Monday, October 29, 2007

Halloween weekend

Good morning! We had a great Halloween weekend. Greenfield had their trick-or-treating yesterday from 4 until 7. We went over to this little neighborhood we often visit because they have a nice park in there. It was great. At first, Jack was just in amazement that all you had to do is say "trick or treat" and then people give you candy! He kept saying, "Let's go to the that house! Now that house!"

By the end, Steve and I were both carrying the kids from house to house. Anna's little bag was pretty heavy and she started dragging it a bit. I offered to carry it, but no way! Here are some pictures from the weekend and a few older ones from this fall. It's a photo album and scrolls through automatically. If you want to see the images bigger, you can click on it to go to Google's picasa.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Happy Birthday to Ash!

Here's a little birthday tribute to my good friend, Ashley. May you have a great day, free of stress and full of love. I'm glad you don't have a drinking problem.



Quick Update

I've been seriously lacking in the posts, so I'm throwing out a quick one this morning. Last night, I made cookies for the cake walk at Jack and Anna's day care. They do a little party every year, which is tonight. We can't go, but I still made cookies to contribute to the cake walk prizes. Yeah, I'm one of those mom overachievers. :)

This morning, I decided that Anna and Jack could just eat cookies and milk for breakfast. I know it's not that healthy, but it's fun to have those crazy mornings every once in a while. I think Jack thought something was up. He would say, "I can have another cookie Mommy?" At one point, he even looked at me and said, "But if I have another cookies, then...."

He couldn't quite finish his thought. He must have been thinking in mom terms or something because it was just too good to be true! Since I wasn't stopping him, he must have thought he needed to stop himself.

Tomorrow we're heading up to Steve's moms. Along with Grandma, Grandpa and Steve's brother's family, we're all dressing up and going to a little kids Halloween party tomorrow night. Actually, most people are dressing up. Steve is going to wear a "funny hat" and thinks that counts. Jack and Anna are going at Mickey and Minnie, and they're pretty excited. As for me...Quack, Quack Baby! I'll be Donald Duck. Big white rump and all! (I was actually supposed to be Daisy Duck, but they sent Donald instead. It was just so cute that I decided not to return it.) Don't worry, I'm not too proud that I won't post pictures!

That's it for now. For my fellow blog friends out there, keep writing. I check your blogs every day. It's one of my best sources of entertainment!

Monday, October 15, 2007

A proud mom...

I am so proud. I'm just ecstatic. Dixie, our wonderful new cat, killed a mouse!!! That's right folks. Jack, Annabelle and I were on on way downstairs when I spotted a dead mouse at the bottom of the steps. Anna is riding on my back at this point, and Jack is walking down the steps by himself. I see the mouse and tell everyone to hold on because I have to get the mouse. (I did nudge it with my foot first just to make sure it wasn't playing dead.)

Now I should mention that I HATE mice. I know they are small and do no harm and blah, blah, blah, but I don't care. They make me shiver in disgust. Just the thought of a mouse in the house makes me want to move.

So I called Steve (who's at a class in Illinois this week) and proudly report on Dixie's killer instinct. The conversation went like this...

"Dixie got a mouse! So there! What did your cat ever do?"
"Really? She got a mouse?" Steve asks. "Good for her."
"Yeah! So there," I say.
"Did you put it in a plastic bag and put it out with the garbage?"

This makes me laugh.

"Are you kidding me? I flushed it!"
"Why did you flush it?" Steve asks.
"Hey! It was smaller than poop. Don't give me a hard time for flushing it! I was balancing Annabelle on my back during this whole time!"

Steve repeats something about how I shouldn't have flushed it, but whatever. Out of sight, out of mind. I feel so safe in my house now with my big bad cat! I'm still grossed out by the whole mouse thing, but at least I know I have a cat in shining armor to come to my rescue. Dixie is awesome.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Cross Your Fingers...

We've had a bit of stomach bug in the Tornio household. I was home with Jack on Friday who had a very hard time keeping food down. Then it looks like he passed it to Annabelle over the weekend because today, she kept pointing at her stomach and saying in this sweet, adorable voice..."belly hurt, belly hurt, belly hurt."

She finally threw up a little bit later. Steve was pretty proud of himself because he saw her convulsing and got her to the bathroom right away. She threw up on him the first time and then in the toilet for the rest. After the ordeal, he proudly handed her over to me, happy with the fact that she hardly had a drop on her. Now that's a good dad, taking one for the team. :)

On another topic, anyone who knows me also knows that I'm a notorious planner. This drives some people crazy, I know, but that's just the way I am. If it were up to me, I'd have Christmas '08 nicely planned out already. Anyway, Anna's birthday is a little over a month away. I felt a little bad because last year, we rolled her 1st birthday into Halloween weekend so that Steve's family could make it. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't just an Anna day. (As someone who has a birthday in early January, I'm sensitive to birthdays around holidays. By early Jan., everyone is already worn out from Christmas.) So anyway, this year Anna's birthday is the day before Thanksgiving. We're going to have her a birthday party on Thanksgiving. I think we'll be able to meld that holiday in nicely with her birthday. She's a big fan of turkey, too, so it works out perfectly. We're having a Curious George theme. She loves George. Oh, and for any grandmas or others out there, we're getting her a realistic baby doll and a baby stroller.

I love fall. Cross your fingers that we're done with the sickness. I can't take off any more days from work!

Monday, October 08, 2007

Tribute to Columbus

So in honor of this lame holiday, we spend our Columbus Day at the zoo! Steve left for Seattle this morning so it was just the kids and me hanging out. As we got ready to go, Annabelle had to put on a whole zoo attire, complete with her horsey purse and Little Mermaid hat. She's really a cutie (of course I have to say that as the mom) with her soft rolling curls. Her hair is really getting long now. We used to have to always put it back so it wouldn't get in her eyes, but now she's almost at the point where she can tuck it behind her ear.

To be fair, I had to include a photo of Jack from the zoo in here, too. His favorite animal is the giraffe, but I didn't have the camera going at that point, so you get to see this lam-o picture of a swan instead.



Friday, October 05, 2007

Bow Zone



We have finally entered the bow zone in our house, thanks to my very talented friend, Amber. She's whips out the best bows. She made a couple for Anna...one is this fabulous football bow to match her Peyton Manning jersey.

Anna was pretty proud of it this morning. She's notorious for ripping things out of her hair so we'll see how long this will make it. Maybe she's so proud of it that she'll just wear it gleefully all day.

Thanks Amber!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Crafty Mom


I admit. I'm not exactly the craftiest mom in the world. I can think of some good ideas, but I'm just no good at anything that involves detailed cutting, sewing, drawing, etc. Whoever knows my mom will find this very hard to believe. She's the kind of woman who can whip out a contest-winning Halloween costume in 1 hour. Or she's like that MaGyver guy who can fix anything with 2 paper clips and some chewing gum. How did I miss getting these wonderful skills of hers? Who knows.

Anyway, Jack and I are very proud of our little pumpkin creation here. Sure it's not some crazy detailed carving, but look at us! Wooohooo! Take that all you crafty moms out there. We used different colored leaves, some pine needles and mums for the rosy cheeks. We stuck them on with double-sided tape, and Jack had a blast doing them.