Family Halloween Costume 2012

I will post about our entire Halloween experience tomorrow. I am still in shock right now. We moved into a subdivision that is INSANE on Halloween. No joke. Kids from all over the city come to our neighborhood. You can't drive in on Halloween night without a sticker on your car showing you are a resident. Buses park outside our subdivision and crowds walk in. We had 1000 trick or treaters by 7:30. And that was still with us being gone for 45 minute while we were trick or treating ourselves. That post will come. But until then, here is the official Webster Halloween costume for 2012.

Quick recap.

2008- Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe Costume

2009- Bees and Beekeeper Costume

2010- Goldilocks and the Three Bears costume

2011- The crew from Neverland's costume.

 2012- Circus vendor costumes with our cotton candy, peanut, and popcorn.

Happy Halloween!!!

Trainwreck

Y'all, I am losing my mind. I mean I am a total and complete trainwreck. I will post soon about my one month (!!!!) old baby, her first bath, and of course, Halloween. But until then I have to share how I am missing entire lobes of my brain.

It has gotten so bad that if I think of something I need to tell Rob, I write it down immediately because if I don't tell him within 5 seconds of it passing through what's left of my brain, I have forgotten it completely. So now I have a legal pad I carry with me at all times that says things like, "Do we have dog food?" I am not kidding. And I am also not kidding when I say that I had to stop writing this post to Google "Yellow paper pad" because I could not remember that it was called a legal pad.

Lainey and these two moves have taken what few brain cells I had left. So let me present to you just a handful of things I have done this week. If I shared with you the entire list, you would all be on the phone with Child Protective Services to have my children removed from my care immediately.

-My friend is having a baby boy. A BOY! I knew this. I was a hostess for her shower. The theme was blue and white. With footballs. I knew HIS name was Trey. And what do I do? I wrap her gift in a pink bag with pink tissue and buy her a pink card. And the crazy thing I didn't even realize my mistake for days. Not even when I set the pink bag in the sea of blue presents. There's my sad little pink gift stuck between the two huge blue boxes. Nice.

-Bennett got invited to a Halloween "not quite a sleepover" party from these sweet twin girl in her class. I talked to the girls' Mom to RSVP. It was not a birthday party. Got it. Just a Halloween party where the kids would wear Halloween pj's and watch a movie. Noted. Guess who went out and bought two birthday gifts for the twins and sent them to the Halloween party? And guess who was the only parent who did this? Yup. Me.

-Nearly every single day since Lainey has been born I have forgotten which car seat was in which car and I always leave the house with her with the wrong stroller to go with the wrong base. Every time.

And I won't even get started on how all of my closed toed shoes are still in a box in our garage that I can't find so I am the idiot in 45 degree weather wearing sandals. I get in the car and forget where I am going. I hear Lainey crying and I don't know what room she is in. I could go on and on.

 But it's pointless. My brain cells are gone. And yet my children are clothed every day and haven't missed a meal yet.

My dog, on the other hand, is a different story.

Pumpkins, Fairs, and Infants....Oh, My!

Whew! I am officially tired. I don't think I have the energy to write anything that would remotely be interesting to anyone, so I think I will just post pictures of our life these past 2 weeks and let the captions speak for themselves. Even just typing that sentence made my brain hurt. I need sleep. And I need for this move to be over. And I need ice cream. Just because.

Could this little thing be any cuter? I think not! What an absolutely beautiful and perfect addition to our family.

Lainey is getting ready for Halloween here. She is practicing her terrified face because she is fully aware of the danger lurking behind her. It comes in the shape of a 3 year old big brother.

But no need to be worried little one. He adores you.

Bennett and Will are fascinated with the fact that there is now a baby in our swagger wagon. Apparently buckling her in her carseat is a huge deal and worthy of an audience and lots of applause. I like it!

The kids got to go on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch with their classes. I hated not being able to go. But since we didn't think it would be best to take a 9 day old on a pre-school field trip, Rob took a few hours off of work to go with them. I was grateful. Mainly because he got good pictures.

Hey, look! They are being sweet to each other. Grab a picture quickly!!

Bennett's class. I don't know why she is posing like that. Wait a minute. Yes, I do. Because it's Bennett.

Bringing flowers home for me and their Grandmother. 

Educational Rob (not to be confused with Citizen Rob) was driving them home and discovered cotton fields on the side of the road. Ignoring any private property signs that might hinder his learning opportunity, Educational Rob pulled the car over and took the kids in the field to teach them all about cotton. And then I spent the next 2 days cleaning tufts of cotton out from every corner of our house.

Rob also took them to the local botanical gardens one day when Lainey first came home so they could see all the scarecrows. I love that my daughter was born in my favorite month, but I hate that I am missing all the fun activities this year. But I am thrilled that Rob takes so many pictures so I can live vicariously.

Things weren't always dull back at the ranch though. One night Will colored all over his duvet cover with a furniture maker. And one night he found a tube of Desitin and smeared it EVERYWHERE! And I mean everywhere. Here is a picture of a remorseful little boy hiding in the closet. You can see the evidence of his handiwork on the closet door.

We drove to Montgomery last weekend so our amazing friend Suzanne Williams could do a newborn photo shoot with Lainey. Here are Bennett and Will hanging out and terrorizing Suzanne's house waiting patiently

The master at work!

Lainey got to meet her Aunt Beverly for the first time. 

And my Dad and Rob took the kids to the Alabama National Fair. Yes, I said National. I don't know why it is a National Fair. I just go with it. And this was once again an event I missed out on due to having a week old baby. That's alright. There's always the National Peanut Festival in November. Don't think for one second that I am missing that one.

Bennett was so excited to ride the ferris wheel with her Granddaddy

Will, however, was not. He was terrified and Rob dragged him on there literally kicking and screaming. Of course he was fine the second the ride started. Typical. He's so fickle.

More fun at the fair!

The next day we went to another pumpkin patch but this time I got to go!! And we met my sister and her family there. My kids were super excited to see their cousins and aunt and uncle.

Two out of the three loves of my life

Family time! We sure do miss Kansas City, especially in the Fall, but days like this make it completely worth it.

And the best part was letting Lainey get to know her cousins. They passed her around all day while we all just hung out and watched the Alabama game. It was kind of perfect.

Although our days have been busy, we usually spend most evenings just looking at this beautiful little one.

What a crazy two weeks. It will be even crazier as we are moving tomorrow and Saturday and will then spend the next week unpacking. Then either Rob or myself will be out of town for the next 4 weekends in a row! But life is wonderful, busy, and blessed. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Insanity

This morning I was remembering fondly the days after Bennett was born. I took 8 weeks maternity leave and I spent those 8 weeks playing with my newborn. Most days we stayed on the couch and I just held her and looked at her and talked to her. A big outing for us was taking her 5 miles down the road to my Grandmother's assisted living home and my Grandmother and I would shoot the breeze for hours while Bennett slept in her stroller. Ah, yes. The good 'ole days.

By the time you get to your 3rd child, staying on the couch for 8 weeks is not an option. For some reason, life isn't stopping and standing still for us this time. I wonder why? Lainey is only 2 weeks old and in these past 2 weeks we have had gymnastics, pre-school, soccer games, doctors appointments, dentist appointments, a 2 hour road trip, a newborn photo session, outings to the pumpkin patch, and trips all over town to switch utilities because we are MOVING IN TWO DAYS!

I think my life has been in utter chaos since April. That was when we started packing up our house in KC and my life of living out of boxes began. I see a light at the end of the tunnel though. And come November 1st, you will find me sitting on my front porch with a cup of chai tea. Snuggling with my newborn. Maybe.

 In between unpacking boxes, pre-school pick up lines, and gymnastics of course.

Family Photo Shoot

We have taken family shots with each of our kids when they were 4 or 5 days old. I never posted the shots from Bennett's photo shoot. Not sure why, but they are in our scrapbook. However, here is the link to Will's in case you happen to have way too much free time on your hands. :)

We took some of Lainey with my parents this past weekend. We took these out on our back deck and I think they turned out beautifully. Here are a few of my favorites.