Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween....2011

Well, it's no secret that my family likes Halloween. Around here, we all love it!

Life didn't used to be this way...
When Gage was little, he HATED Halloween. He HATED Trick-or-treating.
Now, we all LOVE Halloween!

Hubby loves having pumpkins. Lots of pumpkins.
While he was out of town on a business trip, Gage & I were put in charge of beefing up the outdoor Halloween decor. That was a task we could handle!!!

Clearly, we got Hubby a few pumpkins....


We also hit the costume aisle at Walmart where Gage had fun trying on some scary masks...


We texted those pics to Daddy, trying to startle him! Oh, the fun of little boys.

Ultimately, he decided to be an Army Commando, & nothing all THAT scary. Thank goodness! I'm not sure I'm ready for my baby to transition into scary. I'm just now making peace with all the camo & toy guns everywhere!

We had a neighborhood Halloween Party at the playground, and sadly we almost missed it. Mommy forgot about it, but luckily, Annabeth texted us & we were able to hit the party for about 30 minutes of fun with a few of his friends.
Gage being goofy & having fun at the Halloween gathering...




And then....Monday, Halloween was upon us. After work, and after dinner, our little soldier got dressed & was READY for Halloween!



The Casa de Lainey-Paney for Halloween, and our Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns...





It was a lot of fun. I stayed at home & passed out candy. I missed going about with Gage, so about 2/3 of the way through, Hubby switched places with me, and I got to take Gage around a bit.

Sadly, I didn't snap any pictures of the bats I had flying across the garage & front windows, or the scary graveyard scene that we put together in the front flowerbed. Gage picked out all kinds of creepy fencing, and headstones, and skulls & such. Such boy-type-scary stuff. He LOVES it all.

Can't wait to do it again next year...and next year, I'll take more pictures!

The Lost Tooth

Well, these pics are a bit overdue.
Just after Gage's 6th birthday, he lost his first tooth.
It was wiggly & loose for a few days. One morning, he woke up, took a bath, and then when he came into my bathroom after his bath, I realized as he was talking to me that his little smile was different! The tooth was gone! I told him that his tooth was gone, and he was both excited & panicky. Where was the tooth!? We found it in the sheets of the bed. It fell out in the middle of the night. How lucky are we that we found it, and how lucky are we that it was very un-traumatic?? Very!

We were all set for go w/ the Tooth Fairy...
...until the night came.

Gage is not keen on any super hero, or fairytale character, or even Santa breaking into our home in the middle of the night, and he took particular dislike to the Tooth Fairy when he learned that not only does she come into your home while you sleep, but she comes into your room, and she reaches under your pillow... Yeah, that's about as far as that story went! He was out. Forget it. Didn't matter in that moment if she left him a brick of gold, or made all of his dreams come true. He wanted no part of that action.

And so....we used his cute little Tooth Fairy pillow, and hung it on his little corkboard.

...and miraculously, in the middle of the night, the Tooth Fairy must have come! He got 5 gold $1 coins in that itty-bitty-pillow pocket!
He came into our room in the middle of the night to share his excitement.
:)

(Sorry for the poor quality pictures: I took them with my iphone. Sorry for the delay in posting, but (1) I JUST NOW uploaded pics from my iphone, for the first time ever, and (2) CLEARLY I'm behind in blogging.)

Sniff*Sniff.....I'm Sick.

UGH!

I'm sick.
I missed work on Friday.
I missed the opening of the Omni Hotel, where I was supposed to get to see family and look at some beautiful photography.
I missed the whole weekend!

I thought I had a cold.
Maybe I did.
Last week...
...but today, when I couldn't take it any longer, I went to an Urgent Care Clinic "in town."

I have bronchitis...

...and sinusitis.


I've been an icky yucky snot bucket.

But----today, I got a steroid shot, and had a breathing treatment at the urgent care center, and I feel so.much.better. I could run a marathon right now! {Okay, maybe I'm not feeling quite THAT well...but I am feeling much better.} The down side: I will probably wake up tomorrow feeling crummy again. {Boohoo!} We'll have to wait & see. For now, I'm sick, but energetic.

Know what else I am?
Sick of tv.
Sick of movies.
I've watched: Juno, The Change Up, Couples Retreat, Horrible Bosses, Judy Moody & The Not Bummer Summer (with Gage), Arthur...and I think that's it. TV shows? Too many to list. And, I've napped a ton, but seem to be wide awake *& coughing* in the middle of the night. Good times. At the urgent care clinic, they offered to give me something for cough that would help me sleep....Damn that codeine allergy!


And now comes the time where I have to 'kick my shouts out' to my hubby: Thank you for making me grilled cheese sandwiches, and thanks for making the loaded baked potato soup, and thanks for going to pick up my medicine "in town" when I didn't have the patience to wait for it. Thanks for getting me vegetables, and pears, and bananas, and the good OJ. Most of all, thanks for my cherub tomatoes. {You know, it's the little things...}

Summer 2011; I used to be hot.

So, we haven't spent much time on the boat lately.... Well, since 4th of July weekend, actually.

Wanna see why?
Here's the lake.



Oh, and here's the other side.



Right at the marina, there's still water. There's still actually quite a bit of water in the lake as a whole, but there are trees growing out there, and sticking up out of the lake, and it's just....too low.

And now, it's time to winterize the boat & pull it out of the water.
Summer 2011 sure was a hot one...

He's so cool & I'm so lucky.

I get to be his mom.
I'm so lucky.

The Pin Up Girl....

Well, it was bound to happen.
I am the mother to a son.
He was BOUND to want to put the picture of a pretty girl on his wall.
So, let me tell you the story...

You know those trashy-tabloidy-magazines that they sell by the check out at the grocery store? I have a total weakness for those! {Yes, I want to know whose ass looks horrible in a swimsuit! Yes, I want the secret pictures of Jessica Simpson's baby bump! Inquiring minds want to know! I want to know! ....I'm a total sucker for that sh*t. It's my guilty pleasure.}

Anyway....

Gage saw one of my trashy-tabloidy-magazines lying around. He started telling me that sometimes he & R1 (neighbor kid) look at the boating catalogs and my magazines to see the pretty girls.

{My mental note: WHAT!? ALREADY!? I thought I had time. I thought this stuff wouldn't happen for a few more years. And, I thought your father would be here for this stuff! (He happened to be out of town at the time) On the other hand, it's amusing, and I was honored that he shared his secret boy stuff with me.}

So, I asked him who was the prettiest?
He grabbed the magazine, and flipped a few pages. You know who he said was the prettiest???

That's Suri Cruise.

What did he do with the picture?

Like I mentioned: it's on his wall.

Texas State Fair 2011

About a month ago we went to the Texas State Fair.
I LOVE the Texas State Fair!

I have to say though, the older I get, the worse those spinny rides are. Hubby agrees. Next year, we will definitely get Gage to invite a little friend! He needs a friend to ride those spinny rides with him.

We had fun though.
So, here are some pictures!




This is Big Tex. Every year, he's erected in Fair Park where we have our fair, and he welcomes folks. "Howdy, folks! I'm Big Tex." It's awesome. He's freaky weird looking, but in a totally awesome way.
:)
We heard someone (not likely a Texan) come into the fair and say, "Oh look! A big cowboy!" It was so neat to me. It made me think: wow, I've grown up with Big Tex. He's an annual staple for me, but she was seeing him for the first time, and I just wondered what she thought. {Yeah...um....I stopped myself from asking her, though you all know that I wanted to...}

After that, it was off to the Midway to ride the rides!





They have you buy coupons for the rides. That way, they take the whole 'it-actually-cost-$5-per-person-to-ride-this-ride' out of it. You just buy the coupons & pay the designated # of coupons to ride, and then suddenly you realize you just spent $50 (or more!) on 5 rides.


Ugh! It's a super-spinny ride!


Gage loved the slide....




Gage won his first prize at the little carnival game section. He was so proud of himself! It took several tries....but, he was so proud of himself in the end.

{Oh, we took Gage for a haircut in the morning before we headed out to the fair. He opted for blue hair gel. Check it out. And the scrape on his face? Yeah, he fell on his school trip to the pumpkin patch. Poor kiddo.}

Gage took turns taking Mommy & Daddy on different rides. Daddy went with Gage into this one particular fun house.


At the end, wouldn't you know it: bubbles! Gage loved it.


While I was patiently waiting outside the fun house, I started to really look at the attraction, and I noticed some....ummm.....well, just creepiness!

First: the creepy-ass clown. Check it out.



And then----tell me, how appropriate is THIS scenario?



Ewwwwwwww!!!!

Gage was excited about going on a spinny roller coaster. It's a roller coaster, and it spins!? A total dream ride if you're a kiddo.





Poor Daddy. He was sooooo sick after that ride!
:(
....and it was time to go!!!!

Gage had a blast, and I'm glad we went. Next year, like I wrote earlier, he'll get to take a friend!