Halloween

The Wilson family is back! I'm such a bad blogger, but I can't find time for much these days. Between taking care of the boys (all three of them!) and a new puppy (post to soon follow), working, and my new jewelry business, I don't have time for anything else! That's why you'll find me updating multiple posts at once!

Okay, back to October when I last posted. Sean was super excited about Halloween this year and he couldn't decide if he wanted to be a Star Wars Clone Trooper or a GI Joe. He ended up being a GI Joe. He got to wear his costume to school and put on a parade for the parents. He was so cute!

The night before Halloween we attended a fall festival at a nearby church and the boys had a great time. Sean played games and won lots of candy. He played in a bouncy house and we ended the night on a hayride. Both boys enjoyed singing songs, especially "Old MacDonald" which is Ryan's favorite!

At the fall festival, Ryan had his first piece of candy. I hated to do it, but I needed to keep him occupied while we waited in the long lines to play games. Anyway, now he always ask for "andy" - that's what he calls it!

On Halloween night, Sean and his best friend Grace went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Sean wasn't going to stop until his pumpkin was full of candy! They were so cute together. They would run from house to house and say "the light is on and we can knock on the door!".

Ryan and his friend Mary Ashlynn (Grace's sister) went trick or treating too at a couple of houses. At first they were unsure, but once they realized that they got candy we couldn't stop them! They didn't understand that once the person put candy in their bucket, it was time to move on so they just stood there waiting for more candy!

If you're wondering why Sean is wearing 3 different costumes, it's because we found the Hulk and Captain America costumes after Halloween on clearance. They make great dress-up clothes! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Winter Weather Already???

Fall started with, well, winter weather! The first day of fall came with snow fall! I'm just not ready to put away the shorts one day and pull out sweaters the next! It also snowed on Thursday and this time it stuck to the ground. Derek took Friday morning off of work because we were supposed to go to a local pumpkin farm, but had to cancel our outing when we woke up to snow!

Today has been so cold and the roads are pure black ice. You can't tell from looking at them, but you slip and slide everywhere. There have been accidents everywhere and they even shut down the interstate for part of the day. Not to mention they postponed the Colorado Rockies baseball game! I would like to have a fall first please! Here are some pictures of the weather and Ryan dressed up all cute in his winter gear. I couldn't get Sean to sit still long enough to get a picture! :-)

Bargain Shopping!

Most of you know that I'm a major bargain shopper! I love finding great deals and it's been even more important since we've been living on 1 income! Over the past year, I've focused on reducing our grocery budget since it's one of the areas that we can decrease. I was so excited the other day when I went to Albertsons and here's what I got:

3 Freschetta Pizzas
3 Red Baron Pizza Singles
2 Gallons of Milk
1 Chex Mix
3 Cheerios Snack Mix
3 Barilla Pasta
2 Pillsbury Cookie Dough
3 Yoplait Yogurt Drinks (6 packs)
3 Green Giant Steamer Frozen Veggies
1 Box Mama Bella Garlic Bread
2 Dreyers Ice Cream (regular size)
2 Tony's Pizza's (smaller size)

Can you guess how much I spent for all of this? After all the sales and coupons (they were quadrupled this week!), my total was only $31.19! I saved $73.21! The cashier asked me if I had a coupon for every item and I literally almost did!

I just had to share my excitement! :-)

Weekend Trip to Estes Park!

A couple of weeks ago, we took a mini-trip up North to Estes Park. It was beautiful. We stayed in a cabin with Derek's dad and step-mom and it was a great getaway. Even though we've lived in Colorado for more than 2 years, we haven't had much of a chance to travel the state. There is so much more to see and we can't wait. It's getting easier as the boys get older.

We spent much of our time outside admiring God's beauty! We saw lots of elk and deer. It was amazing that they let us get so close to them. There was a big heard that just stayed on a nearby golf course all day. It was a funny sight.

The boys were content to explore their surroundings outside finding rocks, sticks, flowers, etc. We found an awesome park nearby; it was probably the best park we've ever been to. It had 2 big playgrounds, rocks to climb, fields to run, elk to see, and a beautiful view. While at the park, Grandpa found a little snake crossing the sidewalk and Sean held it!

Sean was most excited about making smores over the fire pit. We roasted hot dogs and made smores. I think Sean ate 2 of them! That's all he could talk about was making the smores!

One night we were awoken to 2 very large raccoons going through our trash. Those things can get mean when they are eating!

Look Who's 4!

Once again, I'm behind on updating our blog! I'm going all the way back to mid-September - Sean's 4th birthday party! I can't believe he is already 4! I remember when he was just a baby and we were bringing him home from the hospital (sniffle, sniffle!). We had a blast at his birthday party. The party theme this year was Star Wars. Sean wanted a GI Joe party, but we decided to go with Star Wars because the GI party decor was pretty much all black.

We decorated with the Star Wars theme, but added a few "princess" touches for the girls! The boys wore Captain Rex masks and the girls had princess wands. We had a Darth Vader pinata which we broke open with light sabers. We also rented a bouncy house and the kids had so much fun! The weather during the week leading up to his party was great - mid 60's - 70 degree temps, but it just so happened that the weather prediction for the day of his party was very cold and rainy! We couldn't believe it - the one day we needed nice weather. Our prayers were answered because the rain literally started 5 minutes after the guests left. Then, it rained pretty hard for hours. Sean's already asking how many days until he turns 5!

He got all sorts of awesome presents: GI Joes, Snake Eyes GI Joe sword and mask, Nerf sword, Star Wars action figures, Star Wars book, fishing pole, clothes, and more. Do you see the theme with his presents? Action figures and weapons! Lately, Sean thinks he is a GI Joe. I think he often thinks of our good friend and neighbor (we call him Mr. Tim) who is deployed right now and he wants to be a soldier too. Mommy and daddy got him a Leapster 2 learning handheld game system and 2 games. I scored an awesome deal on the system and games several months ago and could hardly wait until his birthday to give it to him!

Some things about Sean at 4 years old:

• Has endless energy!
  
  Favorite toys: any action figures especially Star Wars and GI Joe, weapons especially the ones that make sounds, play animals, stuffed animals, cars (not as much as he used to be though), any books.
  
• Could watch TV for hours if we let him!


• Likes to run around pretending that he is a GI Joe


• Likes to watch football with daddy and wears his Chicago Bears jersey on football Sundays


• Likes to play tackle football with daddy


• Already has an interest in playing video games (thanks daddy!)


• Has a large vocabulary


• Always asks "why"


• Likes to cuddle with mommy


• Favorite snack: popcorn!


• Loves to eat Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream


• Favorite place to eat: Chick Fil-A


• Hasn't learned to ride a bike yet, only wants to ride his 4 wheeler


• Loves to play outside
  
• Still throws temper tantrums


• Just started sleeping under the covers
  
• Is very picky about food

• Has an awesome imagination!


• Still has his Tigger and now he tells stories about Tigger and what he's done in his life. For example, I recently learned that Tigger used to work at Chick Fil-A!


• Is in his 2nd year of pre-school


• LOVES to talk!


• Doesn't care to wear shoes or a jacket


• Weighs about 33 pounds - tiny guy!


• Doesn't like to eat breakfast right away when he wakes up


• Just recently dropped his naps, but has "quiet time!" (mom's not so happy about this one!)

There's so much more, but this is all I could think of right now! We thank God for Sean and look forward to another blessed year! I don't have a whole lot of pictures to post right now because my friend who played photographer still has most of the pics!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a lot of fun over the long Labor Day weekend! It was so nice to have Daddy home for an extra day! On Saturday, Sean had his first soccer practice. His team is called the "Rowdies". He did a really good job and by the end of practice, he kept saying how tired he was! There are 2 girls on his team and it's funny because the girls at this age appear to be a bit more coordinated than the boys! :-) Sean plays soccer for 6 weeks and has practice and a game every Saturday. We can tell that Sean is already going to be a strong competitor. When the team was taking a run to warm-up, Sean thought he needed to try and win the race!

Derek and I also got away for a couple of hours on Saturday to go to dinner at Red Lobster. We recently received a gift card and a new one just opened up right down the street. We decided to order the "Endless Shrimp" which is basically all you can eat shrimp. Derek ate something like 90 shrimp! I'm surprised he didn't get shellfish poisoning. I ate quite a bit (I didn't count the number of shrimp!) and I felt pretty sick that night. I won't be eating shrimp for a while.

We also went to the zoo this past weekend. It was a lot of fun. Derek doesn't get to go with us very often and Sean was super excited that Daddy got to come! Ryan seemed to enjoy the zoo the most. I've mentioned in previous posts how much he likes animals. We thought that he would be crabby because he woke up really early that morning and didn't get a morning nap. However, we were surprised that he was so excited to see all of the animals that he wasn't crabby at all! He especially loved the gorillas. He stood at the exhibit and watched them for quite a while and just kept laughing and talking. Sean fed some birds and even let one land on his food stick. It rained while we were at the zoo and I got pretty soaked! We managed to find an inside exhibit until the rain stopped.

The picture of Sean in the costume is his new GI Joe costumer for Halloween. All he's been talking about is dressing up as GI Joe! Sorry for the poor picture quality in some of the pictures; not sure why some of them ended up blurry. Don't you just love Sean's cheesy smile in the pictures? I just can't get him to smile naturally!

It's a busy week: Sean starts pre-school, I have a jewelry party on Friday, and it's Sean's birthday party on Saturday! Hope everyone has a great week!

Summer Pictures

Here are several pictures of our some of our recent outings this summer. It's so hard to get good pictures of the boys because they are always on the move! We visited Focus on the Family (a Christian organization which is headquartered here in Colorado Springs) and they have a little kids play area. It was the first time that we took Ryan there since he has been mobile and he was so excited to see the toys and all of the bright colors. He was climbing on everything!

We also had fun with our mom's MOPs group at a local place called "Lil Biggs". It's basically a play room with lots to do for little kids. They have a bouncy house, little kid video games, a huge sandbox, animals to climb on, and several themed rooms. You'll see Sean and his friend Grace playing dress up as Firefighters and Ryan enjoyed the toy room playing with the Thomas the Train toys.

Lastly, we went with some friends this week to a place called ArtsSportsWorld. They have an open gym time for young kids where they can play on the trampolines, jump in the harnesses, and play in the pits of foam blocks. Both boys had a blast!