Today....

I am obsessed with:

Candy corn.  Seriously, this stuff needs to disappear from my kitchen island.  If you call yourself my friend, please stage an intervention and dump the bowl into my trash. 

My new camera.  

This lotion.  It's about this time of the year that my hands start looking and feeling like those of a four hundred year old.  I've put this on four times today already.

My neutrogena at home microdermabrasion kit.  Oh. My.

You want your face to feel like your baby's rear?  Get yourself this thing!

My autumn scented BBW candle.  I love it!  It smells amazing....but I think this one is a bit of a dud because the last one I lit I could smell from my front yard.  

I found a box of Mr. Sketch markers in my office stuff, and now I'm unnecessarily highlighting things in my planner just to smell them.  If you see me in public with rainbow colored dots on my nose and upper lip, please refrain from pointing.

Sofia champagnes....tiny champagnes with a little straw attached.  It's momma's Capri Sun!!

The tiny cat.  She's always good for some laughs.

I'm obsessed with the idea of eating a double doozie from the cookie company at the mall.  This all started on Saturday when I had to leave a birthday party to shoot a wedding, and realized the cake was a huge cookie cake.  I'm not kidding, I thought about that thing at least twice while shooting the wedding...resenting that I didn't get any!

I've also decided I need:

Tall brown boots.  I love tall boots, but they create quite the issue.  For one, it's hardly ever cold enough here to warrant tall boots.  Last year, I sweated my way through many an event because of camel colored sweater Uggs.  I know they're impractical for south Texas, but I need them anyway.

New aviators.  I had some at one point, but I'm not sure where they went.  I know this aviator thing has been going on for awhile and is probably on it's way out, but I want some anyway.

A silhouette machine.  I salivate thinking about the crafty amazing-ness I could create with this thing.

A flip video.  I know I can take video with my iphone, (and I'm reminded of this all the time by the DH)

but I really want a camera ONLY for video, and one that will fit in my purse.  I'm done with the video camera with the little tiny tapes that have to be transferred and burned (real time, no less) onto DVDs.  Ugh.

A big brown bag.  To match the aforementioned boots, of course.  I love all the buckles on this thing.

A portable light kit.  Looking at this set doesn't make me instantly think of "ease of transport" but it might not be that bad.  I just need softboxes to use, especially with newborns.

To think, this whole blog post started with me googling the nutritional content of candy corn....

Shawn and I were just talking about how much we love this time of year.....it feels so much cooler outside, and of course; there's football.  My kiddos are all about Halloween, so for their benefit I've tried to decorate more for Halloween.

My instinct is to just do generic autumn decorations like pretty fall leaves everywhere....that just doesn't cut it for little ones.  They want Halloween specific decor.

Cale even asked for a "big, sparkly skeleton" to hang in his room.  

I said no.

Momma's gotta draw the line somewhere.

They are IN LOVE with the giant inflatable things they sell at Lowe's....since we have neither the storage, or inclination to own such a giant piece of Halloween fun, we compromised and let them pick out a small one.  They get a huge kick out of seeing it lit in the front of the house when we come home at night.  We also have three little jack o lanterns in the window, for our three tiny ones.  They are the new school plug in variety, which are GENIUS....I like them much better than the old school variety that end up rotting on your front porch.  (although we'll probably do one of those, too.)  Fun times!!  We have our Halloween costumes bought and ready, and have several activities lined up....

Presenting Chewy Louise...

We weren't in the market for a kitten.  

Sure, I like cats, but more of the grown variety...the kind that curl up somewhere in your house, and you never know where they are.  The kind that stalk past you every three days or so, somehow managing to look irritated at you for letting them live in your house.

Like you're not doing THEM a favor.  

I kind of get a kick out of that....how entitled and jerky a cat acts.  

Don't get me wrong...I think tiny cats are adorable to look at.

They're just a lot of work.  

But this one...well, she chose us.

We were putting out some Halloween decorations Monday night, and Shawn found her crying outside. 

She looked SO pitiful. 

No more than two pounds, and skinny as a rail.  

I don't think she would have lived much longer had she not found us.

She came to us when we called her, (like a dog) and purred like crazy.  

Hayden ran up and down the sidewalk outside, screaming "My heart is BREAKING!!"

So after THAT oscar winning performance, how could we NOT adopt the thing?

Hayden immediately decided her name was "Chewy".  Not my particular style, but I am a huge fan of letting kids name animals, mainly because the choices are so random and irreverant they end up being hilarious.

We didn't know if she was a girl or boy at first.

Hayden's suggestion was to put a tutu on her, and if she left it on, she had to be a girl.

Despite the obvious scientific validity of such an experiment, I went ahead and took her to the vet anyway. The vet managed to determine she was a girl, (without a tutu)

So, "Chewy" it was.  (I added Louise after we found out she was indeed a girl)

She's about ten weeks old, and healthy as a horse.  

We are trying to feed her slowly, (per the vet's instructions) so she doesn't gorge herself.  

Girl can eat.  

She clears her little bowl in about four seconds, and then goes looking for the dog food.  

I guess that's a good sign.  

Tiny kittens aren't the easiest thing to take care of, but they're certainly not the hardest.  

(Not like when Wyatt was a puppy, and I questioned my will to live on a daily basis)

She immediately knew how to go in her litter box.  

She loves my kids.

She purrs like a machine, and makes biscuits on all of us. 

She adores me, and follows me around everywhere.

My kids are obsessed with her, and want to bother her all day long. 

Cale can't remember her name, and has called her "Chili Soliz", "Chewy Feliz", and "Chewy Sanderson" which confuses me a little, but entertains me a lot. 

Of course, we've now continued the tradition of "over-naming" our animals, and today we decided she was to be called "Chewbacca Louise Hatter-hyphen-Sanderson".

Around here...

We've been keeping busy, with stuff like:

trying on Bubby and Sissy's soccer gear....

licking queso off our plates.....

eating spaghetti....

getting in dog kennels....

getting the most miles we can out of our remaining pacis....

hanging out at some high school football games....

enjoying a church picnic...

and enjoying the sunset....

...dressing up like a knight....

....and getting some more miles off said pacis....

...taking our baby stuffed elephant to the doctor....

...and sleeping in the hallway because clearly it's a ton more comfortable than your own bed.

Fun with a moustache

You wouldn't believe how funny they think a moustache on a stick is.  Hilarious!  The only thing better than a paper moustache on a stick is a chocolate moustache on a stick, and they still talk about the one time they've seen those. (Thanks, Dee!)
I love these people....everyone had to play with the moustache....and of course, my fourth child; "Zoolie" bear had to be photographed with the moustache, as well.

You'll notice the moustache is a little wrinkly, and wet on one end...there was some confusion at first about how to actually use a moustache on a stick, and the baby may or may not have tried to eat it.

Sleep Schmeep

This kid needs no sleep.  At least, he THINKS he doesn't.  To him, there is just too much to do during the day (and night) to waste time on sleeping.  

So, on the rare occasion he DOES sleep, I decide to bust out my camera and take pictures of this momentous occasion.  

Plus, he looks really cute and angelic sleeping, and I love him so much.

Ironically, when I see him sleeping so sweetly like this, I want to kiss on his cheeks and wake him up, which is ridiculous, because at this point I probably told him to go lay down forty six times.  

 He does EVERYTHING he can to avoid falling asleep.  He reads thirty books. (and leaves them all in his bed)

He gets out all his cars, dumps them in his bed, and leaves them there.

He gets out all the little Batman guys, and the giant batman castle, and piles them all up on the bed, too.

(Are you starting to see a pattern?)

Really, with all that stuff in his bed, it's no wonder he can't fall asleep.  

Some days, I just KNOW he needs a nap. 

You know those days...when there is a lot of whining and crying and pestering people.

On those days, I tell him I'm going to lay with him for a second.  

He doesn't like this, because he knows I'll make him lay still, and if he lays still, he'll fall asleep and THAT is the worst thing he can think of.

The other day, I laid with him and he told me, "Mommy, I don't want you to lay with me."

I said, "You don't want your mommy in here?" (sad face)

He said, "Well, you can stay today.  But I don't want you in here EVERYDAY."

Poor thing, he was so torn.  

He loves me and didn't want me to feel bad, but he really wants to just fart around during nap and not have me in there telling him to shush and lay still.

 It's funny how someone who needs sleep so badly decides to fight it so much.

If only he knew how awesome it is to be four and be TOLD to go lay down everyday.

I wish someone carved out three hours a day for ME to go rest, and then MADE me relax.

Nighttime isn't much better...

He does okay when we're doing a behavior sticker chart.  

One of his "jobs" is always "Go right to bed"

That means he can't complain, or get out of bed and come find us.

When we're NOT doing a sticker chart, things are a lot harder.

He comes wandering out about ten minutes after we've put him down, and stands in the doorway to the living room looking pitiful.

We've tried ignoring him, but he'll literally stand there for forty five minutes. 

Once we acknowledge him, he tries to snuggle on the couch with us....which is hard to say NO to, because we love his snuggles so much, and also because it's sort of fun to just have one kiddo to love on.

With his Daddy, he pulls this one: "Daddy? I just want to watch football with you." which Daddy can't resist because he loves football about as much as he loves the kid, and the idea that he can combine the two send him into a coma of happiness.  (another story entirely)

Once we tell him he HAS TO GO BACK TO BED, he busts out this little trick that ALWAYS works on Mommy.

His little lip quivers and his eyes fill with tears, and he says in this little voice cracking with emotion, 

"Mommy?  When I'm in there alone, I'm very lonely."

and what do I do?

I tell him to go get in our bed, and he skips off happy as can be.

Sigh.

But he's not going to want to love on me forever like this, so I am enjoying these years where he lives under my eyelid.

And enjoy the four hours a week he DOES sleep.

Baby feet

I love her little feet...and all her other tiny toddler parts.  Before too long, she's going to look long and lean, and won't look like much of a baby anymore.  

She's at such a hilarious age....she loves her baby doll and tells it, "I love you, baby!" and then makes a grumpy face at it and talks sternly like it's in trouble.  

I love that most days, she still loves me best in all the world, although Daddy DOES win some days.  This morning I asked her "Who's baby are you?" and she kept saying "Daddy's!!"  

I asked her "Not Mommy's?" and she answered, "Yeah, Mommy's too."

I love her little curls as they grow in....especially when she's been playing outside and they're sweaty.  Before too long, she'll have a full head of hair, and we'll miss her wispy little baby hair.  

For now, I'm squeezing all the love out of these last months of babyhood....