Smitten.

I have someone I'd like you all to meet.

We're kind of in love over here.

His name is Jack. He is eight weeks old. And as of noon yesterday... he is ours.

A week and a half ago, Cody came home from work and told me he wanted a cat. I laughed. I shrugged it off and thought he was joking. I have never been a cat person. Cody has never been a cat person. I loved... emphasis on LOVED... my dogs growing up. I always assumed our first family pet would be a lovable sheltie puppy. I would name him LJ - short for "Lucky Jr" - because Lucky was my dog from age eight to age 23. He lived a long and good life in our family, and we miss him dearly to this day. Lucky always had his own presents under the Christmas tree, something special in his very own stocking, and we celebrated his birthday every year on December 19 - two days after mine. He always watched us pull out of our driveway from the front windows and always waited for my dad to get home right around 5:00 every night by standing by the garage door. He was a special one. As an only child, he was important to me. You could say we grew up together, and I'm so happy he was around long enough to meet Jaden as a little baby - that we have pictures of he and Jaden together. We had to say goodbye to Lucky when Jaden was four months old, and there hasn't been another animal in my life since. Nothing could replace Lucky, but until yesterday I'd kind of forgotten how quickly a little animal can capture a special place in your heart.

...I quickly learned that Cody wasn't kidding around about the whole "adopt a cat" thing, and since Jaden has been asking for a pet quite a bit lately, we decided to go for it. We're not ready for the responsibility of a dog - potty training, having to take it outside all the time, etc. I have enough on my hands with trying to potty train my two-year old. We went to the humane society and immediately saw little Jack going potty in the litter box. That was enough of a sell for Cody, and Jack also happened to be the youngest one there. I wanted a young one. One that I could really raise from the beginning. And now that we have him home, I'm completely smitten for my cute little cuddly kitten.

And so are a couple of little boys...

 

 

Jack got his name from Jaden. The boys have been into watching Cinderella lately because they think the mice are really funny. The head mouse is named Jack. So when we asked Jaden what he wanted to name the kitty, that's what he said. I wasn't sold on that name myself, but it's stuck in our boys' heads, and so I've given up on fighting that one particular battle.

 

 

 

 

Jack is adjusting nicely to our home. Right now he is partial to Cody and me, as the boys get a little loud and wild for him, and they tend to just like to carry him around everywhere rather than let him take his many cat-naps. He's eating well, drinking well, and going potty exactly where he needs to go potty! He is such a cuddler and such a lover. We like him a lot. :)

 

Other than loving on our new little critter, we didn't have anywhere we needed to be or anything we needed to do this weekend. We vegged. A lot. In fact, half the time Brandon didn't even wear any pants. (He has graduated to pull-ups though!)

 

 

 

 

 

We made messes with Candyland game pieces and Lincoln Logs.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



We spent Saturday night eating chicken tortilla soup and drinking chocolate milks and a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha at Barnes and Noble while browsing all the Christmas and snowmen books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched Jack explore his new home and discover his favorite hiding places... like underneath the end table - and Mommy and Daddy's extra dark bedroom with its dark brown curtains.

 

 

 

 

Signing off for now... I've got three little ones in need of bedtime snuggles now...

 

 

 















Halloween... the day after.

If I'm being completely honest... I'm not much of a fan of Halloween. I rather dislike it. In my opinion, the only redeeming quality it possesses is that it was lucky enough to fall during my favorite season of the year. I don't like bloody things. I close my eyes tight during Grey's Anatomy when they show too much of it. I covered my face through 3/4ths of the movie 300 in the movie theater when Cody and I were dating. I can't watch scary movies, and I don't enjoy seeing Facebook pictures of people dressed up looking like the dead. I don't decorate for it... but instead stick to just lighted pumpkins and Harvest flowers. The only Halloween books my kids own are happy ones, and if I was childless, I probably wouldn't celebrate the day at all.

I have just two memories that stick out in my mind of Halloween as a kid. One year, I was dressed as a bride with way too much makeup on my face. It had been raining, and the second driveway we were walking down, I tripped, fell and skinned my knee up all bloody. The second memory was in sixth grade when I joined my large group of friends to go trick-or-treating because they thought it would be the cool thing to do. I was almost 12 and felt foolish ringing doorbells for candy. That was my last time trick-or-treating.

In college, I only dressed up twice. As an angel during my freshman year - and a football player my senior year. Complete with Cody's dad's old Aplington football jersey, black cheerleader shorts, a sweatband on my forehead, pigtails in my hair and eye black under my eyes. I was home by 11:30 that night.

I really think the whole thing is pretty foolish. We teach our kids to beg for candy, to pretend to be someone they are not for a day and to walk around outside in the cold. We spend money on costumes that are worn for two hours at the most, and then we fight our kids to eat their actual supper when all they care about is the candy they brought home from their preschool parties. This Halloween... I was just trying to get through the night. And keeping my fingers crossed that Brandon would actually wear his costume.

But when the evening was over, the kids were in bed and I had a chance to curl up under a blanket and log onto Facebook, I saw posts from my friends whose kids were grown and had moved out. Status updates about how quiet and somewhat sad Halloween was now that they didn't have the hustle of getting kids into costumes. That they didn't have candy wrappers to check and no pictures to take of cute little ones. Though I could do without Halloween, I don't want to rush through these years taking anything for granted. Sure, Jaden refused to eat his Happy Meal and whined for chocolate and was so hyper from his parties during the day, that I couldn't get him to settle down long enough to take any good pictures. Sure... we had to drag Brandon out to the street while he protested his costume and yes, he took his beard off halfway through our trick-or-treating journey. But... it didn't take long for Brandon to get the hang of ringing door bells, and it sure was cute to hear him say "Happy Halloween!" to everyone who opened their doors. We only stayed out for about half an hour, and then both boys helped Papa Bob hand out candy back at the house - a job which they took very seriously.

So even though the night wasn't perfect, and even though I'm glad it's over, I know it's important to live out these special days for my kids. Jaden was happy, Brandon was cute. And I did get a couple of pictures.

 

 

The best part about the day after Halloween is that we are just three weeks away from Thanksgiving! And I am ready for a low-key weekend. This is the first Saturday in five weeks that Brandon won't need a babysitter! I have plans to check out the library, pick out some Thanksgiving reading material, visit a holiday open house downtown, make some tortilla soup and catch a basketball game on Sunday night. Happy November!

The great pumpkin carving.

Pumpkin carving night is a big thing around here. When Brandon and I walked into Jaden's classroom at 5:00 this evening, he was having so much fun playing on his classroom computer that he wasn't very happy to see me. But when I told him it was time to go carve a pumpkin, he jumped out of his chair, started squeeling with delight and had all of his teachers laughing.

I decided that tonight was the perfect opportunity to carve pumpkins. I don't remember ever having weather so nice this late into October that we could do it all outside on our driveway. Not having to worry about the mess, no need to lay down newspaper... and the kids loved being able to throw pumpkin guts all over the place. ;)

Happy boy enjoying happy weather...

We were so excited to do our carving before the weather turns cold again, that Cody made a special trip home just to help us before he had to go back and out and finish a job when it got dark.

We have carved a simple UNI pumpkin ever since Jaden was a baby, and it's a tradition I'm holding onto strongly. As the kids get older, I'm sure we'll add scary faces and other designs to the mix... but for now... nothing showcases our family better on the front steps of our home than a lit up UNI jack-o-lantern.

My plans to do it outside worked perfectly. The kids loved it, and happy kids makes for a happy mommy.

Brandon is so proud of this baby pumpkin that he insisted Cody try to carve it, as well.

This was the first year that Jaden was actually willing to get his hands dirty.

Hugs for his beloved pumpkin...

It looks pretty good from Rainbow Drive!