HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Here is a look of our "BUSY" week...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY...
Today is my granparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary!!! 60 YEARS!!! WOW... I am so happy to be able to celebrate this milestone with them... we are heading to Keokuk to see them tomorrow!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Grandma & Grandpa!!! WE LOVE YOU and can't wait to come visit!!! :)

HIDE-N-SEEK...
We played lots of Hide-N-Seek this week and Owen's new favorite place....

You guessed it... THE DRYER!!! hehehe! He loves it in there!! :) Unfortunate for him we always know where to find him now!!! He's a tricky hider!! hehe!

BAKING FUN...
We had a great time this week making Halloween treats... and everyone got to help! We made the fun Halloween treats that Candi taught us how to make, rice crispy bars with halloween sprinkles and frosted sugar cookies that we decorated! (THANKS Candi for letting us use your Pamperd Chef decorator bottles - they worked GREAT)

ARTS-N-CRAFTS...
There can't be a holiday at our house without doing crafts!!! We did lots of Halloween color pages each day and also made tissue paper pumkins. Unfortunately we ran out of time for our "ghost FEET" - my friend Julie gave us the idea to dip the kids' feet in white paint and put it on paper... you use the heel as the head and the toes as the bottom of the ghost - SUPER CUTE, just not enought time in our week!

My pumpkin (the look we were trying for...) is the first one... Parker's is the second and Owen's is the third...

A LETTER TO NINA HAMANN...
Since Nina Hamann sent Parker a card when he hurt his arm, he wanted to send Nina one!!!) - - melts my heart!!! Parker is such a caring little boy!!! It is pretty sweet.
This was it... nothing else! :) Not even his name! We addressed the envelop to NINA HAMANN and the return address was PARKER with our address and Parker placed a stamp on it and then we went to the post office and Parker put it in the mailbox!!! This was ALL HIS IDEA... and I loved every minute of it!! :) I obviously helped him spell the words, but he would just ask me which letter was next and he would write it!!! SUPER CUTE!! :)

OUTDOOR FUN...
The weather was GREAT this week (minus the WINDSTORM days)!! But, we did have a couple of beautiful days where we got to play outside!!! Here is a glimpse of some of our fun!

HALLOWEEN (BEGGER'S NIGHT)...
Tonight was Begger's Night in Waukee! We had a GREAT night and got tons of candy and goodies too! We went Trick-or-Treating with Brad & Nicole and the kids and Mike & Olivia and their kids! The kids did great and had a really good time! We even met up with Ross & Christi and their kids... here are a few photos of all of the kids (minus Kelton and Owen - Owen wouldn't come over and I am not sure where Kelton was)!

Above front... Courtney (Telletubie), Ben (was a zebra), Cooper (lightening McQueen), Parker (Batman), Kiera (Fancy Nancy), Lilly (was Snow White). Standing... Kya (Snow White) and Kaden (football player).

Kelton was Cat in the Hat and Owen was Robin.

What a fun time!! :) Thanks for spending the evening with us everyone! :)

After Trick-or-Treating we had to make our "SPECIAL" trip over to see Alicia & Brenton first and then on to Mere and Jonny's (which Mere & Jonny's has been an annual visit for 3 years)!! The boys got special goodies and LOTS of treats!!! They were spoiled as usual!!! THANK YOU guys for being so sweet to the boys!!! :) They LOVE it!! :)... and so do we! You guys are such great friends!!!

Here are the boys with the "FANGS" Alicia & Brenton gave them!!! - - what a hit these were!!! hehe!!!

FAMOUS SUPERHEROES!

Our little SUPERHEROES are FAMOUS!!!!

Here is the add in the DES MOINES REGISTER...

Superheroes swarm Urbandale library
By NICOLE JOBST • njobst@dmreg.com • October 23, 2008
It's a bird. It's a plane! No, it's a superhero costume contest at the Urbandale Public Library. Superheroes of all walks of life and ages sat in the library Saturday for a special story time.The event transformed into a costume contest, judged by Jennifer Saylor of the Iowa Comic Book Club. Superman, Batman and Robin, Flash, Spiderman, a Power Ranger and a vigilante were among the heroes on hand.The Iowa Comic Book Club tries to hold an event at the library about once a month. When Saylor planned October's event, she had Halloween in the back of her mind.

With the holiday approaching, getting superheroes to the library would be easy and raise awareness for the club. Saylor had a table of free comics and Superman pins for the participants, and watched each superhero to pick a winner. Nichole McDowell of Urbandale decided to dress the same as her son, Wesley, 2, who loves to be Batman. "Wesley likes it. He loves doing the fist action," Nichole McDowell said.

To view all of the photos online... click on http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810230334 and then on the right side of the screen under RELATED GALLERIES click on the photo link!

The HAMANN FAMILY...
Our picture appeared in the Waukee Register and online on the DES MOINES REGISTER site...

A Date with MOMMY!

Saturday night Nick had a "Guys Night Out" with Ryan and Brad. They went to the hockey game (the Bucs lost to Sioux City in overtime) and then out on the town! They had a great night... got in some pool, Foosball, and had some drinks! ... oh yeah, and plenty of TEXT MESSAGING going on too! - - nice Brad! :)

In the meantime... the boys and I had a DATE!! :) We rented a video (Barnyard) and hung out on the couch with blankets and had some popcorn! We pretended we were at the movies... :) We cuddled lots and then off to bed for the boys while I worked on some screens!

Sorry, no pictures to post... but read below and you will get enough BLOG overload! :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

RACE FOR THE CURE...

Saturday morning Nicole and I did the RACE FOR THE CURE downtown. It was a gorgeous morning... a little cool but perfect walking weather! We did the 5K walk and it took us just under an hour. It was such a great walk and for such a great cause!!! :) I haven't checked out the final totals yet... but there were over 24,800 people walking for this cause in Des Moines!!!! :) WOW!!!

We saw some great shirts along the way... "Save the Ta-Ta's", "Real Men wear PINK", and so on... Here is my number and a picture of Nicole and I just before the walk began!

FALL FESTIVAL at Point of Grace

Friday night our church, Point of Grace had their annual FALL FESTIVAL! We asked several friends to come along with us... and we had a really great time with everyone! Here is the run down of who attended:

Brad and Nicole:
Cooper - Lightening McQueen
Lily - Sally

Ross and Christi:
Kaden - Football player
Kiera - Fancy Nancy
Kya - JoJo
Kelton - Cat in the Hat

Ryan and Candi:
Hallie - Supergirl
Reese - Witch

Amy:
Corbin - Black Spiderman
Braxton - Pirate

Us:
Parker - Batman
Owen - Robin

We saw... Laci and 3 of her kids there too! Jason and Amy and their girls were there as well... Avery was Dora and Mallory was a jeanie! Everyone looked so cute!! :) There were blow-up toys and games for the kids, treats and music by the youth band (who is AWESOME)! Lots of fun... and it was all FREE... my favorite way to have fun! :)

After the Fall Festival we invited everyone to come back to our house for a little get together! The kids all played pretty well together downstairs and us adults enjoyed a few drinks and good conversation! - - Love the new house Ross and Christi... thanks for showing us! - - Also thanks for bringing over alcohol everyone... we wouldn't have gotten too far with our supply! hehe

THANK YOU for coming out with us everyone... and for coming over to hang out... we had a good time and we hope you all did too! :)

Parker and Corbin... and Braxton saying "CHEESE"!!! hehe!

Owen jumping in a bounce house for the FIRST TIME!!! He would never do it before!! :)













Corbin and Parker are the "Kings of the Castle"










And at the end of the night... they were all dancing the night away! :)

A Visit to the "SOUTHSIDE"

Nick had Friday off since he had went to Nebraska this week for work and had worked LONG hours... so he came along with Nicole and I and the kids over to the "SOUTHSIDE". We had to go to the Southridge Mall to get registered for "RACE FOR THE CURE". Nick was convinced after taking the kids into the arcade that the reason there are so many shootings on the southside is because every other game was a "GUN" game! - - he does have a point!! :) Nicole and I got signed up and then we did a little shopping and had some lunch! The mall was nothing like I have ever seen... it had been awhile since I was there, but there were now 2 churches in the mall and the ARL (Animal Rescue League) was also inside the mall! We did have to stop in to see the animals and all of the kids got to hold a little kitten (only because there weren't any puppies - I am not a cat fan!!). They had a good time!!! :) Afterwards the kids got to ride on the carousel... it was the deal for being good! :)

Here are some photos of the kids...

Yes... for those of you who noticed... that is a leash that Owen is wearing! - - a little PUPPY leash! I know what you are thinking... a leash??? Really??? And the answer is YES... if you know Owen, you know that this is the BEST and SAFEST thing we can do for him! I swore I would NEVER have my kids on a leash... I used to criticize the parents who did this... but now I COMPLETELY understand!!! Owen is a sweetie, but such a busy boy and he gets us VERY STRESSED when we go anywhere. So please don't judge me... until you have spent a day with Owen! :)

Here are more pictures of the kids being silly!

Living History Farm - Family Fun

Last night (Saturday) we went to the 'Halloween Family Night' at Living History Farms. It was pretty cute... they handed out candy and treats, roasted marshmallows, had story-tellers, etc. We unfortunately didn't do the horse-drawn wagon rides because the line was EXTREMELY long... but everyone still had a good time! :)

We went with Nina and Papa Hamann, Nina Wilson, Dan & Kim and the girls, and Ryan & Candi and their girls. Alicia & Brenton also met us there and we ran into Ross & Christi and their kids.

Here are a few photos from the night!

Cousins... (Owen refused to go near the scarecrow - hehe)











Parker and Hallie posing...










Family photos...





































One of the barn's decorated as a jack-o-lantern! :)









HAPPY FALL!!!

SUPERHERO Costume Contest...

This morning Urbanadale library had a SUPERHERO Costume Contest!! Since Parker will be BATMAN and Owen will be ROBIN for Halloween we were very excited to go and dress up! They had goodie bags, comic books, etc. for everyone and then had story time too!

Once the festivities were over they judged the costumes... and the 2nd place winner was....

REECE-E PIECE-E