Trunk or Treat

Max had his preschool's Halloween party today and the parents' participation with trunk-or-treat. Even in the chilly and windy weather, the kids stocked up again on sweets, stickers and spooky goodies.

The rock star and his buddy, Riley as a Power Ranger. 

Max doing his KISS impersonation with the tongue out!

Four Months

Sweet Teddy turned four months old this past Sunday! He weighed in at 15 lbs, 2 oz. and 26 1/2" long. The doctor gave the go ahead to try cereal and fruits and veggies, so we'll see how the little man enjoys his first taste soon. We also discovered his bottom two teeth and one top tooth are trying to pop through, so I'm hoping (and praying) that that has accounted for the lack of sleep lately. He also started rolling over this weekend and loves to grab and swipe at objects in his reach. Happy four months to our happy, loving Teddy bear!

Our mini Superman for the day.

The inevitable kiss attack from his big sissy!

Halloween

Typically, Cedarburg has trick-or-treating on the Saturday before Halloween, so we made the rounds in our neighborhood and gathered lots of candy. We also welcomed the Snider family from Cincinnati over the weekend. The kids and Mommies played all day long, and Nick and Kevin escaped to Green Bay for a Sunday football game. While the weekend fun ended this morning, the holiday is not over yet. Max's school party and the downtown trick-or-treat happen this week.

Our trick-or-treat troupe - Me, Teddy and Violet (cowboy and cowgirls), Max (rock star), Cooper Snider (dalmation), Maddux Snider (fireman). 

What We've Been Up to Lately

It's been a loooong month for our household. The kids are all at the tail end of a lingering virus that sent us to the doctor and home with three sets of antibiotics (not including Nick's bronchitis)! I miraculously escaped the worst of it, but poor little Teddy still sounds like a mac truck ran through his throat. Fortunately, the doctor today during his 4 month check up, confirmed he's doing better. Hoorah!

Despite the black cloud over our home, we somehow traveled and visited with friends the most this month. Here is what we've been up to.

Max and Coach Ober played their final game of flag football.

A season ending tie!

Ober, #1

We made the long drive to Indianapolis to celebrate Nick's 10 year college reunion. We had a little time to visit with friends and their babies. 

One of the newest Butler babies - Arden Brothers. 

On our way home from Indy, we stopped in Chicago to celebrate Uncle Jimmie's 38th birthday.

To end our fun traveling weekend across the midwest (and since both Teddy and Violet had had enough of the car), we stopped at Apple Holler in Racine and picked out a pumpkin. 

Waiting on some goats.

"The Golden Goat Bridge" - found this humorous or maybe I was just delirious from lack of sleep.  

And Nick must have still been drunk from his reunion!

Back at home, Violet has been showing a lot more interest in potty training. So much so, we tried big girl undies for a day. Needless to say, we have some work to do!

Men at work.

Can't quite remember the last time it was warm enough to carve a pumpkin outside. Too bad it didn't last long as we spotted the first snow flakes yesterday morning!

Our scarecrow, Steve. The name of pretty much every inanimate object in our house these days.

Another Halloween craft for the kids. Collage pumpkins originally seen here.

Preparing for Halloween

With Halloween fast approaching and having a little quiet time with just the two of us in the afternoons, Max and me set to work on some fun crafts and decor for fright night. 

Creating our goofy spiders. Found here.

Max's spider, Riley (named after his buddy at school).

My spider, Sunshine. I'll admit that making a silly craft clears my head and puts a smile on my face. If we had the time, I'd do this everyday.  

Putting together our ghosts (made from garbage bags) for the tree in our front yard. Our next idea is a scarecrow for the front porch. 

Last week, after dinner, we received a surprise at our door. We were "Booed!" This apparently is a neighborhood tradition where you are left a couple treats on your doorstep and then have to continue the boo to other neighbors. 

We made our boo bags and dropped them at Regie's house and a another neighbor down the street. Nick took both the kids and almost got caught after ringing the bell since Max couldn't stop giggling!

Stay tuned for our Halloween costumes. So far, Max has wanted to be a football player, cowboy, and now a rock star! Leather pants, tattoos and spiked hair here we come!

Talkative Teddy

His mornings are usually his loudest time of day. Today, after an early morning rise, we had a rare quiet 20 minutes to ourselves before his brother and sister awoke.