marshmallow men

I bought some marshmallows for hot chocolate b/c we finally had a cool evening. On the package, they had pictures of marshmallow men creations (sticking them together w/ toothpicks.) So I had an easy craft idea for the kids (while Noah slept.)
I think it's more of a Christmas project instead of a halloween one, especially since I used red and green plates and bowls and made smowmen and snow flakes. Dylan and Malia made sunshines (lots and lots of toothpicks sticking out of the big marshmallows.) They made other things with the big and small marshmallows, grapes, raisens, and toothpicks.
Then Malia and Isaac jumped in the pool.

It's Autumn Time

10/14/09 We did a couple of crafts while Noah slept. Poor guy took home a plain pumpkin. Malia's was all cool and painted and glittery with google eyes.

Malia glued some real leaves to her hand tree. Amber's kids made similar trees and Amber said how her babysitter made them w/ her kids. I thought to myself that I could be a fun babysitter too! I think they were with tissue paper, but we just have construction paper, which the kids had fun tearing. Dylan and Isaacs look so cute on the fridge because I can see Isaac's fat rolls. I should take a better picture of them. Most of our trees are green year 'round, so these hand trees make it feel more like autumn.Then we went swimming in the pool. I'm so blessed.

Spider Man, Spider Man!

Dear Dylan,

You are a good thinker. You like me to you tell stories, and you like to tell me hypothetical situations like the following I wrote down as Daddy was driving us around in Dallas.

"I will hide from the ghost but if he gets me, I will fight to catch the ghost b/c I have light up shoes."

"We will look for them with flash lights and our light shoes and put them in Halloween decorations."

"If a bad guy is climbing down that [rock wall], then I will go kick him in his face then kick the wall down and it will crush him."
"Or if there is a good dinosaur in the jungle, then he will eat the bad guy. And the dinosaur will say 'Yum Yum'."

Malia is your BFF. You worry about her, like when she was in the back yard the other day. Isaac found a pile of rocks and dirt on the side of our house, but when Malia went to go see it, you kept warning her to be careful of bugs and suggested she should go get shoes on. You told her to tell you if she saw any bugs and to run away if so. Sometimes you can't wait to tell or show Malia something new you did or got.

You love life. You ask what we're going to do, then get excited whether it is going to school, Malia's, staying home to have friends over, going to Jake's, or church. Of course you get extra excited when we go somewhere out of our routine places.

You are learning how to write your name. You can connect the dots when I make the outlines of each letter. You are right handed finally, but still use your left hand if it is convenient, and even switch in the middle of writing, coloring, or eating.

You are a good big brother, but Isaac knows how to push your buttons.

You are still into super heros and wear your spider man costume every day.

You are good at self control as long as you know that Isaac can't do the thing you want to do/eat also. You yell at him what you should be yelling at yourself, like "Not Until After Nap, Isaac!!" or "Mommy Said NO!" or "We are NOT buying anything here, don't pick it up!"

You'll still let me hold and cuddle you. You got stung by a wasp Wednesday on the lip and on your finger as you brushed it away. You screamed and cried, but held the ice on it, then went to bed calmly because it was nap time. It made me stay sad longer than you to see your big fat lip.

I love you, little man!

SPIDER MAN, spider man This is a common face for you. I love it. It was so easy to get you to pose b/c you were soo excited to be in your costume! We took all of these pictures in about 3 minutes b/c it was so hot and you were starting to sweat w/ your big muscles:)
You were sooo excited to climb on the fence and told everybody about the spider web and climbing the fence. (Mainly Maila I guess.)

One of your silly faces.

A lot more of this sweet little newborn, Shaylyn

I took over Jolyn's family's dinner time taking newborn photos for 5 day old Shaylyn. She's 2Dylan's little sister! She has such soft fun hair, and was the perfect little model. I wish I could have just stayed all day b/c we had even more ideas. She was perfect and so sweet! Jolyn is a dancer, so Shaylyn has a lot of her own little tutus too!





She looks like a little doll here.


I gave her some kisses too:)
I love the scrunchy little face! She's so new and perfect!
This is one of my favorites, it shows her hair so perfectly.


I like this one so much of the big brother and baby sister.





Good looking family, don't you think?!
Look Jolyn, did you notice that Dylan's shirt miraculously dried! I bet you were worried you didn't get a good picture with silly Dylan, but I love this family photo, I do.
Gorgeous
She kept pointing her toes, I think she'll be a natural dancer:)






This is her birthday! See, she was just 5 days old. It was hard waiting so long to get a chance to go see her!
And this one again. Her name is similar to my middle name. I like it:)
I do have some more, if you can believe it, Jolyn. Come over and see some time!
(Oh, and thank your family and dinner guests for waiting so long for us to play with blocks:)

Hi pretty baby Shaylyn!

Aunt Kat, we miss you

My sister, Kat the editor, came to visit the week after Matt's reception here. She was working a lot, so we didn't get to hang out with her every day, but when we did, we did it was fun! She knows how to make my kids laugh.

Sorry we're not in Hawaii together right now, Kat. Good idea, I know, I know.