his bowl. Then I went and grabbed the milk and started pouring....The look on his face was priceless then he said, "Mommy, he peed in our milk too!!"
It was quite the excitement for our morning and unfortunately Easton missed the whole thing. He slept in until 9:00!! Oh well, there is always next year. :)

Christmas 2011

364 days of preparation......1 night of perfect execution.

This Christmas was simply wonderful. Not that they haven't all been in the past. This year we took a different approach to most gifts though and all the family received homemade goodies. With the boys gifts and the gifts from Santa, we started collecting them throughout the year. By the time Christmas rolled around we had a HUGE collection of gifts for the boys and even surprisingly for each other.

After our Christmas Eve dinner at Nana's we hurried home so Daddy could sprinkle reindeer food on the rooftop. We set out the homemade cookies and a big cup a milk and then all settled in to watch one more Christmas movie before calling it a night.

The long awaited Christmas morning is here.....So much waiting and it's all over and done with in a flash. I think a storm warning could have gone out over our home to prep for the wrapping paper tornado that was about to hit!

This is the super cool EZY Roller that K got. I think at first he was a little disappointed. He thought since it had 3 wheels it just had to be for E. Little did he know.....this thing is a rolling machine!

Daddy and E taking it for a spin:

This thing is cool enough to bring curious neighbors out of their house and to leave little boys watching in amazement.

And with that....Christmas and the rest of 2011 is just about a wrap. It's been a good one. I look forward to spending the last week of the year at home with my babies enjoying some mommy & crazy boy time.

Festival of Lights~Country Style

Who doesn't love holiday lights??? Mix them with a some farm animals and you have a festival of lights, Country Style!!
We had so much fun last night. We wanted to head to Hollywild last year to see all the lights but between our sub-freezing temperatures and having a little one that we worried wouldn't quite see the enjoyment in lights, we decided against it. This year with a balmy 55 degree night and two excited kids....it was perfect!
The lights were beautiful, although a little hard to take pictures of when you're in a truck constantly moving.

We got to see the cousins to the reindeer at the North Pole. ;)

And the best part of the trip had to be the best friend that Aaron made. This had all of us cracking up!

This big boy stuck around until our entire bag of bread and crackers were gone....And of course he didn't want to leave without giving back. Aaron was left with a nice present of drool on his shirt and lap. hehe....

After emptying our bags of all the food we had it was time to head to.......

I ended up putting my camera away because it started raining on us some and I didn't want it to get wet. The village was full of all sorts of fun though. We stood by the big bon fire and sipped on hot chocolate. We played with more goats, deer, and even a zadonkie. At the end of the evening Santa made an entrance and K got to tell him everything he wished for.....No pictures allowed unless you bought their $6 photo taken by some teen. No thanks! That's okay though because it's a memory stamped in my head forever regardless. <3

In my next 30 years.....

WOW! It's finally here. This has been one helluva year. I put together a list of goals for myself on November 25th of last year. Some I completed, some I lost interest in, and some....Well some I just didn't do.

30 by 30

List of my goals to accomplish before the big 3-0 on November 25, 2011:
1. Learn to can our garden veggies
2. Complete my first photography class. I attempted and just couldn't get into it....Teacher maybe?
3. Find and take a trip to a Sunflower field
4. Print my first blog book
5. Print pictures that I’ve taken and we’ve decided to use as our in-home art work
6. Go on an adult only trip.
7. Get a pedicure. (No, I have never had one) Still never had one. Not sure how I'd like having my feet touched
8. Lose 10lbs. UGH! This one has been the most frustrating. I'll lose then gain, lose then gain. At the moment I'm leaning towards the gain......
9. Have a least 5 Christmas gifts bought through out the year rather than cramming in November
10. Give up my beloved Diet Mt. Dew for 30 days...Okay so I didn't make it 30 days. I made it 19... :)
11. Drink more Green Tea I didn't drink more green tea but did develop a taste for water
12. Try a new recipe once a week for a least a month
13. Bake a cake/dessert once a month NOT A GOOD GOAL WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT!
14. Make money from a photo shoot This I didn't complete. I decided I wasn't interested in it anymore. People are my least favorite thing to photograph and I don't want to turn a fun hobby into something I dread.
15. Become more comfortable in front of people while doing a photo shoot. I’ve had a couple of people ask me if I’d do one and I chicken out…. See #14
16. Have a one on one little day trip with each son.17. Learn not to sweat the small stuff
18. Find a church
19. Take a day off from work-just for me!
20. Get a massage (and no, I’ve never had one of these either) I too am not sure I'm digging this either. I actually had a gift certificate for this and let it expire. 
21. Go one whole day without looking at a clock I never made it a whole day but considering that we only have one clock in our entire house.....I've come pretty close.
22. Chaperone a field trip Zoo on Halloween with the whole kindergarten class
23. Read more books!! I've ready 3 books in a month! It's so good to get back to my bookworm ways!
24. Change my own cars oil25. Get more physical I've started going to the gym 3-5 days a week and LOVE it!.....and then since writing this, quit.
26. Go vegetarian for at least one week Never made it a week but do sometimes cook Meatless mondays
27. Payoff Aaron’s truck
28. Take a random family day trip I feel like we do this every weekend!
29. Go visit my mom. I haven’t had the courage to visit her grave site since she passed away. Dec. 25, 2007. This one was my biggest challenge and I didn't make it. The grave is just a location. I may never make it there....But she is always with me and not a day goes by that I don't think about her, talk to her, or talk about her.
30. Swap nightly roles with my husband for the night.

So as you see....Not everything was accomplished. Even still I can say with confidence that 29 was my best year yet! I've watched my baby grow into a super adorable, very sweet, and very smart toddler. I've watched my oldest go from being a little boy to a kid in kindergarten and my husband and I have had so many good laughs, mini vacations, and several "firsts" for us even after almost 8 years.

Here is too the past 30 years and to the next 30 years to come!!!

CHEERS!

It's a bird....It's a plane....No...It's a tomato cage!

Yes! I am very much in the Christmas spirit. And no, I have not even posted the jumping in the leaf pile photos yet...I'm running a little behind but Christmas has me so giddy I can't hardly help myself. My Dear Husband tells me it's too early to decorate so he wants no part in pulling the decorations down from the attic....or going to pick out a tree at the farm. I know I could do all that myself and trust me, I've been half tempted too....instead though, I shall make a tree of my own. This my friends is made from an old rusty tomato cage from our garden. It's still totally usable come spring but in the mean time I put a zip time on the end....wrapped it in garland....strung it with lights, and called it my tree! I think it turned out quite well and is a perfect beginning to my Christmas decor. ;)

Happy Halloween 2011

I've got so many photos from Halloween and so little time that I've decided that I've got to just post some for memories before Thanksgiving or Christmas show up.
We had a great Halloween holiday. We carved 3 pumpkins. We baked yummy yummy pumpkin seeds. We played baseball with pumpkins and even bowled a little with them. We found a wonderful neighborhood to go trick or treating in even despite the spooky guy walking down the street. I think I had the coolest ninja and the cutest sock monkey possible!

Christmas with Shutterfly

I know....I know...It's not even Halloween yet! But I'm already geared for Christmas and with less than two months away-that means the Christmas card planning has begun. I've used Shutterfly for all my card needs. Most recently was our last Christmas card from last year that I just LOVED!!

The year before that we came up with this clever card. K just loved being the center of attention!

Gosh, I love looking back at old cards. We've not only used Shutterfly for our Christmas needs but when it was time to announce the birth of our second sweet baby boy, we used them for that too!!

Thank you Shutterfly for awesome cards time and time again. I look forward to coming up with another family Christmas card again this year....and Shutterfly will be the only outsider invited to the party. :)

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!

I had a great little Halloween Feast with the family last night. It wasn't planned and at about 3:00 I decided to throw something together really quickly. I had some Halloween decorations that we bought 50% off about 3 years ago and have never used. While the boys were outside playing I grabbed them from the attic and got to work. On the menu was still what I had originally planned for dinner we just stepped it up a notch by giving it all a new name.
Menu:

• Shredded Frankenbrains aka Shredded beer BBQ chicken in the crock pot
• Maggots aka rice
• Smashed liver & onions aka squash and onions
• Grubs aka greenbeans

I went out and cut some fresh mums from our 4 year old mum outside. I didn't realize it until later that I also brought in a little visitor with them.

I grabbed the two pumpkins that K brought home from his field trips to the pumpkin patch and just to add a little spunk I cut out a bat and used some of my jewelry wire to make the bat hover.

The end result certainly wasn't anything spectacular but it brought smiles to the boys faces for sure!

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary! ~Author Unknown

Pickin' of the pumpkins....

I couldn't help myself. I couldn't take the family to a grocery store and let them pick out there pumpkins that way. There is NOTHING wrong with that however K has always been to a pumpkin patch and I'm just not willing to let that tradition go.
We didn't do any of the frills and whistles of hayrides, corn mazes, apple picking, etc. With K doing that twice already this month-I think he's gotten his farm filled fun in already. We did however find some good pumpkins and had a great time checking out the baby farm animals.

We're going to wait until a little closer to carve these babies. Can't wait to see what the boys come up with!

It's OCTOBER!!!!

Alright boys..... We're getting ready for Halloween.....I've made the wreath! :) The Halloween decorations will hopefully go up this weekend, and the costumes have been bought. My Warrior Ninja and lil' sock monkey are ready to be in full swing!! It should be a fun season.
I'm struggling a little on how to keep the two of you entertained. We normally hit up the apple orchard and pumpkin farm but I had no clue that between kindergarten and after school fun, you K, would already have made two trips there....I'm sure we'll come up with something! Let the good times roll!!

Belated 4th of July Celebration

~"Freedom is never given, it is won." Anonymous

We had a bit of a late 4th of July celebration. After our very fun but tiresome weekend out at the lake for the 4th, sad to say, but all of us have struggled to even stay up until dark. Finally last night we decided to have our "big" celebration.....which consisted of grilling out and sparklers.

I was SHOCKED at how much E liked the sparklers. I thought he was going to be scared. I should have known better. He is his own firecracker.

And then of course we have our little Harry Potter. I don't think this was what K was purposely doing but of course it was my first thought when I saw this picture.

We had a great little "celebration" and in the end I think it wore our little firecracker out.