Who came up with this holiday?

I have decided that I am the Grinch of Halloween. I have never really been a big fan of the holiday but seriously, who came up with this holiday? Who thought it would be fun to torture your kids by wrangling them into incredibly uncomfortable outfits that they really don't want to wear and then send them to strangers houses to beg for sugar? Honestly, I think that person was playing a cruel trick on other parents. Well, now that I have that out in the open, our Halloween went pretty smooth. Our theme was University of Arizona football. Elizabeth was the cheerleader, AJ was the football player and Jacob was supposed to be their #1 fan (that didn't come across so clear).

Elizabeth of course was good with her costume because it was a dress and she got to have her hair curled (don't ask me why I do the things I do) and I let her wear a little makeup and put temporary tattoo's on her face. Needless to say when I whipped out the camera, my little model was there waiting for me to snap her precious smile.

AJ was a different story. I wasn't able to get pictures of me coaxing him into his costume (which I'm sure would have looked like borderline torture) but sure enough he performed just like a 2 year old when it came to taking his picture. He immediately went into tantrum mode and threw himself on the ground. After a little harassing from his sister, he decided to snap out of it enough to play peek-a-boo with his helmet. After that it wasn't too bad but needless to say, the helmet didn't stay on more than a couple of minutes.And then there is Jacob. What can I say about the kid except, "Thank God he is flexible!!!!" After being woken up by a screaming brother barging into his room yelling "Ackey, et up!, he managed to pull himself together to let me get a picture of him as we were leaving the house to go trick-or-treating at Mike's school house. By the look on his face, you would have never known that he only had a 20 minute nap before several hours of Halloween activities. Despite all of the chaos and my feelings on Halloween, I do think the kids had a good time tonight. Now my battle I am not looking forward to facing is explaining how the candy magically disappeared over night.

Happy Halloween!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

I got this cute shot of Jacob tonight in the tub - would you look at those blue eyes!

Got The Glow

So, here are some of my favorite pictures that I took of my best friend who is now 36 weeks pregnant and looking beautiful as always.

First Real Try

Today was my first atempt at an actual photoshoot. My best friend asked if I would take her pregnancy pictures. Of course you don't want to disappoint a pregnant woman so we headed over to a local park and I nervously got out the camera and snapped a few shots. Elizabeth was in the mood to pose for a few so of course I had to get some of her. Tell me what you think. I will post pictures of Tricia as soon as I get them all edited. (Gosh, I hope she likes them!)

Yeah!

What a big boy! Jacob has learned to clap and when you say yeah to him he will "repeat" it and clap. It is so darn cute to see!

Apple Picking in Tehachapi

Today we went up to Tehachapi for some apple picking with our TPS Little Agents. We ended up at Knaus Family Farm and the kids were able to pick load of apples (we came home with 30lbs.), pet and feed the horses and donkey as well as taste some fresh out of the oven apple cake. We had a good time and it was nice to get out of the desert for a little bit.

AKA

Last night the members of the 07B Secret Agents had their naming ceremony. After a few drinks and some good laughs Mike will be now known as "Bolt" in the TPS community. If you don't already know the story, let's just say it was an act of baffonery on his part when we first arrived at TPS. During our Road Rally he took one of the clue boxes from the A-10 Thunderbolt that was supposed to be left for all of the others. As to not be caught in his act of ignorance, he "bolted" back across the desert to replace it without anyone noticing. Of course he was not successful in his try and it was dutifully noted of his "snatching" act. The pictures below are of the actually event.

I hope to have pictures from the naming soon.

How Daddy Does Hair

Do you think Child Protective Services is going to be knocking at our door?

Nut-ting

I'm sure many of you have heard me tell you about AJ's nut-ting. Well, I finally got it on video. (it's a good thing he didn't mention that Daddy was changing his diaper at the time of filming!) I just love it!

Jump Baby Jump

Friends of ours recently let us borrow their Jump-A-Roo after seeing that Jacob loved to bounce and be upright. Needless to say, I think he likes it quite a bit.

TPS T-Shirt

We recently had a fundraiser for our TPS class where t-shirts were created. Being in charge of that, I decided to put it on here if any of you out there want to order one for yourself. It is set up so that the profit that is made will go to our class so you are helping us out in your purchase. Thanks in advance!!!


buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Oh! The Things You Can Do With A Dump Truck . . .

It is amazing to me that the dump truck that has been used solely for digging and dumping the dirt in the backyard has finally found a new use. Kids can be so innovative when they want to be. All of the kids had fun the other night in the backyard pushing each other around. Of course, where would the night be without a little "push meeeee" whining?

SETP & Disney

We spent the last four days down in Anaheim for an SETP (Society of Experimental Test Pilots) conference that Mike attended. I spent some of the time at my parents house with the kids and then they gratiously watched the kids for us on Friday evening when we went to California Adventures for a good buffet followed by riding Soarn' Over California (with Neil Armstrong) and then off to the Boeing and Lockhead Martin hospitality suites. It was wonderful for Mike and I to get to spend an evening just the two of us. On Saturday afternoon two very tired parents took the kids to California Adventures for some fun. I didn't get many pictures because wouldn't you know it after the first picture, the battery died.

Anyway, we spent that night at my parents house where we relaxed and hung out a while before heading back home and back to reality. It was a fun trip and I hope to be able to do it again if we get stationed here after TPS.