Halloween pics

Yes, I know that Thanksgiving was last Thursday, but better late than never...

We had a fun Halloween. Aaron Scott was a Power Ranger, and Landis was a pumpkin.

They were very cute. Our friends Sara and Sean and their daughters, Aerin and Teagan, came over for dinner. It was very confusing having an Aaron, an Aerin and an Erin. After dinner, Goat and Sean took Aaron and Aerin trick or treating while Sara and I distributed candy to the neighborhood kids and tried to keep the babies out of trouble.



Landis decided he was done being a pumpkin. His cruel mother continued to unsympathetically snap pictures, but sweet little Teagan crawled over to comfort him. "It's OK, Landis. I know what you're going through." She's such a good friend.

I finally relented and took off his pumpkin suit, and he and Teagan played for a while before the older kids got back with giant buckets of candy. Somehow we managed to wrench the buckets from them, but only after they had eaten enough sugar to stun a small elephant. Our friends headed home, and we watched Aaron Scott bounce off the walls until the sugar high ended and he crashed into bed, exhausted. We quickly followed suit, tired and thankful that Halloween is only once a year.



One of these days I will put up the pictures from Landis' birthday party.

We're in Trouble Now!

Landis just climbed over the baby gate into the kitchen. He's not supposed to be able to do that! I was moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer in the laundry room, which is connected to the kitchen. Landis was fussing at the gate (he's Little Mr. Separation Anxiety recently.) I heard fuss, fuss, whine, fuss, THUD, fuss, fuss, and just as I went to investigate the thud, he showed up in the laundry room. I've never met a baby who loved to climb like he does.

We just got back from a trip to the beach with Paul, who is visiting for a few days. Landis had a GREAT time. He loves the water. He splashed in the waves, tried to eat seashells, and caused a traffic jam along the edge of the water as passersby stopped to "ooh" and "ahh." He was very sad when we had to leave. We'll have to go again soon!

Landis is

adorable!

I was skeptical...

but Black Bean Brownies are delicious!

Black Bean Brownies

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
2 bananas
1/4 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 F. Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies comes out clean. Cool, eat and enjoy!

The brownies come out really gooey, which I like, but if you want slightly drier brownies, decrease the amount of applesauce.

New House!

I've been so busy recently that I failed to update the blog with our exciting news. We're buying a house! We won it in an auction. The house had been on the market for a while, and we saw it once and really liked it, but the asking price was a little bit out of our price range, and we decided not to put an offer in on it. We found a second house that we really liked and prepared to put an offer in on it, but someone beat us to it and their offer was accepted. Then we heard that the Realtor who owned the first house was putting it up for auction, and we decided to go to the auction with a very low top bid, mostly just because it seemed like an auction would be a neat thing to see. The auction was on a Saturday and I had made plans to head up to Gainesville to see my parents and brothers, then up to Panama City with them to see my grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. Because we were both sure that we wouldn't win the auction with the amount we were willing to bid, I headed up as planned and Lawrence stayed behind for the auction. To my great surprise, he called me Saturday evening and informed me that we had in fact won the auction, and for less than the top bid that we had decided on, and which we had thought would be surpassed by tens of thousands of dollars. I got home Sunday night, and we've been running nonstop since then, comparing mortgages, setting up inspections, dealing with finances, and filling out neverending piles of paperwork.

The house is really perfect for us. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, so we have a little bit of room to expand if we decide the boys need another sibling in a year or 2, it's less that 1/2 a mile to Lawrence's work, so he can walk or bike to work and we don't have to worry about buying a 2nd car, it's in a great neighborhood and only a few blocks away from an 'A' rated elementary school. We love it! We close on the 15th of October and have a few weeks to get moved in before the lease on our apartment ends. We'll have a guest room and hope that all of you will visit!

In other news, Landis is walking! He has been taking a few steps for a while, but he really took off when we headed up to Gainesville and Panama City the weekend before last. I think he wanted to keep up with his uncles, who are so much fun he hardly knows what to do. Ever since then, there's been no stopping him. He still takes his fair share of tumbles, but he gets right back up and starts walking again. He looks so proud of himself whenever he walks further than usual or makes a sharp turn. It's pretty cute. I'm amazed at how quickly the time has gone. It's hard to believe that he is already 10 months old and toddling about.

Yum!

We went thrift store shopping this weekend with Aunt Jane and I took a chance and bought a crockpot, not knowing whether it worked. It works!! To test it out, I made delicious

Lentil Soup

olive oil
1 large chopped onion
2-3 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp. ground coriander seed
1 tsp. ground cumin seed
2 cups lentils
6 cups water or stock
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup brown rice
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper

Saute the onion, garlic, coriander and cumin in the olive oil until the onion is soft and clear. Place in the crockpot.

Add lentils, water or stock, tomatoes and rice to the crockpot. Cook on low for several hours.

Before serving, add a splash of and salt and pepper to taste.



It is yummy! I'm so excited to have a crockpot. It will make life so much easier. Landis is generally fussiest and clingiest in the evening around dinner time, so it's hard to pry him out of my arms long enough to make a good meal. I threw the soup ingredients in the crockpot just before lunch and they were ready by dinnertime. Let me know if you have a crockpot recipe that you love!

I spend 2 minutes blogging

and Landis eats a beetle. Ewwwww! Where did he even find it? Lawrence fished the head out of his mouth, and he was holding the body and wings. How gross!!

Baby Steps

Landis is working so hard on walking. Last night he walked 5 steps from me to Lawrence, and then back again. He was so proud of himself! He has been cruising around the living room today, taking one step between the bookcase and the computer table, then 2 steps between the table and a chair, then 3 steps back to the bookcase. It's so much fun to watch!

Ahhh!!

We are having a crazy day!

Landis and I woke up this morning and played for a little while. Lawrence came home for lunch, we ate, and he headed back to work. I headed into the kitchen to wash some dishes, leaving Landis in the living room, playing with his toys. After a minute, I heard a banging sound and realized that I could no longer see Landis, so I left the kitchen to look for him. Turns out I had forgotten to close the bathroom door and he was in the bathroom, throwing things into the toilet, which he does every chance he gets. (Fortunately, he's only gotten two chances so far.) I fished the plunger and toilet scrubber brush and case out of the toilet and rinsed them off in the shower, then grabbed Landis and tossed him in and got him soaped up and cleaned. Once he'd been scrubbed, I wrapped him up in a towel, grabbed a diaper and put him on the our bed to change him. Of course, as soon as I moved the towel to put his diaper on, he started peeing all over the sheets. All of this fun took place before 1 pm. It's going to be a loooooooooong day.

He's down for his nap, so I had better go take care of the messes!

The boys!

Here is a picture of Aaron Scott and Landis from a few months ago. Newer pictures are coming soon. =)

Update

We have been busy recently! We celebrated Aaron Scott's 7th birthday with a trip to Adventure Island, a water park, last weekend. He had a great time on the rides and in the wave pool. We made several friends - Aaron is a wonderfully friendly boy! Landis enjoyed playing in the shallow kids area, and Lawrence and I switched charges every hour or two and had a lots of fun with both boys.

Aaron Scott starts 2nd grade tomorrow. Hopefully it will be another great school year for him!

Landis is 9 months old and continues to grow and learn. He is cruising the furniture, standing unassisted and taking 1 or 2 steps on occasion. It won't be long until he is running around the house! His favorite thing recently is to be chased. He does his sprint crawl across the living room floor, hoping to entice one of us to chase him. We crawl after him and kiss him when we catch him, and he laughs and laughs. He is such a delight!

Lawrence is still working at Avidyne, and enjoying it for the most part. He has great coworkers and is always learning something new.

We are house hunting, and hope to find the perfect home soon! There is a lot on the market right now and we're having a great time looking, but we're increasingly eager to find "the one. I'm excited about gardening, and Lawrence can't wait to have space to work on our boat. We just bought a Catalina 22 that needs some work. It will be perfect for day trips or overnights with the boys.

I'm going to try to remember to update the blog periodically, so remind me if it's been a while!

For the Record

My 5 month old pulled up to standing today. He is ridiculous.