Happy Halloween!

We had a good one. Pretty tiring though, getting two in and out of car seats all over town. Paige was ready to be in bed when we got home. She LOVES Halloween. I'm so glad, because I always did too, so I'll have a little buddy to decorate with next year. Every time she sees any decorations, or pumpkins, or people in costume, she does a fake scream, much like her Home Alone scream. Or she'll do this funny hoarse voice, and try to say "so scary".

Here are a few pictures of them at the pumpkin festival at the college yesterday. She's a kitten, and Lily's a ballerina/princess. :)




It was too warm for long sleeves, and I couldn't find a black t-shirt anywhere. So I tried to dye a onesie black, but it turned out pretty faded looking, not great. She was still adorable though. For tonight, we borrowed a cute leotard from Misty, and it looked much better.

She had SO much fun with her kitten cousins, Alex and Faith. She was laughing hysterically at everything they did or said. Or even anything she did or said herself, just because they were in the vicinity.



Cason was a hammerhead shark. We made his costume over a month ago, and were guessing on how big he'd be by halloween. We were way off, and so we had to cut arm and leg holes because he no longer fits inside. He slept for the majority of the night.


Oh, and yesterday at the college, sleeping through it all then too.


Scariest thing I saw tonight?

Haha. Just kidding. They were pretty cute, and those shirts were quite cool at the time.

Interrogation Station #2

We went to the college with Dan, Veronica, and Lily to get some candy and show off their costumes. Got some good pictures, but I won't post them since Halloween is tomorrow, technically. I'll save them for then.

But I WILL introduce to you my nieces. That's right, not one, but two interviews tonight. Sisters, Alexandria and Faith. (I don't want to have picked one over the other to go first. I'd be in big trouble.) So we'll go in the order they came to earth.

So, let's begin.
Alex is 7 years old, and is smart, sweet, and pretty. She's also very mature and so good with my babies. She's a great cousin.

1) Alex, what is your favorite animal?

Horse.

2) What is the worst thing that Faith does to you?

Takes my stuff.

3) What is the best thing about Faith?

Um, that she likes playing with me.

4) What do you want to be when you grow up?

A vet. (I ask why, to get a little more out of her.) Because I wanna help animals.

5) Who is your hero?

My mom. And my dad.

6) What do you like to do for fun?

Go camping!

7) What is your favorite food?

I have a lot, that’s HARD!! (laughs) One of my best foods is artichokes. Then, I love steak.

(We then see Kiddie Korral, which reminds her to tell me this story: “Did you see Kiddie Korral?” I say yes. “Well, I was helping Faith make her bed and I had to make mine too. So my dad called Kiddie Korral and was like ‘yeah, Alex and Faith’. He really called them. But then I made my bed and I didn’t have to go. He didn’t even call them back.”)

8) What’s your favorite memory?

Playing at Granny’s house.

9) What about your worst memory?

Umm, I don’t HAVE a worst memory. Pretty much all my memories are happy.

10) What are you afraid of?

Um…I can’t think of anything.

11) How do you feel about this interview?

What’s an interview? (I explain what “interview” means)

Oh, I like it.


Now, we have Faith, 4 years old, sweet, smart, cute, and feisty!

1) Faith, what is your favorite animal?

Uh, horses.

2) What is the worst thing that Alex does to you?

Slaps.

3) What is the best thing about Alex?

She, um, helps me clean my room.

4) What do you want to be when you grow up?

Uhhh, I don’t KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

5) Who is your hero?

Uh, mmmmmmmm. (Long silence, followed by her never responding. I move on.)

6) What do you like to do for fun?

Uh, go to Phoenix.

7) What is your favorite food?

I don’t know.

8) What’s your favorite memory?

Mmmm, I don’t know.

9) What about your worst memory?

Mmmm, I don’t know.

10) What are you afraid of?

Spiders.

11) Who is your favorite aunt?

Uh….(no response, too smart)

12)How do you feel about this interview?

Uhhh. I don’t know.

I lost her about a quarter of the way through the questions.

Leg Press

Paige leg pressed her picnic table last night.

Paige was pleased with herself today.

Cason looked disgusted with her here.

Paige loves him anyway.

Also, I'm trying to be better about birthday posts. 2 more of my cousins have birthdays this month. Lauren's was on the 15th, but I didn't post since she's in Africa right now. But I should have, since she does have internet access at times. So happy belated birthday Lauren!

And today is her sister Michelle's, so happy birthday to YOU Michelle! (Because I can't find any pictures of Michelle that are recent and taken from closer than a mile away, I will post this one from the late 80s. Jess has pointed out that Gumby is on the tv behind us, making the picture that much better.)

Thinking about my cousins reminded me of our trip to Virginia 2 summers ago for Michelle's wedding. I fell asleep at the airport, and when I got up everybody was laughing and taking pictures. Paige wouldn't let go of this water bottle and had fallen asleep with a death grip on it.

I love...

..her curls sticking out under her hat. This picture is from weeks ago, but I was organizing our picture files, and found it. And loved it.

Once today, at Grama's house, I got up to go to the kitchen, and Paige was standing by the couch. She looked at me, smiled, and suddenly threw her arms around my legs and hugged me. One of the best feelings ever.

This one IS from today.

I Got Nothin...

Jess had to eat his breakfast in a hot pink toddler bowl today, because his wife doesn't do dishes.

See his embarrassment? Sometimes looking embarrassed can be confused with looking creepy.


Dad and I continued our work on Paige's birthday kitchen today.

No, believe it or not, I did not do any retouching with this photo, I really looked this good today.

Paige threw a monster fit in the evening, and when it was over she wanted to be alone. She climbed into the cabinet beneath the aquarium, and would say "no" if we tried to talk and lure her out. She got really quiet after a few minutes, so I went to check on her, and found her fast asleep. Jess was also exhausted emotionally.

Cute Guy With His Shirt Off, Anyone?

Thought so.

Lips and Cheeks.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister-in-law, Veronica.

Paige was too busy eating chocolate frosting off of a spoon at the party, and somehow escaped being in many pictures from today. Lily didn't.

Or Cason.

Or Dan.

Dishes on a Thursday, with Cason

Today I found out that he will sleep in the snuggly, fortunately. So I can do dishes! But UNFORTUNATELY the snuggly makes this spot in my upper back/neck/shoulder area knot up until it burns so badly I can barely use my arm to scrub the dishes anyway. But Cason looks cute sleeping in there.

Later, as we walked home from my mom's house, we heard some drummer practicing in his garage, and Paige danced down the street.

Then she climbed INSIDE the stroller with Cason. I didn't want her on top of him, so I forced her to ride on the front instead. She still thought she was pretty cool.



And without further ado, I present to you, the first of many riveting weekly interviews Jess has dubbed....

...INTERROGATION STATION

featuring: Mr. William Christopher Casson

my cousin, our friend, excellent dancer

He was created by these two wonderful people, which makes him a winner:



1) Your nickname(s)?

Skifter because you, you, Brandi, were unable to properly pronounce my name in days of yore. (It was you right?)
There are others, but this is a family oriented blog.

2) Favorite animal?

Not the Liger despite its specialized breeding for its skills in magic. Not the Pipa Toad because their level of creepiness is off the charts. I admire the calm demeanor of the three-toad sloth, but I think bonobos might be my fave.

3) What does your relationship with Jess and/or Brandi mean to you?

$13.51. Kidding. It means I’ll always have a willing competitor in Mario Kart or Halo, and that’s everything.

4) What should we name our third child?

Sir Edwin Honeycutt IV. Or Willtopher. Or Chrilliam. Girl? Mistyrassienica.

5) Who is your hero? (Don’t say Stephen Hawking)

Maximus Decimus Meridius, or Leonidas, or George Michael Bluth (Arrested Development which you desperately need to watch if you wish to retain my respect and affection).

6) What are you most afraid of?

Being blown up by a spiky blue turtle shell with wings.

7) Three of your greatest achievements?

a) 1410
b) 7
c) Beating both Ninja Gaiden and its sequel on “normal” difficulty.

8) 3 things you want to do before you die?

a) Go to Europe
b) Teach Jess the proper form of a jump-shot
c) Go to a Super Bowl (with good seats)

9) What is your best feature/quality?

My 4 HDMI ports and MPEG4 compatibility.

10) What makes Roonie Doodle your favorite tv character?

I’m 63% sure I could beat him up. (Oh, and it’s Rooney).

11) Favorite memory of Jess:

Jess, much like his wife, has always had some dental issues. So after being caged in a van for 6+ hours with several insane people on a spring break trip to southern California, all Jess wanted in this world was to brush his chompers, but as he prepared to do just that where we were staying he realized he forgot his toothpaste and hurled his toothbrush across the room in frustration. Of course it landed in a filthy corner of a tiled room and accumulated all sorts of detritus, which just made the scene that much funnier.
There is also the time Scott gave Jess (on his bike) a little love tap with his Camaro in the dorm parking lot at the Butterfly dorm and Jess flew into a bloody rage. Funny.

12) Favorite memory of Brandi:

Of course it will involve injury to her. It has to. She attempted to ambush Scott. Bad idea. She stood on a bench next to the door entering the house from the garage as Scott walked in and my job was to distract Scott as he entered whilst she leaped violently (a hurricane of teeth and nails) upon his person. Instead, my noise of distraction made her laugh, and she hesitated. This left infinitely more of an opening than SEJ would ever need and when she leaped she was caught basically by the neck and thrown over his shoulder onto the ground a heap of giggling pain.





And that was Skifter Casson. Yes, it was me who could not properly pronounce your name. And as far as our "dental issues", don't most couples have like 43 cavities between the two of them in childhood?

Paige Put a Hat on Cason Today.

As you can see, she did it all by herself. Also, I have an oddly shaped forearm.

P.S. In order to spice things up here at Chunky P B and J, Jess and I have decided a weekly interview of one our loved ones is in order. And it begins tomorrow. Unless our first interviewee is a dumbo and doesn't return his responses to me in time.

I Want a Porch Swing

This is our house.

I wish. It's old. I love it.

Paige just asked to go to bed. Which means she walked around whispering "rock", because she likes to rock in the rocking chair before I put her in bed. She's so cute. She's doing very well with being in her big girl bed. It only took about a week for her to start liking bed time again, and actually asking me to put her to bed. She's slept through the night for several nights in a row, without coming into our room, although she does get up a couple of hours earlier. I don't know if I've typed the word "bed" enough in this paragraph, but I'll stop there.

She's getting pretty bossy and feisty lately. But still sweet and so fun. Her dance moves are getting to be pretty amazing too. I wish I had some video of the ones she was doing tonight. They cannot be described.

HE is also still very sweet, and he spends more time awake and watchful. He doesn't miss anything when he's up.

Doscientos

This is already my 200th post. Weird.

Paige threw a fit in Grama's backyard, while I snapped away.

Cason rocked with Grama...

...and smiled sweetly.

I also tried to get a picture of Paige sitting on the windowsill, and she tried to hide behind the curtains because I think she was trying to go potty.

And that is what happened today.

Camera

My new (to me) camera came last week, but we had to wait for a battery charger to really get to use it much. I love it. It takes really nice pictures, and we don't even know how to use it yet. Jess tried out the macro setting on this monkey.

And Noah.

We watched Lily for a while this morning, while Dan and Veronica went to church. The girls had a crazy dance party. Here they are being cute cute.

Cason and Jess had some boy time.

And I'll throw in these ones that we like too.