Happy Halloween!

The kids just love our friends Chad & Jen, so when they invited us to come by for trick or treating we couldn't pass up the fun. They always set the ambiance with spooky music, strobe lights, black lights and spooky decorations. Chad likes to dress up for handing out candy. He was frustrated this year when he couldn't come up with something unique. But when he put on his sombrero and sarape he thought how perfect, "I'll be a Sandoval."
Esaias loves their dogs, and we tried getting a shot of all the puppies, but of course they didn't want to pose. He did enjoy carrying his bag up to the doors to get candy. It only took about 2 houses before he figured out how it all worked. And of course, although it was late and past his bedtime, we were outside taking a walk, riding in the wagon, he was a happy little boy.

The 5th Grade Three Mouseketeers
(aka Jen, Heidi, & Vycci or Padgett, Obermaier & Sandoval)

Fall Festival Brings out the Coolest People

Last night was the Ward Fall Festival, and somehow every year, even when I think we're not dressing up, we decide to pull a costume together last minute. Danny couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy an 80's wig that resembles what he might have looked like, had he lived as an adult in the 80's. We were serenaded in the car to the song Now and Forever, by Richard Marx. And while many people at the party thought he was Michael Jackson (no glove, no bling...) there were a few old enough to remember the stylin' eighties. I am sure glad I met him in the late 90's. I think I just might have resisted that jerry curl. This authentic "Members Only" jacket really made the costume (thanks to Jen & Chad for loaning it to him), along with the raised collar on the pink polo, and the pegged legged pants with the sockless loafers all contributed to him winning the "coolest" costume award.
While we were a decade apart from Danny, Marina and I also won part 2 & 3 of the "coolest" costume. When I was preparing to answer the what or who am I question. I thought I should just answer, "my mom." It's truly scary when you look in the mirror and can see a picture of your own mom in your head.

Lookin' pretty groovy Marina!

It was the year for winning...Isaac won for the most original costume. Yes, he's a garden gnome. Where does he come up with these ideas? Who knows? He reads too much!

Esaias not pictured...got shots on Thursday, and was not feeling up to the party. We forced it upon him anyway. He did wear his doggy costume, but not as happily as he did on his own terms. As usual!

Monday will bring Marina getting to wear her costume all day, while Isaac has to wait until trick or treating to wear his costume again. I will happily be sporting a Mickey Mouse Halloween shirt and some Minnie Mouse ears with my fellow teacher friends to form the 3 Mouseketeers. Much easier costume for embracing a day full of 5th graders wearing costumes. Probably not a whole lot of learning will occur that day. Oh well, I don't make the calendar. Happy Halloween everyone!

Why...

do projects always take double the time you plan, or are told it will take?
The flooring project sure did a number on us. We started it on Wed., Oct. 20th when told that it would take 3 days, so that we could give them time to get finished, and take care of things by the weekend. Needless to say, we were forced out of our house for 3 days (all weekend) due to fumes, and the workers were still at our house Monday when we returned. To spare you all the miserable details, let's just say I wouldn't recommend this business to anyone. To say our house was a mess, would be majorly understated. I am still working on getting to the point where we can appreciate our new floors. But we still have a long way to go. Don't get me wrong, the floors are very nice, we've just had so much cleaning and fixing to do, that we just aren't to the point of enjoying them yet. I will post more pictures when we finish putting things together.




do you get sick on vacation?
So after this major project mess, and our family being displaced, we all ended up sick. We passed the stomach flu around from Tuesday thru Friday. So, we spent our fall break vacation sick. It's one of those times, that we are grateful to not be at work and to have the time to be sick, but not exactly what we planned on doing for our time off together.

do I have such cute kids?
Even with all our craziness, we managed to pull off Harry Potter, Hermione, and a very cute lobster. We did get to Danny's Haunted Harvest work party for a couple hours, and out to our friends Jen & Chad's neighborhood for a quick "trick or treat" and visit.do my kids look so much alike?
I wish I had the time to scan in the pictures of Halloween's gone by...you can hardly tell the difference between my kids at this 6 month age. Isaac and Esaias are both about the exact same age this time of year, Isaac being born in May, and Esaias in April. Marina was born in Sept. but even at a year old, because she was so tiny, looked just about the same size as her brothers at 6 months. Isaac is actually the most distinct looking, with his huge, round brown eyes. However, despite the eyes, wow do they all look alike. Who would have thought???

This is Esaias wearing one of Isaac's old jammie's. I didn't keep very much from Isaac, but I did happen to have this dinosaur bag. I just love putting babies in bags. They don't like them at all once they can crawl, so I have to get in my fix before they get too big. Esaias moves around so much at night that he kicks out of his regular snap pj's...and then he gets cold. So a bag works much better right now.

Why ask why?
Life just is meant to throw us some curve balls now and then. I am so grateful to have survived this one. There were a few days, I wasn't sure we'd recover...But back to school and the regular routine proves otherwise. Marina who was even tired this morning, still expressed that she was happy to go back to school. All is well :)

Can u believe it?

• A 5 month old drinking from a glass! Yes, Esaias wants to do everything we all do...eating big people food, drinking from a glass, walking...you name it, he wants to do it! Of course he can't really, but man does he want to!!!

• 

• We're finally getting rid of some of that country blue carpet! We decided to forfeit our trip to Arizona to work on some home improvement items, we've needed/wanted to get to since we moved in 5 years ago. We will send some update pictures as we get them.
• A skeleton that glows in the dark! Danny went down to give Esaias his pacifier in the middle of the night, and "you could even say it glows." Esaias is moving around so much that you have to feel your way in the dark to find him and the pacifier late at night (or early morning.) It was pretty funny to not have to feel your way to find him that night.

• Our own personal Halloween decorations in our front yard. The kids were kind of bummed when we informed them that we would not be putting up all the regular Halloween decorations, due to the floor project. So, it was very fitting and good timing on the part of the crows to decide to come into our front yard in numbers. The pictures don't quite do it justice. Crows are huge! And there were so many of them! However, getting pictures before they left or we scared them away, was a challenge.