animals.

My boys are animals. Thursday night, we went to a fellow team-wife's house for a playdate. I was excited to go, another friend of ours was in town and I hadn't seen her or her son in a year. After dinner, us mom's were in the kitchen cleaning up and we hear a big bang coming from downstairs, where the 3 older boys were playing. I called down to Cullen to ask what it was, he said the drums fell. A little later we move downstairs to start the clean-up down there. Turns out, Cullen was moving the large drum set from Luke's room to the playroom, where he ended up breaking it. I felt so bad! Looks like we'll be buying Luke a new drum set in the near future. Luke was crying about it, it was an uncomfortable situation to be in...

Then we all move upstairs to clean up. Jack was entertaining Finn and playing real nice with him while we picked up dinosaurs and wood blocks. Suddenly Jack starts crying and runs to his mom. When I asked him what happened, he turned to me and before he could even speak... I saw. Finn bit him hard right on his cheek, not far from his eye. Eight perfect teeth marks. Crap. My boys are animals. Breaking drums, biting 5 year olds... I'm sure we gave them a lot to talk about after we left!

Looks as though my boys are not going to be victims... they are going to be the perpetrators.

Finnster

bouncing on the zebra

stopping to dance to Curious George

getting a different view

one happy kid

Finn is growing up, so I thought I'd just fill you in on the latest. If I could only use one word to describe Finn, it'd be BUSY! A few weeks ago, Sonya and I went out to do some photo shoots of the boys. It was miserable! I could not get one picture of Finn. He would not stop moving!! Then, when he would stop to investigate something that caught his eye, he would not look at the camera. Pictures with Cullen at this age where not as hard.

It's interesting to see the similarities and differences between the boys. Cullen is much more people-oriented, while Finn is interested in how things work. He's already figured out the shape-sorter. They are the same, in that, they are so stinkin' busy and tough!

One thing that's been exciting for me to see, is Finn has learned our first house rule. We do not allow drinks outside of the kitchen. It only took a few short weeks of me chasing Finn through the house to take his sippy back to the correct spot (an easily reached kitchen chair). He knew when he was wrong too, he'd "run" away from me when he heard me say no. Sometimes he'd even find me in the house to show it to me. But alas, he's made it one week without having to be corrected. He now leaves his sippy on the chair, or he'll sit it on the floor just before he gets to the carpet. He's also learned a few new signs... thanks to Halloween, he can now sign candy and cookie. :) It's amazing to me what these little ones are capable of learning!

Another new development for Finn... he now climbs onto chairs and (thanks to watching Cullen) the coffee table. Never a dull moment, earlier in the week, I happened to catch Cullen walking across the coffee table. I corrected him and he stopped. Not more than 5 minutes later, there goes Finn... walking across the coffee table too. Monkey see, monkey do.

preschool Halloween party

Cullen's class

Cullen distracted by Bryden.

Abbygael dressed up as Scooby. Cute!

Zoinks!

Here are some pictures from Cullen's Halloween party at preschool. Another mom took these pictures and emailed them out to me. Looks like they had fun!

heart warming

Today as I was dropping Cullen off for his SEEDS class (his Sunday School class); the teachers were asking the kids what they are thankful for. I stood behind Cullen, curious to what he'd say. First he said his home. Then he said Daddy. Then he kept repeating something that the teacher didn't understand. She turned to me and said he keeps saying something about a stand? Then Cullen turned to me and said it- "Kyrgyzstan" I told the teacher, Ohh, he's saying Kyrgyzstan, that's where my husband is right now. Cullen smiled, I understood him. He was just talking about Daddy. In case you're wondering, I did not make his thankful list... Action Man won out over me.

One more short Cullen story. Before Cullen's last Little Gym class, he was making the usual rounds- greeting all the other kids before class started. His teacher said to me- "Cullen is so social! You just don't see kids his age so outgoing." The story of my life.

Happy Halloween!

Finn LOVES going to The Little Gym!

My monkey

Finn was out there running around with the big kids.

Friday night we went to The Little Gym's Halloween party. It was a nut house, I've never seen so many people at there! The boys had fun and it was a good way for them to burn off some energy before bed!!

Finn refused to leave his hat on.

Trunk or Treat, round 2

clever.
(the stack of papers says "Healthcare Reform Bill")

playing games

Finn having a snack while Cullen plays.

bounce house = (some) sugar burned

Zoinks!
(he really said that as I took this picture)

sleepy boy

the loot from today's Trunk or Treat

Cullen handing out candy.

Our Halloween is over. Well, Halloween is over for Finn and me. Cullen's Halloween will last until the next big thing- my guess is, his birthday. (I don't think Thanksgiving will count for much in Cullen's book.) It was a busy day. Cullen went to a Little Gym make-up class this morning. Then after nap we went to a Halloween Party at a friend's church. They had Trunk or Treating, 3 bounce houses, games, cake walk, etc. We actually won a cake. (Like we need any more sugar in the house!!) We then made our way home to trick or treat on our street and then Cullen handed out candy to our trick or treater's.

Cullen's wig and goatee would make adults laugh out loud when they saw him. Several people told me it was great, seeing how both boys' costumes went together. Originally, I wanted Cullen to be Scooby Doo and Finn to be Scrappy Doo. But Cullen wanted no part of it, he wanted to be Shaggy! I was just concerned no one would know who he was, but I was wrong. I'd say 90% of people knew without him telling them.

Cullen is/was on cloud 9! In between trick or treaters he would giggle and say "Halloween is the best!" then fall in my lap. He was a little nervous ringing the doorbell of some of the houses on the block, they looked a little creepy. He also made some of the scarier kids trick or treating at our house work for the candy. He'd make them talk to him before he'd even open the door ( it was reassuring to hear a kid voice come from such a scary mask.) But he sure didn't let on that he was nervous after they left- he'd tell me "I wasn't scared." or "That was just a mask." One little girl came to the door in a princess costume and he said to her "You look beautiful." That cracked me up. His reply to another kid who said the standard "Trick or Treat", was "Zoinks! That's what Shaggy says." Then tonight as I was tucking him into bed, I told him to stay in his room and don't come out, and he replied "Aye, aye captain." as he place two fingers on his brow. I have no idea where that came from, but it made me smile. As I turned off the light and closed the door he chuckled to himself and said "Ahhh, that was hilarious."

more Halloween fun

Cullen putting eyes on the ghosts

For some reason, I think he ate a few eyes too...

Helping clean out the pumpkin.
(now I need to clean the floor)

Cullen making his scary face

Cullen wanted me to be scary too.
(Cullen took this picture, not bad! Finn had knocked the candle
over inside the pumpkin twice before we got to this point.)

My mom got me a Halloween Cookbook, and Cullen could hardly wait to start making the fun treats. The other day we made some ghosts.
Tonight we carved our pumpkin. Cullen wanted no part of using his hands to clean it out, he opted for a spoon. He wanted to do a scary pumpkin- so above is my interpretation of a scary pumpkin. Notice the stitches? He got into a sword fight.

We toasted the pumpkin seeds too. Of course I had to bribe Cullen to try one. He finally gave in and actually liked them.

my 'lil pumpkins

What am I supposed to do with this??

Cullen's masterpiece

Finn had a little help with his...

These pictures are from a few weeks ago. We haven't seen sunlight for a few days now... not to mention we are in the middle of a blizzard right now! I feel like I'm at Fort Drum again...