Springs Preserve & Halloween

We took the kiddies to Springs Preserve for some trick-or-treating just before Halloween. Springs Preserve is one of my favorite places to go for various holidays. They always have great stuff for the kids. Last year Ryan loved it, so we went back this year. We brought some of our friends, Jen Jen and Matt brought little Karli, and Bobby's friend Keith and his family came with their daughter, Vanessa.



They had great games for the kids. Ryan loved playing all the stuff they had there for him.


Ryan and Vanessa have a great time together whenever we get together. Vanessa was Little Red Riding Hood. She was absolutely adorable!



Mommy's little pumpkin!


Daddy, trying to get Lilly to not be sad.


I loved Ryan's bear costume this year. LOVED it. It was warm and comfortable. He was just adorable in it.

Erdman Clan - Halloween 2010

Halloween Party

This year's karate Halloween party was QUITE the success. We were a tad worried, because the elementary school and the rec center were all holding their own parties the same day and time. We had SO many kids in the school, it almost wasn't big enough! We had some great costumes and a lot of fun games.

I waited way too long this year to get us all costumes. We didn't get to be our themes like we have been in the past years. :-( I'm shooting for next year. This year, I was Betty Rubble (from the flinstones). I put my hair in a really cute bob, it turned out awesome. Hubs was one of the blue guys from Avatar. His mask was scary as crap! He walked into our room as I was getting ready, and both dogs started going crazy barking at him! He removed the mask and they were looking at him like 'what the heck man??'.

The Esparza twins had, I think, the most awesome costumes of everyone!

My sister came and brought her sister in law and her kids. We're all family, doesn't matter. Monica looked great as a dead nurse! She is such a pretty girl. I didn't get a picture of her other daughter (Lili, her's not mine) which was unfortunate. She looked great too!

Ryan and Gage won 'cutest costume'. I have to admit, Ryan sure was darn cute in his little bear costume! He and Gage were both quite deserving of the award!

We had a really awesome evening. I baked cupcakes and we had pizza for everyone. I already can't wait for next Halloween! I LOVE Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

I know, this post is late. I KNOW!!

Lisa came over to help us carve pumpkins with Ryan. Ryan was as enthusiastic this year as he was last, if not more. He couldn't wait to get his little butter knife set out so he could help! (hehehe)

He realized the goop was a little gross, so he asked Nana to do it for him. haha!

Nana brought over boy scouts popcorn, and Lilly was ready to try some! She tried her hardest to get in that darn bag... lol

Ryan and his Cat-in-a-boot. He was very proud and couldn't wait to put a candle in it. I totally forgot to take a picture of my really awesome haunted house. It was AMAZING! I suck :-(

Next year I plan to step up my pumpkin carving and try something really hard. lol.

Pumpkin Patch [2010]

Fall

I love Fall. I don't like the cold aspect of it, as I absolutely adore my summer sun, but after so many months of blistering heat, I reluctantly give in and start welcoming the change. The only thing that really gets me through knowing that my love affair with the sun is over until next year, is knowing that Halloween is just around the corner. Halloween for some reason or another is one of my favorite holidays. It may be because my mom HATES Halloween and only did the bare minimum of it while we were growing up, it may be because I love being silly and dressing up, or it may be that secretly I like getting scared. None the less, I love Halloween and all that encompasses it. The parties, the pumpkin carving, and the food!!



This year is Lilly's first Halloween! I couldn't wait to get the kids to a pumpkin patch and start snapping away with my camera.

Best kids in the worldf

Ryan and his funny faces

My beautiful little pumpkin!

Lilly's first ever pumpkin patch.

At this point, she was over it, though.

Me and the hubs. I love him so.

Ryan absolutely LOVED this. He kept screaming 'I'm spider man! I'm spider man!' and making pretend webs. The guy who was bouncing him was really awesome and made the ride a fun experience for him. comepare this to 2 years ago...

I don't have a picture of him crying hysterically, because by that time I was running up and grabbing him to calm him down, but 2 years ago ALL he wanted to do was go on this thing. We waited in line for 2 hours! He got up there, and I think got intimidated, but was hysterical. Poor thing :-( I was worried we were going to have a repeat this year.... BUT He did it! And he LOVED IT! Look how big he is getting :-( What happened to the little 2 year old that used to point to the sky and say 'aiwpwane!' and 'bite' when he wanted to eat something. Time goes by too quick.

We loved the pumpkin patch. It was a cute, family owned place. It had wood chips all over the ground to give it a nice cute feeling, pumpkins EVERYWHERE of all different sizes, and of course, lots of fun things for the kids to do. We had a great time!

Finally!

Erika and Ben have been trying to close on their house since April. Yes, APRIL! They went through a lot of ups and downs, a lot of uncertainty, then some rock solid certainty. They were told to move into their house before the actual paperwork was done, because it was only a matter of days. Well, 3 months after they moved in they finally closed on their home! (Man I wasnt 3 months of free mortgage! lol). They live only a few minutes away from us and we are so proud and excited for them. It's a very cute little house, and Erika did a GREAT job of decorating it and making it nice and cozy. There is one sad part to the story, however. They did close, but they closed, literally, the day after the tax credit cut off deadline. SO frustrating! But we are very glad that it all got done. Congratulations Erika and Ben!

100th post!

This is our blog's 100th post! We've done so many fun things, and have experienced a lot the past year and a half. I hope you all have enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing!

Here's to 100 more posts. I can't wait to share more of our memories with all of you.

Lilly - 3 months

Here are some pictures of Lilly during her 3rd month of life. Isn't she just a doll? I love her so much. She is my greatest accomplishment in life.

She started to discover the toys abover her finally. She started batting at objects.

Angel Baby

Self Portrait

These are the types of pictures I get when I go through my memory card after Ryan has been playing with my camera.

Snakes. Ewwww

So, Bobby & Ryan found a friend in our driveway.

Ew.

Ok, he does look kinda cool. Bobby says he was a king snake. Whatever that is. He said he wasn't poisonous and wanted to keep him. ha.

I made them release him into the wilderness. The desert behind our house was the perfect place. The boys were bummed, but I have enough of a zoo to take care of. ;-)

Geocaching

Geocaching.

Have you ever heard of it?

It's the coolest thing since sliced bread!!! It is pretty much a treasure hunt for adults. Well, kids too. It's for everyone. What people do is they hide little canisters all over the world. They enter the coordinants of where it is at in the database, and then you are able to get the coordinates to find what was hidden! Some are very very small, some are big! You can leave little things in some of them if they are big enough, and some are so small that all there is is the log. OH! The log. Well, in each geocache, there is a log left. You can write your name on it and it's amazing to see the number of people who have signed these!


So, I found out about this, and I figured we HAD to do it. I asked Ryan if he wanted to go treasure hunting, and he was all for it! Husband was a little less than enthusiastic... he doesn't see the point unless you get something out of it, like money. Ugh... he came along none the less.


So I downloaded the app to my iPhone (because who can do anything without their phone now a days right?) and it showed me that there were 3 right within a half a mile of our house! Awesome! So we set out walking.


We got to the other side of our wall from our housing comunity, and the title of this geocache was 'a bugs life'. We spent about 3 minutes looking and then Bobby had an idea to look inside one of the little canister things that holds the extra irrigation hoses. And low and behold there it is!!


It was a roach. haha! It was plastic. Sticking out of it had the log. This one was classified as 'micro'. Because it's so small.

We walked about another half a mile and looked for the second one. I had a really really cute picture of me and Ryan when we found it. But I took it on my phone, and my phone took a poop a couple of weeks ago and the memory was wiped. :-(. The title was 'yellow submarine' and the canister was a cute little yellow thing. It was about the size of a large drinking glass.

My mom and I have found a few. It's a silly little game, but people do it all over the world! Check out the website, it's really fun! I bet you could find a few within a mile of your house.