Halloween

Well we went on our Halloween haunted drive on Sunday. We just took a trip down Devil's Lake Rd, and visited an old home site which had a really spooky looking outhouse and well. Then we headed to Spooner, where there is a road that if you park a ghost hearse will follow you back to town. We were expecting a more deserted road, but there were actually several houses, so we didn't end up parking... it was a nice drive anyway. The most haunting thing about it was the crazy mooing of the cow from the farm behind us! :) It sounded quite psychotic.

I dressed the two little ones up for playgroup on Monday. They were so cute :) Almost all the little kids were dressed up and it was a full house! There were a couple of spider mans a couple of hens, snow white, a couple of different power rangers, a ghost, a dog, a princess, a penguin... it was pretty fun. The kids all had a blast.

I ended up taking Maria and Duncan out trick or treating after all. Maria was planning on going with the neighbor girl, but waited too long to call and ask, they were already taking two extra kids (along with their 3) and didn't have enough room in the car. I felt bad, so decided that since I was going to take her, I might as well take Duncan. I took them to the two blocks of town :) there were 3 house lights on one street, so we actually got to walk to a few houses. I hadn't coached Duncan on saying Trick or Treat since I didn't plan on taking them, but I worked with him on it through dinner - he said "ticka ticka" and "treat" - but of course he wouldn't say it (or anything else) when we got to the houses, but would say it on the way to the next house :) He's too funny - acts all shy and won't talk around people, but yet he wanted to run into everyone's house and make himself at home! So we went to the three houses in town and then went to a couple of houses on the outskirts of town... trick or treat here is much different as the houses are all a ways apart from each other - so it required a lot of in and out of the car... we only went to about 6 houses, but they had as much candy as they would have had going to 20 or more houses in the QC (and it took about as much time too)- every house gave a big handful of candy. They had fun anyway :)

Sugar High coming on ;)

Sugar High complete ;)

Brrr!

Another week gone. Time is just flying by! I can't believe Halloween is next week already! Before you know it, it will be Christmas! There's been frost on the ground and cars all week. :( I'm just not looking forward to the cold weather! It's already too dang cold!
Well, I actually got Beatrice to laugh once more for me! She's a tough cookie though. Doesn't want to give it up too easily! :) And she finally started trying to "talk." She hasn't really done any vocalization (other than crying and screaming of course). The other night she tried really hard with her whole body and came out with a sound that sounded so much like Hi!! It was so adorable! Then she made a few other sounds coos and such :) aw :)
Not much else going on this week... We may go on a road trip this weekend to some communities around here that have "haunted" places from the "Haunted Wisconsin" book. And there's a road here called "Devil's Lake Rd" that is pretty scary :)
Maria decided that she's going to be a zombie for Halloween. Duncan says "membie." :) Duncan is just going to be his gorilla from last year since it was too big last year. Don't really want to buy him another costume when we probably won't take them out anyway (it will be too cold, and too dark, and we'd have to go too far). Beatrice is going to be a giraffe (a costume aunt ally gave us). I'll probably dress them up and go to Maria's school parade. And on Monday all the kids from Duncan's play group are dressing up, so I'll take them dressed up there too.
I actually made it back to the playgroup for Duncan yesterday. He did really good again :) Got some energy out :)
Sadly, I haven't really taken many pictures in the past week, so... here's a few of the few I took ;)

First Laugh!

Beatrice laughed for the first time this past Sunday! Dad was getting her piggies :) of course I was out getting eggs for breakfast :( But then she laughed for me Monday morning (after trying several times, unsuccessfully, to get her to laugh on Sunday). She has such a cute little laugh. Mike called it a "subtle" laugh, and I would have to say that nails it. It's like a bunch of tiny flittering motor sounds put together. It's so cute! :)

There was frost on the ground this morning :(

I believe that Winter is just around the corner... Of course all the leaves are gone, we're past peak... and I didn't get out to take any pictures.

We were at the Wal-Mart in Rice Lake this weekend when Mike picked up a book and asked me if I wrote it. It was called "Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair"!! I said I should have written that book! So of course I had to buy it and so far it's pretty damn funny! And it was so me when Mike

and I started dating. Not only was she Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair, but she was 30-something and then took up knitting! Of course I crochet, but close enough!!!

Maria brought home her Kickapoo Diarama project, so I had to get a picture of it. She went out to the yard and gathered grass for it, made a little fire and such and the funniest thing is the cradle board! :) She cut out a picture of one of the Olsen Twins and pasted it to the cradle board! :)

Loads of Pics!!

Get ready for lots of pictures from our trip to Davenport! It was a really long 3-day trip (two of the three days were pretty much spent in the car). The trip was so much longer on the way home. On the way down we only had to stop a few times for feedings and diaper changes and it wasn't so bad - only a few minor breakdowns... on the way home however... we had to stop 4 times for feedings and probably just as many times for diaper changes and we had dueling breakdowns for about the last hour of the trip - both Duncan and Beatrice were just done being in the car. It will probably be a while before we make the trip again.

Anyway, we had a great time during the one day we had to visit! Emma got to the motel Friday night not too long after we got to town. So she got to spend some time with her new baby sister :) we got some really cute pictures of them together! :)

After breakfast on Saturday it was off to Aunt Ally & Uncle David's house where we played with Riley. Grandma joined us there. Duncan and Riley played on the slide together and ate some spaghetti for lunch.

Aunt Tiffany holding Beatrice

The whole Gang!

Duncan and Riley taking turns on the slide

Time for speghetti!

Then it was off to Panchero's for the rest of the fam's lunch!! :) mmmmm....
After lunch I took the girls swimming while Duncan took his nap. He actually slept really good and long.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner with Mike's family. Almost everyone made it to Fay's house. We had Grandma's famous fried chicken and Fay's famous cheesy potatoes :) and some awesome desserts! Lea made a yellow cake with triple chocolate frosting :) can't go wrong with chocolate.

Grandma Campbell Holding Beatrice

Lea giving Duncan a drink. She kept trying to get him to say Lea while we were there, which of course he would't... but as soon as we got back to the motel room he started saying Lea over and over again!! The little stinker!
Lea holding Beatrice

Beatrice smiling for Lea :)

Grandma, Grandpa, Ashley and Alyssa came back to the motel room after dinner for a saxophone performance by Maria ~ who's gotten pretty good in the short time that she's been playing.

Of course by the end of the day everyone was a little exhausted and crabby :) I had planned on getting a family picture at some point over the weekend, but that didn't happen - so I thought at the least I would get a picture of the kids for this year's Christmas card. That proved to be somewhat of a challenge - last year it was fun trying to get three kids and a dog to cooperate, but this year it was four kids and we skipped the dog :) Duncan kept trying to get down, and when he was finally staying put Beatrice got crabby and then spit up all over her outfit! :) Here's one of the outtakes ;)

Loaded up and ready for the trek home... already looking bored ;)

Pictrues Forthcoming!

Just had to say that I finally am starting to get everything back together after the trip to Davenport... finally uploaded all the pics today, but blogger is having a problem with posting photos today... so it will have to wait until tomorrow!

2 Months Old! :)

Beatrice had her 2 month checkup today. She's doing really well! She weighed 10.5 lbs and is 22 1/2 inches long! Exactly in the 50th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. And the poor baby got her first round of shots :( They learn a new cry that day :( one of serious pain. It's so horrible! They had 4 nurses come in to give the 4 shots and had me hold her on my lap (which I didn't really want to be associated with that!). At least she got all 4 shots at once. It took her almost 30 seconds to cry - she sucked in right away and held her breath before she let loose :( my eyes got all teary too. It's so hard to watch your little baby get stuck with needles almost as big as her leg! The nurses commented that she had a soft cry, not so loud - and then she started screaming. Poor baby :( She's been pretty fussy since we got home, so we may be in for a long night :(

Swinging Dog

So, I haven't really written anything about dogs lately... of course when there are little kids around there's much more to say about the kids ;) and the dogs have been pretty under control lately. Jo-Jo has been doing really well - we've been keeping her outside most of the time and she hasn't been eating the house. She's been doing a little digging, but that's not so bad. So there hadn't been much going on with the dogs that was noteworthy.

This morning when Mike was going to work he called to tell me that when he left Jo-Jo was in the big chair swing on the swingset!! I ran out and took a picture quick - too funny!!

Well, it sounds like the weather everywhere has been really obnoxious!! It was almost in the 80s for a few days in a row, then the day before yesterday got down to the 40s! Yesterday it was sleeting!!! Crazy!

Yesterday I was doing something in the kitchen then went to check on Duncan and there he was sitting on his chair on the couch just chillin and watching his cartoons! He thought he was so cool.

The Big Boy Bed!! :)

We got Duncan's toddler bed put up this weekend. He got all excited when he saw us bringing the pieces down from upstairs - he knew what it was right away. Every time we walked by with a piece he said "truck, truck." And man was he excited when he saw it all put together! He jumped right in it. He napped successfully in it Sat and Sun and even went to bed at night in it on Sat!! Sunday afternoon I was thinking it was a miracle bed! ;) but I think I jinxed it because Sunday night he broke down and wouldn't go to sleep - he was in there crying and asking for a bottle, asking for toys, asking for a bike... so after about an hour or more we gave up and put him in our bed. Hopefully that won't be an every night occurrence... He still absolutely loves the bed. Every time I go in their room to change Beatrice's diaper he comes running in and climbs into the bed. He insists on having his diaper changed and clothes changed in the bed.

We spent Sunday afternoon helping Maria with her diorama for her Indian tribe project. She chose to do hers on the Kickapoo. We helped her make a wigwam out of twigs. She went out and found a bunch of green twigs and Mike put them together while I tied them. His idea for faux birch bark on the outside was genius. He had Maria cut out squares of white cardboard, bend them and ink them up with lines and spots to look like birch bark. Its going to look really cool when its done!

The weather has been horrid here - it rained all but one day last week and it looks like rain is in the forecast for all week this week... it was actually hot and humid yesterday - and of course we took the air conditioner out of the window last weekend. A lot of people took theirs out... it had been in the 50s the week before. Crazy. The leaves are all a little past peak here now. There are a few stretches towards Hayward where all the leaves are gone already! I need to get out and get some pictures before they're all gone!

The most horrific thing happened this weekend. We bought the movie "Bug." I thought it was a horror movie. The title indicated a horror movie, the picture on the jacket made it look like a horror movie, as did the stills on the back... the description reads something about a "lonely waitress blah blah blah... until the first bugs arrive..." "It will crawl under your skin " and it said on the front "from the director of The Exorcist" and "one of the most disturbing horror movies imaginable" so what's not to smack of horror movie there?? The opening scene was what looked like a man laying dead in a military confinement scene... so we watched and waited through like an hour or so of bars and drug use and a menacing abusive x-husband... expecting that at any moment a giant genetically altered monstrous maniac of a bug would jump out and kill someone... it never happened. Instead we watched the digression of drug induced paranoia about non-existent aphids slowly eating away at the skin of these pathetic lonely drug addicts. It was awful. Might it have been better if we had known what the real premise of the movie was, instead of going in blindly thinking it was a non-thought challenging gore fest? Maybe. But we certainly wouldn't have let Maria watch any of it. We fast forwarded through the drug scenes and sex scene, and the scene with the guy crawling around the bed naked searching for these non-existent aphids... ugh! the horror!

Well, got some more cute pics of Beatrice smiling ;) and some in her pretty outfits ;) yay for the extended warm weather! as miserable as it was!

The pics in the flower dress are too funny - first she smiled real big, then two seconds later was crying! :) photo shoot over...