Happy Halloween!

Yesterday for Halloween we went to a parade at Malachi's school. Malachi strutted around the gym with his fake muscle chest puffed out like I've never seen before. It was really cute.

Luke waiting to see big brother...

Looking cute in his froggy costume




It was hard to get a good pic of Kai, he's kind of in the background.

Ah, there's superman!

After school we took the boys trick or treating downtown because all the businesses have candy for kids from 4-6. It was a lot of fun and neat to see all the adorable costumes.

Lukey and Grammy

Malachi, cousin Grayson the lion and friend Tyler the pirate

Artificial sugar high!

It's a bird... it's a plane...

It's SUPERMAN!!


Luke has a cold, so after we went downtown, we went over to Nana and Papa's house for a couple hours and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's. It wasn't that cold, but I didn't want to take Luke out much. We planned to go to the harvest festival at a local church, but we decided to just take it easy. Today I think we're going to head to Greenbluff to get some frozen apple pies for G-Pa.

Fall pictures and a trip to Greenbluff

Here are a few recent pictures, it's been a gorgeous fall so far. The first few are from Greenbluff when we went to pick apples and pumpkins. It was so much fun!

Malachi after he picked his first apple...

Goofy faces are his specialty

Luke and cousin Collin

Big boy Luke

Trying to get a good one of the boys together... to no avail.

Fall pics in the yard...

Of course, the best smile he's looking away...

Kai's a climber for sure


The best one we got together...

Happy One Year Lucas Joseph Quade!

Writing that just made my eyes tear up. I can't believe my baby is one. It is bittersweet. I love all the new things that I know are coming, but I am sad to lose my "baby". Kai knows that he will always be my baby, and hopefully Luke will too. I love you beautiful boy! You are truly a gift from God and I thank Him every day for you!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Rock-a-bye-big boy

I've always loved rocking babies... and since Kai was my only child for over five years, I've never really stopped rocking him. It definitely doesn't happen as often as it used to, but every once in awhile, my big boy needs to be rocked. Tonight, he was especially difficult for Chad and they kept butting heads, and Kai was being a total pain. Chad and I gave him some consequences, one of which was no dessert for the weekend (we've never used this one, but apparently it works wonders, so we'll be using it again). Kai was so upset, I stayed in his room for awhile and rubbed his head and talked to him...I asked him if I could rock him and he enthusiastically obliged. As I rocked him, I asked him if he had any idea how much I loved him. He said no. Then he said "Mama, I love you 1000 hours plus 1000 days plus 1000 miles plus 1000 minutes, to the moon and back and back again."

I. almost. cried.

That's my boy.

Luke's Birthday Party and a new job for me

So we celebrated Luke's birthday today and had a little party. My parents will be out of town on his actual birthday for my brother Naaman's wedding in New York. Luke had tons of fun at his party, considering he only took a 40 minute nap all day. Since I am a blogger-idiot, they are out of sequence, but you get the idea...
His Cake:

hating his crown

the dairy-free smash cake

his new firetruck

that's some good cake!


A pre-party bath

I love this one!

Little Prince turning one!


Grammy and the boys (Luke, Collin, Malachi, and Grayson)


In other family news, I took an Assistant Manager position with my bank this week. Although I am sad to be away from my boys an extra day a week, I am glad to have a different set of challenges ahead of me.

Fall ramblings

Fall is really my favorite time of year; I love the smell, the leaves, the crispness in the air... I've always loved decorating my house in harvest colors and carving pumpkins. Maybe it's from years of school, but fall always seems like the beginning of a year for me... a time I want to reflect and start anew. Maybe it's because I just got my hair done... that always makes me feel good. :)

Yesterday I decided to call out a particularly hurtful family member for the person he is. It is really out of my character to start a conflict, but something he said (on blogger none the less) put me over the edge. It was honestly the most hypocritical thing I think I had ever heard, and he deserved everything I said. And how did my 60 some year old family member respond? By deleting me as a friend on Facebook. What an ASS! I can't say that I am surprised, years of other family members trying to get him to fess up to what he had done bore no fruit, so I am not sure why I hoped my message would get through. In any event, it was beneficial in the sense that it touched those he hurt in a positive way. Enough about my effed up extended family. I prefer to talk about my adorable immediate family, namely a little cutie named Luke (currently sporting his second runny nose in his entire life) and my slowpoke smarty-pants Malachi (currently fighting sleep with everything he has). Well, not much else to say... time for pics.

I love this smile!

Baby Collin came to visit us and practice
binky stealing with Lukey.

Luke and my dad at his dedication

On stage at his dedication... he was ALL smiles!
Ok, so not in this one picture, but the rest of the time ;)

Chad was thrilled as usual to be on stage.
I hate this picture, my face looks weird, but
I didn't get any better ones (thanks Dad for letting
Malachi hold the camera!)

Words

Okay since I have been thorough this before, I should know that I can't remember half of what I swear I will... so I decided I should write down what Luke is saying right now.
Words he says, or attempts to say:

• mama
• dada
• kai
• doggie
• hi
• hi doggie
• ball
• more
• kitty
• thank you

I am sure there are more, but I just want to have a spot that I put this for future reference.