Trick or Treat!!!!

well, it's been a good couple of weeks. Halloween was awesome. i think it was around 60 degrees that night. the kids didn't have to layer tons of clothes under their costumes this year, unlike in washington. the first year in pullman on halloween it was 4 degrees. i think kurtis got like 5 pieces of candy. he was so cold. his little 16 month old fingers holding so tightly to his candy bucket were going to break off! but this year, it was nice. they both got a ton of candy. filled up their buckets almost to the brim. we somehow found a neighborhood that was prepared with candy, but didn't have many trick or treaters. so, one guy gave kurtis 4 big handfuls of good candy. needless to say he was thrilled. now, onto these pics with the kids on the couch. this is the morning before picture re-takes for kurtis. the first ones he hardly smiled and they were a bit blury. well, he was putting up a bit of resistance to the idea of getting pictures done again. so, worried that he would conviently forget to give his packet to his teacher, i paper clipped a note on his shirt. well, after school when kurtis climbed into the van, i noticed the paper clips still on his shirt. in fear that one wouldn't be enough, of course i used 2 of them...the big ones. well, they were both still there. after talking to him about it all, he told me the paper clips would just not come off. so, for re-takes, the smile will probably be adorable, but he has 2 huge shiney paper clips on his shirt. geez. i told him to make sure he gives the note to his teacher. i never mentioned anything about the clips!!!! i guess that's life, right??

chuck is doing well. he's staying super busy with school. saturday he had a study group that met from 9-4:15pm. well, when he came home we went to dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant, Ted's. that was fun. on the way home, he told me that he was going to do his take home test tomorrow (which would be sunday). chuck normally doesn't plan homework for sunday. so i asked why. well, come to find out, chuck thought it was friday again. he actually had his whole "saturday" planned out. sleeping in and so forth. he said he was wondering why there were so many football games that day, which he thought was friday but was really saturday. ha ha. well, his finals are coming up the first 2 weeks of december. i wish the kids and i could leave for them, but kurtis has school. his professors have told them that these finals will most likely be the most stressful event in their lives so far. so, super exciting for me. he's learning so much so fast. time is going by faster than i thought it would. true, we are only into the first semester. i'm sure this is the tip of the iceberg. but we feel very blessed. even though law school is not the easiest thing to do, we love our 3 beautiful and wonderful boys. we all stay busy and are stressed at times. and though the kids do cause some of the stress, they are most often the stress reliever for the both of us. their smiles, funny jokes, comments and quick whit keep us going. we are truly blessed. well, 2 smiles out of 3 was good, i thought!!
these guys are buddies. jared loves it when kurtis comes home from school. he smiles and laughs when he gets in the car. then when kurtis has to go to the back and buckle up, he yells and cries.
jared and blake. jared is getting so big. he's putting everything into his mouth now. it's going by so fast! and yes, that is my exercise ball in the play pen in the background. hey, at least i have it out.
blake's a ham for the camera!
here's kurtis and jared before school on tuesday. they get good play time in each morning.

this is our go at Transformer Pumpkin.
kurtis is a ninja and blake is spiderman!
kurtis, blake and jared. jared was too hot with his costume on. we had to take it off for pics or he wouldn't stop crying.
so proud of his candy.
someone's excited ya think??? they need to make those candy buckets smaller!!