Happy Halloween!

For halloween Mina was a little known villainess... sure, she looks harmless here, but just wait...

'Til she hits you with her laser eye beams!!! Spladow!!! Mads was Buzz Lightyear - withOUT the rock in his head (remember that from last year?? I DO!)

Despite the fact that Mads was Buzz Lightyear two years in a row... his flying skills still seem to be lacking. Evidence as follows:

Rulon was a rough ridin' cowboy, very tough, would YOU dare to cross him??? I'd say not! (Don't let this get around, but he kissed me before he went to school AND before trick-or-treating.) Here's a super short clip of him in his school costume parade, don't blink or you'll miss it.

Thank goodness for the best Canadian park ranger ever!! He suited up and escorted Buzz and Buffalo Bill around the neighborhood in the rain to gather a record amount of sugar. Julie and little miss laser beams stayed home and shot down ghosts and goblins that dared venture near our house. Upon their return the sugar rush began... good grief, who knew mom would let the boys eat as much candy as they wanted to all at one time?!?! Rulon and Mads just kept asking if they could eat one more candy. They seriously seemed shocked each time I said YES, get it unwrapped, what's the hold up??
Just for kicks here is a priceless piece of halloween history compliments of Mads! He is SOOO entertaining!

Mina's first "real food"

I use the reference "real food" loosely because in this house "real food" either means meat or Mona's recipes... but for Mina we had to start off a bit more simple then all that! Now, I realize she is my baby and I think everything she does should be chronicled in video form... but if you dont feel like watching her cute little eating sequence that's okay too. Nobody's strong-arming you into checking my blog. So, with that said, these are attempts one and two of giving Mina oatmeal cereal, and she digs it just fine.

Mina snuggles for mom n dad Fairbourn

Mina was so cozy in my dad's arms that she nestled right to sleep. I'm not sure there is anything in the world more wonderful than a snuggly little baby!
Her eyes look cloudy because every auto eye correcting program has difficulty correcting her "red eye" problem. It's actually amusing some of the "corrections" I've seen. I spent a lot of time in photoshop making a correction on my own!

Mom got a chance to snuggle Mina too! Can you believe not even my angel baby asleep in their arms could make then stay longer?!?!? Such will power... Crazy I tell you! :)

To Roll or Not to Roll.

Ok, Mina rolls over from belly to back now, she has taken her sweet time with this and thinks she's pretty funny when she does it now.  So... do you think she was willing to perform for the camera or do you think she got stage fright?  Put your vote in the comments section THEN watch the clip to see if you were right.  Or cheat and just watch the clip and act like you guessed right. :) 

Mmmmm Ribs!

I put htis on facebook, but it is worth posting on the blog too!! This is how Mads fell asleep last night, tooooo funny~ He laughed so hard when I showed him the pic of himself.

It is not very often that ribs are a good enough price to buy for dinner... we were all excited to get our faces a little messy and fill our bellies with delish pork ribs. Mads especially enjoyed the getting messy part, well.. the belly filling part too, man can he polish off a few ribs!
Rulon is not scared of the saucy rib-fest either, good thing there are no pictures of Julie & Chester. We try to hold on to our dignity.

Rulon's School Photo

Now that's a handsome kindergartner!!

Fire Department Open House!

(the spacing on this post is crazy, so it's staying crazy and I'm not fixing it or I'll go crazy.)

Thanks to a friend we became aware of a completely awesome and totally free family "field trip" opportunity. We spent a little of our evening at our local fire station. They offered demonstrations and hands on learning activities for everyone.

Rulon's favorite was the "smokey escape", a demo on how to feel for heat behind a door and how to crawl through a smokey area to safety.

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The kids got to go inside an ambulance and see the kinds of things that are used to help save lives on the way to the hospital

Rulon was eager to try CPR since he wants to be a paramedic when he grows up, "but not the kind that rides in
an ambulance, the kind that DRIVES the ambulance".

The coolest thing for Mads was getting to spray the fire hose, look at his super excited little face, priceless!

There was also an extrication demo where they actually showed how they cut the doors and roofs off of wrecked cars in order to get people out of the vehicle!

I picked up my friend Taunya's kids so they could see the cool stuff with us. They were just hanging out at home while Taunya was a parent teacher conf., so it was great for them and for me... they helped me keep track of Mads :)

It was fun to take pictures on the bumpers of the big emergency vehicles, the kids loved it.

I loved that my boys looked small again wearing the big Fire Fighter's coats. Mads wanted to leave his on, I probably should have let him, it would have slowed him down a bit!

There was a big fire fighting demonstration! It was amazingly HOT even from our safe distance!! The boys backed up super quickly and were astonished at the heat! They followed up this fire hose demo with the big huge water cannon from atop the fire truck ladder. Soooo cooool!

Mina was a good sport strapped to me in the baby bjorn, she only cried once, when Mads shrieked with excitement at manning the fire hose!

Laughter IS the best Medicine!

At the end of a long tiring day, all I wanted was for the boys to bath themselves, make me dinner and quietly march themselves down to bed... so I decided we all needed some "medicine"... a little laughter to brighten our evening.  Enter Mina.  She is such a delightful little angel and she LOVES her brothers.  They make her laugh and everyone loves it because it is contagious.  So, you know how you have something that you totally want to record but when you get the camera out the opportunity has passed... Well, I think we did ok this time, here is the footage.  Keep in mind all things are better in person.

So if you need some laughter medicine, come to my house - but give me a little heads up first :)

This little girl makes me smile every time I look at her sweet face!

I hear girls are just as sweet when they are teenagers, awesome! :)

New Scooters

Ok, so everyone in the neighborhood has razor scooters, seriously, all the kids.  Well, when Rulon came asking (begging) for a scooter of his own, we said no.  Then a few days later after several homework melt downs we decided to try something big to help Rulon feel motivated to work through his homework frustrations, plus Walmart had scooters on "roll back" (sale).  He is only in Kindergarten but he takes his homework sooo seriously (where does he get THAT from?) At the slightest imperfection he freaks out and wants to throw his paper and pencil on the floor and cries...

So, Rulon wrote a goal on a 3x5 card: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Scooter"

Translation: Do homework 5 times without getting angry and quitting to earn a scooter.

Getting frustrated was ok, but no tantrums, just ask for help, take a breather and get it done, also no erasing the imperfect letters, just do the next one more carefully.  FYI he only has homework twice a week so 5 homeworks takes 2 1/2 weeks to accomplish if all goes well, a pretty long time for a 5 year old.  BOY was he excited when he had homework to do, he was ultra patient with each assignment, a few frustrations but a good attitude about it. He never complained about days passing slowly or it taking too long to get 5 chances to earn his scooter, just plain happiness.  So, this week he crossed off #5 on his "scooter card" and we have been scootering every day since!! Mads earned his scooter by leaving Rulon alone while doing his homework.  Mads and I had reading time together to keep him occupied.

Good thing we have had such beautiful days even in late September, I think they will still want to scoot in the snow....

 Mina is a good sport, she chills and "watches" her brothers with her eyes closed, as in sleeping.