Alls He Wants Is His Sweet Little Daddy

The weather was nice and chilly for several days there.  I loved it.  We went for walks....or bike rides, if you're Caso.

Played out back..where Cason said he was in space.

...and missed daddy.  Cason found this picture of him as a baby with Jess, and when Jess is at work he just carries it around, gazing sadly at it.  One day he even wrote a song.  It went "Alls I want is my sweet liiiiiiiiittle daddy..." and repeat.  

He's a great boy . He wakes up so sweet and cheerful every morning.  Like so:

 

If I'm not around when he wakes up he comes and finds me, gives me a hug, and then gets ready for his day.  

Neely's funny.  This morning I changed her diaper and as I got a new one on her she started saying "I want Hello Kitty diaper!" over and over.  Finally I realized she meant Paige's undies.  So she's wearing a pair over her diaper.

We had a good, busy weekend.  We started it off with an early soccer game for Paige.

Then Mollie and Tim kindly treated us all to breakfast at Cracker Barrel!  I forgot to take any pictures.  My apple streusel french toast was too good for me to think straight.  Then we went home to get ready to go to the pumpkin patch in Prescott.

While we got ready Neely played with her new stuffed ghostie and a doll cradle.  I peeked in to find her asleep inside the cradle.  :)

I managed to move her to the car without waking her up all the way.   It was a pretty drive, lots of color in the trees, especially as we got closer to Prescott.  

It was way more elaborate than I expected.  Hay rides, booths, games, rides, a corn maze, horseback rides, a haunted house, and of course the pumpkin patch.  The kids went on some rides.  Neely's favorite was this choochoo train pulled by a happy fellow on a tractor.  Caso liked it too, but knew most of the other riders were younger, so he had to act too cool: 

When they switched direction, he'd even switch hands so we could still see his "bored" face.  Haha.  Neely rode it 3 times in a row, and was still SOOOO mad when we got her out.

The coolest white ladybug landed in Paige's hair while we were in line for a ride.

Paige got her face painted.

Then we looked for pumpkins.  There weren't too many good ones left.  Caso picked this one:

Quotes From Recent Weeks

These things have made me laugh lately:

Walking out of a restaurant and Paige asked me if she could grab a Penny Saver.  Neely reaching for it and saying "I have a penny saver?" 

Another time I asked Paige "You know I love you?"  She smiled and said "I love you most."  So I said
"I love you even more than that."  She stopped smiling and kind of crinkled her forehead at me and said "That doesn't make sense." 

She's Getting Big

Neely is moved into size 3T clothes now.  :(

But it's also fun seeing her in new stuff.  Especially skinny jeans, since it's cooling off.  :)

One thing I love is the first time they say something that you've never heard them say before.  In the car she was swinging this glow stick around and accidentally hit Cason in the head.  I told her to say "Oh I'm sorry Cason."  She said "Sawee Cason.  Sawee.  I din' mean to."  So cute that she added that at the end without being told. 

Ghosts vs. Angry Birds

Fun of late:

 Caso's art continues:  Wolverine

Cason and I played a game together in the playroom that began with My Little Ponies and evolved until it ended with angry birds vs. ghosts in their haunted house. 

 

 One of the ghosts even rode a flying bat at one point in the fight.  :)

 We decorated with spiderwebs out front, one afternoon.

Then grammy stopped by for a visit.  Mostly they played play-doh.

 

 One night last week we took the kids to a late-ish showing of Frankenweenie.  It was going to end around bedtime, so we put the kids in their pajamas for the show, and even brought toothbrushes and toothpaste to brush their teeth before heading home.  Just in case anyone fell asleep on the drive.  

They liked the movie.  They loved the popcorn.

 

Jess and I also decided to join the rest of the world and get phones from this century.  So we spent an hour or so in a Sprint store the other night. 

 

Neely LOVES her new iPhone.

When she lets me use it I obsessively fill my instagram account.  

http://web.stagram.com/n/brandij514/

Reading with Neely

Neely loves the Frankenstein book, and has a lot of it memorized.  When she sees a certain page that she likes, she'll "read" to us.  She really likes the first page, "In a creepy old castle, all covered with spines"(It's a parody of Madeline).  She thinks it's "vines" though, not "spines".  I love hearing it in her little voice.

 Another page she likes is when Miss Devel peeks in the room and says "Oh monsters do, tell me what is troubling you."  Neely says "OOOH monsters do, trubuh you".  

While we're on Neely videos, here's one of her "scaring" us by saying "ghostie" in her spooky voice, along with the arm wave she does whenever she's being scary.  :)

  We have another Halloween fan in our family.  She also likes to carry this rubber spider around, pushing it toward me and whispering "wook.  wooooooook." or "pider.  piiiiiider!"

A Rainy Day and Big News

Last week was so nice and cool for a few days.  I was so happy.  It even rained.  

Neely fell asleep in the car that rainy day, so we went WAY early to park in the parking lot and wait for Paige to get out of school.  We were there for a good hour, so I worked on one of my bats, while Cason played in the car and Neely slept.

Luckily Neely woke up before Paige got done, so I didn't have to WAKE her up to go get her sister.  I hate doing that. 

We got Paige and went home.  She immediately changed clothes and tried on the bat headband I made for her.

Now it's pretty warm again, but at least the mornings and evenings have that autumn feeling in the air.  Plus Neely cheers me up by wearing this hat every chance she gets.

She also says "Thank you" every time someone gives her a kiss or hug lately.    Such a honey.  

I'm sure most of you have heard the news, but in case anyone hasn't, Jess accepted a job in Oklahoma City.  He'll be starting November 1st, but working from home until after Christmas break.  He'll go to Oklahoma City in the beginning of January.  We're still not sure if we'll all go then, or if the kids and I will stay a bit longer so Paige can get further through the school year.  We're not very good at being apart though, so we'll be doing more praying/talking/thinking on that.  We're excited, because it'll be a change, and I've always wanted to live somewhere different.  Then again I probably wouldn't have actually done it, because taking the kids away from family is hard and scary, but this opportunity just kind of came out of nowhere, and it's too great to pass up.  It was a really hard decision, with leaving family, but we know it's the right one.  Wish us luck and come visit!

My Little Brony

A few months ago I read a little article online somewhere about "Bronies".  They're basically male fans of My Little Ponies.  They're much older than you'd guess, and this article included pictures of them all at some huge Brony gathering.  Ha.  I love it, especially because I have my own little Brony at home. (Tyra met a teenage Brony at her work, he may have even been wearing an MLP tshirt at the time, if I remember right)

Anyway, Caso's the best.  He loves his superheroes, his robots, his video games, all that stuff, but he will not turn down an episode of My Little Pony either.  Also, he has his own toy pony, and it's his favorite:  Rainbow Dash.  I love this kid.  

 Out of the creatures I've been making he's been most excited about the mummy.  I finally made one today.  I'm happy with his bandages and eyes, but he's too long and thin I think, and I'm not satisfied with it yet.  Oh well, the first one is for Caso and he likes him.