Hiatus

My blog is going on hiatus...and I have a very good reason.  We sold our house!  And it's been a whirlwind. We've owned this home for nine years and we've been talking about selling it for seven, well at least seriously for two.  We had been praying about it it earnest and finally felt a peace about the timing.  

 So on November 1st, we listed it...

and on November 2nd we sold it!

We asked that if it was the Lord's will for us to move, that he bring us the buyers and pave the way.  And he certainly did just that.  It sold for and appraised for our full asking price and we should close Escrow on the 7th.  We are currently in a mad rush to pack up the last nine years of our lives and will be heading to Grammy and Grandpa's house while we wait for the Lord to show us the perfect house for our family (we are praying for a big yard!)  So I promise I'll get back to blogging just as soon as the dust settles, and it's certainly been busy with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Cora's 1st birthday.  See you soon :)

Peanut Fun!

Sometimes the simplest (and longest lasting) form of fun is delivered right to your door step!  In this case it was a giant cardboard box filled with vitamins for me and packing peanuts for the kids.

What a blast these kids had and what a HUGE mess they made.  And I'm praying packing peanuts aren't toxic, because I could not keep Cora from trying to eat them!

11 Months Old!

On October 24th, Cora turned 11 months old!  Here she is in her Snow White Halloween costume Grammy made especially for her!

I couldn't resist this picture..made me think of "teenage Cora" rolling her eyes.  But I know this sweet munchkin will never roll her eyes at me :)

You're growing up so fast Cora girl!  As always we love you so much!

"I didn't know you were going to kill it!"

Can you remember where you heard this classic Halloween line?  Think Charlie Brown and Halloween and you should think of The Great Pumpkin.  I'm a sucker for nostalgia and remember watching The Great Pumpkin when I was a kid, so I got Wes hooked and we've watched it several times this season.  In case you live under a rock and haven't seen this 30 minute classic, in the opening scene, Linus helps Lucy pick a pumpkin from the patch, rolls it home for her and then she proceeds to hack it up with a huge kitchen knife.  After seeing this Linus cries, "I didn't know you were going to kill it!"  And since Wes is Mr. Super Observant, he had many, many questions about why Lucy was "killing a pumpkin."  But he didn't seem to mind this carnage in our garage :)   

Getting a carving lesson from Dad...

...Mike trying to convince Wes to remove the innards (notice his hands firmly placed behind his back), appeasing Dad by touching it, and finally getting a spoon so he could do the scooping cleanly.  (he loves getting dirty, but he hates "slimy" things!)

Cora on the other hand, had no problem with the slime and was happy to offer Daddy a hand!

Wes told Mike he wanted a Mickey Mouse pumpkin, so we found this template on the Disney website.  And since Cora was dressing as Snow White for Halloween, he also decided she needed a Snow White pumpkin, also compliments of Disney.  Great carving Daddy!

And after the carving, we enjoyed another of my favorite Halloween treats, electric orange stuffed Oreo's.

I remember hearing Mike say something like, "Cora's tried more treats at this age than Wes ever did, but I draw the line at orange Oreo's."  But when I turned around, this is what I saw!  Cora can be very convincing...I think she may also have the upper hand on her Daddy :)

Tanaka Farms

On October 23th we made our annual trip to the Tanaka Farms pumpkin patch.  It was late in the month and it was (and had been) really warm, so the pumpkin patch was looking  little sad but we still had fun together checking everything out.

Hanging out in the "land of giants"

Wes trying to pick up this pumpkin reminded me of these pics from 2010!

We found the center of the corn maze...

...and Daddy and Wes had fun hiding from me and Cora.

After eating a quick lunch on some hay bales...

...we took a tractor ride around the farm.

Then Wes climbed the sad and pretty much rotten "pile of pumpkins" though he didn't seem to care.  I've got to remember to get to Tanaka farms in the beginning of October. But despite all that I still love visiting the pumpkin patch and look forward to this each year!

All Aboard!

On Saturday October 20th, I FINALLY took Wes, and Cora too, to Fairview Park to check out the Orange County Model Engineer's trains and take a ride on the rails!  I have been wanting to take Wes for over a year now, but since they only have public rides the third weekend of each month, it seemed like we always had plans.  But we finally had an open Saturday and we sure had an awesome time!

Here we are waiting in line at Goathill Junction.  We actually rode twice...we got there right at 10:00 and got on a train immediately.  By the time we got back from our 12 minute ride there was a huge line, but Wes loved it, so we waited in line for a second ride :)

You can check out their website here, but they have a variety of model engines all with bench cars that hold passengers.  They weren't sure if Cora was big enough to ride since each passenger must sit by themselves on a bench, but we finally got the ok and she really enjoyed it too.

Here is another train we passed on our ride.  They have three or four going at the same time.

All the rides are free, but they do ask for donations to help keep the trains safe and running smoothly.  I got to chat with one of the engineers for a few minutes and he said the club's 30 year lease with the City of Costa Mesa is up at the end of the year and the city hasn't decided if they will renew it or not.  I am praying that this wonderful community activity doesn't get destroyed just to add soccer fields or basketball courts as the engineer said was proposed to the city.  It took a while, but I'm glad we finally got to do this and hopefully we'll be able to come back and ride again soon!

Pumpkin City

On October 19th, we met up with our friend's the McCray's and joined their Friday Family Fun Night at Pumpkin City!  First we had dinner at Fuddruckers in Lake Forest, which was delicious by the way.  There used to be a Fuddruckers in Costa Mesa and I have fond memories of lunches there after church so it was fun to take my kids there too.  After dinner we were excited to make our first trip to Pumpkin City and the kids had a blast!  

Wes and Brayden drove the tractors...

...and Tyler and Cora hung out on the hay bales.

(You might have noticed Mike's mustache in several of my last posts - it's "Stache-tober" at the firehouse.  The fire department has joined forces with Breast Cancer awareness month to raise money to donate on behalf of a fire wife suffering with cancer.  I'm not a huge fan of the mustache, but since it's for a good cause, I can handle it for a month :)

Playing around on the giant pumpkins.

We checked out the quarter ride area, and the boys had a turn racing some cars and then they took the fastest boat ride ever!!  I'm serious, those boats raced around in a circle so fast it made me sick just watching.  And the ride lasted a long time too...the progression of looks on their faces said it all.  First they were laughing and screaming, then they were smiling, and then were silent and serious (probably trying not to puke!).  But everyone survived the world's fastest boat ride and may have even have asked to go again!

 And there were of course pumpkins galore!

To use up our last few tickets the boys chose the ping pong ball toss and unfortunately no one won a prize, but we had a fun night with friends, so we all won :)

Happy 60th Birthday Grammy!

On October 16th, Grammy turned the Big 60!  We had a fun time celebrating at The Old Spaghetti Factor in Newport Beach.

We had soup, salad, bread, spaghetti, lasagna and spumoni for dessert!  Cora loved the minestrone soup.

And then Grammy opened her presents.  I surprised her by making a Shutterfly photo album which included photos and favorite memories from many of her friends and family.  I had a lot of fun doing this project, mailing out letters back in the summer and receiving responses and photos from so many people!  (If you read my blog and sent a birthday wish for my mom's book...Thank you so much!)  I also enjoyed learning new things about my mom from others and thinking back on so many of my favorite memories with her.

Grammy was very surprised...no one spilled the beans!

Happy Birthday Mom and Grammy, we all love you so much!