Longest post ever? Most overdue for sure.

For the past 3 months I've been feeling guilty because we have all these wonderful pictures and I just haven't been motivated enough to put them on the web for all of you to see. I hope this will make up for some of it. So included in this post you'll find pictures from Halloween, the boys' birthday, Christmas once we got home, and beyond! Let's go chronologically! First Halloween. Besides buying candy and costumes, we didn't do anything until Halloween afternoon, then it was a big Halloween party from beginning to end. Grandma and Papa Phillips came up in the evening, just in time to go Trick-or-Treating with Carter and McKay. Here are the boys cutting out cookies.While they baked, we started cutting pumpkins. The boys kind of watched when we started (and I lost the picture)...But they got bored and went to watch something else.When the cookies were finished, we got to decorate them. McKay globbed on a tablespoonful of orange frosting, squished on a handful of candy corns, sprinkled excessively, and voila!Carter did about the same, with slightly more restraint.Suzanne and I each carved a pumpkin (I emptied the goo from both). She did the cat and I did the spider with the help of a kit from Wal-Mart. Pretty cool, huh?Carter and McKay had firefighter-themed costumes- Carter already had the rain coat and we got McKay's dalmation costume off of eBay. We only had to go down one street before they had WAY too much candy.

November 14th we had a joint birthday party for the boys. We had it in the cultural hall at the church and they had 11 of their closest friends there. It was complete chaos for 2 hours. Luckily all the parents stayed so we had plenty of help cleaning up at the end.Soon after their birthday, Carter and McKay were invited to their friend Gabbi's birthday. Gabbi turned 5 and for her birthday wanted everything Tinkerbell. Gabbi's mom made every guest a pair of fairy wings. I was not happy. "What did you do to my boys???"Girly as this new attire was, it led to some pretty cute pretend play.Here's the perfect example of some really cute pretend play. For all who are not internet savvy, this is a SUPER-CUTE VIDEO. Click the play button to watch it.

Closed caption for the hearing impaired (or if you just have trouble understanding McKay):
McKay: (quiet) I'm gonna change you into a frog.

Me: You're gonna what? You're gonna change me into a frog? Yeah. Ok.

McKay: It don't have any magic in it.

Me: No, not really, but it's fun to pretend, isn't it?

McKay: Uh-huh!

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I'd like to say that this next picture was a white Christmas, but it was the beginning of January. A Monday, by the garbage cans. This was one of the two snowy days this winter. But let's pretend it's Christmas.

As most of you know, we had to leave California and our Christmas plans didn't go over like we hoped. Then Grandma Carter's flight got cancelled and that was another sad occurrence. But we had a fun Christmas morning with just us. They're so cute in the mornings.
These were taken just last week. This is a shot out our back window. Suzanne and the boys saw 3 deer in our backyard and called me at work to tell me what I was missing. I did see one in our driveway later that night (when I rode my bike home) but I didn't have a camera.

We have been planning to paint our livingroom/dining room a different color for a long time. We are not fans of the red! The boys loved helping.

I will be spending most of my days off on a tall ladder painting up by the ceiling. Remember how I'm afraid of heights? I'm having to work on that.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I know these are far apart and we plan on doing this more often. We love you all and we hope to talk to you soon!