Trains, Planes and Tanks!

It was such a gorgeous day today we just had to get out so we headed down to the transportation museum on Fort Eustis. I think Sam thought he died and went to heaven. Everywhere you look are huge jeeps, trucks, humvees Hayopocters (helicopters) and most importantly TRAINS!! Although they really didn't look all that much like his Thomas friends he called them all by name. "Neville" was there in all his glory.

Alongside him was Dennis "the really lazy engine" and oddly enough the only one with an American accent hmmmmm.

We found Diesel who was pulling milk... and Harvey the breakdown train. Sam kept going back and saying "I sit by Harvey".

I had to get a picture of Sam's little feet on the tracks....

Liam also loved it. He took his time walking around inside and looked at all the informational signs. He loved that he could touch everything.

He also was brave and not afraid of the mannequins like his brother. Sam was really afraid of the pretend soldiers even though we kept telling him they weren't real. I can't blame him though I had a pretty traumatic scare at a viking wax museum in Dublin when I was little.... one of the wax people came a live-- terrifying to a child. I loved that the museum had so much humor. This trash can for instance:

On the way home we had to get a snack because I was starving. Sam wanted french fries and ice cream... nice combination. As we drove I looked back and he was putting a french fry into his water.

He held it up and looked at it then proceeded to drink it, such a boy.

I don't know what it is about Sam and putting things in his water... french fries, soup you name it he'll try it.

Happiest time of the day

Sam and Liam LOVE to rough and tumble at the end of the day after bath time. It is always on our bed where we get them into their jamies and usually with their daddy. We noticed the other night that Sam has started blowing on Liam's tummy to make funny noises like we do. Liam thinks this is hilarious (usually) and laughs pretty hard. Again tonight Sam was doing it so Chris ran to grab the camera, by the time we got it they were a little less enthusiastic but still cute.

Champange Taste in a Beer Bottle Budget

(don't get sick yet Chris!) In thinking about our Christmas cards I got all excited thinking about family pictures. I LOVE family pictures. I was contemplating outfits (because I am seriously that deranged) and decided that as I will be surrounded by men this year I want to look super girly. Now my dad always told me I had Champagne Taste with a beer bottle budget. This is SOOOOOO ridiculously true and as I thought about the dress that I have been drooling over for little over a year now, the point really hit home. Of course it is Shabby Apple so it's fabulous. (its called the Yorkshire-- hello that says it all!)

ANYWAY due to our currently poverty thanks to schooling I was wondering if any of you awesome buddies have seen a similar and far more affordable little number? Or maybe a pattern that is similar. As Style Picnic is no longer in commission (so bummed Elizabeth) I figure this may be the best way I get something good. Think fall, think warmish and think super girly! Alright.... GOOOOOO team!

UPDATE: Awesome Dad read the post and spoiled his middle child! Wooo hooo! Thank you dad it is more amazing in real life~

Kung Foo meets Arrrrr

Last night was our wards trunk or treat! I love this tradition because it really is a rehearsal for Halloween and sort of eases the boys into it! We started out the day heading down to the living museum with Sam's friend Thomas. His mom had the terrible stomach bug that is going around so we took Thomas for the day. The boys had a lot of fun runnin around. I didn't get a chance to snap any pics though because lets be honest keeping track of three kept all my attention :) When it was time to get ready I was glad we had purchased Sam two Halloween costumes. Sam dressed up as a pirate, a sloppy one at best.

For some reason once in costume he didn't want his eye patch or hat. Thomas wore Sam's Thomas the Tank engine costume and Liam was Po from King Foo Panda. Luckily the Grady's were there to help out and hold Liam so Chris could follow Sam and I could follow Thomas. Thanks Grady's!

Camela was a good sport and came unknowing that in a few hours she would be in labor!!! You cannot tell at all from this pick but she and Trevor are now proud parents to baby girl Logan!

Chris and I didn't realize that people went all out and decorated their cars and everything. Luckily the Adams' forgot their candy so we gave them ours and closed up our lame non-decorated car and pretended to be with the awesomely decorated vehicle! Fischer dressed up as Peter Pan and Sophie was Tinkerbell! How adorable is she!

Fischer even got to meet his archenemies Captain Hook, they had a staring contest. I think Fischer was genuinely a little worried.

We had dinner and cupcakes. Liam received lots of funny comments about his costume and shoveling food into his mouth... lots of "just like his character" type remarks. It was pretty cute. The little girls especially liked his costume and felt compelled to poke him a lot. (I look like a homeless person in this picture, maybe that is why one of my little girls in my primary asked me what I was supposed to be haaaaaa!)

On the way home Chris and I died laughing because when we looked back all we could see was this giant panda head bouncin to the music. I flashed a picture in the pitch dark and this is what he was doing! Haaaaa! I think he likes being a chubby panda!

Political Rallys and warm toes

Christopher went with a friend to Barack Obama's political rally in Norfolk the other night. He wasn't speaking until 9:30 PM so I knew Chris wouldn't be home until past midnight. So I set to work on some sewing projects I wanted to get done. Recently my parents were generous enough to purchase our family and awesome double jog stroller (thanks mom!). I have been trying to run every morning. It is quite the process getting the boys bundled up for the below 50 weather and all situated with their snacks, drinks and DVD player. I have felt bad though because even with layers and blankets their little hands are pretty cold by the time I am done. I decided the best remedy would be to make them those bean bags that you can put in the microwave and they stay warm for about an hour. I had several of these in high school and loved using them at 5:30 am when I went to swimming.

I rooted around for some material I liked in my stores and found that I have a lot of great fabric for girls but was lacking in the boy department. So this is what I ended up with. One side is retro print with little kids playing and the other side is the red with stars. Doesn't scream boy but hey I didn't have to buy anything new ;) which is a good thing when you decide to tackle a project at ten PM :)

My friend Jordan has also been running, although she is training for marathon in a few weeks! She had given me some amazing fabric her mom brought back from Africa. I had been wanting to make her something with them and thought this would be the perfect chance, then Fisch and Soph's little appendages could also stay warm! I had to put a picture up because when my mom was in Art college she made some amazing batiks and this reminded me a lot of them!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I am a crazy person and already have my Christmas shopping done... to be honest I had it done in February. Following in this WAY prepared in advance i have already been mulling over our Christmas photos and have in my possession two amazing Christmas card kits from Shabby Princess. As Chris and I intend on sending out only one Christmas card (if I can talk him into that :)) I was going to open it up to my friends to pick any they like and email me their pictures. Its a pretty simple process you send photos and pick the template and tell me what you want the card to say. I photoshop it together and send it to your nearest photo finishing place aka walmart, target Ritz what ever. I really love these because no commercial company has them so you aren't going to see your same card with another family on one of your friends fridge. I have already selected that card we will be using so the rest are up for grabs. Let me know if you are in and which ones you want! They can be found by clicking on the following links:
http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/scripts/prodview.asp?idProduct=271
http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=190
PS be sure to scroll through the pictures to see the sayings and details that are in the package and also some fun examples.

Guts in the face was never so fun

Last might for FHE we did what I am sure many families did and carved pumpkins! Before we got started though we did a little preparation and made these adorable lollipop cookies. I found the recipe on Martha Stewart.com.

They are just sugar cookies on a stick but it was still fun. Sam kept informing me that he was "cookin" while he "helped" mix and roll the dough in sprinkles.

(We are again trying the potty training thing hence no shirt :)) Once we got all set up we went to work on the pumpkins. Sam was not all that thrilled about the fact that we were pulling this gunky stuff out of the pumpkin. Gotta love this shot where I look like a crazed lunatic with a knife, but it is the only one with Sam looking at the camera.

Soon after the carving began he left to play with trains... not surprising really. Liam on the other hand had the time of his life... once we got him out of his highchair.

Look at that boredom! Chris pulled him onto his lap and Lemers went to town with the gunk.

Every time Chris would pull a handful out Liam would die laughing as he either threw it back in or threw it AT Chris. I have never in his short life heard him laugh like this. Chris and I were hysterical listening to it.

This went on for several minutes until Chris was completely covered in pumpkin gunk. (liam in full laugh mode)

We carved two faces and the last pumpkin I drilled lots of little holes all over the pumpkin and cut a hole in the bottom instead of the top.. When lit it looks pretty cool. The picture at the top is pretty sad but it was lashing rain so we couldn't put them outside. Chris and Liam and I had a blast! In the end Sam really loved the lit pumpkins and when we blew out the candles he got very upset and told us to turn it back on :) So we are now officially read at the Crawford abode for Halloween.

Liam is famous!

Okay so not really but he did grace the front page of William and Mary's website today! It can be seen at wm.edu. There are four different ones from homecoming so you may have to press the refresh screen... if you are interested ;) Or you can see it on the homecoming slide show!

What it means to be a mommie

This morning Jordan was kind enough to come pick up Sam and take him to Kidsburg along with her cuties because Liam was still asleep for his morning nap. Because of this I had a chunk of stolen time. I decided I ought to put on some makup for a change. As I did I had a mommie moment. I held in my hand possibly the cheapest foundation available except for hot and sassy or whatever that cheapo brand is called. I flashed back to being in high school and going into my moms bathroom to borrow some of her foundation. I was all out of my clinique and was shocked to find this in her cabinet. I thought to myself (snottily) whoah mom buy some good stuff. As us kids grew older and could actually pay for things ourselves I noticed that my mom was finally buying more expensive things for herself (when I say expensive I still mean very conservative just more for my mom). It wasn't until I was walking down the isle at the store holding a twenty dollar bottle of the latest mineral makeup that I realized what she was doing all those years. Sam was holding a train, one he of course had to have (especially since it was now out of the box). The basket was filled to the brim with diapers wipes etc. and Liam was devouring a book I felt after the slobber damage I couldn't morally put back. I thought about what I wanted to do here. I could indulge myself or indulge my children (this is the point of the story where Chris would say neither ;) ) I put back the mineral make up and picked up a Cover Girl bottle and headed to the check out. I thought about all the trips to the clinque counter my mom made with me. All the new pairs of shoes I did not need, the new sweaters every fall and I realized (as happens increasingly more often these days) what a wonderful mother I had and how I would LOVE to be just like her. So as I slathered on my cheapo make up I smiled and didn't mind a bit because after all I will probably just get slobbered on by Liam in a few mins anyway. Thanks mom for buying the cheap stuff in order to spoil me. Maybe someday my boys will have a similar moment... although hopefully not while they are putting on make up!

Old cars, Sororities and high school bands

That basically sums up the Homecoming parade we attended on Saturday. Luckily we were joined by the Adams' so Sam played with Fischer most of the time. They did enjoy the many high school bands

(aren't the trees gorgeous in Colonial Williamsburg right now!) and us adults got a kick out of the sometimes embarrassingly bad floats. This one covered women at William and Mary and these two guys looked positively exhausted from physically turning these women around on a swivel board contraption.

This fraternity was the Ye Olde Escort group-- nice.

One I didn't get a picture of unfortunatly literally looked like they had gone through the trash and put two big pieces of Styrofoam on the side of their truck- and that's it!A photographer followed Liam around for a good half hour snapping photos so we are excited to see if any show up in the school newspaper.

Sam was most excited when they threw out candy

... or rather one lady walked past and handed us some. Is it just me or have parades gotten progressively lamer? Thankfully the rain held out until we were ready to leave and at least the boys got to be entertained for an hour :)

This last picture is for my parents.... does it remind you of anything :) Man can I sympathize with that girl, wearing a box in a parade is never easy haaaaaa!

What were you doing at 2 am

This week was homecoming for William and Mary. I think Chris and I in the future will REALLY enjoy coming back and relishing in memories of time spent here. As it is the night before home coming our neighbors had a rip snorting party. I couldn't get to mad though because you couldn't really hear it in either the boys or our bedrooms and it is a rare occasion that they have one. I had a sudden touch of insomnia though and could NOT fall asleep so I made this instead....

before now I did not have a pincushion, which is a sad statement indeed for an avid sewer. So I hopped to it and I think it turned out pretty cute.

I also made these....

oh and finished these!

Here I took a break and snuck one of the cupcakes I had made for our primary activity...

it was exactly 1:17 am when I ate this and regretted it immediately. That much sugar should not be consumed at that hour. I took back up sewing after the break and ventured into the world of hats. I am having some girlie friends over to make some hats tomorrow and wanted to make sure the pattern I have actually works. I am not done yet, I have yet to add the embellishment I want but it is getting there! You can see it in this picture (which isn't a very good one but how one gets a good picture of a table I don't know :)):

This is my sewing corner. My friend Trudy gave me this fabulous sewing table that was made to work with the amazing Bernina sewing machine--- she also GAVE me several months ago... yeah that is several hundreds of dollars of sewing equipment she GAVE to me. Chris was kind enough to let me take the morning Saturday and get all situated and I LOVE IT! I am right by the HUGE window in the toy room so lots of good light and nice breezes! I have the computer right next to me for Itunes listening and the toy room all around so the boys play while I sew!

This is my orange duck, he is in desperate need of a name and is my sewing buddy. My sister Felicity and I LOVE these ducks and when I saw him on clearance I had to take him home. I have always had a soft spot for all things orange. Growing up I felt bad for the color orange because I thought 9correctly) that no one liked it so I would always right that it was my favorite color. I even found it written on a elementary school questionnaire I had filled out when going through my keepsakes a while back. I think I convinced myself :) The real version of these ducks have names attached to their ankles so if you have a suggestion let me know :) It is just really nice to have an actual space set aside for my love of sewing, I no longer have to drag everything out and then haul it back and stuff it in the closet! I would thank Trudy here but I know she does not read blogs :)

Yup pretty much...

Take the Quiz here!

Witch's Night Out

Last night I held my first ever Witch's night out. My friend Terish was kind enough to have it at her lovely home as our little town house just isn't made for parties with more than four people :) She went all with her Holiday decorating which was really nice because I know she did it mainly due to the party! These are the dancing witch feet pumpkins I attempted to paint... a little uneven but oh well.

Leslie brought her cute little fog machine

Each person was asked to make their own witch's hat and wear it to the party and bring their favorite fall treat. This made it a VERY easy party to organize! The turn out was great and the hats were even better! Below is Katy, Stacey and Kelly.

We had lots of yummy things to eat and cider to drink. Terish made these awesome eyeballs our of doughnuts, a jelly lifesaver and chocolate chips! Yum!

Then we played Halloween charades where you had to act out who was getting killed, where they were murdered and how. Elizabeth was awesome and even in her cute preggy state did some couch jumping for her Tom Cruise! Of course everyone got it right away. Well the two teams tied so everyone got a prize of googly eyes. These things totally hurt!

We thought maybe it was because they were meant for kids but after Thomas tried them on and started crying we realized they should be worn by no one.

We played Ring toss around the witch's hat which Nora made and then voted for best hat! The three winners with their prizes:

Leslie won first place for her amazing hat that lit up! Hailey won second for her over the top sparkly cool hat

Nora placed third for her glam glam glam feathery boa hat. She also donned some wicked awesome fake eyelashes you can see in this super close up :)

I personally adored Elizabeth's yellow hat, very covetous. I also loved Sarah's hat! She is due tomorrow but was still a great sport and came!

Our relief society pres Sherry made a cool hat with a LONG train.

One of my favorite people ever Sarah Crookston made a feathery tower and the yummiest chili ever!

She was originally going for a kitchen witch but utensils are heavier then one would think . For party favors I made broom filled treat bags.

When I got home and looked at all the pictures I realized I did not have a single one of myself... so I took a few from my friend Elizabeth's blog. She has some other great ones of the party I snuck on here ;) I bought my base hat at walmart then added layers of feathers and a veil which I sewed a pom pom border around and little doo dads on... Liam was great and had picked about five off for me by the time the party rolled around. I also had a glittery spider dangling from a pipe cleaner out of the top.

I was so glad she snapped one of my nights because Sam LOVED them. When I was putting them on he said "momma zebra socks!" This morning he told me he wanted to wear his zebra socks... he settled for his Thomas ones!

All in all it was a fun night and hopefully it will happen again next year!