Let the record show

It is the week of Halloween and my sweet husband is singing Christmas music. Normally, I hold off until the day after Thanksgiving and am chastised greatly for how "early" it is. Not only is he singing...but he actually found a Christmas Internet radio station and had it one for what I would call "a while."

All the rage at our house!

"Spiderman Kisses"

Chores

Sorry these pics are kind of blurry because my family was working so hard. Maeli was so excited that Dad brought her home presents: "pink glubs" and a "rake for Maeli." The few minutes that she lasted, it looked like she was actually pretty helpful, and oh my word, did they ever look cute out there together in the back yard!


Meanwhile...
Mom and Tuck worked on some of the inside chores. Mr. Helpful found the tupperware drawer and thought it was Christmas! We were not as productive as our "outside" counterparts, but we tried.

How Many McLains Fit On One Pillow?

Thank you Grandma

Everyone gathers toward "the present" while mom looks for the scissors!
Big smiles for Grandma, "I think there's candy in there!"
Tucker loved his prizes!


And after 3 candies when mom said no more, Maeli said, "I never get more candy."
And now our window is so pretty for when Daddy comes home.
Thanks for loving us so much!

Some of our moments

Maeli and Tucker have been waking up very early the last little while, so one day we put them both on the couch with Dora, and it was too cute!
Tuck can feed himself now, but doesn't always make it to the very end of the bottle.
Who needs a puppy when you have a brother under your table to eat your scraps?
Maeli is an expert at sorting "chocolate" whatevers from the "regular" whatevers...
And our proud little Dude figured out how to pull himself up on everything!

So Happy and So Proud

So one of the ladies that I work with retired last week and I was put in charge of decorations for her party...Here are the parts that I did:

My boss requested a money tree, so I put this one together (one of my co-workers gathered sticks for me since I don't have an appropriate tree). Maeli helped me put the circles on the pot, and the clothespins were spray painted green with glitter. It was pretty cute.
Marlene, the retiree, loves twinkies, so that was our theme...we used the colors for this balloon arch over the cake table.
And I drew this poster and then we all painted it.
The party went well, and we even had a surprise visit from Elvis!

The Pumpkin Dash 2009

We decided to "run" again in the pumpkin dash this year. The entrance fee goes to charity, and everyone under 12 who crosses the finish line gets a pumpkin. We did the one-mile stroller run and didn't come in last, so we think of it as a success. Considering we were a little late and barley had our numbers one when the gun went off to start the race. I had Tucker in the stroller, and Jeremy had Maeli in the back-pack. It was pretty fun, and not quite as chilly as last year. Here are some of the highlights.
Maeli's prize
Then we picked one out for Tucker, since he "ran so fast" too
Jeremy got asked to fill in for a relay team that was short one man. Considering he wasn't really dressed for running, nor is he a runner, he did great. Coming in second for his leg of the relay.
Maeli and I killed some time on the swings while we were waiting for Daddy's team to win.
A little rest, and we're ready to hit the road...what a fun morning!

~Sigh

Just another example of what happens when a two-year old has a few minutes while mom is distracted!