Halloween Pics...

The kids had a really fun halloween this year!! As usual, we trick-or-treated at the neighbors around us (we live in the country, so there was a grand total of 3 houses we went to!), and then we went to our church for Great October Days (G.O.D.) - kind of like a carnival with games and bounce houses and of course lots of candy!! For the Cutest Costume Contest - Abby & Katelyn (well actually they were "the cheerleaders") were in the top 3 in the 3-5yr old category! They didn't win, but they LOVED just getting to go up on stage!! They weren't sad they didn't win though...they were just sad when they had to come down off the stage!! But they got to spend the night at Grandma Cheryl's afterwards, so overall - a VERY fun night!! :)
Abby on left


Getting to say their names into the microphone on stage...very exciting!! :)

Katelyn on left

The pink poodle won...she was so cute!! :)

Two Cheerleaders!!!

Two stinkin cute cheerleaders!! Katelyn wanted pig tails "towards the front", and Abby wanted "3 pony tails in the back!" I think they're both gonna big major "type A" personalities!!

Abby on left, Katelyn on right

Katelyn

Abby

Oh yeah...the outfits came with megaphones too!! Our house is very very noisy nowadays!! (As if it wasn't already?!)

Pumpkins!!!!

OK...so a little late...but tonight we finally carved pumpkins with the kids. (Well actually, just with A&K because Micah was in bed!) They were both very specific this year about what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. (And I mean VERY specific!!) Abby wanted circle eyes (which daddy had to re-draw a 2nd time b/c the 1st attempt at eyes was "NOT big enough!", a triangle nose, and a mouth with two teeth! Katelyn wanted a girl pumpkin - with rectangle eyes WITH EYELASHES,eyebrows "that slant down so they look mean", a square nose, and "girl lips." Then of course when Abby saw that Katelyn's was a girl pumpkin, she started to get upset because she didn't want hers to be a boy pumpkin!!! So mommy swooped in and saved the day by drawing long eyelashes on hers, and all was well!!

We had a good time though (very specific instructions and all!), and they were so excited to light them up and put them on the porch "so all the people who drive by our house will know what our faces look like!"

Here's some action shots. (And if you'll notice, both girls are in leotards!! They were playing dress up, and making their mommy freeze just by LOOKING at them!! But of course - "we're not cold mommy, we're hot!" Yeah right!! More like, "we're not gonna admit to being cold because we really want to wear these!" They think they're so smart!!) :-D

Abby's pumpkin - at the pre carving stage! (Abby's in pink)

Aaron "The Butcher" Moser

Notice the way Aaron's holding the knife? Nice example, right?! :)

Mommmy carving Katelyn's

Finished Products!! (Aaron drew and carved Micah's in the middle)

Didn't Want to Leave Micah Out!!

Micah had to go to bed before we carved A&K's pumpkins, so here's some pics of him with his pumpkin before he went to bed!! I tried to get him to just sit still and hold his pumpkin, but of course he would have no part of that, so if you'll notice - all the pics of him with his pumpkin are of him doing something with it!! His two favorite things were picking it up and letting it drop (luckily it never hit his toes!) and "drumming" on it! :-D Too cute!! (Oh, and please ignore his runny nose in the pics - I didn't see it until after we took the pictures and he was in bed! Aagh!! That's really gonna bug me!) :-D

Little Drummer Boy - just like Uncle Kyle!!

Trying to pick it up!! (He couldn't figure out how to do it from a sitting position! :-D

Finally-success!! Then there was no stopping him!!

He looks so ornery here!! I love it!!

What a cutie!!

Finished Products!!

Here's Abby & Katelyn with their finished pumpkins!!

Miss Abby Lynn

Miss Katelyn Ann

Completed Roof!!!

Our roof is officially done!! YEAH!!! Aaron finished it last Sunday, but of course did I post the new picture this week - of course not!! (Sorry!!) Here it is for all of you who were just dying to see it! :-D (Next step - build a wrap-around porch, hopefully this spring!)

New Roof!!

Ok...so I have been trying to post something new since last night and was getting SUPER frustrated. First - last night - our internet was down when I finally had time to post, and all this morning/afternoon (until 2:20pm) - the internet was working, but for some reason - I couldn't upload pictures into my post. (I literally tried about 15 times!!) For some unexplainable reason - it finally decided to go through this last time, so here it is - pictures and all!! :)

Part of our crazy, busy, biten-off-more-than-we-can-chew lives is our roof. All last week Aaron was tearing off our old roof (nasty orange color - YUCK!) and working on putting a new roof on (fixing a couple bad spots, putting new tar paper down, and then shingles and whatever else goes along with all that!), and then cleaning up all the old shingles, tar paper, and nails from the ground. Depending on the day/hour - he was either working on it by himself (for all of the tear off, clean up, and fixing the bad spots) - or with help from 1-2 other guys, depending on the day.

By him doing it himself, it's saving us A LOT of money (like around 10 grand!!), but he's finding out just how much work it really is to re-roof a house!! (He's a super hero, as far as I'm concerned!!) :)

Right now - all of the main part of our house is completely done, and all that's left is the garage - which they think can be completely finished this Saturday!! (YEAH!!) Here's a few pictures of the progress so far.


BEFORE PICTURE OF THE ROOF



Tear off in progress...



Putting tar paper down...



Beginning of shingles...



MAIN PART OF HOUSE FINISHED!! :)


Oh yeah - also happening last week (which was another reason there were no posts in so long) - Micah's 3rd cold in a month, Katelyn had croup (HORRIBLE cough mainly at night), and Abby had/has bronchitis. I am over my cold, and we're praying Aaron doesn't get any of that too!! We all just seem to keep passing everything back and forth between us all, and can't seem to shake being sick yet - and winter isn't even close to being here yet!!!!!!

So all that - plus the regular craziness (Disciple classes, various other church stuff, etc)- about sums up our life the past 1-2 weeks. I'm gonna try and be better at finding time to put up new posts more often though, so keep checking out the blog!! :)

God's Beautiful Creation

View of the sunrise from our back yard.



View of the clouds in a sunset from our front yard.



View of the sunset from our front yard.


How can someone look at skies this beautiful and not believe there's a God who created them?! We serve an awesome God!!

A Bittersweet Day for this Mommy

Tuesday was both a very exciting day for all of us, as well as a somewhat sad day for this mommy. My babies had their first day of school!!! Abby and Katelyn started their first day of pre-school on Tuesday, and they were SO excited to go to school!!!! They each had their own back pack, and they were so cute!! Since it was the very first day, the parents were allowed to stay the whole time, part of the time, or none of the time - depending on what the kids wanted. The last couple days before school started, Abby kept saying she was "gonna be nervous" and that she wanted me to stay the whole time, and Katelyn said she didn't want me to stay any of the time! I told her I'd leave her alone and just stay by Abby if that's what she wanted, and that was the plan. Once we got there, they each sat down on the circle rug (not anywhere near each other!) and they never even looked at me again after that. After about 45 minutes, I asked them if they wanted me to leave, and they both very animatedly told me - yes! they wanted me to "go away!" :-) They did great, and they absolutely loved their first day of school!! The other half of their class is having their first day today, and next week, they'll start going every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. They're both telling Aaron and I (quite often) that they're "big pre-school girls now" - it's very cute!!

The Next Mozart?

Sorry for not posting in a while. I have been trying to recover after planning a church baby shower (this past Sunday) for some of our best friends. The shower was a success, but I kind of felt like I needed to do nothing for a while after it was over!! (Anyone ever been there?!)

Here's some pics I took of Micah this morning!! Super cute - if I do say so myself!!! Think he'll be a drummer like his uncle Kyle or play the piano like his mommy? I just hope he loves the Lord and loves music! (In that order!) :-)

Our new fish tank!!

Well we finally did it!! After over two years of the girls...and Aaron...(and yes - Dave W too) trying to talk me into getting a fish tank - we finally got one! A few months back - A & K seemed to be really acting out more than normal, so we decided to buy a 10 gallon fish tank and use it as sort of an incentive for the girls to be good. We made this whole chart where they could move their magnets either up or down throughout each day (for either good or bad behavior), and then at the end of each day - they could see how many marbles they'd earned and put that many into a jar. Once their jar got full - they would have earned fish (and along the way they could each earn gravel and then something to put in the aquarium - like a plant or castle.) Sounded good to me. They had each earned their gravel and plant/castle, so all we needed to do was fill our fish tank with water and then get their fish. This whole time Aaron kept telling me that we should have chosen a bigger sized aquarium, because they say (or I should say - Dave says) the bigger the aquarium - the less you will have to clean it. I thought maybe a 15-20 gallon tank would be ok, so Aaron started looking on Craig's list for a bigger tank set up. Not very long after that, a friend of ours offered us his complete set up for a good deal - the only catch - it was a 45 gallon tank!!!! We decided to just go for it, and the result...an AWESOME fish tank that the kids absolutely LOVE!!! It's huge, but very beautiful with even a cabinet below to store fish stuff. So now we have this huge fish tank, and because you can only start with a few starter fish - we have these tiny little bitty tetras and zebra danios in this huge aquarium!! Oh well - if we build it - they will come, right?! :-) Here's a few pics!!

I Didn't Knock On Wood!!

OK - First of all - these two pictures just about break my heart!!! Second - OH MY GOODNESS!!! Was it just yesterday that I was saying that nothing really exciting or interesting has been happening around here?! Well I can now take back that statement!!

Last night, we were running some errands in town with the kids, and one of the places we had to go was to the pet shop to get some stuff for a new fish tank we're getting. In this pet shop they sell koi fish, and they have a raised platform/deck where there is a built in waterfall and pool (the girls called it a pond) for the fish to swim in. As soon as we get in the pet shop - the girls ran over to look at the fish swimming in the "pond." No big deal - we look for a minute and then come down the steps and do the rest of our shopping. A&K kept asking to go see the pond the whole time, so I left Aaron to continue shopping and take them back over there. They kept standing right on the edge (literally right on the edge) and pointing out the different fish to each other. I was constantly telling them to back away a little bit and not lean over, but they just kept doing it.

Well I'm sure you know what's coming by now!!! Katelyn was standing on the edge talking to Abby one second, and the next second - she was falling literally head first into the pond!!!!!! The bad thing was - she went in with her mouth open!! YUCK!! She came up wailing and sputtering and flailing around in this fish pond right there at the very front of the store!!! By the time she realized she was ok - she was very very embarrassed, so we went right out to the car - leaving Aaron to pay for all our stuff. The poor thing was completely drenched, and we had absolutely no dry clothes for her to put on- AND - we still had to go to Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping!!! Everything ended up being fine though - I bought her some dry clothes to change into, and she was very happy after that!!

So I guess the moral of the story is for me to never ever again say that our lives aren't very interesting - because sure enough - they will be!! :-)

YIKES!! Aren't they pretty?

I think I mentioned that we had a busy morning yesterday. The kids got haircuts, and then when we got home - a friend from church came over to help make some decisions for a baby shower we're planning. Anyways...while she was here, A & K were coloring with some markers and coloring books in the other room. They were in a very spunky, playful mood, and they kept peaking their heads around the corner and giggling. About 10 minutes into that, Katelyn runs in and says "Mommy, mommy - Abby is in there putting make-up on, and it's all over her face!!! Come see!!" I went to try and see how bad the damage was (I thought she had gotten into my make-up), but she kept hiding her face and giggling. I saw a glimpse of pink and green on her face and realized she'd been applying this make-up ala markers! So I (as calmly as I can) tell her to stop coloring her face with markers. She said ok, and I went back into the other room. The next thing I know - out runs Katelyn with black marker all over her face! Before I can even start yelling at her for doing what I had just told her sister not to do - she very smugly tells me, "Mommy you told Abby not to color her face with markers, but you didn't tell me!"

Good thing crayola makes washable markers!! :-)

What?! The twins are no longer identical?!

Ok...so they're still very much identical, but just for fun - I took a picture of them together after Katelyn's haircut and before Abby's (top picture)!! One of the very few times in their life they actually look different at first glance!! :-) As you can see by the second picture - it didn't last long! Sorry to disappoint all of you who still can't tell them apart - but they still have matching haircuts! :-)

New Haircuts!!!

So we had a pretty eventful morning!! All three kids got a hair cut this morning , and I can now tell you from personal experience - don't ever take three children at the same time to get their hair cut!! I've taken A & K by myself before, and I've taken Micah by myself before, but taking all three at the same time (without Aaron's help!) was a bit of a catastrophe!! Trying to get two of them to sit still in their chairs while the other one is getting their hair cut was not happening, and then the one getting their hair cut would want to get down and wiggle too when they saw their siblings do it!! Micah actually ended up having to get his hair cut from my lap because he wouldn't stop wiggling - except he got to wear a cape to protect him from getting tons of hair all over him - Mommy didn't!! I think I ended up with more hair on me than there was on the floor!! Then when his turn was over, he of course didn't want me to hold him anymore...OH NO!!...he wanted to get down and crawl all over the hair covered floor!! YUCK!!!

Anyways...in the end it was all worth it because all 3 of them look adorable with their new hair cuts!!! Here's before and after pics of all three, and then one of Micah (post haircut) because you can't really see his haircut in the "after" pic - his sisters are smothering him!!

Note to self: next time take Aaron!! :-)