Oh blog, how I've missed thee....

Ok, it saddens me that my life has picked up the pace so much that my blogging has fallen so low on the todem pole.  I really do miss blogging, though I am convinced on 3 people read it.... It is therapeutic to me and it helps me to keep track of the daily things that I know I will miss someday....Anyway, I do plan on blogging again soon.  Unfortunatley, I think I am going to have to pick a day and literally put "update blog" into my schedule.  Ugg, LIFE, you overwhelm me sometimes.... ;)

October Fun



O'Toole Halloween 2010

 As I have mentioned, I LOVE October, and especially Halloween.  We had a great month.  It started out with a trip to the farm (see previous post).  Then we went to a Dairy Queen reunion bon fire, which was SO much fun.  It was nice to see all of my old friends and thier families and introduce them to my boys.  We also went to the zoo for their annual trick or treat with the animals.  That was SOOOOO crowded and I don't think we'll do that again but the kids had a blast.  Kyler had a party at daycare and Riley had a party at school.  Finally, we ended with a Halloween party at our house and of course trick or treating.  We made it around a LOT of our neighborhood this year and Riley was really into it.  Kyler had fun too but he was very content sitting in his wagon and eating his candy!  Enjoy the pictures below of all of our fun October events.  And incase you were wondering, Riley is dressed as Billy the Exterminator from the A&E show called Billy the Exterminator (his all time favorite show!).

October 2010

At Vala's Pumpkin patch

"Billy" at the zoo

Looking at the Monkeys (Ky Ky's favorite)

Kyler and his daycare friends

Kyler playing Twister at his daycare party

Riley's Kindergarten Halloween party

Carving Pumpkins

Kyler LOVED playing with pumpkin guts!

Halloween lunch

The finished products

Grammy dressed up as "Spider Gram"

Kyler the Elephant and Billy the Exterminator

"Billy"

Kyler and his cousin Layton "the chick magnet"

Trick or Treat!

YES, he CHOSE to eat the APPLE!!

Jack Pot!

SO excited about his "Canny"!!!!

Fall at the Farm

About a week ago, we went to see "Grammy O" and Harvey at the farm.  Earlier this year we went to the farm for dinner and to go fishing.  We saw the pumpkin vines growing and even saw some little pumpkins starting.  Riley was VERY excited about Harvey's pumpkins and was talking about them a lot.  Then a few weeks ago, Grammy O called to invite us out for dinner and to tell us that there were pumpkins that needed to be picked!!  Boy was she right!!  Harvey had TONS of pumkins in his little patch and they were all perfect!  They boys thought it was SO cool to have their own pumpkin patch where they were allowed to pick and take home unlimited pumpkins!  The picture above is of the biggest one in the patch!!  It was TOOO big to take home with us!  But we did bring home plenty (see the pic of our van all loaded up!).  They boys also got to climb on the combine and play with corn.  Riley even got to ride in the combine and do some real harvesting!!  As the boys played outside and picked pumpkins I got to hold and cuddle my first nephew, Layton.  He is SO sweet and I loved holding him.  So you thinik that means we need another one???? NOPE!!  I'm perfectly content holding Layton ;)  I do want to babysit him soon though!! Overall, the consensus is that Fall is a Fun time for the Farm!!!!!!

18 Months!

Kyler is now 18 months old!  He had his "well baby" checkup at the Dr today and everything looks great!  They did an autism screening and a developmental evaluation and he is right on track for everything, well not for autism but to NOT have autism!  :)  He is 31inches long (14th percentile), 21lbs 11oz (5th percentile), and his head circumference is in the 70th percentile.  He is a little guy with a big head apparently :)  Doc and I have no concerns! 

He is a smart kiddo and says MANY words.  The doc asked me to list them off and stopped me when I had said about 50 and could keep going!  All the while Ky is also rattling off any word I said plus more.  He is a good eater and eats with a fork and a spoon totally independently.  He does NOT like to be messy so he wipes his hands often throughout a meal.  He has started potty training and is doing very well staying dry during the day.  He is consistenly going #1 in the potty and trying to get #2 down but doing pretty well for 18mos!  Ky's favorite foods are mac and cheese, green beans, and sr. cream and onion pringles.  He also loves to dip on his chips but that is a special treat!  He is not a big sweet eater at all but does get excited for his "canny" after going potty!

Kyler is one ACTIVE boy! He climbs all over everything and goes up and down stairs (walking) totally independently.  He climbs ladders on playgrounds and goes down slides of ALL sizes all by himself.  He plays great with Riley (usually...) and thinks he is a big boy.  If he gets knocked down, he gets right back up and keeps on playing.  Occasionally, he comes to me for a kiss on his "bonk".  He is loving playing with cars right now as well as outside.  He loves to ride bikes!   Another favorite of his is bath time.  He is now also enrolled in swimming lessons once a week and loves that as well.  He is going underwater and can climb out of the pool all by himself and go down the BIG waterslide!

It is AMAZING how quickly this 18 months has gone and how he's grown.  We are going to Vala's pumpkin patch tonight to celebrat his 1.5 year mark.  We are going to get some "punkies" as Ky would say!

Happy 18 months Kyler, We Love You!!!!!

The Choice is Yours! kind of.....

Fall is my FAVORITE time of year because to me fall means HOLIDAYS.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE holidays.  All of them.  Yes, I've posted about this before.  My all time favorite holiday is Halloween, which starts our our string of holidays.  I have so very many fond memories of Halloween.  When I was young it was getting to trick or treat with my cousins Chad and Courtney.  Once we tried to trick or treat on the 30th, telling our neighbors that we were not going to be home tomorrow so we were doing it early.  It didn't work out so well.  Turns out people aren't really ready for trick or treaters at 4:00 on October 30th!  Then when I was in elementary school I remember playing "Pass the Witches Broomstick" in gym class with Mrs. Ellis, singing "H-A-double L- O-W- double E-N spells Halloween", and of course the fun Halloween parties!  When I was in 4th grade I was a vampire.  I got to go home for lunch where my mom put on my make up and slicked my hair back.  When I got back to school no one knew who I was or if I was even a boy or a girl!!  It was a great costume!  I also remember my last year of trick or treating.  I was in 9th grade but went with a bunch of friends who were in 8th grade and on my cheerleading squad.  Yes, we were ALL too old to be trick or treating but it's just so hard to give up.  Anyway, one of the girls brought 6 beers (1 for each of us) and we put them in our trick or treat bags.  We did not drink them, or even intend to, it was just our way of being "bad"!  Luckily we weren't caught, looking back that was a really stupid thing to do, not to mention it made our trick or treat bags heavier than they needed to be!

Now, as an adult, we start planning our halloween costumes in July!  This year Riley is being "Billy the Exterminator" from his favorite show on A&E with the same name.  We are piecing together his costume and I'm making most of it.  However, my FAVORITE years for my kids are the years where they are too young to decide on thier costume themselves and therefore I get to do it!!  YIPPEE!  I have been searching for costumes for Kyler and have narrowed it down to a few I really like.  Vote on your favorite!!  You can vote on here, e-mail me your vote, FB me your vote, or text me your vote!  I cannot say for sure that the costume with the most votes will win though, cuz I'm going with whichever I decide :)  Afterall, I only get to choose 2 or maybe 3 times for each kid!!