Handsome Hunter, Cute Tralee, and My Main Squeeze

Hi there.  Remember when I wrote about my mom being in town a few months ago?  Well, while she was here, we did A LOT of shopping.  In our many shopping sprees, we bought Jim a new suit, and Hunter a new church outfit.  Char Char never got to see the boys in their new digs, so one Sunday before we left for church, I snapped a few pictures on the ol' iphone to send to Grammy Char Char.  I wanted her to see how handsome my boys looked.  Tralee wanted to be involved, so her cute self snuck into some pictures too.  The outfit she's wearing is one I made.  This is also before we did her hair for church.  Still cute. 

This last picture features two of  the handsomest people I know.

I love them all.

First Grade Love Poems

My little Tralee is quite the writer.  Here are three of her *Love* poems she wrote a few months ago.  I kind of adore them. . . and their author.

Love Poem #1

By Tralee

He is the one.

As beautiful as a flower.

As he goes away and away

as I go.

This next one is my favorite.  When I asked her who it was about, her cheeks turned pink, and she got all shy.  I realized right then and there that Jim and I are going to be in trouble when the hormonal teenage crushing years hit us.

Love Poem #2

By Tralee

He is the one.

As handsome as a honeybee.

He has the twinkle in his eyes.

The honey glow in his cheeks.

He is the one

he is.

Love Poem # 3

By Tralee

The wind is in my hair.

The love is blowing away.

My heart is bumping hard.

Away I go.

Away in the fog.

Away.

So what do you think?  Do we have a future Shakespeare on our hands?  Will these sonnets someday be worth millions?  :)  Either way, they're priceless to this Mama.

Three Random Things

In the interest of getting caught up on the blog, here are some pictures of events that happened within the last few months.  Ready. . . set. . . go. . . 

1.  I volunteered at Tralee's Fall Festival Party at school.  She was pretty excited to have Mommy there.  It was fun for me to see her in her element.

2.  The kids and I read together every night before bed.  It took us a few months, but we finally made it through Black Beauty (Hunter might have nodded off a time or two whilst reading).  Black Beauty is one of my favorite books.  Every time I finish it, I wish I had a horse.  They're lovely creatures!  Also, it's so fun to share my childhood favorites with my wee ones.  I might even say, more fun than reading them for the first time.

3.  Since Hunter usually falls asleep during our nightly reading time, we usually make sure to make up for it during the day while Tralee is in school.  He's a Dr. Seuss fan. 

We love our simple little life around here.  

Halloween

Guess what!  I'm finally getting caught up on the blog.  Here are some of our Halloween pics.  This year Tralee wanted to be a ghoulish vampire (see photo below)

and Hunter wanted to be the black angry bird - check it out:

Both of the wee ones were pretty darn cute in their costumes:

Jim dressed up as a scary tall zombie - per usual.  

We started out our Halloween night at our church's Trunk-or-Treat.  Jim spent the evening trying to steal kids' candy.  Some children cried, others ran away in fear, and some tried to push him down.  He always gave the candy back.  So, it was all good.  

The great candy snatcher 

This little girl was looking all sorts of sad and bewildered after Jim tried to steal her candy.

He stole candy using this thing. . . I'm not sure what it's called.

. . . but he always gave it back.

Taking a break.  The older kids thought he was cool, I think.

Stealing more candy.

After the Trunk-or-Treat Hunter was done with all the madness, but Tralee still wanted to go out for more tricks and treats.  I stayed home with Hunter, and passed out candy to trick-or-treaters, while Tralee and Jim went around our neighborhood.

Our pumpkins by the front door.

Hunter organizing his stash

Tralee brought home quite a pile of sugar.

So happy about all the candy.

Until next year, rest assured knowing that the face below is what I get to kiss goodnight. . . 

 Isn't he cute?

Thrill the World 2013

When my mom was in town in October, Jim, Tralee, and I danced to MJ's Thriller once again with 100-something other zombies.  We practiced for about a month, and on dance day, we zombified ourselves, and headed downtown to thrill it up.

Okay, embarrassing story time: 

So. . . I wasn't paying close enough attention to where the front and back of the dance was going to be, so when we all marched out like zombies, I laid down where I thought the back to the middle would be.  NOPE!!!  Turns out I was SMACK DAB IN FRONT!  This meant Tralee and Jim, who were following my lead, were in the front too.  Just to clarify, we're BACK ROW kind of people.  So, when the music began and we started dancing, I soon realize I wasn't in the middle-back.  Jim, Tralee, and I were the first dancers of the group.  After this realization hit (and I saw all the cameras filming pretty much right in my face), it was like I was in a bad dream.  I totally fazed out, and honestly can't remember doing the rest of the dance.  I was also upset, because I wanted to be in the middlish-back, because I wanted Tralee to be able to follow people in front of her, in case she forgot some of the choreography.  Whelp, that sure didn't happen!  I was totally embarrassed about the whole situation, and Jim was too.  He was like, "I kept wondering why you were walking to the front."  AHHHH!!  Oh well, it's over now.  I've only lost a few sleepless nights over it.  Also, the experience reminded me of this a little bit:

I'm pretty sure I can laugh about my awkwardness now.  Well, maybe do a combination of cringe/laugh.  Anyways, below are some pictures we took of ourselves all zombied up.  They're pretty gross.  We look disgusting, in an awesome way.  

P.S.  I kind of like gross and disgusting yet awesome things.

Just a family of zombies. . . Hunter wasn't infected.

One of my favorite songs to listen to during Halloween time.

Just a couple of zombies, looking for brains to eat.

Another awesome group of zombies with Tralee and myself.

So, our Thrill the World experience was a mix of fun, embarrassing, awesome, disgusting, and awkward. Definitely a memory-maker.

McCall with Char Char

A few months ago (am I really that far behind on the blog?) my mom came to visit us.  It was such a fun visit, and we were all so excited to have her come stay.  In fact, Jim was so excited that he decided to plan a little mini-vacation for when Grammy Char Char was in town.  We took Tralee out of school for a day, and drove up to McCall.  

Jim's biggest catch of the day

Hunter with no shoes. . . we might have forgot them and had to buy a new pair in McCall.

Stinks

Jim in his element

Exploring on the rocks

On the drive up we stopped and explored a little spot along the river.  Jim caught a trout.  My mom wanted to have it for dinner, so luckily Jim brought his fillet knife, and we cleaned the fish right there on the river bed.  Once done with that, we drove the rest of the way to McCall, and bought a cooler and some ice for our fish, Hunter some shoes (yeah, we forgot them), and then went to our hotel.

We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool, hot tub, and sauna.  That night we all went swimming, spent some time in the sauna, ate yummy snack food, and then called it a day and went to sleep.

The next morning we got ready, and went out to do some more exploring.  We drove Char Char all around the lake, stopped at some spots to go fishing, and then drove up to our new favorite hiking spot.  We hiked to Blue Lake, spent some time exploring around there, fished a bit more, and then started our drive home.  On the drive, we stopped by the river again, and Jim caught another trout for dinner.

Grammy Char Char and her grand-munchkins

Just my mom and me in McCall

After the first part of our hike to Blue Lake

Hunter trying to catch something

After a while, Hunter started to feel sick, so he snoozed on my sweatshirt, and I kept watch while the rest of the group hiked around the lake a bit.  I also fed a curious chipmunk some nuts while sitting here.  Silly chipmunk!

You can't really see him, but here's Jim fishing around the lake.

We have a  favorite pie/fruit stand, that we always stop at when we drive home from McCall.  We bought some pumpkins, squash, apples, a pie, and other yummy organic delectables to go with our trout dinner.  

Once home, Jim prepared and cooked the trout, and Mom and I made some other sides.  Dinner was delish, and the memories that go with it were equally wonderful.

Jim preparing the HUGE fish he caught 

Jim COOKING!  This doesn't happen all that often, so I made sure to document this miraculous event with a picture!  P.S. his fish were delish!

The next night (or maybe it was the night after) we carved the pumpkins we bought at the fruit stand.  Then The Great Pumpkin Chaser turned out all the lights, and chased the rest of us around with the pumpkins.  Every year that guy comes and chases us with our jack-out-lanterns, and every year we have to run for our lives and hide around the house.  Exciting stuff.

The rest of my mom's visit was spent visiting, shopping, shopping, and visiting.  We had a great time, and we were all a little sad to see her go.

Hopefully she's be back soon!