Uncle Hub-bub

Reading books of course with Uncle J...it's their favorite activity.

My brother Jacob a.k.a. "Hub-bub" recently came for a visit. It was so fun to have him visit us. He has been out in California working and was on his way back to Tulsa to see his lovely bride. We are really thankful for the time we had with him. He came on a Thursday and left on Saturday morning. It had been 6 months since the kids had seen him and they thoroughly enjoyed showing off for him. It was sad to say good-bye but we are so excited that we get to see him again for thankgsiving.

(Hannah being comforted by Jacob)

Using Jacob as a trampoline.

Grandpa Pumpkin

We recently had a visitor: my dad, (Grandpa to Jack and Hannah). He came up in the afternoon from Denver where he was on a business trip and arrived just before the kids woke up from nap time. We enjoyed the nice weather and walked to the park, we read books (lots of em), and we had lots of fun enjoying our short time with him. The next morning we had breakfast together and then Grandpa had to head back down the hill for a few more meetings before heading home to OK.

~Fun on the slide~

~Sitting on the "rock" - a new favorite word~

~Swinging time~

~Working on a puzzle~

~Reading books~

Hannah calls Grandpa something like "ba pa" and for Jack it comes out "pumpkin." Weird, right? I know he will get it eventually but for now he is Grandpa Pumpkin. We all really enjoyed the visit and are thankful that we will see him again soon at thanksgiving!!

We really love visitors and our next one comes tomorrow. We CAN'T WAIT!!!

The Last of Halloween

I am sure you could tell from our Pumpkin Party that our little ones dressed up as a scarecrow and Dorothy. Hannah had the little red shoes and everything - even a basket with a dog...not that it ended up in any photos. Jack seemed to do pretty good with his costume too and we did manage to get some photos with the hat on!

This was our first year in our new house and the first year we have had trick or treaters since Mark and I have been married. I thought I was prepared and bought candy. Then, someone told me that there really are a LOT of kids coming through so I bought more. We ran out by 6 o'clock when I had to announce the group of kids on our front porch that we were all out of candy. Oooops!
Jack and Hannah really liked seeing the kids come to our door and J even helped hand out some candy.

After we ran out of candy we fed the kids dinner and headed over to some friends house for some soup and hanging out.

Bringing Eyerus Home

There is a family from our adoption agency who is trying to bring home a special little girl named Eyerus. She is 7 yrs old and has lost her mother to AIDS. Her dad who has HIV took her to the orphanage in hopes of her finding a family who would love and take care of her. The Brown family wants to be this family for Eyerus. Take a look at their blog...http://www.bringingeyerushome.blogspot.com/.

Prayers for the family and for Eyerus.

kids halloween party

This year we decided to have a Pumpkin Decorating Party for our kids and their friends. It was really fun and chaotic. 14 adults, 9 kids (2 and under), and 6 infants (under the age of 1) --that is 31 people!!! We had treats, stickers & markers for decorating and we did lots of playing. Thankfully, it was pretty nice outside and we spent a good deal of time on the porch.

This is an attempt at a group picture...

Notice: Jack's cheeks are all puffy because I tried to bribe him to sit for the picture using candy corn.

Decorating.

Cabinetry

It would be embarrassing if I told you how long I let my children play in this cabinet today.

Even though little H's eyes are closed in this picture - I love it! They played peek-a-boo forever and laughed hysterically at one another.

Owl Pops

I am a big fan of Bakerella, if you don't know who she is check out her blog. I recently bought her book and picked out the special little cake pops I wanted to try first from her book. The owls. I waited till I had an event to attend so that I could make them for someone other than us.

The verdict...they turned out "okay." These take a LOT of time. There are a lot of steps and aside from the first step of just baking the cake, I did all the rest of the steps without taking a break. Big mistake for me...I didn't finish until midnight and I was tired and I think the cake pops turned out sloppy. Next time, I will make sure I break them up into steps over a longer period of time. I learned a lot though and overall thought they turned out pretty well.

Now go make your own!