Happy Halloween from Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

You've Got a Friend in Me!

After stalking Amazon for a week, I finally received my lens for my new camera and saw that my camera body had been checked into the post office. After a very nice phone call with the post office I jetted off there and picked up my camera and was able to get it 2 days early! And also? On a Saturday, when Dusty and the kids were gone, so I had all day to just play around with my new camera. Do you want to know how excited I was? Excited enough to take a picture of the two boxes together!

I soon got bored taking pictures of stationary images. I mean, I got this camera for taking pictures of family and friends, not all the toys around the house. Thankfully Reb was home and she let me jet over there for a couple minutes to take pictures of Jane.

That evening I had Ladies' potsticker night where Bridget and Anna did a great job decorating with fall decor and Halloween fun.

And of course, our chef's did an amazing job, like always.

I'm still learning my new camera, and I haven't had a chance to really do some fun shooting in some natural light, but I am so freaking excited right now. As I stated on Facebook, I'm pretty sure this new camera is going to lead to a paparazzi like lifestyle. You've all been warned.

It's time to tell some funny stories and talk about how poop is ruining my life. To make things interesting, I'm going to separate each story with some fun pictures from my phone. This way I get to kill two posts at once, and you get to really giggle. Enjoy!

Rory not only has decided she is not going to go #2 on the toilet anymore. But she also decided that she does not enjoy having it in her pull-up and has been scooping it out. She started doing this at Rosemary's birthday party, where the whole family was, and dropped her turd on the floor of Grammy and Dido's house, where her cousin Lyla was kind enough to get a napkin and start picking it up!

Max has started his extra naughty streaks again and started out by sneaking out of bed, taking his toothpaste from the bathroom and started smearing it all over his bedding, himself, and even a couple books before Dusty got to him! That following morning Max got up, climbed up the drawers of our kitchen, crawled/walked over the entire counter top, stove and sink to get to the far corner where the suckers were and helped himself. I found him in bed sucking triumphantly on his sucker. This boy has every plan to give us gray hair prematurely!

In the spirit of Halloween, I've brought down the wigs and fun hats that I've accumulated and the kids have been playing with them. Say hello to Dolly Parton!

Yes, that is, unfortunately, the best picture I had of her in it but seriously, can you imagine the giggles over here with that wig?!

You're welcome internet, you're welcome.

Today the kids and I went to the Minnesota Children's Museum. Since I've been almost fully in charge of the kids these last couple days (Dusty has been working odd hours and has had other plans) it's been a bit overwhelming. So instead of sitting at home getting irritated I figured we'd load up and try something new.

Max took this picture of Rory and I.

The kids were pretending to be a sleep with the Mama Gorilla and her babies. As you can see, they are really good at pretend sleeping.

We got to enjoy their story time which was ah-ma-zing. This guy? He was hilarious with the kids!

And they got to toss leaves and play in the big parachute after the story was over.

Rory worked on her shopping skills.

Max worked on the construction site.

Let's not forget about the whole water section, the left our sleeves quite damp.

We even got to paint our own faces!

The finished results. (I know, Rory just needs vampire teeth and she'd be complete.)

And while going to and from the museum we got to enjoy the skyway which was an experience in itself! The kids had so much fun watching the cars, buses and especially the big trucks drive below us.

It was a nice way to spend a chunk of our day. Now if only our car naps could have been longer, I think tonight is going to get really long!

Last night we had quite the crowd over as we all worked on carving our pumpkins for Halloween!

First you have to clean them out, and make sure everyone smells them!

Then you have to play around a little.

Then you start the intricate design work.

If you're Uncle Randy, you sit in the corner complaining until someone hands you the baby.

While the adults clean up the mess, you make sure to hog pile on Auntie Katie!

And then you setup for the photos of the pumpkins and the kids that really didn't do much but why would you want to see the adults behind the pumpkins?

Now wasn't that easy?

A few funny picture from my phone!

Max has been doing really well with out a nap in the afternoon. Except for one day a week. Then he just crashes. Last week he fell asleep while he and I were rocking in a chair. This week? He kicked daddy out of the chair and not even twenty minutes later I found him curled up like this.

Yes, I did put a blanket on him after I took the picture. Little man needed that hour of shut eye.

Rory has taken to yelling at me to take her picture. Which of course I'm in love with! So say hello to a horribly lit picture of her in my sunglasses.

We were getting ready to leave and she put them on while on the stairs and would not leave me alone until I took the picture.

And lastly, Max and I usually try to find some quiet activities to do while Rory is taking her nap. Usually after he has finished his chore (sweeping after lunch) he'll watch a video and then we'll do some arts, he'll play by himself, or our recent favorite, we'll goof around with play-doh.

Max also loves taking pictures with my camera and since I so rarely get to be in front of the lens I had to show this one off, goofy and all.

Today the kids and I took Maya for a walk at the state park. Instead of heading to the waterfalls like we normally do, we decided to take the shorter trail that leads to upstream since it was colder. Once we got moving we found a smaller trail and decided to try that one out.

We were able to get up on top of the bluffs by the waterfalls, which was really neat to see! Max threw a couple sticks towards the water.

Rory continued to fall, or purposely fall, just because she's Rory.

And then we headed back, because it was stressful having a dog on a leash and two small children so close to the bluffs. And the trek back up lead to lots of falls and pushes from one or the other as someone else slid backwards. We stayed pretty close together for the walk back.

I even had to take turns picking up the kids to walk back up a particularly steep part. The kids could not do it on their own. Maya was set free to wait at the top and she would lick each kid as I set them down as if she needed to reassure herself we were all there.

It was a fun, off the beaten path, type of walk. I don't think we'll be doing that again anytime soon though! My adrenaline is still pumping pretty hard.