Fall

I LOVE fall. It's such an exciting time of year.

Yesterday when I got home from the store Brad and the boys had raked all the leaves into a big pile and you know what happened next.

Unbridled little boy enthusiasm. There's nothing better.

They raked up the leaves again and again.

When I first got home and walked to the back yard and exclaimed at the magnificent leaf pile, Jude had an expression that I will never forget. He was so pleased and proud...I think partly because of their accomplishment and partly because I was so pleased with their hard work and all the beautiful fall leaves. I learn something new about my precious Jude all the time. He needs that acknowledgement and affirmation for his hard work and accomplishing something he knew would please me.

And I have to admit...there is something irresistible about a huge leaf pile.

Yesterday was Halloween. Not my favorite holiday. But what are you going to do when your son's pre-k at the baptist church has "costume day"? You can't get away from it. My kids love to play dress-up all year long so I just try to brush it off as one big dress up day, steer clear of the scary evil stuff and leave it at that.

Katy Jane was not a fan of the Hulk at all. She wasn't so sure it was really her sweet big brother under that ugly mask.

James added the fake mustache to his mask because he wanted to "look like Papa AND the Hulk".

After going by Nana and Papa's I told the kids we could go by Dar Dar's. The kids ran next door and just went on in. They tend to make themselves at home at Dar Dar and Casey's. Casey gave the kids hand-fulls of candy. Dar Dar wasn't home yet and James saw hoards of other children going door to door and asked me about it. I gave him an abbreviated version of trick-or-treating. He begged me to go so I agreed to one house while we waited for Dar to get home. I picked a friendly looking house with big hay bales and pumpkins out front. I told James to go ring the doorbell and say "trick or treat and thank you when they give you candy." So James and Jude took off running across the street and up to the house, rang the doorbell, opened the door, and went right on in yelling "trick or treat and thank you!!!!" We don't know these people so they were very surprised to find the Hulk and Captain America bursting through their front door. It was an older couple and they thought it was funny thankfully. I apologized and died a little bit from embarrassment.

Lesson learned. Ring and WAIT.

When we went back by Dar's she had bags of treats fixed up for the kids. They were thrilled! We have the best neighbors (only on the west side though) ever.

Jude and Katy Jane had cardiology appointments yesterday. Jude did great! He was discharged from cardiology with an "innocent murmur". Katy Jane has a PVC and was the lucky recipient of a Holter monitor. She was not happy about it.

I think it is just sort of a rite of passage to be a kid in this family. You have to have a certain amount of major medical issues to make the cut. It's like a weird form of hazing. Luckily this one is no big deal. Just more of an annoyance than anything else.

Here are the odds and ends: