Trick or Treat

I went a little crazy in Photoshop tonight and stumbled upon a new trick. Can you tell what it is? Keeping the color in a certain part of the picture and turning the rest black and white. I just happened upon it while I was editing and sorta figured it out myself - no tutorials. Anyway, I went crazy editing all the Halloween pictures. Here are my faves:

I'm wondering how long I'll be able to get away with the themed costumes. I have a few more up my sleeve - Batman & Robin, Mario & Luigi, Buzz & Woody.

So stinkin' cute!

Using my new PS trick and the pic actually looks better than the original this way with how the light and color were.

My cutest little Alien! I love that the b&w background doesn't detract from the colors of the costume.

I think he knows how cute he is. That's why he gets away with being such a stinker.

I want to turn this one into some kind of astronaut ID card or something. Marshall would get a kick out of it.

Two of the houses we went to asked how many times Marshall had been to the moon. It took him a minute to realize why they were asking that. He is SO my kid that way!

Coen received a lot of compliments on how cute he looked. Everyone from 8 year old girls, to moms on the street, to little old women handing out candy commented. I wonder if cuteness scores you more candy because by the time we headed back to the car his bag was FULL!!! Granted, it was on the small size.

Posing with the Jack-O-Lantern

Marshall waited patiently to carve this with John. We bought the pumpkin on Monday but we had such a busy week that he had to wait until Wednesday morning to actually carve it before John left for work. Marshall was so happy that he got to design it himself this year, at least the mouth and nose. John took care of the eyes. When he showed me the missing tooth (bottom left) John accidentally cut out, I pointed out that he had a missing tooth so they matched. He wasn't so upset then.

We had such a fun night! Marshall even said that Halloween and Easter were now his 2 favorite Holidays. I even got a thank you from him as we headed out the door for trick or treating. He is such a sweet kid!

Our Spooktacular Halloween Dinner

John's parents have been having a Halloween party the last few years with Halloweeny names for food. I wanted to carry on the tradition out here in MO, so I found some fun recipes/ideas to use for our Spooktacular Dinner. First up: Swamp Juice
We cooked tapioca pearls, then dyed them green and yellow. After they cooled we added soda water and lemonade, a gummy fish, and a gummy worm.

Salty Bones
I used refrigerated breadstick dough, stretched it out, then cut slits in the ends. I rolled those up, then sprinkled on some course salt and baked them. Coen took bites off each of the ends, then put them back on the serving plate, but they were a big hit. Marshall asked if we could have them every night.

Mummy Meatloaf
Which really looked so much better in the recipe picture. They always do, right? This was a momentous occasion, as it was the first time I've made meatloaf in our married life.

Swamp Creatures
Our favorite homemade macaroni recipe, baked in muffin tins, served atop sauteed spinach. Marshall's job was to adorn them with olive eyes.

It was fun to go all out for our little party. Marshall got a kick out of it. I liked that it was something new and festive. I definitely would not want to cook 4 different recipes and have 3 different things in the oven every night, but it'll be special to look back on fun holidays like this.

BOO to YOU

We've been having fun doing some Halloween crafts. On this day, it was ghosts on black construction paper with "smushmallows," as Marshall calls them.

I had outlined the ghost in glue, but apparently not enough to satisfy Coen's fascination with it.

Coen is growling, because anything not human with eyes growls. {Toddler Logic}

Clapping at his accomplishment!

Have fever, will sleep.

Back in the summer I scheduled a well child visit for Coen with a fabulous family practitioner we found in Liberty for today, Monday the 18th. More often than not when one of my kids has a well child check-up, we end up going in sick. Well today was no exception.

I've had a sore throat since Thursday, Marshall woke up coughing on Sunday morning, and Coen woke up with a fever at midnight last night. No fun.

Other than having a generic virus, Coen is doing well! I could hardly hear the doc above Coen's sad cries to "go hoooooome." But I think he's right on track developmentally and the little guy is finally growing! He is now in the 50th percentile for height and somewhere near 50th for weight as well. No where near Marshall at that age, but an improvement from last year at 24th and 4th percentile, respectively. Hey, I'll take it!!

Coen fell asleep in the car, then went straight to Marshall's bed where he curled up like this, but not before recruiting his new foo-foo to come nap with him: and slept for 3 hours. When he woke up he had a sip of water, refused some soup, and when I looked over at him in the living room, he was sleeping on the floor:

From there I moved him to the couch, where he's been ever since, either on my lap or laying on a pillow, foo-foo and all. Poor guy :-( I hate watching my kids go through the sickies.

Birthday Toys

I discovered something last week. I've been wondering why the boys won't go play happily in their room, with all their toys, while I go make dinner or shower or what not. So my discovery was this: that all it takes for them to play is some new birthday toys, a clean room, and me to go read a book on Marshall's bed. They played happily for a good hour and a half (and I may or may not have fallen asleep). Showing me his teeth, like Marshall had just been doing with another loose tooth

watering the giraffe or "af", which is a new favorite animal

My baby is 2!!

It's hard to believe this day has come. It seems like he has grown so fast these last couple months. He's becoming more and more of a boy every day and not so much baby anymore :'(

When John came home, he asked if Coen noticed anything different about today, if he felt the specialness of it. We had played at the park with friends and came home to nap, so no, I don't think he had thus far. But by the end of the night as we knelt for family prayer and family hug, I think I noticed a shine in his eyes because he knew this day was for him.

We were joined by my mom (Grammy) and my Grandma Rose via Skype. They got to watch Coen unwrap presents, eat his cake, and explore his new toys after. It was fun to have them join the party from so far away! My mom sent his presents home with me when we visited in July. From her, he got a zoo set, 3 different bath toys, and a stacking peg set and I am once again convinced she spends more on my kids than we do. Thank you, Mom! Marshall gave him a ball and John and I gave him a rocking horse, stuffed dog, horse stable, and a set of mini board books. He is one lucky boy!

I have a funny story, or neurotic as John would call it. So I try my best to coordinate the boys shirts for special occasions. Today I tried to coordinate Coen's shirt to the wrapping paper, since the cake would be a neutral. Anyone who scrapbooks knows the dilemma you are faced with when selecting paper. Do you match it to the clothes? The cake? The wrapping paper? The presents? So I just try to narrow my choices by combining elements in the pictures, lessening my options for paper. Coen wore this green shirt through dinner, only to decide that he wanted to spit milk bubbles out of his mouth and down onto his shirt. Easy fix, I thought, we'll just turn the shirt around and no one has to know. Then he asked for an "ink" or drink from his water cup. Boom! Down the shirt. So in every picture there is now a wet spot down the front of him. Sigh. There's only so much you can try to do. Thank goodness for photoshop (when I have time...someday).

Anyway, on with the show...


Coen loves foo-foos, otherwise known as dogs. So I decided he would enjoy a foo-foo cake.


As we waited for John to set up a Skype account, Coen enjoyed his first present, a rocking horse from mom and dad. He insisted on wearing his swim hat for some reason and rode for about 45 minutes, neighing the whole time.

love this sweet face!!!

he was so excited about his new stuffed foo-foo from mom and dad

Coen became a pro at unwrapping presents

fold out snake book from Grandma and Grandpa Bradley, he thought it was really neat

horse stable from mom & dad

horses that came with it

Playmobil Zoo from Grammy

basketball hoop for the tub

foo-foos for the tub!

a ball from Marshall, it has an elephant on the other side

At one point Coen started showing his presents to Grammy and Great Grandma. He would turn the front of the present to the camera on the laptop to let them ooh and aah over it. He even threw the ball to them. That didn't turn out so well :/

showing us what an elephant does

wondering what the hot candles were doing on his foo-foo cake

playing with the stable, this entertained him until we told him it was bedtime

Coen, you will always be my baby, no matter how big you get! I love you so much and I'm so lucky to be your mom! Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Conference Weekend

Conference was amazing this weekend! (As amazing as it can be with 2 crazies around.) It seems like I gained something from every talk (the ones I could actually hear and pay attention to) and that isn't always the case. Usually there are a couple that stand out but this time seemed extra meaningful. It was just an inspiring and memorable conference for me.

Something that helped get us through the afternoon session was a packet I found online at Green Carrots with Jello (love this website, check it out)! Marshall worked on the activities and it kept him happy, busy, and quiet (mostly). Marshall was extremely tired and emotional from waking up too early this morning. It did not make for the best day, but we tried.

Despite the look on his face, he isn't crying. Just very, very tired and focused.

After stringing on all the "beads" for a bracelet, he decided that the one of Jesus should be first, since he is the most important person. Sweet, huh?

See Jesus front and center? He's the one with neon green hair ;)

"Mom, take a picture of Jesus!"

This one was fun. It was a hidden picture of President Monson.

The packet also included puzzles of Pres. Monson, Jesus, and Joseph Smith as well as a couple pages we didn't get to. I'm so glad I got it!!

Almost caught up

Blogging has been on the back burner lately. You can tell from all the pictures that I have severe decision making problems. Tonight I pretty much posted everything I've taken pictures of and within each post I can never seem to narrow it down to just one or two pictures. I hope all moms have that problem and not just me. We just love pictures of our kids too much, am I right?

Introducing: The Bat Bandit

Love these 2 goofballs!

Man I love this face! Blueberry smear and all :)

Coen tucking in his stuffed bunny and kissing him goodnight.