Our Halloween Activities

We had quite the fun day yesterday. We started with making our pumpkin shaped pancakes (see post below). After we cleaned up from that we made Spudnuts which are donuts with potatoes in the batter. Afterwards, we took some to a couple of friends houses because we didn't want that many in our house.

After our afternoon naps and dinner, we went to a pumpkin patch and picked pumpkins then went on a hayride which is pulled by a Tractor. I mention the tractor because as soon as Keagan saw it, that is all he wanted to do. Because it was late by the time we got home, we put Keagan in bed and then Andrew and I enjoyed hot chocolate and our homemade donuts.

Today (Sunday) after dinner, we carved a pumpkin. By we, I mean Andrew did all the knife work because I am not all that fond of knifes and all I did was scoop out the pumpkin. But it was fun to watch Andrew and Keagan have at it.

Pumpkin Pancakes

With the influence of my sister-in-law Matti and Tip Junkie, I have really gotten into the whole Halloween fun this year. We have a lot of fun activities planned for today.

First up on our plan for the day was making fun pancake shapes. I saw this idea off of the website Tip Junkie a few weeks ago and so this morning, Andrew and I decided to make our yummy pumpkin pancakes into pumpkin shapes (Andrew started getting creative and doing some other things as well). We had fun making them and just as much fun eating them. Here are the results.

Here is our plate of pancakes.
Because Keagan really loves Thomas the Train, Andrew made him a train pancakes which he devoured when we sat down to eat. I tried to get creative and make Keagan complete with curly hair.
Then, here is Andrew's mummy, Witch and one of our pumpkins.

This was all accomplished by buying two squirt bottles (kind of like the condiment bottles you see in restaurants). We took some of our pancake batter and dyed it green, some batter we made brown and left the rest its original color. We filled the squirt bottled with the green and brown. Then we used the squirt bottled to make the outlines/shapes and then filled with the plain colored batter.

Fun we have been having.

Here is a post about a couple of things we have been doing....

Last week (Oct. 15) I decided that I wanted to make some Playdough with Keagan. This is the first time that I have made playdough since I was a kid. Keagan thought it was fun to make and even more fun to play with. Afterwards, we had fun playing with it and making different things. We made a snake (not pictured), a snowman, spider, nest with eggs, a train & Keagan in bed. The Keagan is bed is kind of funny. It started with me attempting to make a train (Andrew came in at the end and made the train that is in the picture). I started by making a rectangle. Keagan looked at it and called it a bed, so I proceeded to make it into a bed, then I decided to make a quilt. After that, Keagan decided that he needed to be in the bed and need a pillow, so that is how it became Keagan in bed.

This next thing came from my sister-in-law Matti. She is very clever and is doing the 30 days of Halloween and has been posting the activities they have been doing each day on her blog. A few days ago, she did a paper apple (you can also do pumpkin). Well this morning we had nothing going on so I decided to do something fun with Keagan while Deker was napping and this is the project that I decided to do. All you need is a paper plate, colored paper and glue. You start out by tearing up the paper (I had orange paper, so Keagan and I did pumpkins), then drizzle glue on the plate and put the torn paper onto the plate, then glue or staple the stem on. Keagan had fun tearing the paper and squeezing the glue, but wasn't so sure about getting the glue on his fingers because it was sticky. As we were doing this, he found the orange ribbon and insisted on using it which explains the orange ribbon on his plate. Finally, yesterday I was doing laundry all day. At one point, I was folding some laundry and Deker was sitting/laying on the couch by me. Keagan (always the helper) came over and started "helping" me. Then he went over and was talking to Deker. Then he climbed up on the couch and sat by Deker and said "picture momma, picture". So I got the camera took some pictures of my two boys.

Trip to Caliente

This past weekend we went down to Caliente to see my family. My brother Neal is a Senior in High School and on the football team so we decided to go down to Caliente to see him play for the high school Homecoming game. We had a good time visiting with family. On Friday night we watched my little brother play football. It was quite the game. Lincoln (my old high school) won 74-8. Because they were so far ahead, the coach had all the seniors take a turn running the ball. So Neal, who is a lineman (I think, he is the one that tackles people) got to run the ball and ran it for 11 yards. He was so excited and proud of himself.

The next day, all the guys went outside to help with the shed my dad is building. They were up there all morning tightening bolts and stuff. Andrew was the only one brave enough to go up to the roof, so he was up there the majority of the time. While they were doing that, the girls got lots of chatting time. Sunday was a nice relaxing day, going to church in my old homeward and playing games with my family.

Monday was quite the crazy drive. The drive that should have taken us maybe 9 house (with stopping) took us almost 11 hours. First off, we got stopped two different times for road construction. Both times we had to wait for a pilot car. The first time wasn't going to be very long, so I climbed in the back and made sandwiches and we ate those as we drove through the first part of construction. The second time we had to stop and wait for the pilot car was about 5 minutes after that so I sat in the van and nursed Deker while Andrew and Keagan got out and ran/played in the sage brush on the side of the road.

Finally we got through all of that and thought was would have a good drive for the rest of the way home. Well, we were wrong. We were about an hour south of Jackpot, and all of a sudden a police car came flying by us with lights and sirens going. Andrew slowed down a little bit because we weren't sure what was going on. We came around a corner and there were severals cars stopped on the highway. Just up the road a little ways was a car wreck. A Semi was off the road and a SUV type vehicle pulling a Uhaul trailer was off onto the side of the road as well. Then about 2 minutes after we stopped a Life Flight Helicopter came overhead and landed on the highway because there was no other place to land. Also, right off the road it dropped down a few feet and so all we could do was sit in our car and wait. So, all in all, we were stuck there for about 45 minutes. It was quite the long day of being in the car, but I must say both boys did pretty well.

I was a little nervous of how Keagan would do driving since we just got him potty trained. For those of you that have traveled through Nevada know that bathrooms can be far apart, so I had Andrew put the potty chair in the back just in case. Well, on the way down, Keagan said he needed to go potty and there wasn't a bathroom very close, so we pulled off and got out the potty chair. Here is a picture that I thought was kind of fun.
Keagan making a tent in the Van.
Andrew on the very top of the shed.
My Mom taking the majority of the kids for a ride in the Rhino.
Andrew taking Keagan and his cousin Hafen for a ride on the Four Wheeler.
My Dad holding Deker.

Tagged

I was tagged by my sisters for things of 8, so here it is....

8 Shows I Love to Watch
*Amazing Race
*Biggest Loser
*Eli Stone
*Ugly Betty
*Deal or No Deal
*Rachael Ray Show
*Super Nanny
*The Doctors

8 Favorite Restaurants
*Olive Garden
*Red Robin
*Cheesecake Factory
*Louies
*Asiagos
*El Gala Giro
*PF Changs
*Training Table (Oh how I miss you!)

8 Things that happened yesterday
*Did ALL of our Laundry
*played with Keagan & Deker
*Played the piano (with the help of Keagan, of course)
*Found some craft projects to do with Keagan
*Took dinner to a friend who just had a baby
*Cooked dinner
*Nursed Deker several times
*Read lots of books to Keagan

8 Things I look forward to
*Thanksgiving
*Going to a Pumpkin Patch this weekend
*Andrew getting more work for his painting business
*Hearing Deker Laugh
*Having Andrew's brother, wife and their two kids visit next weekend
*Taking Keagan & Deker Trick or Treating
*All of the family we get to see at the upcoming holidays
*Seeing our friends new baby boy

8 Things I Love about Fall
*Cooler weather
*Pulling out fall/winter clothes (I feel like I have a new wardrobe)
*Thanksgiving and the approaching Christmas
*Leaves changing colors
*Pumpkin Food
*Getting to use more blankets
*Making more soups
*Smells of fall (pumpkin, cinnamon, etc.)

8 Things on my wish list
*That my boys will grow up to be good, kind people
*Andrew and I to always be happy together
*That my boys will want to be active in the gospel as they grow up
*Andrews business being more lucrative
*Portable DVD Player for those long car trips
*New Entertainment Center/HD TV
*Having money for a Family Vacation
*New Dining Room Set

8 People I Tag
Miranda, Ranell, Elizabeth, Caprene, Sara Cahoun, Erin, Angela, Kristi

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew's birthday was yesterday, he turned 29 years old. We had a pretty low-key day just spending time together as a family. Keagan, Deker and I decided to get Andrew some pliers (something he said he needed). When we went shopping I was trying to decide between the Lord of the Ring books or the pliers and I asked Keagan if we should get Daddy books or pliers and he said pliers. So that is what we did. Keagan was so excited. By some miracle, Keagan didn't tell Andrew. But on Sunday after church, we were almost done eating lunch and I told Keagan we could go get Daddy his present and Keagan said "Daddy pliers present" a couple of times. All I could do is look at Andrew and say I guess you now know what your present is.

So, Happy Birthday Andrew. Thank you for being such a great Husband and Father. You are a good example to our boys! I Love You!

Our Firefighter!

This morning as I was reading in the paper, I found out that a local fire department was having an open house and showing their new 85-foot ladder truck. Andrew and I decided to take the boys down to see it. Keagan had a blast!!! We got to watch them do a demonstration to cut the roof off a car using their jaws of life and other tools. Then we got to look at their fire trucks and Keagan got to climb on them. They also served hot dogs, cookies and drinks. It was a fun way to spend the morning together as a family. Keagan even got a plastic fireman's hat. It was very difficult to get Keagan to leave the building. I was so glad that we found out about it. Here are some pictures of the day.

Snow?!?!?

Andrew received an early birthday present in the form of Snow! Yesterday around 5:30 it started snowing here in Boise. We actually ended up with snow stuck on the grass. It broke the record for the earliest snow fall. Needless to say, it has been quite cold here already. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of it, but I didn't, so here is a picture that was on the Idaho Statesman today.

Update on the Picanco Family!

It has been a few weeks since I last updated our blog, so I thought I would do a post letting you know the few things that have been going on.

First of all, Deker is growing bigger and bigger each day. He has been coo-ing and smiling a lot and is starting to laugh a little. Things were pretty rough with him for a little while there, but once we found a paci that he likes, it is getting a lot better. He likes the same type of paci that Keagan liked (either the soothie or the pacee-see picture below). When Keagan was a baby, those are the only paci's the he would take and at that time they didn't sell them in the store. So, with Deker I tried so hard to get him to take a different kind, but he wouldn't. Thank you to our friend Dan who works in the NICU for hooking us up with more.

Now for Keagan...He is as crazy and active as ever. His latest new thing to say is "Patient". He usually says it when he is really acting up and I feel myself starting to loose my patience with him. I am not sure if he is telling me to be patient or if he got it from me telling him to be patient while I am trying to finish something.

Also, last week we started potty training Keagan and it is going really well (knock on wood). I feel like he really has gotten it figured out. We started Wednesday (Oct. 1) and I was ready to give up after only half a day. Andrew kept me going through the day and then that night I called my sister Marie who has potty trained 5 kids and asked for her advice. She told me to stick with it for a few days. The next day was MUCH better with only 1 little accident in the morning. Since then, he has had maybe 4 accidents (two of which were within 5 minutes of each other and he was really tired and cranky from waking up too early that morning). Today we went shopping and twice he told us potty and Andrew was able to take him to the bathroom. The last two mornings his diaper has been barely wet. I am so proud of what he has accomplished and how quickly he has taken to potty-training. I couldn't ask for it to go any better. Now I am just crossing my fingers that he doesn't have a relapse like I have heard some mom's talk about. We took him to the store to pick out some underware and he chose Elmo & Thomas...go figure.

One other funny thing with Keagan, when he finds my headband, he likes to put it on and wear it. Here is a picture of Keagan wearing my headband. I think he looks pretty funny with his curly hair sticking out the top. Andrew says "Here comes the next Richard Simmons".