For Eric & Leah

Okay guys, well, here's the only shot I got of the short-shorts-sporting grandpa...you can see a tiny bit of leg if you look right above the purple-triangle-looking thingy on the bottom right side of the picture. But lemme tell ya, the bare leg went up waaaaaay dangerously higher than that! Ah, so disappointing. I'll have to aim better next year...

Charlie's 4th Birthday Celebration...and Halloween.

Charlie was a rhino for Halloween!

I forgot to grab him a trick-or-treat bag, so he "decorated" one of his birthday present bags with stickers. The kid is easy to please. "Ding-dong!""Knock knock!"

"Trick-or-treat!"Brian, April and Loralye (aka "White Tiger") came along with us. Sorry, Brian, somehow I managed to not get a picture of you! I guess I was too distracted by your daughter's extreme cuteness!My most favorite part of the night was the very first house we went to. This 70 + yr old guy answers the door in the shortest little shorts you've ever seen - and the funniest part was they weren't supposed to be a "costume", I'm sure of it. He was totally serious! My mouth was just hanging open, and April seriously laughed outloud! Made my whole night. Ha ha! Sleepy Rhino - after about 8 houses, Charlie said something along the lines of, "I'm already asleep, mommy." So we headed back home. :)

Charlie had his much anticipated "4th Birthday Celebration Bash" on the 30th. I meant for it to be a small gathering, since Charlie tends to shy away from lots of crowds and excessive noisey-ness. But, we ended up with a pretty good sized crowd and Charlie did great with it! He was SO excited and happy all night long. He loved it! The best part was about half-way through, when I said, "Charlie, are you having a good birthday?" And he said, very seriously yet also very dreamily, "Mom, it's EXACTLY how I wanted it to be." Melt my heart! I love that kid. :)

The night before his birthday, I attempted a 2-layer cake. Charlie doesn't even like cake, but insisted we have it because "all the other kids like it". Well, other than the bottom layer breaking completely in half...it turned out okay. Of course, I had a lot of help! And once it was covered in frosting, you couldn't even tell the bottom half was in 2 pieces!

I have to admit, although my OCD is mostly cured...if you compare the previous pictures to the following one, you can see how I had to take the 2 m&m's off of the letters of his name. I just couldn't stand it! It really bugged me, for some stupid reason. Sorry, Charlie.

Anyways, here's the finished product! Too cute. And yes, I did his name, although it might look like it was done by a 4 year old. Yeah, so I'm not too handy with the icing tube...

The "spread", and pumpkins designed by Charlie! He drew the mouth for the big one. And the little one was inspired by his "prozac pumpkin".

Ellie and Jasmine in baby heaven - holding Paisley and Ava.The pinata line-up!

Eli taking his first swing.Little Cody taking a shot!

Ellie

Blake

Jackson

Charlie - here comes the candy!

CANDY!

Opening presents.

Cake time!

Singing the song - he was a little embarrassed, thus the quirky look on his face. But, I could tell he was pretty happy about it, too! :)

Blowing out the candles!

Happy Birthday, Charlie. You are loved beyond anything you could ever imagine!

Art only a mother could love...

Here's Charlie's entry to the New Seasons Halloween Coloring Contest: What do you think, is it a winner? :)

Kinda makes me think maybe he's got some issues with aggression?

Egg Factory

Our chickens are in full egg-making swing! Today, we got 3. We're pretty sure that 3 chickens are now laying. So, 3 down, 8 to go! We are having so much fun. Every day we have a little egg hunt. This morning, there was a HUGE commotion, and sure enough we found 3 eggs (up until today, it's just been 2 a day), so we're pretty sure another chicken laid her first. Sorry neighbors...

Scrambled eggs, anyone?

"Flighty Whitey" is still putting out an egg a day - that's her white one on the right. The other hens are laying brown ones - on the left.

Blake's 4th Birthday - and our FIRST EGG!

Blake is 4! We had fun celebrating on Saturday with all the Millers and Fletchers.

Opening presents.

Blowing out candles.

Waiting for a piece of cake.
Too bad it was "coffee" ice cream cake, as if all the sugar weren't enough stimulation for all the toddlers! Ha ha, oops - nice pick, Uncle Mike M.! :)

Playing with all the "little guys" with Aunt Maryann.

Sword fighting with Uncle Mike F.
(Charlie didn't want any part of this, but the other 4 cousins had a BLAST!)

Shirtless Warrior, Birthday Boy Blake!

Jasmine keeping those eyes protected, and of course fighting in pretty in pink style.Proud mom and dad watch their 4 year old enjoy his birthday!

Since Blake and Charlie are only 6 days apart, Charlie's 4th birthday is this Friday, the 30th. I can't believe the boys are 4 already! There will be plenty of pictures to come after Charlie's celebration, I'm sure...! :)

In other news, on Saturday morning, we FINALLY got our first EGG!!!

Flighty Whitey was acting really crazy all morning, jumping into baskets and buckets and "bawking" up a storm. So, we knew it was coming! She finally chose this old purple rubbermaid bucket that was filled with hay (completely ignorning our cute little nest area that Shawn built for them to lay their eggs in alongside the coop). After she "did the deed" she was a little traumatized. She burrowed down inside the bucket and wouldn't come out. It was funny, but also a little sad. I mean, really, she was probably thinking, "What just HAPPENED to me?!?!?!"

The fun part was that my sister and all of her kiddos happened to be visiting when it happened. So, Shawn came and got us and we all went running back there to check it out.

Shawn's reaching in for it.

Charlie was so proud of the egg! He took it in the house and kept hiding it in different spots. Then it occured to me, he was thinking we needed to hide it like an Easter egg. So silly!

Flighty Whitey strutting her stuff after the laying.

The egg is still in our fridge. It's really small. I am having issues with eating it. It almost seems like we should let her work all the kinks out before eating the eggs, get a few out, get the wheels turning, you know? Rusty plumbing? Is that strange?