Happy Late Halloween

I know I know, I have been a horribly bad blogger as of late. Do forgive me, I have had no excuse to neglect the blog, and it isn't like I haven't written any blogs, I just never did publish them, they were really long and good blogs, just not finished, and by the time I should have posted them, to much time had gone by. For me it is hard to pick back up on a blog and continue to write, I write with my moods and if I am in a particular mood that day, say sadness, anger, nostalgia, I can not just happen to pick back up on that mood. Which is very sad because I have many good blogs I have never posted. Oh well, they are there for me to read and print off for my out takes of blogging that never made it to the finished product. So the quick synopsis of life over here. Lily is great, we bought another 2 months for her last visit in the beginning of October. Her valve pressure has held stable at the 60-65% mark for the last several marks, which continues to make not only mommy happy, but the doctors are happy also. We are keeping our fingers crossed tightly that come December we get another 2 months all clear, so we can hopefully sail past her second birthday, which is what Dr.Cleveland wanted to begin with, with this repair. I don't say it often but I should, Dr. Cleveland is my hero, our hero in this family. Because of him, his steady hands, and years of medical school and wanting to become a doctor in the first place, we owe him everything.
Now real quick, Lily is weighing in at 29lbs 4 oz, standing tall at 83cm or 32.6771 inches...or should we just say 33" inches tall. She is healthy and where she needs to be for height and weight, she is in the 91st percentile for weight, and in the 63rd percentile for height. Pretty good if I do say so myself considering she is a heart baby. She is not fat, we consider her healthy..and even the doctors say so. Keep it up Lily, you are a growing girl who has to still undergo so much. Even though she weighs so much right now, she can easily lose a good amount during her next surgery, so we never take the weight gained for granted.
Now on to bigger and better things, such as Halloween and what has become mommies late night sweet tooth cravings. My poor children did the work of going door to door......WAIT...scratch that, it is as much mine as theirs because I still have to go door to door with them, I do not let them go up to the door without me..sorry, call me crazy, but that is just me. Oh and asides from the fact I still am regaining my 16 years of no Trick-or-treating allowed. Yes this is where my Jehovah Witness roots come into play. We were the household you would curse out as a child because you would see no lights on but every car in the driveway and the flickering of the TV, but when you rang the door bell there was no response. I am still surprised to this day that our house was never egged or T.P'd. I wouldn't have blamed them and I think I might have even laughed about it, at the expense of my butt being spanked for my behavior, but hey, I was a smart-alic child that enjoyed a good laugh, even if my butt stung for it later. I use to laugh about it then but my father said one day my actions would come back to haunt me, something about Karma..pssshhh...excuse me, but I didn't think JW's believed in stuff such as that, or am I wrong. I could call my grandmother and ask her but I do not wish to be drawn into a long conversation over religious beliefs and prefrences....SOOO...I will just settle this argument with, no, they do not believe in Karma or anything of the sort. So I have no reason according to them to explain my children being such willed children other then the way I raised them, which isn't truly wrong, but I will stick with Karma and bad ju-ju (Sami I stole your word). My rebellious nature has come back on me in ten fold..oh well, I love it and embrace and remind myself, when they are 18, they can move out, and I will be rewarded years later with many grandchildren, which will remind me that I did a good job and didn't kill my children on the many occasions where I thought duck tape and the wall sounded like a grand idea. I do hope you all know I am joking....or maybe I'm not...now that is the question you will wonder about every time you visit my page. Just remember, I love my children with all my heart, even at 2'o'clock in the morning and I am cleaning puke out of the carpet, my hair, their hair, their clothes, their bed, the bathroom floor, and the sink...I LOVE......MY.....CHILDREN!! Laughing out loud over here!
On with the pictures I say, Yes I purposely did these in reverse order...Enjoy the babies, they sure were cute!

Lucas and his Loot

Lily and her loot, let me tell you, once she saw what she had, she started screaming, and if you tried to touch it (like we did when we started picking it up) she screamed and then proceeded to bark at us. Since when did my daughter learn the guard dog routine?

The kids received glow bracelets from a house, which I thought was pretty neat. The loved them, was thrilling for the night!

The wonderful big brothers helping sissy out with walking house to house, more like irritating her

Lily and the big pumpkin, for the life of me, after 4 shots, I still could not get her to look at the camera.

The boys and the big pumpkin. Lucas thought it was "So Cool" he then asked me, "Mommy, that pumpkin doesn't have any of that yucky stuff inside it does it?" I laughed and told him no..you will see why it was funny below.

Lucas and his school friend Bella. She saw him first while we were out and about. He goes up and hugs her awkwardly, like trying to give her a pat on the back while having the, you smell gross look on your face. I thought it was cute. But it melted my heart when I heard him say, "Bella you look really pretty." AWE...my baby boy knows how to win the ladies over already..ugh, dang McLaughlin charm....I am going to have to watch out.

We had to walk over to the neighbourhood across the streets from out apartments. We started by going by Uncle Matt and Aunt Melissa's house.

Aunt Melissa and Cousin Madi came by before trick-or-treating, Madi was Little Red. She had the basket and everything.

I am big on Candid shots, which was all she was willing to give me anyways.

Lily, Aunt Melissa and Cousin Madi

(Lily and Madi are a month apart in age, Madi is older, Lily is bigger...hummm..I just make them big)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture. My favorite of the night.

My second favorite, Lily and the pumpkin. She was so stinkin adorable.

Austi man as the Hulk

Lucas as a baseball player. Don't harp on me, yes I know he has a Boston hat on, with an AZ jersey, I am well aware of that, but hey, my mom got me the outfit, so I can't complain. He was still adorable, and that is all that matters. That whole outfit was pieced together, Aunt Sami gave us Kenneth's (her almost 3 year old) baseball pants, My mom got the hat and shirt like mentioned, but the socks were Great Grandpa Jim's (whom Lucas never got to meet before he passed, nore I).

My 3 beauitful babies.

Lily has bowed legs, I know

My ladybug princess. Aunt Sami and mommy worked hard on that costume. She was a doll

Her hair for the evening, don't ask how I get her to hold still for so long, because I don't even know how. She loves her hair being done and I love doing it.

All Hallows Eve

Mama and her Girl

See I am the one who carves the pumpkin, trying to make up my lost time remember?

Lily honey we need to work on that smile, you are going to scare the children...

Lucas and the gooey pumpkin...I will let the pictures explain it all.

This is my 3rd Favorite picture

Lily had to help...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.

oh on a side note, I taught my boys a song on the walk home from trick-or-treating...needless to say they sing it around the house now.

Trick-0r-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat,

If you don't, I won't care, but I'll pull down your underwear."

Yes I know, bad bad bad mommy, they giggled all the way home istead of crying they were tired. Hey a mom's got to do, what a mom's got to do!

Love hugs and Blessings

Jenna