Halloween Snippets

Here's our cat, Polly (aka "Queen of the Basement"). Every once in a while she pops upstairs. It's especially fun around Halloween time when she checks out the black cat Halloween decorations I have. Long lost relatives, she thinks. No wonder she stays down in the basement so much. We attempted to carve pumpkins this year.

This being the reason: we had help.

Bryce's parents came out for a visit and Bryce recruited them to assist.

I just took pictures. And yes, that is a power tool. The manly way to carve pumpkins.

Bryce insisted on carving all 4. He just wanted the seeds. Okay, I wanted them too. With extra salt! There's the finished products. My sweet sister sent a gift for the kids to celebrate Brielle's birth. Part of the package included a cute little pumpkin shirt. Galina grabbed it and wanted it on her baby. She proceeded to take care of HER baby Brielle. Both the Brielles were laying on the blanket for a while just hanging out.

We also had Circus Week at Treyton's preschool. The kids dressed up for a special program for parents. Galina got to wear her princess dress that day.Here we are waiting for the program to begin. Lots of kisses for baby sister.

There they come! Treyton is the shark between Spiderman and the Rockies baseball player.

They looked a bit scared. But once the music got going, they got grooving.

My favorite costume was this Frankenstein. To add to the character, he even walked like Frankenstein. His momma must've been so proud!!! (His mom is actually Treyton's Sun school teacher.) Next to Frankenstein is the girl Treyton wants to marry, Gracie. She was in Treyton's class last year. Makes a cute little witch, doesn't she?

And Grandma Kay got to take part of the festivities as the official baby holder that morning.

This is Treyton's class minus two girls.

And the big night finally arrived. Trick or treating! Wild children before leaving. Wild and crazy! It was sooo fun to take part in their joy. I just love being a parent!

Brielle and I hung out at home answering the door. Her little p.j.'s say "I want my mummy!" A friend stopped by earlier in the afternoon to give her that. She was pregnant thinking her baby would be there by Halloween, but she was late. Poor lady. (She was around 10 days overdue.) She graciously donated her unborn baby's outfit to Brielle. Thanks, Christie.

Here are our precious angels!

A bunny rabbit.

A shark.

This holiday was made for Galina. Our social one struck up a conversation at every door. She sang Happy Birthday to some, petted dogs, and told people she needed more candy for her mom and dad. Poor Bryce. He tried to convince people that he didn't teach her to say that (which he really didn't), but I was grateful for the extra candy. That's my girl!

After a long night of trick or treating, it was time to relax on the couch with daddy and watch a Diego Halloween movie I got from the library.

The loot was enormous, the giggles contagious, the memories forever. Happy Halloween!

Fancy Fish

We were snowed in last week which can only mean one thing...craft time!

We decided to make some fancy fish. I just took a paper plate and cut out a triangle shape for each child doing the craft. Then the kids colored the plates.While they were doing that, I cut some tin foil into small squares. And a bonus...this supposedly sharpens scissors too, I read somewhere.

Next I let the kids dip the foil into glue and then let them put it onto their fish.

However, I found it was a little easier to just add a drop of glue to the back of the individual tin foil pieces. Another method that worked was to add drops of glue to the plate and let the kids put the foil onto the dots of glue.

Then we taped the tail which we cut out for the mouth to the hind end of the fish. And we cut out fins and taped them as well.

Of course, any fish isn't complete without googly eyes.

The kids ran around the house (aka "the ocean") with their fish to help cabin fever swim away.

Penguins

I was trying to get ready for dinner and had two monkeys, one with a large set of "listening ears", hiding in my skirts, so to speak. So I quickly had them do a simple craft.

I just cut out two ovals, one black and one white (slightly smaller), a circle for a head, a triangle beak, and some feet.

(How can you resist a listening-eared-boy when he wants to make a craft?)

The kids glued the pieces together....first the belly.

Next the head.

Then the beaks and feet.

And the best for last....googley eyes!

Happy penguin!

Move over Madagascar (the movie), these penguins rock!

Brielle's Birth Announcement

A funny thing happened at the doctor yesterday

I went in for my normal non-stress test. They hooked me up to the machines as usual and left so I could lay there for 30-40 min being monitored. Wouldn't you know it, I went into labor! Just like that! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Regular contractions, 3-5 min apart, mild intensity.....so off I was to the labor and delivery wing at the hospital. That was around 2pm. I was dilated to a 3, 90% effaced, with a bulging water bag.

I had to get two doses of antibiotics for Strep B which meant I couldn't deliver until 6:30pm at the earliest. So they tried to leave me alone and not get me any closer to delivery. I wasn't in too much pain, but when they checked me around 5:30pm I was dilated to a 6. They suggested that if I wanted to get an epidural (duh--yeah!) it was now or never. They knew it would go fast based on the position of the baby and my history in fast deliveries. I got it around 6pm. Thanks, Dr. Feel-good.

They broke my water at 6:45pm. I pushed for 3 sets and delivered a baby at 7:10 pm. Did this even count as a birth? From my appt beginning around 1 pm to having a baby 6 hrs later with hardly any pain? Thank you, Lord!

But what was most amazing about all this is that although I was 90% sure it was a boy (even strangers told me I was carrying a boy), we had a darling baby girl! I was beyond estatic!

Since we thought it was a boy, we hadn't reduced our girl name list as we had our boy list. So we spent quite a bit of time deciding on a name from the multitude of lists I have kept for all three pregnancies.

I had a top 3, Bryce had a top 4, and one name was on both lists....Brielle. So that's what we named her. Brielle Esther Cox. Brielle is a Hebrew name meaning "God is my might." We thought Esther from the Bible was a good tag-on to that. And it fit her!

Here are some pics.....we think she looks like what Treyton looked like as a baby.