Halloween

October

Isn't it crazy that October is over already?!  We had a fun October though.  We did many Halloween festivities.  There was our ward Halloween party, a party at Tumbling Tykes, a festival in Saratoga Springs, and of course trick or treating.  A lot of the towns around here have festivals, we could have gone to one almost every Saturday in October.  We did finally make it to one and it was awesome!  They had horse rides, a little petting zoo, pumpkin rolling, and more.  It was in downtown Saratoga and all the shops had little activities and/or trick or treating.  So fun!  The pumpkin rolling was hilarious.  I was cracking up watching all the kids (mostly Sam) chase their pumpkins down the hill! 

We are still really liking it here in New York.  We actually feel like this is the first time we've ever been in a truly friendly ward, lol.  People are really nice here.  The only thing that would make us consider moving somewhere else a few years down the road are the taxes, they are CRAZY!!!!! 

Noah understands pretty much everything now, but he isn't in any hurry to start talking.  They seem to play together a little more every day, it's great.  We haven't lost as much weight lately, I think I've lost five pounds since we moved into the house which was a couple months ago, so pretty slow.  We're still working on it though. 

I took some pictures of both boys in their costumes and some of them playing in the leaves in the back yard, but I haven't even uploaded those yet, so they will have to be saved for the next post. 

We put up the boys' tent for conference.  It kept them entertained for at least a half hour or so :)

I put out some cooking stuff for Noah to play with one day, he had a blast!  Sam was out at the store with Jason.  When he got home, they had fun making a really big mess together with it :)

Sam playing with his toys in the coffee table, silly boy :)

Sam made a heart out of his playdough

Sam's favorite shows to watch are super hero shows and his favorite game is to be super heroes.  Here he is being Captain America with a pot lid as his shield and Noah being Thor with his hammer.

At the Halloween festival

 

Pumpkin rolling

This was the ward Halloween party, our first Halloween festivity.  Noah was sleeping when we took this picture.  I got some more photos of the two boys another day, but those will have to wait for the next post because I haven't even uploaded them to the computer yet.   

Visit from Grandpa Warren

We had a fun visit with my dad.  We spent one weekend in Boston and went to the Children's Museum which was really awesome, and the science museum.  We also saw a lot of the historical stuff and ate lots of good food :)  The next weekend we went to Cooperstown and that was fun as well.  Here are a few pictures.

Since my dad left we haven't done much to mention.  Tumbling Tykes did have a parent's night out where they do fun stuff with the kids and the parents get to go on a date.  That was awesome, I don't think we've had a date for a good 5 or 6 months at least.  I guess they do it every month so we will be sure to do it every time! 

Looks like my mom and Bob are going to visit in December so that will be fun.  We did go to our new ward for the first time and it seems really great!  There are several couples our age and everyone is really friendly.  For the first time ever it seems like we'll actually make some friends in our ward, which is great since this is the one time we really need it.  It's a pretty small ward and they are really on top of things.  I already have a visiting teaching route.  We are getting excited for all the holidays.  Sam loves to pretend to be Spiderman so I think he will be Spiderman for Halloween and Noah will be Batman.  Jason and I probably won't dress up since adult costumes are fairly expensive.  Well that's about all that's been going on over here.

And here I'm putting a link to my website because the more sites link to it, the higher the google rating :)  So ignore my upcoming jibberish.

Sweet Confections Photography.  Albany, NY photographer, wedding photography, family portraits, Albany newborn photographer, Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park, senior pictures, child portraits, cake smash, maternity photographer.

First Project

Well my dad flies in late tonight and we finished the guest bedroom just in time.  It looks amazing, the before and after pictures are going to be crazy.  We'll still need to put up the trim and hang a few things on the walls before we take the official after picture, but be prepared to be shocked :)  Jason is awesome!  We spent our four day weekend drywalling it and the next weekend painting it.  Lowes installed carpet yesterday and now we're good to go.  So you should all be eager to come visit us now because we've got a beautiful room and a queen size bed waiting for you.  Also your own bathroom, you just have to share that with the cat :)

Here's Jason riping down the ugly ceiling tiles and revealing a hidden attic (nothing good in it, too bad). 

 

Speaking of the cat, here's our first photo with him, taken last night.  He still hides all day, but he is slowly getting better.

 

Sam scoured the house for all the toys he could find to create this.  He didn't want to put it away, so I told him we would take a picture of it and he wanted to be in the picture, so cute!

 

Yes, he really did fall asleep like that.

 

We went on an evening walk a couple days ago and it was the first time since moving here the boys wore jackets.  It's starting to cool down in the evenings.  We sure have enjoyed this beautiful summer though!

 

We had fun playing with chalk the other day.  It's nice having our own driveway, deck, and yard!

 

 

  

 

 

We are going to Boston with my dad this weekend (3 day weekend). Should be a lot of fun! We are going to Cooperstown the next weekend. So I should have some fun pictures for the next post!

New House

Well we are all moved in, unpacked, and have the deep cleaning done.  It felt really good to be able to get back to my normal routine this week once all that was done.  There hasn't been a whole lot going on besides making lots of trips to Lowe's and Target to get this and that for the house.  We do really love it and we are looking forward to doing projects to make it our own.  Jason will be starting on the guest room this weekend (4 day weekend, woohoo) because my dad will be here to visit in just a couple weeks (another woohoo). 

We did get a cat.  He's a big, calm, friendly guy, but he has been hiding (really well- I literally NEVER see him except when we go looking for him) so far, so I'll hope to get a picture of him by the next post :)  All four of us love having him, despite not getting much time with him yet.  He was in the pound for a long time so it will probably just take him some time to get used to not being in a cage. 

But I do have some pictures of the boys to share!

The night before we moved in

 

Same night, celebrating with ice cream

 

 

And playing at the park :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noah always likes to make friends

 

Boys

Well we are supposed to be closing tomorrow at 9:30am, so let's just pray nothing else goes wrong between then and now.  We have had enough fun surprises!  We do our walk through this evening at 7:30.  I'm a little nervous since I think it was just the man up here to clean it out, and let's be honest men don't clean like women do.  BUT he is in the military and I hear that military men clean better than most, so I guess we'll see lol. 

So our next post should be from our new house and I'll be sure to have some pictures of the house and the boys in that one!  Sorry, no pictures in this one.  I was thinking I would update how the boys are doing though.

Sam has full out conversations now days and he is always saying the most hilarious things.  Toddlers are so entertaining!  And he is still just as sweet as ever- when he isn't throwing a tantrum ;)  During the day he likes to say he misses Daddy, then he continues on through everyone he knows. . . Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, and so on.  He is so excited to get his toys back tomorrow.  I am going to have to take a video of him opening the boxes!!  The other day when he said he missed daddy, I told him tomorrow is the weekend (which we had discussed in the past) and asked him if he remembered what that meant.  He went "hmmmm. . . Daddy home!"  It was cute :)

Noah understands almost everything now.  He doesn't have much interest in trying to actually talk, but he is definitely vocal!  He likes to follow Sam around all day.  When Sam is in the mood to play with him they play great, but other times he still wants Noah to leave him alone since Noah still isn't too great at actually playing anything except tag.  Sam loves to play animals with his little bath animal toys, it's his favorite game.  They are so well behaved at Baby Boot Camp, all the other moms comment on it.  I'm not sure why they are so good there, but it's really nice for me! 

Jason and I are both down about 20 pounds right now, although we've been pretty bad this weekend justifying it since we had such a stressful week and should have already been in our new house, plus have to spend all weekend cleaning this place.  Gotta get back on it when the weekend is over.

We may take the home owners to small claims court when it's all done because it ended up costing us quite a bit to stay here the extra few days.  We are going to ask our attorney about it after the closing.  One piece of good news is the closing costs came out to $2,000 less than we anticipated so that's great and we should have a descent amount of money to put back into the house and/or my studio. 

Well that's all for now, wish us luck today and tomorrow!

Progress

It's been a pretty good week!  I am down a total of 15 pounds since moving here and Jason is down a total of 20 pounds!  Today is day 6 of Atkins.  We are only doing it for two weeks to kick our addictions to sugary, refined carbs and get our bodies burning the fat, then we have other diet plans we are going to move into.  I'm hoping to be down 20 pounds by the time we finish Atkins because then I'll be half way to my goal.  Jason only has 10 pounds left to lose to be at his goal, but he does need to start exercising and weight lifting more.  It's harder for him to find the time since he is only home in the evenings.  We are considering taking up running once we move into our new house and get our jogging stroller back. 

I officially started Baby Boot Camp on Wednesday and it is amazing!  It's a great workout and so amazing to be able to get out and talk with other adults lol.  All of the girls are really great and I actually enjoy socializing there, which is very unlike me, lol.  I have made a lot of friends very quickly there.  I could not say enough great things about it, it's so fun!

Supposedly we should be moving into our new house two weeks from yesterday.  It seems like the bank is wrapping things up and our attorney says he doesn't see any reason it should close late, so keep your fingers crossed for us, because we really don't want to have to pay for a hotel in between houses.  We really haven't done anything too exciting to report lately.  We've been spending our free time getting stuff done that needs done.  I take the boys to play at Tumbling Tykes at least once a week.  We are planning to make it to the outdoor pool at our apt. complex today, can't wait! 

My dad booked his trip to come see us, so that's exciting.  He'll be here September 11-25th so we'll probably plan some fun things to do in that time.  Well I think that's about it to report, so here are a couple cute pictures of the boys before I go :)