One Man's Junk Is My Treasure!

I LOVE the goodwill store! I sometimes peek in there on a regular basis just to see what things I can find. Lately, I've been going weekly to find a white sweatshirt for part of Hallie's Halloween costume that I'm making her and haven't found one yet... but look at some of the awesome stuff I did find this week!! Who doesn't love bargain shopping?

The water pitcher (that matches my dishes exactly!): $4
The ceramic pumpkin set: $3
The witch door decoration: $2
The spooky tree decoration that lights up and says "Ooooooo": $3
The "Trick" and "Treat" decoration: $2
The metal carved pumpkin that holds a candle: $3
Getting satisfaction out of the awesome finds: priceless

The Two Reasons Why I Love Being a Mom

Sing a Song...About Anything!

Hallie LOVES to sing. I caught her today singing a song about... well, just about everything she would look at! When I asked her what she was singing about, she said, "Jesus." Good answer kiddo!

Johnny Appleseed Festival

We went to the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival this past weekend with some of our friends kids in tow since they stayed with us over the weekend. The festival is known for all of its food being cooked over a campfire and they have the best caramel popcorn in town! So Cam and I and the kids enjoyed a couple bags of delicious kettle-cooked caramel popcorn... yum! It was neat to see so many people in costume and living the life of the old days.

Above: Kailynn and Hallie finish the hay maze! Hooray!

Kids Say and Do the Darndest Things

I know I post the funniest moment of the month on the sidebar, but lately, there are just too many to share. Here are some that will make you giggle.

~ "Funny Announcement"

Hallie always announces when she has "tooted" and we always ask her, "What do you say?" So she then says, "Scuse me." The other day, we were at the zoo and Hallie announced loudly, "Daddy, I tooted!" We were surrounded by people who were eating lunch and a couple of the adults looked at Hallie with this smerk on their faces as if to say, "Been there, done that." I noticed that a few of the adults kept looking at Cameron, wondering how he was going to react to Hallie's announcement, so Cam said, "Shh, Hallie that's good but we don't talk about that okay?" So Hallie thought for a minute and whispered this time, "Daddy, I tooted." The adults who were watching nearby, laughed to themselves at Hallie's response. I guess she thought it was okay to whisper it instead of just not talking about it.

~ "Co-sleepers"

We have moved Sydnee into Hallie's room (freedom!) so they are sleeping together at night perfectly. I thought I'd try having them take naps together too the other day, so I layed Sydnee (who was already asleep) in her crib and put Hallie down as well. I went downstairs to do some laundry and I hear this faint voice in the baby monitor singing, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star..." I started to get mad because I knew she would wake Sydnee up so I started up the stairs to their room. As soon as I reached the top stairs, I hear little footsteps running for the bed... she obviously knew that I caught her. I went in the room and Hallie is squinting her eyes hard, pretending to be asleep. I told her to stay in bed and to be quiet. A few minutes later, I hear, "Mommy, Sydnee's awake! It's wakeup time!," through the baby monitor. I'm sure you figured out that they no longer take naps together.

~ "Potty Manners"

Hallie was at her friends house playing the other day and her friend went potty but she forgot to wash her hands so Hallie took her hand and said, "Here (bring her back into the bathroom), wash your hands." Her friend just sat there and Hallie yelled, "Wash your hands! You're making me mad about it!"

Sleeping Beauty

If only I could think of her as a sweet sleeping baby instead of just recharging her batteries... Sydnee loves to sleep with her arms behind her head. If I could speak for her she'd say, "This is the life."

Big Owee

"One little girl jumped on the bed, she fell off and bumped her head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, put a bandaid on her head??" After Hallie fell, she asked for a bandaid to cover the bump on her head (which was only the size of a pea). So I told her where the bandaids were and a few minutes later, she came into our bedroom with this oversized bandaid stuck to her hair, saying that her owee was all better. I asked her if the bandaid was big enough and she said, "Maybe."

Monkeying Around

Hallie found Cameron's glasses and tried them on... shh, don't tell Cameron!

"And So The Lion Fell In Love With the Lamb"

It's official: I can now officially recommend the "Twilight" series books to you and I know you'll love them! I just finished Stephanie Meyers' last book in the series "Breaking Dawn." It's sad it's over but you know a book is good when it makes you laugh, smile and cry before you're finished! I guess I can't live my life vicariously through Bella anymore. The saying, "And so the Lion fell in love with the Lamb" describes Bella and Edward's relationship perfectly; what a great quote to end the "Twilight Saga" with! See you at the theater's November 21st!

A New Fashion Statement?

Hallie told me she was going to help me fold laundry... a few seconds later she came in the kitchen laughing and said, "Look at my hat, Mommy!" (If you can't tell, she is wearing her (clean) panties on her head!)

Caught On Camera

Sydnee is all smiles all the time. I tried catching her smiling on camera, but of course, she was more interested in the camera than in me so here are the best smiles I could get out of her!

Above: Sydnee is sporting the cutest Dr. Seuss shirt that says "Little Squirt"... thanks Carly!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat!

This past Labor Day, we and some friends went to Hurshtown Reservoir and rented some row boats with the kids. We all had a lot of fun, despite the water bottle filled with pee (not ours!) underneath the seat of our boat, and the huge (used, I might add!) bandaid stuck to the back of our friend's boat. After telling you that, I probably don't have to tell you that a small-town toothless hick greeted us when we drove up because I'm sure it's expected.

To make the day even funnier, when our friends asked if there were any bathrooms, the guy said," Ya, there's a red one (meaning an outhouse) over thar, and a yellow one down thar, and the blue one is right har but it needs a cleanin'." He was a nice man though... he apologized for the boats being so dirty, and when we gave him the benefit of the doubt that he'd never heard of a vacuum or broom before, it was quite fun! After boating, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and a "hike" around the reservoir.

Above: Hallie loved the boat. I loved the boat too until Hallie decided to reach over and touch the water without warning us!? Cam thought for sure Hallie would fall in the water... thank goodness he was wrong!

Above: Go Cam, go! Cam was good enough to let me relax while he rowed. We had a lot of fun with the McCullough family, thanks for coming with us! Hallie loved playing with Mike and Leda's kids: Kailynn and James.

Video: Boating on Labor Day

On Labor Day, we went to Hurshtown Reservoir outside of Fort Wayne and went boating on the lake with some friends in our ward. Hallie actually loved the boat and did good at staying in her seat... which made my experience more relaxing! Sydnee just slept through the whole thing, luckily! Cam had fun too... even though it hurt him to open his car door the next morning after rowing the boat for an hour. I gave rowing a try towards the end, and mentioned how I could be in the Olympics, (we'll ignore Cam's "special olympics" comment he made to me) and then we rowed back to shore safe and sound... with no one going overboard which is quite an accomplishment when you have a toddler in a boat that is seatbelt-free!