The Santa Fiasco

We took the kids to the Salem Hospital today to see Santa. Dean's mom, Cheryl, and step-dad, Curt, are both involved with the hospital volunteers so they wanted them to go so they could show off their grandkids a little bit. Santa and Mrs. Claus are good friends of theirs from their square dancing club and Dean and I have know them since we were first engaged. They looked so cute!

Spencer didn't seem as scared at first as Aubrey did, so we tried it out with him. As you can see it didn't go well. He was less than happy to meet Santa. Poor Roger felt so bad.

We moved over to the face painting and they both had a much better time with that.

Aubrey sat so still while the girl was painting her face. I was pretty impressed that she didn't try to touch it.

Spencer got a little help from Auntie Julie, but he did good too. I was surprised that he sat so still. I guess I don't give them enough credit sometimes.

Then they got mirrors to check themselves out. Spencer gave himself a kiss in his mirror and had a great big smile on his face.

Aubrey enjoys looking at herself in anything shiny as well. This may have been the best part for her.

Spencer and his finished tree...he was so proud!Aubrey and her candy cane...she sat still while it was painted, but when I wanted a picture of it she kept turning her head, so she got an assist from Grandma. We thought since we had been in the area with Santa for quite some time they would be more willing to sit with him...nope. Maybe next year!

Finger Painting

We decided to try some finger painting tonight...it was interesting to say the least. The kids seemed to enjoy it, so we will try to do it more often. This was just before the paint was introduced.

Aubrey very daintily picks out her paint color...one finger at a time.

It didn't take Spencer long to jump right in and really get into it. He was just a tad less dainty about picking out his colors.

Daddy helped her catch up to her brother by painting her stomach.

Spencer caught in the act of not staying on the paper...one of many times.

Dean did a great job supervising so I could take the pictures...it is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Dean helping Aubrey out and Spencer finally painting on the paper. (notice his tongue sticking out slightly...too cute.)

I think this was from Dean trying to do a footprint of Aubrey...she really had issues with getting dirty.

Obviously he was fine with it!

Almost done at this point...they were starting to lose interest and that was getting dangerous in a kitchen with untreated wood cabinets!

Aubrey's look of disbelief when she noticed her Daddy helping out her brother with his painting. She is not the best at sharing attention.

She said "Cheese" for me, but wouldn't look at the camera.

It almost looks like Spencer laid down on his painting...what a mess.

It didn't take him long to discover that his diaper showed the paint just as good as the paper he was supposed to use.

Finishing touches on the masterpiece!

Happy Halloween

This is how the evening started...a total Hershey Kiss meltdown! I was a bit worried that this would be the extent of our Halloween pictures of the kiss with almonds! Buster is in the background howling. He always bays when Spencer cries...the sound is something to experience let me tell you! Not only do you have a crying boy, there is a beagle howling just as loud!
He finally pulled at it hard enough to break open the Velcro on the suit and that was it for him.

She was a little more willing after some coaxing by Auntie Julie. She even said "cheese" for me.

Auntie Julie dressed up as a kiss too to convince Aubrey and Spencer that it wasn't so bad getting dressed up.

Grandma Cheryl put on the adult kiss costume at the church though. She made the kids' costumes too...I am so grateful that she is talented and willing to help! :)

My cute little girl...still amazes me just how cute she can be sometimes! I am truly blessed to be her mommy!

He may not look like it, but he was happy to be here. He was just so busy looking at everything and all the people in costumes...there was a lot to take in.

Dean doing his best to keep both kids together for a picture...I never did get the great shot I was hoping for, but got some that are good enough. I think Aubrey was saying Momma in this one, hard to get mad at that! :)

Aubrey in the back of Julie's car at Trunk or Treat at church. This way she couldn't run off in the middle of the photo shoot! :)

Spencer doing his best to look like he was having a good time!

Our two kisses...one with nuts and one without! ;)

Our church did "Trunk or Treat" again this year as a safe place for the community to go trick or treating. We helped Julie and Cheryl decorate Julie's trunk and then let the kids go there. This was our contribution to the evening. (Not too bad for waiting to the last minute to figure out something to do!)

Another one of the trunks.

This was by far my favorite car there. It was a red VW Bug that was made to look like Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales. The kids LOVE Veggie Tales and both pointed to the car and said Bob. They had it set up that the candy would slide down the tongue and the kids would pick it up from there...very creative!

Spencer getting his candy from Bob.

Spencer trying to push the candy back up the tongue...he also tried to get into the car to figure it all out. The owners let him look inside to see that it was just a car...he was really impressed by this one too!

My little kiss with Almonds!

Getting some candy from one of the kids in our youth group.More trick or treating. All in all the kids had a good time, didn't get scared, and ended up with a lot of candy!

Art

I have been getting braver and have let the kids use the crayons and color some...apparently I haven't been watching them close enough. If you look at the window behind Spencer's head you can see a sample of his handiwork! Perfect mug shot next to the scene of the crime...good thing he is cute! (I tried to get Aubrey in the picture too but she wouldn't stand still...she thinks she needs to be inches away from the camera in order to get a good picture!)

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch today and had a great time. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time just walking through all the pumpkins. They found some little ones to carry around for a bit, but ended up dropping them after too long. Spencer thought that was the game and ended up throwing his...boys!

We thought that this would be a great picture to do every year...kind of watch them grow! They are pretty close to the same height...weight is another story! :)

I tried and tried to get them to look at me, but once they saw each other they would just look and giggle back and forth...still cute though!

For some reason Aubrey wanted nothing to do with the animals this time, so I got some shots of Spencer with the animals. He must have some farmer in him because he was totally in his element today with all the farm stuff! He loved the tractor and the fields of pumpkins and corn...he even touched some of the animals!

The tractor hayride. They started out a bit scared of it, but ended up crying when it was over.

In the pumpkin patch!

Auntie Julie helped give them a lift to get to the hole...