Andrews Family

Trouble-Maker!

The day after Halloween I was exhausted, to say the least. I changed Paxton's diaper on the floor, too lazy to go all the way upstairs. I accidentally left the pack of wipes on the floor. Guess who found them and decided to pull every single one out? Yup that's right, this little trouble-maker! It's a good thing that he is so cute!

Happy Halloween!

YES, we ALL dressed up as Toy Story characters!

Trick-or-treating was a blast this year! Alexis loved going from house to house and when the people would answer the door she would shout "I'm trick-or-treating!!" Too funny. Pax loved it too, which surprised me. He loved walking up to the houses and waiting for them to answer the door. But instead of saying "trick-or-treat" he would say "I want cookie" every single time I would die laughing. Love that lil guy! Poor guy never did get a cookie but he did end up with a bucket full of candy. He was really good at picking out the good candy too (thanks buddy!) =)

We had a great Halloween with some awesome trick-or-treating! I'm sad it's all over. Another Halloween in the books.

Pre-School Halloween Party

(side-note) I bought Alexis' Halloween costume from a shop on Etsy. But I could not find the hat to go with it anywhere! We were at a Halloween store and I found the costume with the hat included so I bought the whole thing. Since I'm a mean mom and didn't want her ruining her actual handmade costume, I made her wear the one that came with the hat.

Another Halloween party... but for her pre-school class this time. The thirst and final Halloween party! I volunteered to help out with her class and brought the kids some juice-boxes. The kids had a ice-cream party and I helped hand out all the toppings which had Halloween-ish names to them. (chocolate sprinkles were ants,etc.) I was surprised that their wasn't more moms there to help out, I figured that classroom would be full! The kids ate their ice-cream and then played pin the nose on the pumpkin and another game where they passed around a pumpkin to some music and when the music stopped whoever was holding the pumpkin got to pick a prize. Each kid won and they all got a prize. Alexis picked a spider ring. After the party they got to play outside. Run all that sugar energy off! =) It was a great party and I really enjoyed watching Alexis in her element. I loved watching her and her friend Addison playing, they're super cute together.

Carving Pumpkins

2 days before Halloween and we still hadn't gotten around to carving pumpkins. So we did! To me it feels like when it gets to Halloween that I blink my eyes and it's January. I love these 3 months so much and wish they would slow down just a bit. I pinned on Pinterest some carving patterns and let Alexis choose from those. She picked the Cinderella and the Arial ones, go figure! Alexis was really into it this year, which made it more fun! She was confused about cleaning out the pumpkin and kept looking at me like she didn't want to get in trouble for getting dirty. (Yes, I totally freak when my kids get messy!) I told her to go for it, and with a huge smile on her face she dug right in. She cleaned for a little while and eventually got restless and I had to jump in and finish cleaning it up for her. We put on the pattern and told her how to poke the holes on the lines to form the princess pattern. I was super impressed that she did such a great job with this and it held her attention for a really long time. Paxton on the other hand wanted no part of putting his hands in the pumpkin. He just sat there starring at all of us not making a sound. He was intrigued, but not so much where he wanted to be involved. We carved out our pumpkins in record time. (It was a Monday evening and we were getting close to bed time!) I lined up the pumpkins like I do every year for a picture opportunity! Cory put in the candles and lit them and turned the lights off. Alexis thought that was the coolest thing. Every night after that she insisted on going outside to look at the pumpkins lit while it was dark out. It's all about the small things with her.

A whole year...

It has been a whole year since my Mother-in-law passed away. Looking back on that awful day it feels like it was a decade ago! But at the same time I can still hear her voice. Is it possible to feel like it was forever ago and like it just happened yesterday at the same time? Either way, I miss her. A lot. For the 1 year anniversary we went out to her grave. It was freezing outside and the kids had just been in a car for 4 hours so it didn't go as planned. I was hoping Cory would have more time to talk to his mom, but the kids were acting up and we were all cold. We did spend about 10 minutes there though. It brought back a year ago when Alexis was handed a flower from her funeral and she put it in the box with her grandmas ashes. It was such a precious moment and a sad moment in one. I am so sad that my kids will never know her. I think that's the hardest part about the whole thing. I wish she was still with us, but with her passing has brought that side of the family so much closer together. We see Cory's grandma (his moms mom) a heck of a lot more often now, and we see his aunts, uncles and cousins more frequently as well. That's been such a blessing to us. We appreciate them and make the effort to make sure that we see them at every opportunity. So to sign off I'll do it it a Mary-Kay fashion.... Hugs and Kisses to all!

Dance Halloween Party

Alexis' dance class had a Halloween party and we were able to invite a friend to come along. Alexis invited Shai. They were so cute all dressed up in their costumes. Q and Pax kept each other busy in the waiting room and Shannon and I had a little bit of time to catch up!

I found these Frankenstein treats on Pinterest... I love Pinterest! They were super cute and SUPER easy! Vanilla pudding that is tinted green with oreos smashed on top. Easy! They were a big hit and I got a ton of compliments on them. Alexis was proud and kept announcing "My mommy made those!"