Andy and I have been married for 7 years now . Wow ! ! That makes me feel a little old really to say I 've been married for so long . We did get married fairly young I guess , a year before we even graduated college . I tell Andy all the time I 'm glad we didn 't date in high school or we would have been married way too young ! ! We didn 't have a sitter to watch the kids , so we decided to do something fun with the kids . We considered ice skating or roller skating , but that seemed too dangerous and that was not something we could hold Alex and do ( neither of us are proficient at skating to say the least ) . So we decided to try bowling . This was the 1st time the kids have been bowling ( unless the Wii counts ) . Old Orchard Lanes in Savoy is very kid friendly ! ! ! We entered our names into the computer , and then the kids names , and you could pick whether you wanted bumpers or not for each person . They would pop up for the kids , then go back down for our turn . I think I should have used them , as I first bowled a 96 and then a 102 . Andy was not a whole lot better , I think he bowled a 121 and then a 111 or something . It has been awhile since we last bowled , but I 'm not sure that really makes a difference at our skill level . The kids had a great time bowling . They used the 6 , 7 , & 8 lb balls , depending on their mood each turn up I guess . Or it was more likely the color , as one was orange , one yellow , and the other pink . Faye would walk up there and throw the ball as hard as she could . She would sometimes drop the ball about 3 times on the way up , maybe miss the lane altogether ( how is that possible ? ) , then try again . She was watching how Andy and I threw the ball , so she 'd get the ball behind her and then try to throw it . Not a good idea for a 4 year old ! ! ! About 2 minutes later it maybe had made its way down the lane to knock over some pins . This was not our fastest game of bowling - it was probably the slowest ever played , but it was one of the most fun . Drew on the other hand would run up as fast as he could , throw the ball , and run Posted by Alex started saying dada tonight . It is so cute . . . but I do wish he were saying mama . That will be soon enough I 'm sure , and then it will be nonstop mama this and mama that , just like Faye and Drew do sometimes . He started saying dada at dinner . We had some takeout Chinese and he had carrots for the 2nd time . He loves them by the way ! ! Andy gave him a bath while I cleaned up the dinner mess , and he just would not stop saying dada . He 's said it about 20 times now and it is cute every time . He knows its cute too . . . We 've been vegan now for 4 1 / 2 years , and I don 't see that ever changing . It was actually Andy 's idea to become vegan , which is surprising to some people , as he was a huge meat eater . I was never a huge fan , and I was actually vegetarian for about a year in college . But one day while I was in the hospital , pregnant and on bed rest with Faye and Drew , he came in and told me he was going to be vegan now . He watched a show on factory farming , then did some research on the Internet , and he decided that was it ! ! I didn 't have a problem with that . My only thoughts were , " no more M & M 's ? " I was reading Reader 's Digest the other day , and came across an interesting article . It was about a guy who started a ' simple till six ' diet , which basically means he ate vegan until 6pm and also didn 't eat any simple carbs either ( white flour products or sugary junk food ) . At dinner he ate his regular meal . He felt better , lost a ton of weight , and solved his blood sugar and cholesterol problems . Go VEGAN ! ! There were also a few statistics from Animal Planet about the consumption of animals . They say that eating a steak dinner for a family of 4 is the energy equivalent of turning on every light in your house and driving around in your SUV for 3 hours . Does that make sense to anybody ? Consuming animals is not good for your body or for the environment . There are tons more facts about why going vegan is good for you and the environment - I don 't have time to list them now , but I " m sure I 'll add some more later . Go Vegan for a week or a month ( or forever ) , and see how you feel . I bet you 'll lose weight , feel better , and have lots more energy ! ! ! We don 't eat carrot sticks and celery for dinner - buy a vegan cookbook or borrow one from the library . You might be surprised at what you find inside ! We had BBQ seitan sandwiches with coleslaw and lemony potatoes for dinner . Yum Yum ! ! After all the family and friends have been told , we can finally announce that a new little one will be arriving soon . . . . Billie Jo Henson is pregnant ! ! ! I visited her at her new house a few weeks ago , and she broke the good news to me then . She was just beaming and grinning from ear to ear when she told me , and I was so excited for her I smiled all day and could hardly sleep that night ! ! But I couldn 't tell anyone just yet . She was waiting until Christmas to tell her family . What a great Christmas present for her family ! ! She is due July 10th , 2009 which just happens to be Andy 's birthday . Billie Jo and Mike - We wish you a healthy and wonderful pregnancy and a healthy , happy baby ! ! Andy gave me an early Christmas present on Sunday . It was an extremely cold day and I hate hate hate being cold . He gave me a new pair of warm up slippers ! You put them in the microwave and then they warm your feet for up to 3 hours ! Yeah ! I had a pair a few years ago , but I wore them out and exploded one in the microwave . We 've been married for almost 7 years now , and I don 't think I 've yet received a gift from him that has been wrapped nicely , but he is inventive . Here is his duct tape bow he made ! The kids were being cute yesterday . We finally started baby proofing our house a bit . We cleaned up the kids ' toy room ' and removed all the little toys so Alex can safely play too . Alex was playing with Drew while I swept the after lunch mess in the dining room . I look out there and they were lined up playing choo choo trains . It was so cute ! They all just had the biggest grins on their faces , so I ran upstairs and grabbed the camera . They actually stayed there and let me take their picture . Posted by There is nothing more that Velvet likes than opening presents . Well , maybe corn on the cob or going for rides in our van , but opening presents has to be one of her favorites . I was very careful to not let her see her presents this year . I didn 't talk about them ; I wrapped them while she was sleeping and put them under the tree . Somehow , she still knew they were there . The next day I saw her pawing under the tree looking for them . She knew which ones were hers even ! They must smell different ? I don 't know how she can tell . I wrapped them the same as I would any other present and used the same paper . They are just toys and a new collar , so they are not snacks . If they were dog treats I could understand it . Well , I was washing dishes last night , and I hear some rustling over by the tree . I figured the kids were probably getting anxious and starting to mess with the presents or the tree . Nope . . . it was the dog . She had finally dug out one of presents and was opening it . She decided she couldn 't wait a bit longer and she was just going to open one . What a dog . . . The kids helped me make Brownie cookies on Friday afternoon . They love making desserts , mostly because they love licking the bowl when I 'm done . This is one advantage of being vegan . . . no eggs in the batter to worry about ! ! So we can all eat batter till we have tummy aches ! ! They 've been helping me for years , but they have just now really started helping . They count out how many cups of each ingredient , and they patiently take turns . They know if they help nicely they will get to eat the batter when we 're finished ! Faye really gets into the batter ! She does not care if she is covered from head to toe in a mess . Drew on the other hand is a very neat little boy and does not want anything on his hands , face , or clothes . He barely even needs to wash his hands when he is finished . Here he is waiting patiently for the cookies to bake ! Alex is so ready to crawl ! He pushed up on his hands and knees yesterday . Uh oh ! ! This morning I had him on his tummy in his room , and he was inching forward and trying so hard to get where he wanted to be . He knows it is possible , it is just figuring out how to actually accomplish this . Velvet was laying in his room and he really wanted to get over by her to grab and pull her hair . I really hope crawling takes some time for him to learn . I am really not ready for him to be moving yet . It is much too early ! ! Andy and I will be baby proofing the house over Christmas break ! He is still not sleeping in his own bed yet . He seems to think that our bed is his bed . Oops ! I have to admit I am probably to blame for this . When he was real little he 'd wake up every 1 1 / 2 hours to eat , and I didn 't want to get out of bed so much . I need some sleep or I really lose my patience with Faye and Drew . Now it is cold and it is really hard to get up . We have our thermostat at 60 degrees at night , and I hate , hate , hate being cold so getting up and going into another room is really impossible for me ! I can at least lay him down in our bed and he will sleep , although I feel like I have to stay in the room and watch him as our bed is probably not the safest place for him to be . Here he is sleeping in our ( his ) bed : I attended my first of many parent - teacher conferences yesterday . Kids sure grow up fast . It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with them , and then they were little babies , and now they are growing up and going to school ! I met with Ms . Angie , Drew and Faye 's preschool teacher . She is a great teacher and you can tell she really cares about the kids and spends a lot of time with each of them . She really knew Faye . She said Faye loved learning new things and had no trouble trying new things , but was not daring either . Faye has just now started easily talking to her teachers , and when in group circle time if nobody answers her questions , Faye is jumping in to answer them . She also said Faye loves story time . Really ? I can 't imagine that . She only wants me to read 50 books a day to her . So she is doing well and adjusting well to school . Drew is very shy at school and really wants to fit in . The first word he spoke at school was ' cubby ' . If they make a drawing or painting at school , when they are finished they get to walk out in the hallway by themselves and put their picture in their cubby . I guess this is ' the thing to do ' . Ms . Angie said Drew discovered he could do this the day before Thanksgiving , so she told him if he wanted to do that , he had to say cubby . So he did and ran out and put it in , then rushed back in to draw some more . Then she made him say , " I want to put this in my cubby " , and he did ! She said it was awesome and she was so excited she nearly started crying ! Then he was talking to her the rest of the day . But then was Thanksgiving break and now he is back to not really wanting to talk much . They have family style snack now , where they sit at the table and they have to put their hands in their laps and thank the person who brought the snack . Then they have to ask , " please pass the juice , " or " please pass the snack , " before they get any . She said that has been hard for Drew because he really wants the snack but doesn 't want to talk , but it is helping getting all the kids talking ! Apparently it iStephanie Alex got his first tooth today . I knew he was going to teeth soon , but not this soon ! He just turned 5 months old , so it seems really early to me . The past week he 's been waking up nearly every hour or two hours at night . So he 's been making us a little loony to say the least . He 's been his happy baby self during the day , but at night he has been fussy and even crying . That is something considering he hardly ever cries . Posted by Andy put up our shower curtain rod Monday night . I hung the shower curtains , and they did not go all the way around . So I had to buy another . We now have 3 shower curtains ! We took our first showers last night , and the curtains are way too long , so now we have to take down the rod , cut it shorter , and put it back up higher ! We considered cutting the curtains and hemming the ends , but with my poor sewing skills we decided that may not be the best idea . Plus Andy is much taller than me , so he was spraying water out the top ! It would have been put up higher to begin with , but as you can see in the picture , our bathroom ceiling slopes quite a bit and that was as high as it would go . Maybe someday we 'll be finished with this project ! I 've been trying to get a picture of the kids to send out for Christmas cards this year . I 've taken about a hundred pictures , and there is always one kid looking away from the camera , or eyes closed , or something . This is an impossible task ! And in order to get Drew to even consider sitting still , I 've had to bribe him with twizzlers and a cookie last night , and a muffin this morning ! Posted by Usually we get a real tree every year for Christmas , but this year we decided to try an artificial tree . We don 't have as much room in our house now that we have a baby - all that baby equipment . We have a swing downstairs and a swing upstairs , and a highchair , and an exersaucer , and I could go on and on about all the baby stuff . I saw a flyer for Menards and they had some ' slim ' trees . That might work . We took the kids last night and picked one out . Andy thought it was a little weird looking , and it probably is , but I liked it and it will fit in our house . The real trees we usually get are huge , and they do make a large mess , but they smell so good . I 'll miss that ! I got the tree out this morning and Faye and Drew helped me put it together while Alex was napping . Faye really enjoyed helping , while Drew brought over the branches to us or watched . Drew was not even going to let me take his picture , but I did bribe him with a Twizzler if he would hold Faye 's hand and take a picture . He agreed to that ! We 'll decorate the tree later once Andy is here to help . They get a little carried away with decorating and last year knocked over the tree several times while putting on the ornaments . Here is Alex eating a cracker . I can 't believe he is old enough for that already ! He 'll be 5 months old tomorrow . Of course most of the cracker ended up on the floor , but he really thinks he is big stuff when I give him something he can feed himself . He also learned how to use his sippy cup today ! I 've occasionally been giving one to him to try , and he usually just chews on it , but today he figured it out ! He 's never yet had a bottle , so we 'll probably just skip right over that , but that will be easier later anyways . Posted by No , we didn 't eat a deer on Thanksgiving , but I hit one . I think this is the first time I myself have hit a deer . I 've been in the car before when somebody else has hit one , but this is my first . We decided to drive over to Andy 's parents house on Thanksgiving afternoon ; we had dinner and took showers . I made a Gluten roast in the slow cooker , although we didn 't have any seitan so it wasn 't that interesting . I hadn 't planned on taking it anywhere , but then Andy said it would be awhile before our bathroom was finished , so we should drive over . So off we went . The kids had a good time at Grandma and Grandpa 's , but it was getting late so we headed home . Andy was driving , but he was getting really tired as he 'd been working all day on our bathroom . He pulled over in LeRoy so I could drive . I had passed another car awhile back , and was heading back into the right lane , when Bam ! There it was ! I turned my head for 1 second to look behind me and there was a huge deer in the right lane . I swerved just in time to avoid a major crash I think . We did end up with 2 dents in our van ( no big deal - we drive a really old van ) , and a broken passenger side mirror . We 'll have to have that replaced , but otherwise no major problems for us . I don 't know what happened to the deer though ! I felt so bad all the way home . I don 't think I killed it right then , but it had to be hurting . Andy had just fallen asleep when I hit the deer , and he woke up and yelled , " Are you awake Steph ? " So I pulled over and explained what had happened and he got out and surveyed the damage . The lady behind us was nice enough to also pull over and ask if we were all OK . We made it home OK after that , but it was a little scary ! We finally decided to finish our bathroom . We started not long after moving in , and it is 2 1 / 2 years later and still unfinished . We had to get a new sink right away . The old sink had separate hot and cold faucets and you had to hold them on for the water to come out . I couldn 't figure out how to wash my hands or anything else . Then the floor - what a disaster . Somebody redid the bathroom at some point in time . They put down particle board , then ceramic tile on that . Well , the tub setup was a disaster and would leak water out the side . Then the particle board would get wet , expand , and the tiles would break . So we took all that up and redid it properly when we moved in . We just have vinyl tile for now , but it is easy to remove and we can always have something nicer put down when we 're ready . So we decided to finally remove the tub disaster and put in our claw foot tub that has been sitting in the garage for 2 years . We bought it newly refinished from a family in Gibson City I believe . We found the faucet and supply lines and drain on Ebay , and they arrived on Wednesday morning . Thus our project began . Andy started tearing apart the old tub parts while I watched the kids . The demolition went fairly quickly , as whoever redid the bathroom did such a poor job that everything was just ready to fall apart . There were glass blocks built up on top of our bathtub so you could take a shower . Andy basically just had to push on them and they came right out . That is a little scary . We 're lucky the kids didn 't push them over ! Here you can see what they were sitting on . Then he started to pull off the tile surrounding the tub . Well , it was glued on to drywall , which water had leaked through that so the drywall just fell off . It was mushy and stinky and moldy ! So now we have to rebuild the wall . I 'm not surprised after seeing what was done to the floor ! Andy finally got all that tore out and decided to get the bathtub out . He asked our neighbor Denny to help him carry it out . It was a good thing too , as it was a cast iron tub andPosted by So we left Andy 's parents house Saturday morning on our way to Chicago . We took 24 to Chenoa , but as we were almost in Gridley , I look up , and what do I see but a huge Johnny Martin looking back at me . Now I had heard that he had a sign up in Gridley . I guess I was not expecting it to be this large , but then who would ? Andy almost missed it , so he turns around for a second look . It is impressive to say the least . How many of your classmates have a billboard with a giant picture of themselves ? On our way back to Andy 's parents house Monday evening , Andy decided to stop in Gridley for gas . I was sleeping in the backseat and so were the kids . I sit up and look out the window , and right there is Andy and Erin Cooper . We had a great laugh about this . Andy thought it was probably one in million chance that we would run into them . Taking a look back at the events that led up to that , it probably was . We were stuck in traffic in Chicago , then we had to stop and feed the baby . He almost stopped in Chenoa for gas , but then decided to wait until Gridley . We were even just talking about them on the drive . Every wedding we go to , Andy and Erin Cooper are there ; this wedding was one of the exceptions because it was my family . But then , sure enough , we run into them at a gas station on a wedding weekend ! Sunday night after the wedding we took the kids to The Chicago Diner . The link is here : http : / / www . veggiediner . com / It is a great little vegetarian restaurant in the Lincoln Park area just north of Chicago . We were staying in Schaumburg , and there are of course plenty of restaurants in Schaumburg , but not any quite like this ( or at least none that we know of ) . Being vegan , it is always difficult to eat out . There are many restaurants that don 't have a single vegetarian option listed on their menu . Then there are the others that have maybe one or two vegetarian meals , and then we have to ask for no cheese or eggs . So being in a huge city with lots of vegan / veg restaurants , I was not going to miss this chance . We arrived around 7 : 30pm , and the line was out the door . I was not expecting this , as it was a Sunday evening and usually restaurants are not as busy . But the wait was only 10 minutes , so we could do that . We were seated in a booth and handed a menu . I could not decide what to order ! Everything sounded good , and everything was vegetarian or vegan , with the option of making it vegan . Whoa ! I could order anything I wanted off the menu . I can 't remember the last time that happened . It is a very strange feeling and I couldn 't decide what to get . Normally the decision is very easy - spaghetti with marinara sauce . Not tonight ! Andy had a Reuben sandwich with sliced seitan . He ended up picking for me ; I had the Philly Cheeze " Steak " sandwich which also had sliced seitan . It was delicious ! We spent the weekend in Chicago and took the whole crew and had a great time . It is much easier to travel now that the twins are a little older . It is still difficult with 3 kids and very exhausting , but easier than when they were babies . We left Saturday morning from Grandma and Grandpa 's house . They agreed to watch our very pathetic dog for the weekend . Apparently she did ok during the day , but at night while we were gone she would start crying . She did survive the ordeal and is very happy to be back home . We took the kids to Woodfield Mall on Saturday . It was jam packed - we could hardly move . We were there for probably 3 hours and only made it to 2 stores . I of course had to visit the Lush store . It was awesome and I found a lot of great bath products ! They sell all vegetarian products and over 75 % are vegan . None of their products are tested on animals , and they don 't buy ingredients that are tested on animals either . All of their packaging material is made from recycled products and is recyclable , although they use very little packaging . We then took the kids to Build - A - Bear . They loved that and Faye picked a dog which she named Princess Leia , and Drew picked a white bear he named Storm Trooper . Can you tell they play Lego Starwars ? Andy already has their brains warped I think . We headed back to the hotel and Grandma and Uncle Jadon arrived a bit later . We spent the evening swimming in the pool . We all had a great time . Even Alex went swimming for the 1st time . The water was very warm , but he did start getting cold after a few minutes so he didn 't swim long . Justin and Maribeth got married on Sunday morning . We left in plenty of time for the wedding , but once again google maps failed so we ended up missing the beginning . I hate hate hate being late , but there was nothing we could do about it . We basically just missed them walking in , so we saw all of the ceremony . It was short and sweet and surprisingly enough the kids were well behaved . They sat all through lunch really nicely , although we did tell them thStephanie Well , Faye 's fish Princess had babies last night . We 've only had the fish for 4 days now , and already we have more . I 'm not sure how many she had , but there were 4 in there this morning . I read up on Molly fish , and they tend to have babies all the time . Like every 30 days . Even if you have only one female fish , they could have babies 3 or 4 times . They can apparently store semen and use it later . Wow . They also eat their babies sometimes , so there could have actually been more . Now I don 't think Princess actually ate them , as she appears to have died in childbirth and is floating on the bottom . We may be having a fish funeral later tonight . But Mr . Fizzwizzle is swimming around the tank looking for them . At lunch I checked the tank and I could now only see two babies . They are adorable so I may have to go get a small tank and put them in there until they are bigger ! We took Faye and Drew to the pet store today to pick out their new fish . I finally got the tank all set up and ready this week . I ended up buying a heater , as we keep our house cold and would probably kill the fish . We asked the pet store lady for recommendations , and she suggested a black molly and also mentioned that they liked to have babies . Drew was sold . So he got a black molly and named it Mr . Fizzwizzle . For those of you who don 't know , Mr . Fizzwizzle is a computer game and Drew loves playing it . It is a puzzle game and really gets you thinking . Even Andy and I have trouble completing some of the harder levels ! The website for the game is here : http : / / grubbygames . com / Faye picked out a dalmatian molly . It is silver with black spots and is really pretty . She named it Princess . Imagine that ! Her fish and Drew 's fish seem to be getting along really well . They are swimming all over the tank together . Drew and Faye fed them right after putting them in the tank and they were hungry ! Alex and I picked out a Sunburst . It is yellow and orange , and we named it Freddy . We 'll probably add a few more in the future ! Well , we 're not really moving , but I sort of wish we were ! I don 't want to actually move all my things as that would be too much work with a baby , but I wouldn 't mind the new house part . Alex and I drove to Pontiac yesterday morning to see Billie Jo and her family and their new house . It is beautiful ! They have a huge kitchen with stainless steel appliances and anti - slam drawers and cabinets , lights everywhere , and a huge pantry . I have to say I would love love love to have a kitchen like this ! ! Did I mention they have a master bathroom with a huge jet tub ! Their living room is also large with a fireplace . Yep , that 's right , a fireplace ! I love fireplaces - my next house will have one ! ( billie jo , I 'm moving in ) Haha ! Anyways , they have worked very hard for over 2 years , picking everything for this house , making thousands of decisions , and painting and staining and doing who knows what else . Their hard work really paid off ! Billie Jo and I were able to go out for lunch at How Sweet It Is , a new little place on the square in Pontiac . It was really good . We had hot apple cider and I had a grilled Veggie Panini , and they also make Fudge so they gave you a sample with your meal . It was Wedding Cake day , and it was different , but very good . After lunch we went back to her house , and Alex had a fun time playing with Billie Jo 's step - daughter Brittney . Alex and I had a great time spending the day there ! We decided to stop in Flanagan and see Oma while we were there . She was surprised to see us , but I think she was glad we stopped . We played a game of cribbage while Alex slept , then we had dinner and fed Alex . I decided by then I 'd better head home and assess the damage of leaving Andy home all day with 2 kids ! Posted by As we were getting the coats on the kids this morning , ready to take them to preschool , Drew informs us , " I 'm sick ! " Well , he was not at all sick , but thought he 'd try getting out of preschool . I think we 're in for a lot of trouble from him down the road , if he 's already trying to skip preschool . It occurred to him to try this excuse , as Faye really was sick on Tuesday and stayed home . Drew went to school without Faye , but not without a fight . Andy actually carried him into the school kicking and biting and screaming . His teacher Ms . Angie came out in the hallway and got him and carried him in , and after about 10 minutes he was fine and had a great time at school . It was his friend Maddie 's birthday , so they had cookies , and since it was raining they went to the gym to play and they had bikes and slides out for the first time . He was very excited and had to tell Faye all about it ! Here 's a picture Faye took of me and Alex . I thought it was a good picture of Alex , although she did cut my head off . I took Faye to get her hair cut last week . It was just crazy , so this is a little better . You can see she is not feeling well in the picture - her nose is all red from wiping it . Poor girl . She woke up crying on Tuesday from not feeling well . It is so hard to explain to little kids why they are sick ! I took Alex to his 4 month checkup yesterday . He is 16lb and 26 1 / 2 inches long . So he has grown 6 inches in 4 months . He 's a tall baby ! The pediatrician said he looked and acted more like a 6 month old baby . I 'd have to agree . He thinks he is much older as well . He gets very very frustrated if Drew and Faye are playing and we 're not ' playing ' with them as well . He is very anxious to get moving , so he can go where he wants . I think he 'll be following his big brother and sister all day . I think he 'll be crawling really early so he can keep up with them . Uh oh ! I 've heard that twins sometimes develop ' secret ' languages , but so far I 've never seen it in my twins , until today . It was a beautiful day outside today so we went for a walk . The kids were so excited about the leaves , that we decided to go home and rake the leaves and play in them . I did most of the raking , while the kids jumped in the piles and had a blast . Drew did try a little raking , although mostly he tried raking the trees to try and get the berries to fall . Alex sat in the stroller and watched , giggling as the kids jumped in the leaves . The kids were really tired after all that playing , so we went upstairs to take a nap . I have to sit in their room until they fall asleep , or they never go to sleep , no matter how tired they are . I even have to insist they close their eyes . So they are both lying there with their eyes closed , and I hear Drew make a noise . It was sort of a humming noise , and I wasn 't sure what it was , so I just ignored it . About 10 seconds later , Faye makes a similar noise . This went back and forth for about 10 minutes , with them occasionally smiling or laughing like it was some sort of inside joke that only they understood . I 'm not certain that what they were doing meant anything to the other , but it sure seemed like it ! But finally they did fall asleep ! The kids had a great Halloween this year ! Faye went as a butterfly and Drew was a Ninja . They woke up Friday morning so excited about going trick or treating . They weren 't too excited about waiting until dark though . " That 's too long to wait mom ! " they kept telling me . We tried getting them to eat dinner before we left , but they weren 't hungry . More room for candy I guess . Finally once Andy was home from work we had them all dressed and ready to go . Drew did not want to get his picture taken once again . But we did manage to get them to sit on the couch for a couple pictures . Alex was mesmerized by the orange pumpkins and would not stop staring at those . We got out and at the first couple houses Drew and Faye would ring the bell , but once somebody came to the door they would not say ' Trick or Treat ' . I figured they would get the hang of it after a few houses , but no , they would just stare and wait for treats . I guess that worked too ! Every year around Halloween I get a craving for popcorn balls . My great - aunt Millie made the best popcorn balls and gave them out each year at Halloween . I haven 't had one in years , but I can still remember exactly how they looked and tasted . They were delicious and probably my favorite Halloween treat ! I 've been so desperate for some in years past , that I 've considered driving all the way to Flanagan on Halloween for one , or calling and asking to have some mailed . I 'm sure she would probably save some for me or even send some my way if she knew . This year I decided we 'd try and make some . Andy told the kids they could help . They succeeded in getting popcorn all over our kitchen and dining room , but didn 't help with much else . I found some ' old fashioned ' recipes on the internet , trying to guess which one might taste similar to my aunts . The recipe needs a candy thermometer , and for some reason we just can 't keep ours around without breaking it . So I would try it without , testing the sugar mixture in cold water to determine its temperature . It turned out well , with the kids and Andy devouring them quickly and wanting more . They didn 't look anything like my aunts used to - it is a bit harder than it looks to make them pretty . Maybe with some more practice mine will someday be as good as hers ! Posted by We made a little more progress on our garage today . Andy finished sanding the front side and I went out and painted this afternoon . We decided to take turns taking care of the kids / working on the garage . It seemed to work a little better this way . The kids just can 't seem to stay out of trouble otherwise ! I started painting the trim , then Andy came out and informed me it wasnt yet ready to paint . Oops ! Well , at least we have a better idea of what it will look like . It is a remarkable improvement over the red colored trim . We still have a lot to do , but it is looking much better already ! The kids were playing nice all day . Drew pulled out Faye 's bed this morning and I found them laying under Drew 's bed reading books and playing cars and pony 's . They hid when I tried taking their picture . We were going to get 4 year old photos of them , but since Drew thinks he should hide from the camera every time , I think we 'll wait a bit . We started feeding Alex cereal and bananas this week . He loves the cereal and usually wants more . He 's not so sure about the banana . We took the kids to Bloomington yesterday for Grandpa 's birthday . We met at Noodles and had lunch . Then we were off to the Miller Park Zoo . The kids were having so much fun just playing at the park , we never made it to the zoo . Drew once again would not let us take his picture . He would not turn around - we may have a lot of pictures of his backside from now on ! I think Grandpa and Andy had fun too ! Alex was just hanging out in his horse costume with Aunt Sarah and Grandma . It was a little cool and windy , so it kept him nice and warm ! We took the kids to the pumpkin patch today to pick out some pumpkins to carve . Instead of going to Curtis Orchard , which we normally go to , we tried a small family farm - Neganguard I think . Their prices were much much more reasonable , it wasn 't as crowded , and they had a great selection . Curtis Orchard is great , but is so crowded this time of year . They do have pony rides , hay rack rides , inflatables , apple cider slushes , etc . but we really just wanted pumpkins . First they checked out the huge pumpkins . We decided against taking one of those home . Then we got a wagon and started loading it up . Of course the kids fought over who pulled the wagon , so we took turns . Finally they decided that Drew would pull and Faye would push , and that worked out well . The wagon was getting really heavy ! We ended up with a whole wagon full plus , for $ 8 . 00 . It was a great deal ! ! Alex slept the whole time , so he missed everything . Maybe next year ! I was trying so hard to get a good picture of them at the pumpkin patch , but they just would not cooperate and sit or stand still ! It must have been too exciting for them . When we finished paying , I saw they had some huge pumpkins and some bales of hay sitting there , so I tried getting them to sit and get their picture . Drew would not sit - you can actually see him hiding behind the hay so I couldn 't take his picture . The kids had a good time helping carve the pumpkins . They didn 't want to touch the ooey stuff inside , so we used spoons . Andy did all of the actually carving , but the kids instructed him what shapes and where . Drew woke up early from his nap today , so we were out in the playroom playing . Alex was awake of course too . Drew wanted to get the ' baby piano ' out for Alex . This was Drew and Faye 's toy when they were babies . Alex just loves sitting and looking at this . Usually I hold him , but today I let go and he managed to sit there for about 10 minutes looking and listening to his piano . He 's a little tipped over , but I think that will improve in the next few weeks ! Here 's another photo I took of him today . I think these are about the only two times today I was able to put him down and not have him scream . He must be going through an attachment to mommy phase . Or maybe he is not feeling well - I 've been sick all week and he has been a little snotty . Here he is with his Pooh toy . He loves holding Pooh and biting on him . Everything now goes straight to the mouth . We 'll have to start picking up Drew and Faye 's little toys soon ! I made the first ( many more to come I 'm sure ) pumpkin pie this fall last night . Yes , you can make a vegan pumpkin pie ! Usually Andy starts asking about it , as I think it is one of his favorites , but this year as soon as the kids saw pumpkins at the store , they started asking , " Aren 't we going to have any pumpkin pie ? " The pie wasn 't out of the oven until almost 10pm last night , so it was too late to have any . The kids were so disappointed , as they love pumpkin pie . I don 't even like it really , but I enjoy making it . The kids woke up this morning asking about it , so I promised a small piece after lunch . They were excited to try some as you can see ! The picture is not great , but you can get the idea . Alex fell asleep in his car seat yesterday while we were out doing some errands . So I brought the car seat inside and let him continue sleeping . I was sitting on the couch with the seat nearby when he started to wake up . This is how he almost always wakes up - big smile on his face ! Luckily I had the camera nearby and was able to snap a photo of him . He is such a happy baby all the time . We are so very lucky ! ! So we finally decided to paint the garage . I 've been wanting to do something with it since we moved in here two years ago . It is a mess , really . It should be torn down , but we really want to do minimal work on this house . And it does serve its purpose . The garage doors open and we can park our van inside , and put all of our tools , etc . inside . What else do we really need in a garage ? I 'm hoping to move in the next few years , so why bother making it really nice ? I convinced Andy Friday night that we were going to get started on the garage . It usually takes some convincing to get him to start on a project , as he would rather spend his time on the computer . But he was finally convinced - it needed to be done . So Saturday morning I sent him with Drew and Faye to the store to buy the paint and supplies needed . I don 't know what made us think we could actually get work done with 3 kids - one of them a baby , but we thought we could do it . The kids were really good helpers at first . They were excited about scraping off the old paint . That lasted about 20 minutes and they were ready to paint . Well , the garage is old and in very bad shape , so we were no where close to being ready to paint after 20 minutes . So the kids ran around the yard , chasing the dog , asking us " are we ready yet " every 5 minutes , playing with the paint rollers , etc . Alex calmly sat in his stroller and watched all of us . He was the only one that remained calm throughout this process I think . The kids were so eager to paint , so we let them have our trim paint and start on our door . They had about a pint of paint smeared in one little spot on the door , but it kept them occupied long enough for us to finish half of one side of the garage . Woohoo . We made some progress . But we have brown trim paint pretty much everywhere you can imagine . Next time - we 'll wait till they 're at Grandma and Grandpa 's before we work on the garage again . At least we 'll finally be rid of the red ! I 'm a stay at home mom to 3 full of energy kids , Faye 10 , Drew 10 , and Alex 6 . We became vegan 10 years ago and have never looked back . In my spare time I love to crochet , knit , garden , read , and sew .