The Littlest Link and Jay's 2nd Halloween!

Figured I better get this one out before Thanksgiving is upon us!

We don't go "all out" for Halloween like some people do, mainly because hubby's family has never been one for the day (his dad HATES it with a passion, coming from a religious point of view). But there are some things I enjoy doing - pumpkins and dressing my kid up being some of them!

This year we took Jay to the pumpkin patch for the first time (we figured he was too little last year to really enjoy any of it). We were only there for about an hour, and he refused to give up his Thomas notepad so he could actually do much of anything, but oh well... I'd like to think we had fun! (side note: he didn't know what to make of the witch lady and her skin being all green, lol...)

"Oscar... why are you 2 dimensional and not talking?!"

Running around, with notepad in tow. He would NOT give that thing up!

Climbing up to the Great Pumpkin

We took photos in the face cutout thingys

We let him pick out his own pumpkin and I carved it a few days later.

And then there's his costume this year...

Little Link from Zelda!!!

You may have seen this idea on Pinterest awhile back (obviously I did, as that's where I got the idea for it). It was too awesome not to do!

Raiding the Trick or Treater's candy bowl

Hubby had to work so it was just me and Jay this year so we stopped over at my parent's house for trick or treat, by my aunt's who lives around the corner from my parents, as well as by one of Jay's uncle's houses as he's in the same neighborhood, lol... my mom joined us for Trunk or Treat up at church this year. Hubby's sis, my cousin, and some friends of theirs did a Finding Nemo themed trunk this year.

Hubby's sis as the yellow fish from Finding Nemo, Jay, my cousin as the starfish
and a friend of theirs as a turtle.

Freaking out over Tigger and Pooh =)

They also had people dressed in costumes to entertain the kids as they waited to get into the Trunk or Treat part of the lot, including a Tigger and Pooh, who Jay went crazy for! He let out a squeal of "Tigg-ah!" and went running over, pulling on Tigger's leg to get his attention. While we waited for hubby's sis and her friends to finish up, I took Jay back over to where Tigger and Pooh were stationed, to keep him entertained for a bit since there wasn't much of a crowd by them anymore. He danced along with them (they had a band playing music during the event, Jay would stop and dance every time we snaked past them, lol...) and just had fun in general, interacting with Tigger and Pooh.

We found Link's game!

Quite a few people recognized him as Link and corrected those that didn't - one lady behind us, in her 20s, even jumped the line to come take a picture with him, she thought he was too cute! A guy, probably in his 40s or 50s, corrected his wife when she mistook Jay's costume for something not Link, lol... Older, non-gaming people called him "The first Robin Hood" or Peter Pan... someone even thought he was an elf (with a sword and shield, really?).

Afterwards we stopped by Best Buy to say "hi" to da-da as he was working all evening - the customers he was with thought Jay was the Jolly Green Giant, although hubby quickly corrected them, lol... it was funny though, as Jay went running through the video game section of the store while a couple college-aged guys were playing one of the demos. They both saw him - one started smiling and laughing while the other exclaimed "OMG! That. Is. AWESOME!!" It was too funny!

Too cute!

All in all, I'd say we had a successful 2nd Halloween!

Jay started to get a bit tired and overwhelmed by the end of Trunk or Treat, so we sat down and I let him pick out a piece of candy (he seems to like Snickers). He got quite a bit of candy. I also left out our bucket of candy again this year, with the sign to take a few. We had 2 groups of Trick or Treaters before we headed out. And I'm guessing a few more stopped by as there was a bit of a dent in the candy I had left out!

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Be sure to check your children's candy though! This year there were 2 reported incidents in our area of objects being found in kid's candy - one that was posted online showed a razor blade stuck in a thing of Starbursts, while another report showed that of a pin/needle in a piece of candy! How sick and sad is that?? And the razor blade one was found in a decent neighborhood too!

4th of July 2012

A bit late, but here's photos from our 4th of July!

Showing off his 4th of July shirt this year!

Watching fireworks with mommy

Hope yours was just as good as ours was!

Phone Photo Fun Monday 05.28.12

A few days late, but given the holiday weekend, it was expected!

Anywho, this weekend was busy for us!

 Jay watching his new Wiggles DVD - I had to buy him another one as, well, watching the same one over and over and over was driving me nuts, lol...

 Drinking from his sippy cup with no hands - one his "regular" tricks

 So, Monday, we ran some errands, like going to PetCo to get some kitty food. I want him to get used to the idea of walking and holding hands and since that parking lot isn't very busy during the weekdays I decided it would be a great opportunity to let him walk from the car to the store holding my hand. He did great on our way in, but on our way out, we got just feet from the car when he lost his footing and fell on his knees. One just got dirty, but the other got skinned! I cleaned up and sprayed some neosporin on it when we got home later. Poor baby! I took this the day after to make sure his 1st scraped knee was documented!

 Moments before this was taken, he was walking around with burpie over his head like it was a hood, lol... then he started walking around with it like this, like it was a cape!

 A pretty little moth just chillin' on the otherside of our sliding glass patio door.

 Friday night was the start of our busy weekend! We saw hubby's brothers' band (The Broken Fall) play their 1st Friday night gig since they started playing shows again. Two of hubby's brothers are in the middle - the one playing the guitar at the mic and the one on the drums. It was a good show, but very loud (my ears were ringing the rest of the night!)

 A hard rock cover band went on after them and this was their drumkit - holy cymbals Batman!

 Saturday I worked the opening shift as my parents were out of town Friday and most of Saturday as dad took mom into Chicago and that was the only time hubby was around to watch Jay so I could get a shift in. I had some time to kill after before needing to get home so I stopped a few stores out at the mall there and found this butterfly hair clip for $1! I like it, but can't really wear it around home as I can't put my head back when it's in...

 Sunday we went to the local rock music festival that was called Rock Monkey Ruckus this year. I wrote a few years back about the annual tradition of the local Wing Ding festival. This is basically the same thing, only for whatever reason they're not calling it Wing Ding anymore (last year it was just simply "The Concert"). After a friend on Facebook mentioned pre-gaming before the event, hubby and I stopped and got some booze of our own. They didn't have any of the mini-Malibu's so I got this baby, and mixed it in with the large Pepsi I got at lunch beforehand. I drank most of it and was feeling pretty good by the time we got from our car to the gate.

 We parked our car and soon after this kidnapper-looking van pulls up and these teenage looking people climb out. This one dude in particular totally looked like he could be a member of the group LMFAO!

 This was during Taproot. I saw them at the House of Blues Chicago back in July 2003. They played some of their well-known songs, but it was soooooo hot (98 degrees and bright hot sun most of the day!) we only stayed out there for about 10 minutes or so before retreating to the shade under the bleachers at the Speedway there.

 This year's banner

In case you didn't know, Rockford is the birthplace of those crazy sock monkey dolls you had as a kid. Rock Monkey is a badass rocker sock monkey and the local rock station's new mascot.

 Where we spent a good bit of the afternoon - underneath the bleachers. Someone started a game too where you toss rocks across the walk way and try to knock a beer bottle around, lol...

 I ran into a few friends I knew from back in the day and keep in touch with via Facebook.

 NONPOINT!!!

These guys never disappoint - I used to come home and see them play one of the local clubs quite frequently back when I was in college.

 The sun finally started going down a bit and cast some shade on a part of the Speedway track so we sat out there for a bit and listened to All That Remains. I recognized some of their songs from Guitar Hero and my college days.

 Maybe a little hard to tell, but that kid was awesome all day - he had an awesome mohawk going and just spent the day rockin' out!

 The crew setting up the stage for headliner's Volbeat. Their speakers had some neat designs on them!

 A crappy pic, but that's Volbeat on stage. Personally, I think they're the best "new" rock band of last year (2011). No autotune or electronic/computerized messing with their sound - they're just pure, hard rockin' rock! And I LOVE it!

 Jay spent his Memorial Day afternoon playing in his water table as it was in the upper 80s most of the day.

 Hubby was doing some editing on one of his stories on the deck there while waiting for the grill's charcoals to warm up. Jay pulled up his seat and sat down by daddy too! I was shucking corn at the kitchen table and looked out and saw this and had to get a picture!

 Grilling with daddy!

 Enjoying his cookout of cheeseburger, bun, corn off the cob, and potato salad!

 Our feast!

 That stinker, he scooted his picnic table to the middle of the deck and started dumping his plate on the table, all while making his "I'm not doing anything, mommy..." face at me, lol...

And his hair needed a trim so I attempted it myself... yeah, not such a good job - he's kinda rockin' a mullet as we kept it long in back. Doh!

Easter 2012!

This year was Jay's 2nd Easter! Hard to believe that this time last year he was just a little 2 month old baby!

We didn't color eggs this year, as I think Jay's still a little too young to be able to do it and follow directions without getting the dye everywhere, but I did hard-boil some eggs as I *have* to have those at Easter every year and didn't feel like asking my mom to do it. I am pleased to share though that they turned out good this time around! I haven't attempted hard-boiled eggs since I was still living in my college apartment, shortly after hubby and I had started dating, and well... we don't think I cooked them long enough. I found a recipe online though and followed it to a T and they turned out just great!

Like Santa this past winter, we also skipped the Easter Bunny visit, as Jay's all about "stranger danger" and freaks out when anyone he doesn't know or recognize tries to hold him. I figured it wouldn't be a good situation nor a pretty picture, lol...

Sunday we got up early so Jay would have time to check out his Easter basket before we all had to get ready for church. He saw the Thomas Pillow Pet on the coffee table and stopped dead in his tracks, a bit confused as to what it was and what it was doing there. He walked over and patted it, before peeking into his basket and spied the Elmo car he had picked out at Toys R Us earlier in the week and pulled it out. Then he saw Peeps - in his Easter basket we included a chocolate "Snapsy" bunny, a few mini Cadbury Eggs, a few Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, and a row of Peeps because every kid needs Peeps in their basket! Anyways, he pulled those and began feeling them up. I broke a few off, as I didn't want him getting the marshmallow goodness all over the place, and he started double-fisting his mouth with them eating from one hand and then the other.

We went to church - I dropped Jay off in the nursery. Not sure what his deal is, if he just didn't remember being in that particular room before, but he cried and cried... and apparently he never really stopped according to what they told me when I came to get him after service =(

We joined my in-laws at Texas Roadhouse for Easter lunch, but left while the bill was being paid as Jay was overdue for a nap and getting fussy and cranky (he fell asleep in the car). Then hubby and I decided to take a nap too, waking up just in time to head over to my parents' house for Easter dinner.

We didn't realize until after the fact that we forgot to take an Easter picture this year... oops! I guess we'll just have to substitute with one of the photos we took at my sis's wedding 2 weeks ago.

Speaking of my sis getting married... my new brother-in-law left today for the Navy training facility a few hours away. He'll be gone with little communication towards family and friends for almost 2 months while he completes Basic. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers!

How was your Easter?

Jay's 1st Christmas & Fun with our Phones!

Whew!

The craziness of the holiday season is over and I survived! Which means I should be around on here and Twitter a bit more!

Anyways, onto Christmas!!!!

Christmas Eve started off with me going into work at 830am to finish processing our shipment (which I finished by 1130am - it was a Christmas miracle considering we've been trying to get through it for weeks now!). I took my lunch break and then returned around noon to finish out til 230pm when it was my time to go home.

Merry Christmas!!!

I did a few last minute errands, such as stopping at Barnes & Noble and getting Jay a board book of The Night Before Christmas since I realized we didn't have it and stopping at Sam's to get some beverages for the weekend since we were pretty much out.

I got home around 330pm, Josh had fed Jay and I quickly gave him a bath and got him dressed up for the Candles and Carols service at church at 5pm. I was aiming to leave around 430pm and we met that goal and arrived at church with about 15 minutes to spare, sitting with my family.

Jay did pretty good during the hour long service (since there was no child care that night) - he sang along with the congregation as we sang Christmas carols (which had us cracking up) and didn't want to stop "singing" during the scripture reading so we had to take him out for a few minutes, lol... he did fine the rest of the service though.

Afterwards we went to my aunts for Christmas dinner - she had a trio of singing Wise Men mice that sang "We Three Kings" which Jay really enjoyed! Jay ate a little bit of Christmas dinner with us, which included my mom's Shepherd's Pie dish which he seemed to like. We exchanged presents with my aunt, uncle and cousins - Jay got super excited over his playmats my aunt got him, as well as the Curious George movie on DVD. He also got a Wiggles DVD and a Playskol Giggle Cow bouncing toy.

 

Posing with Grandpap

Picture time with mommy!

OMG!!! Playmats!!!

It's George, mommy!!!!

Then we went over to my parents house and exchanged gifts with them. Jay got some Thomas and Friends bath toys, a fishing pole and plastic magnetic fish for it for the bath tub, a Thomas hoodie for this spring, a wooden puzzle, a Lego CD player for his room (so he can fall asleep to something other than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Rockabye Baby, lol...), a new crib toy to play with, a musical, light-up snail toy, some VeggieTales DVDs, and oh geez, I can't remember what else... he got so much! My parents got hubby some Cowboys floormats for his car and a Starbucks gift card, among other little stuff. We also got the Fast Five DVD, Super Mario Bros All-Stars for the Wii (yay!), these really neat Wizard of Oz nutcracker ornaments among other things that aren't coming to mind right now (oops!).

Watching Grandpap and Grammie's train under the tree

Playing with a toy, with a bow that stayed on his head for awhile, lol...

Thomas bath toy

More toys!

Our tree & presents waiting for Jay

We went home, got Jay to bed, and then I finished cleaning up the house and we put together Jay's walker/ride-along toy. Hubby had a drink, I had a glass of wine and we hung out on the couch in the family room watching 24 Hours of A Christmas Story - we got through 2 viewings before we both fell asleep on the couch, waking up at 7am and moving to the bed, lol...

Jay woke us up around 1030am. Hubby got his camera ready while I changed Jay into his Christmas outfit for the day and we brought him out. He seemed a little unphased at first by the presents and walker under the tree... I started opening presents for him - 1st one was the Chica plush from Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show. He seemed to like her, despite acting confused as to why she was there and not on TV, lol... he got excited about the Super Why DVD, ripping it out of my hand when I showed it to him, lol... and he LOVES his talking Super Why doll! He also got really excited when we were opening stocking presents and got to the box of Aquafresh training toothpaste with the Nerdle Gurdle characters he sees on the commercial that Sprouts plays everynight around bedtime, lol... like he carried the toothpaste box all over the house, lol... he has yet to play much with his walker, but he has discovered it and checked out the stuff on it that moves and makes noise! He likes his Leapfrog My Own Leaptop laptop too, despite him only really banging on the keyboard and opening and closing the lid, lol...

It's Chica! From the Sunny Side Up Show on Sprout!

Playing with Super Why while mommy opens up the Leapfrog Leaptop

Hubby and I exchanged presents too - I got him a "Geek Dad" t-shirt from Think Geek (we said it was from Jay though), $20 in Starbucks giftcards, a $20 giftcard to the Dallas Cowboys official store, Firefly the complete series on Blu-Ray, Willy Wonka DVD, Cowboys plug and play speakers, Clue card game, some pens for writing, and a candy cane with Hersey Kisses in it. He got me the Harry Potter 8-disc DVD box set, a WoW hearthstone keychain I saw on Pinterest and wanted, and a wi-fi blu-ray player for the family room! Sweet!

At 1130am Jay got hungry and was yelling for his "ba ba ba ba ba!" in the kitchen so we got him fed and his Uncle Ethan came over around noon, after church, despite the rest of the family not showing up til 2. We watched A Christmas Story and I went to go get cleaned up and ready around 1pm.

Snuggling on mommy

My in-laws all were here by 2, as planned, and we got the food warming up (as my mother-in-law cooked it the night before). Just before 3 we decided we'd open up presents, however Jay took a light nap in my arms (it was naptime after all!). He got the whole Rock and Roll Elmo set, although his favorite still is the Cookie Monster keyboard (he loved playing with that one at his cousin's 1st birthday last fall). We also got Cowboys and Aliens on Blu-Ray, Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii, I got a $50 Visa giftcard, hubby got a $50 Starbucks giftcard (lol... he now has $80 in Starbucks giftcards!), and he got a really neat 3 volume collection of Civil War books. One of hubby's brothers got me a fleece throw, hubby a White Sox ornament, lanyard and beer coozy, and Jay a White Sox teddy bear (ewwww - I'm a Cubs fan, hubby and I agreed we weren't going to promote baseball in our house due to the Cubs/Sox rivalry, lol...).

Dinner was eventful - Jay vomited up his cereal and milk after eating a piece of turkey (he's puked several times after eating dinner this week - we thought it was a stomach bug, but it seemed he was over it by now... guess not!). Then, after dinner, Jay had a massive blow-out in his pants, going up his back and down his legs... it was really gross and he went onto outfit #3 for the day!

He went down for a longer nap though and hubby and I ended up passing out on the couch while my sister-

in-law started playing her Skyrim game downstairs (she got it for PS3 for Christmas but since their TVs aren't working she's planning on leaving it here and playing during their weekly Monday night visits - hubby has since started playing as well, lol...) and some of his brothers sat around chatting with my his parents. My in-laws left around 1030pm, I gave Jay another bath since he pooped and puked all over himself and got him to bed around midnight before cleaning up the house again and relaxing myself.

Completely out of it, leg dangling out of the crib, lol...

Passed out, snuggling with Super Why

Jay seemed a bit snuggly today and they didn't need me for my on-call, so we napped and snuggled and hung out today, taking it easy. I think Jay was glad to be back on his normal schedule - too much excitement for him the past few days we think! Hubby had the night off though so we relaxed, his parents stopped over for a bit since they were in town (they're usually over on Mondays anyway), bringing Chinese food with and we ended up watching Jay's new Winnie the Pooh DVD before it was time for him to go to bed.