Field Trip--Union Station

We met Mike at his office downtown today

and took Brax over to Union Station to check out the trains...

House Pic and Crocodile Tears

Mike got the lawn looking really good this year... I took a pic to immortalize the pretty green grass since it will be covered in snow for like the next 5 months...

Brax LOVES this mower, but anytime he stumbles with it,

he refuses to let go so he falls down and scrapes the tops of his thumbs all up.

He has done it twice this week...

Look at this pitiful sad face!!! This is right after I put his band-aids on

(which Mike said is for sissies, but whatever.)


Getting used to the band-aids.

"Look what I got!! BAND-AIDS!!"

What It's All About

This story is from one of my favorite bloggers--Rocks in My Dryer (http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/)
This about made me cry, it is what being a parent is ALL about.

"My three-year-old daughter has a head cold. And if you have ever parenteda three year old, you know this is serious business. When their little noses are too stopped up to breathe, they’re simply too young to understand the situation.
And they just look at you with puffy eyes that say, “Why, WHY has my nose
completely stopped working?” They are so distressed that they begin to cry,
which of course makes the stuffy nose worse. It is at this point you realize you
are in for a very long night.
Corrie had a night like that last night. She was so frustrated by the situation that only one thing – and one thing alone – would soothe her. She wanted me to sleep with her, but her parameters were very specific. We had to sleep on the same pillow (the Belle one), nose-to-nose, forehead-to-forehead, with her arm thrown around my neck, and my arm wrapped around her waist. And if I shifted from this precarious position, she would awake from her fragile, stuffy sleep and begin to cry desperately, “Momma! Where are you going?”
(The next morning, I observed to my husband that “when she doesn’t feel good she gets really picky and kind of hard to deal with.” And he looked at me pointedly and said, “Really? I can’t imagine where she could have possibly picked up that genetic trait.” Cheeky guy.)
Anyway, back to our night.
I lay there with her, not sleeping much at all. Her feverish little body touched mine, and it made things a bit toasty. Her breathing was loud and gravelly, as she struggledto breathe well. I lay there, nose-to-nose with her, inhaling the air she was exhaling and knowing that in 24 hours this cold was going to be lodged in my head, too. I thought of the fun getaway I have planned with her daddy next weekend, and I grumbled in my head that now I might be coughing and sniffling my way through it. She sneezed on me a couple of times, from a distance of 1.7 inches. The humidifier roared on her other side, making my hair feel damp. There were a lot of reasons to feel miserable. Just as I began to wish there was another solution to this whole deal, I heard her cough, and she roused, only slightly, from her troubled sleep. Herlittle arm tightened around my neck. And her hoarse voice whispered, "Thank you,Momma, for being here.”
And then she drifted back to her sleep.
I was overcome, in that moment, by a lesson I’ve learned and re-learned a hundred
times in the last eleven years. This is a gift, right here and right now, no
matter what silly sacrifices might be required of me. I may not be sleeping
much, but I had another eight hours to hold her, to look at her, to memorize
every inch of her three-year-old face (which will only be three for another
week). And, in one of the more miraculous aspects of motherhood, I knew that
just by being there, I was making it better. I know the day is coming, so
desperately soon, when I can’t solve her problems for her. But last night, as I
held her and patted her and let her rub that snotty little face against mine, I
was providing all the comfort she could possibly need.
I was enough for her.
It’s a miracle. And a gift.
I can sleep when she’s grown."

picnik.com

Oh my gosh this is the coolest site ever... Thank you Becca!!!!
http://www.picnik.com/
It's free, easy, fast, and addicting. It's the Cliff Notes version of Photoshop. And did I mention

IT'S FREE!

Check out my first fun and easy edit---

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Moose Turned Candy Passer Outer

Not only did he get to trick or treat, but he handed out candy too!

Just last year all he could do was sit and pose for pictures...

Sorry this clip is sideways... but it's what the trick or treater says that was so cute.

MOOSE

This moose head was on for all of 5 minutes, and it was only thanks to Jace's crazy dance moves that distracted B long enough for me to get the picture...

"Get it OFFFFFFFFFFF!!!"

We went with our friends Christa, Chad and Isaac to an assisted living place

to spread some Halloween cheer to the old folks!

Isaac was the cutest little 1950's greaser, comb in the pocket and all.

Checking out Isaac's props.

Whoa. What is going on with my eye??

Why didn't someone tell me I look like that when I laugh???

"Where's the candy???"

He got a huge kick out of this kid's mask.

"Trick or Treat!! Mommy told me to tell you she likes chocolate."

"Is that all???"

"Go thatta' way! That's the diabetic ward!"

Pumpkin Procrastination

After all the work we went to searching for just the right pumpkins, can you believe I almost didn't get around to carving them. I was vegging on the couch Thursday nite (watching a not-so-impressive episode of The Office, btw) and Mike suggested we do it! I didn't think he'd even notice or care, but he wanted jack-o-lanterns! So at about 10:30pm, we dug in. I was up until almost 1am carving these silly things... I wanted them to look just like the 3 of us!!!

This one is Brax, can you tell??? It is an "exact" model of his dentition. Hee hee hee.

You can barely see, but here is Brax gagging the pumpkin,

trying to pull out the multi-colored lite we had going in there.

The Hill Family, pumpkin style.

Those are fake eyelashes on mine, not bushy eyebrows!

Silly Boy

Brax was cracking me up last week... here are a few of his finer moments...

"Brax, are you SUPPOSED to be up there? NO. Get down please."

"Yes, both feet on the ground please."

"Yeah, you're cute, allright."

"Oh, you just wanted me to see the magazine?? That's why you stood up there?"

His newest trick:

"Are you watchin', Momma?"

"See??? See me?"

"Yep, you're still cute, allright."

His new favorite toy. He LOVES to vacuum!


I can't believe my little "baby" is tall enough to reach over the counter tops...

He still doesn't REALLY talk, but as you see by his facial expression here, he wanted this OPEN!