You Have No Idea!!!

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Sweet Tooth

Dress the kid up as an ice cream cone and he automatically develops a sweet tooth!

To be honest...he gets it from me. :)

This is Talon on Halloween night...trying to eat a sucker. I know, I'm terrible. He was tired, cold, crabby - and grabbing for my sucker! So I let him have it. Just for a second, I thought.

Yeah right! I took it away a few times and he got very cross! :)

This is Talon after I took it away for good.

Our Adventures of Halloween

I'm telling you right now...I only do it for the treats! Seriously!

Here's Conductor Simon. He wore this train engineer outfit for his party at school. His first holiday party without me! We were totally late and I forgot to take the picture before we put on his jacket and backpack. :) Hey, at least I have a picture, right?

My boys. Simon wanted to be a giraffe for trick or treating. Ben is a frog. And Talon is an ice cream cone. I'm sorry...is Talon posing??? I just noticed that! Cutie.

Talon the Ice Cream Cone. His hat is a cherry! This picture was taken before this cute little cherry hat fell of of his cute big head in the middle of the street...a busy street! And also before he slid out of the stroller and bumped his nose. I had to hold him the rest of the way. :(

Almost done. Inside I was screaming...."someone please take me home. i hate this!!!" Jon wasn't able to come with me, so I was the only adult with all 3 of the kids. Ben wanted to go inside everyone's house. Or hit their pumpkins. Or take their watering can. Simon was great. He just wanted to get to the next house!

By the way, Jon was busy with the new dishwasher installers!!!! Good excuse! :) Not fun for me, but good excuse! Well worth it!

Paintin' Pumpkins

Here are the boys painting their pumpkins a few weeks ago. They had so much fun.

We got paint on the table, their clothes and the wall. Washable paint is the BEST!

Talon was happy just playing with the paint bottles.

3 Boys in the Bath

This is Talon's first time in the bath with Simon AND Bennett, at the same time. I've done it before with one or the other. It wasn't easy, but hey, they were all clean at the same time. Gotta love that!

Talon's hair is growing into a natural mohawk. He must get that from Jon. :)

He loves sitting in his seat.

He loves chewing on the bobble head guy.

He loves this squirty star.

He loves his brothers.

He just loves the bath...finally!

Published Love

Simon is quoted in the Fall issue of our church newsletter...

I thought you'd like to see it.

How cool is Ryan Donnelly's answer? I hope my boys say that when they're 12!

Yes, We're Still Here!!!

Okay, before I post Halloween, I'm just want to post a few random pics of Talon.

Here's Talon at Owen's cowboy birthday party.

Talon with my half-brother, Jake. I think Talon looks a lot like Jacob. I think I'm the only one though...what do you think?

Talon with Chloe. He LOVES her.

Here's another one of him kissing her cheek. Soooo cute!

Our boys

I forgot to add these pictures last night.

This is our oldest, Simon.

And here's Ben.

The baby only has 2 teeth. You can't tell in this pictures, but so far they look pretty good. Who knows...maybe one day he'll have a gold toof just like his daddy! :)

Heeeyyyy

this is my cuzin Jon.

he's also my huzband.

Field Trip

Simon had a field trip to Plum Creek Nursery last Monday. Jon had the day off so I was able to go along. I was so excited to have some time with just Simon.

Before we left, the class did their normal songs and prayers. It was so neat to be there for that. I really enjoyed it. He doesn't talk much about what he does at school. The other moms waiting in the hallway with me said the same thing about their kids too. It was funny. Secretive little pre-schoolers! :)

Getting on the bus.

The hay maze. He had a blast figuring this out.

Choosing his pumpkin.

The one he picked. He's not really sad. He just wanted to make a sad face. He's such a funny little boy.

We had such a nice time together. The weather was perfect. I got to know some of his new friends and their moms. And the best part of all...there weren't any little brothers needing my attention. Four straight hours with my boy, Simon. I seriously cannot wait for the next field trip!!!

Giddy-Up

We took the boys to Glenwood Stables. They had never been horseback riding and it was such a beautiful day so we decided to go after church last Sunday. There was a HUGE party that afternoon so we didn't have much time.

Simon loved it!

Ben, on the other hand, was scared of the horses and really wanted nothing to do with them. He pulled the reigns with Jon once, but this is where he was basically the entire time. The Tractors!!! Don't worry, I made sure there wasn't a key in it. :) Ben would have been driving that tractor down the gravel road in no time, I'm sure!

We managed to get one picture of him on the horse for about a minute. You can't tell, but he's screaming his head off.

Then we went to Cold Stone. That was the one thing too many, but all in all, it was a good day!

All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go!

These are the pictures I came home to a few weeks ago when I had 5, yes 5 hours without children! My mom and I had manicures and pedicures. Then shopped a bit with Aimee - then lunch, again with NO children! Then we shopped some more! What a great day.

So now I have a few more choices for Halloween. With so many cute costumes, which ones do I choose!??!! Such a dilemma! :)

Lost & Found!!!

Yea!!! We found the camera! Jon took Simon to the race track last weekend and we haven't been able to find the camera ever since. But...we found it TODAY! In Jon's truck - where he left it! :)

So I will be posting some pictures shortly. Grandma & Grandpa Stevens need to see the boys while they are in England - resting from their 3-week trip to Croatia - before they go to Russia on the 14th. (A little "Where in the world are Mike & Penny" info. for anyone wondering!)

Feeling a Little "Grey"

I love Grey's Anatomy. Seriously. I LOVE it!

It is a great show! I've watched it - off and on - since it started. Not faithfully though. I didn't see much of Season Two. Luckily, my friend Faith let me borrow Season One so I can have a little refresher on everyone and everything they're going through. Season Two is next for me. And after the Season Premier of Season Three, I can honestly say that I'm In! Anyone else? Besides Faith and Susan of course. I already know about your addiction to it! :) How glad are we that cards isn't on Thursdays anymore?

*And a little side note...my husband is loving it too so that makes it even more great!!! And if you look at the date and time of this post, you will notice that it's when Grey's is on. I'm taping it so that Jon and I can watch it together AFTER we finish Season Two. I can't even believe that I have to wait to find out what happens!!!!!

Costume Sneak Peek & Boy Wonder

Here is my giraffe and my elephant eating their breakfast the other day.

They would not take them off - all morning. Finally at around 11:30 Simon looked like he was going to melt so I made him take it off. He was so hot!

Just a little sneak preview of Halloween. I do have another costume for Ben to wear and he looks equally cute it both of them so I haven't decided on the frog or the elephant.

Talon is the 3rd child to use this bouncy seat. And the 1st child to figure out how to get the stuffed elephant into his mouth. :) He reached his arm all the way up and pulled the little awning forward and grabbed it. So resourceful!

Lincoln Park Zoo

Now we're just at last weekend. Not too bad. I said I was tired...what I had meant to say was I am exhausted! It's been crazy getting adjusted to Simon going to school 4 afternoons a week. It's really messed up Talon's nap schedule (if that's what you want to call it since he hasn't been too good at naps ever!). And he's getting teeth so he's been up a bit in the night. Add some gas issues (for Talon) and my problem with not going to bed until after midnight every night (i just love those precious hours without the kids so I just can't go to bed regardless of how tired I am) and you have one exhausted momma!

Despite all the tiredness, we went to Lincoln Park Zoo last Saturday. It was such a beautiful day so we had to do something outside! All 3 boys really enjoyed it. We all did really. It was a little rough pushing the double stroller and/or holding Talon since Jon was rear-ended 2 weekends ago by a drunk driver. He's fine except for some pain in his lower back and neck but his car (the 1968 Rambler) is not. :( It couldn't have been the Explorer, could it?! It's just so sad.

Back to our day at the zoo...

Here's Simon...just hangin' out. I think we were looking at deer but I'm not sure.

Ben was a little nervous that the animals were right there. Especially with the lions. He put his shirt over his face and said "Scared Scared Scared"when it got up and started walking around.

Talon flying over Chicago - loving those 2 fingers.

My boys checking out the rhinos. They really liked those.

And a family picture. We don't get too many of those these days. Look at Talon holding his foot. So cute.

A Beautiful Day in Chicago with Happy Boys. Who could ask for more?