Halloween!!

This year Andy Was a little dinosaur. He loved his costume! Whenever we put it on him it took some serious coaxing to get it off again. He thought the hat was awesome.


Charles loves to carve pumpkins and since I'm such a nice wife (hee heee) I carved some with him. You can defiantly tell which ones are mine. I went for the easy circles and random shapes. Charles on the other hand let his creative juices flow and carved some awesome pumpkins. Can you believe he made that smile say Halloween? I think it was an awesome idea.


This is Andy's attempt at making a Frankenstein. Its probably a craft only a mother could love, but I thought I'd post it anyway!On Saturday we took a fun hike. The leaves were beautiful, the air was fresh and we got some good exercise. Andy loves being outside and had tons of fun seeing all of the hikers with their dogs. (Tons of people were out on the trails taking advantage of the awesome weather).

So, being 6 months pregnant I don't hike as fast as I used to. Charles and Andy went ahead of me. This is what I saw as I came up the trail. What cute boys! Andy could have thrown rocks in that stream all day if we let him. They had quite the system going. Charles would find the rocks and put them in a pile and Andy would throw them.



We went to a Halloween party at our friend's house. He wanted to show us how to blow fire using corn starch. Andy LOVED it. In this video you can hear him laughing really hard and then saying "more, more" This is another thing Andy could have done for hours if we would let him. When we got home we showed him the video and he laughed just as hard. It is so fun to have a little boy! He makes life so exciting. We are excited for boy #2 and hope he and Andy don't cause too much mayhem for us!

Family Pictures

A few months ago we had our family pictures done. I had no idea how hard it would be. We thought Andy would be good in the early evening- we were wrong. So, after trying to get him to hold still, we decided to try a morning photo shoot. Things were a little better then, but when a little boy sees lots of grass to run on and water to splash in there isn't much you can do to get him to hold still. Luckily we had a really good photographer, so we still came out with some good pictures. If any of you are looking for a photographer, check out rachelcolemanphotography.com.

This one is my favorite. Andy was pretty much running into the camera so Rachel had to move quickly to get a good shot.

This is Andy about every few minutes. He was dying to throw any rock, stick or wood chip in sight. Most of these pictures are the rare moments in between him throwing something.

The pumpkin

Today at daycare each child got to pick a pumpkin to take home. Andy, of course, wanted to pick all of them. We finally decided on one and got in the car. Andy insisted on holding it the whole way home (about 20 minutes) He fell asleep in his car seat with one hand holding the pumpkin. When we got home and I put him down for a nap he wanted his pumpkin to come too. At dinner time he insisted on having his pumpkin on his high chair tray. He would periodically stop eating to pat his pumpkin and say his version of "pumpkin". Wouldn't you know it, when we watched a show later that evening he held his pumpkin. I had no idea Andy would form such an attachment! I guess we'll see how long that lasts!

Its a BOY!!

So, I know a lot of you are under the impression I am having a girl. Our last ultrasound proved otherwise. There is no question, its defiantly a boy! So now we can avoid bankruptcy (there is too much cute girl stuff to buy) and Andy will have a little buddy. I am now 18 weeks- almost half way! I'm still nervous about having #2, when will I nap? But I guess we'll figure that out!

Cinco De Mayo

AKA Mustache De Mayo is probably Charles favorite time of year. It means he can grow crazy, ugly facial hair and go in public. This year Charles went for the gold. As you can see he had a fine lip blanket with some added flare! It was hard to talk to him without laughing. However, it did pay off, Charles won "Best in show" at his work party. You have to promise me that you will still be our friends after looking at these pictures! I'm not sure if he is a lumberjack, a molester or Joe Dirt. Look how nasty that neck beard is!!
This is also the only time of the year that Charles busts out his sweet belt buckle from El Paso Texas. You know they say everything is bigger in Texas, they weren't lying!

New Income

So, I just became a Mary Kay consultant. I am super excited for the opportunity to meet new people, get sweet deals on products and make some extra money. I've always been a Clinique girl, so I was a little nervous to switch to a new product. I was pleasantly surprised when I switched. I think Mary Kay has products that are comparable and some are even better than Clinique plus the price tag is more friendly.So, I don't want to be the crazy Mary Kay lady that stalks all of her friends. But, if you want a free facial or to try any of the products for free, give me a call. Also, if you are interested in getting free products- I've got some tricks up my sleeve! You can also shop on my website for products. www.marykay.com/heatherfrancis.

The dilemma

So, recently I have been starting to want a dog. Andy loves seeing and playing with dogs. Tonight we were at Scott & Megan's house. Andy loved playing with their dog Bella. He just sat under the table with her and pet her head. Bella gave him tons of kisses, but Andy seemed to love it. We looked under the table at one point and Andy was trying to put a dog toy in Bella's mouth. I was surprised how fearless Andy was. He pretty much had his hand in Bella's mouth. It was so fun to watch them play together.

Now, my dilemma is.... I don't want to be stuck with finding a babysitter for a dog anytime we want to leave town. It seems like we are gone a ton during the summer, so this would be a pain. I also don't want to deal with poo and pee on our lawn. I know you can train them to go in a certain area, but still, I don't want to deal with that stuff. Another problem is we would have to fence off our backyard. Fortunately the dog I want (a Labradoodle or a goldendoodle) doesn't shed, so that gives the pro side of getting a dog one point. What should I do? I know everything I just said would point to not getting a dog, but I also think it would be fun to have a good family dog to take camping, on river trips, running etc. Plus, how could I pass up having a cute dog like these?

Books

On my way home from work yesterday I realized why I don't read anymore. I don't pick fun, captivating books. Heres a little back ground on why. I think I have a phobia of wasting time. It drives Charles crazy. I can't sit and talk to him, I have to be folding laundry, doing dishes or some other task while we talk. I don't watch TV or do anything relaxing during the day. I am always thinking of things that need to be done. So, when I read I want that time to be productive too. So, I choose books that will improve an area of my life or give me some applicable knowledge for my career, church etc. For instance, the last book I read was Money Mastery. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good book and gave me ideas on how to manage our money better. But, it wasn't one of those books I was just dying to read if I had a spare second. I kind of read it out of duty. Charles is always telling me to take time to relax, so I think I want to get back into reading. Do any of you have some suggestions? I'm not a fantasy fan and I don't want anything depressing or scary. Hold off on the crazy long books too, sorry ladies, no Gone With the Wind for me!

Oh no, its already begun!

We had been home from the store for about 2 minutes, I walked into the livingroom and this is what I found. Andy loves to just hold a controller and watch Charles play games. I thought I would have a little more time to persuade Andy to think video games weren't that cool, but it looks like he is hooked.

Death of a family member

Please join us as we mourn the loss of a very special family member. Suba was 24 years old when she kicked the bucket. She has been a member of the Francis family since 2003, Zeke bought her for $400. She had 312,000 miles on her odometer. Only a select few people were tricky enough to open her doors. In the time that we have known her, her defrost hasn't worked, therefore in the winter, Charles had to bend cardboard under the heater vents to deflect the warm air toward the windshield. Suba has filled us with laughter throughout our marriage. One summer she decided to randomly turn the windshield wipers on periodically. There was no pattern to help us figure out when it would happen next. Usually it would be at an awkward time like at a stop light, so everyone around us would stare trying to figure out why the wipers were going. She got sick of that joke and just stopped doing it one day. She has been a faithful friend on some adventures. Her last big adventure was to take us to the San Juan River for a rafting trip. She looked a little ridiculous with the frame on top, but we loved her for making it back home. We will miss our old friend and family member.