Got our Pumpkin!

We went to one of the little pumpkin "patches" here in town and combed over all the pumpkins all while yelling, "don't climb on that, get back over here, don't wander off...etc..." It was loads of fun.


But we got one, and it is perfect :) So now onto the carving...

The big kids were only mildly interested,

but the call of the play set was way more appealing than a pumpkin. 

But Ezra was very interested and wanted to be in on it all!

Finally it was completed and after dark  we all went to the front porch to light it and get some pics...kids in there jammies, and with there trusty "shooter fing"

The Taking of the Paci

We knew the day would come, and the closer Jude got to 3, we knew would could not put it off any longer, the dreaded taking of the paci.  Jude LOVES his paci.  It's right there with yah yah with BFF status.  We knew this would be a difficult transition and we were definitely dreading it.  Then on Friday I noticed a big tear in the 1 paci we had left, and I thought well...now is the perfect opportunity to tell him his Paci is broken and can not be fixed.

So at the end of the night, we brought out the broken paci with the tip snipped off down to the tear in my "attempt" to fix it, and told him it was broken.  Of course he tried to suck on it anyway, put it in his mouth and then took it back out, looked at me, and burst into quiet heart-wrenchingly sad sobs.

There were no crazy screaming fits, no kicking or wailing, just sad quiet sobs.  It broke mine and Jay's heart. It was the hardest thing we have had to do so far in this parenting game.  If we did not know it was better for him in the long run, we totally would have given it back to him.

After holding him for a long time, we went ahead and put him to bed, completely expecting the major crying and screaming to start, but it never did, I think he had worn himself out, and just went to sleep.

it still breaks my heart.  We let him keep it, he put it under his pillow and checks on it a couple of times through out the day.  He is still very sad about it, he says "my paci is broken? Daddy can't fix it?"   So sad!

But there is no way we are giving it back, I would never want to put him (or us) through that again.

Shenanigans

Jude...how to describe this boy...he is crazy. Very very sweet and loving, but oh so mischievous.  If there is something to get into, he will find it...

The other day I was walking through the dining room, and I was like...hmmmm...I smell pepper...why do I smell pepper in here?  Mean while Jude kept asking me for something to drink and was seriously whining about it, but you have to understand this is not at all uncommon...he is beverage kind of a guy, he likes to have something to drink at all times...but suddenly like a bell went off in my head I put it all together and leaned over to smell Jude's breath...and sure enough it smelled like pepper and upon further investigation I found this scene under the table...

An entire container of pepper poured out all over the rug under the table, and he apparently decided to taste some of it too...guessing he won't try that again any time soon.