My confession

The fact that I haven't posted anything lately (namely no posts recapping our Halloween) does not accurately reflect my enthusiasm for the holiday. If you know me, you know I love the spookiness of Halloween and go all out on decorations and parties. So if I love the blessed holiday so much why haven't I posted about it you ask? Well...I have an addiction. I am standing up now and introducing myself to all of you. Hello, I am Sammie Brueggemann and I am a Desperate Housewivesaholic. Yes, I said it. I DVR three old episodes that run on Lifetime daily during the week. So when the dishes are done, laundry is folded, curtains are ironed...ahem...ok so maybe those aren't all complete when I sit down to lose myself on Wisteria Lane but I digress. When my main tasks are complete I don't want to get on my computer and write on this blog because all I can think about is what in the world is going on with Mike's drug addiction, when will Lynette's hair start to grow-back now that the chemo is over and will Gabby and Carlos' marriage last this time around? So that is why you haven't heard from me but tonight I am intentionally blogging instead of watching TV...I can do this.









What?? Oh sorry...I was just checking to make sure all three of my episodes recorded successfully. Yes, looks like they did...that will be good when I am ready to watch them, whenever that might be...who knows if I will watch them or not.


yeah, right.

Ok so on to Halloween. I wanted the kids to be the Three Blind Mice...wouldn't that have been cute with sunglasses and Mickey Mouse ears? Natalie and Naomi were on board.

Nicholas wanted to be a Ninja Turtle not a blind mouse. In no way was he going to be a blind mouse.

Ok fine, the 5 year old wins this battle. So he was a muscle-bound Ninja Turtle, Natalie was Fancy Nancy (her favorite book) and Naomi was a pink bunny (recycled from Natalie's first Halloween). Here are some pictures.









We hosted the neighborhood Halloween party (and Josh's birthday party) the night before Halloween and had a really good time. There were 12 adults and 15 kids at the party...yeah, that's a lot especially when you add punch and candy to that mix. We had to get the house all spooky so here are some fun pictures of the house decorated.









On Saturday night we went down to Galena to trick-or-treat. The kids enjoyed trick-or-treating with Nannie with us (she was dressed up as a 50's girl). They received an obscene amount of candy. Because we don't want all our teeth to rot out, we divide our candy the day after Halloween and give half to the "Candy Witch" who is a first cousin to the "Tooth Fairy" and who takes the candy and leaves some fun toy in exchange. This year Nicholas received a Super Hero toy and Natalie received a plastic heart necklace. Naomi has no idea what's going on...but she does know that she likes chocolate and she thinks she might be getting a rotten deal with her candy going to the Candy Witch.







The kids are already talking about what they will dress-up like next year. There was talk of a skeleton and a clown. But shhhh...Momma has already purchased K-State cheerleader outfits and football jersey...next year Momma wins.

What we're up to...

So I don't have anything super-exciting to post today. The kids are up to their usual antics...

Naomi is staggering all over the house intrigued that things previously up high are now at eye-level which of course means more things to get into.



Natalie continues to collect various items from around the house and store them in her crib for the winter. I have taken to calling her Miss Squirrel. She has filled her purse and now just stashes things in her crib. This morning I found a few new items including a paintbrush, athletic tape, a plastic cow, and my K-State Alumni card.



Nicholas is on his first-ever field trip today! He was SUPER excited to be heading to Greenbush for the day on a...




Because I like to dabble in new things, I decided I would try making a fresh fruit arrangement. I made this for Grandma Dorothy's birthday celebration...what do ya think? It was fun and not too labor-intensive. Josh helped me make the platform the fruit was placed on...what a nice guy.




Well...I think I will wrap this show up and get the girls ready to head downtown to look for old sheets and cheesecloth (Halloween decorations...a future post!)

Naomi is walking!

That's right our baby girl is upright and on the move! Check out her new moves in the video below.



She walks like a drunk cowboy...

The Tooth Fairy's First Appearance

Nicholas now has the cutest grin...with one missing tooth on the bottom! Last night he bravely agreed to let Momma pull the tooth that had been barely hanging on for the past week. If you don't count the drama that took place as he was rolling around on the floor asking how much blood there would be and how bad it would hurt...the whole ordeal only took about 3 minutes. And after the tooth was out and Nicholas had chowed down on two popsicles and called various fanclub members such as Nannie and Grandad, Nana and Papa and Grandma Linda...he was feeling pretty good about himself and his decision to have the tooth pulled. Because we told him that the Tooth Fairy brings a surprise toy in addition to the $2-$3 for the first tooth, he began to dream about all the wonderful things the Tooth Fairy would bring to reward him for his impeccable bravery. This list included a bike and a pony...

We told him that the Tooth Fairy is on a much smaller budget but he should mention the bike to Santa Clause. He settled (after some persuasion fom Momma) on hoping the Tooth Fairy would bring some kind of superhero toy (perhaps the Incredible Hulk). He was thrilled to see that the Tooth Fairy knew just what he wanted when he woke up to find $3 in quarters and an Incredible Hulk toy figurine.



He's already starting to wiggle the tooth next to his new gap and Natalie is insisting that all her teeth are loose and need to be pulled.

What's in her purse?

For those of you who have spent any time at all around Natalie over the past month, you understand and have witnessed her recent purse obsession. She carries her "purse" with her EVERYWHERE. And because she carries it all over the place and at all times, she adds to the contents regularly with various little tidbits she finds around the house.

When talking to Auntsies and Uncle Pat last night, they mentioned that their local newspaper will sometimes publish fun articles about what's in certain society ladies purses. I also remembered finding this video on Youtube a long time ago where this gal reveals the contents of her purse. I believe this might give me a glimpse into what I can expect Natalie to carry around when she is older. Take a look...



So here are the current contents of Natalie's purse...

pink play phone
old remote control
Barbie notepad
comb
unsharpened pencil
bouncy ball
bubble wand
VW key from her Barbie car
Wiggles cell phone
paintbrush
teething ring
wetwipe
old insurance card
another comb
another bouncy ball
Mardi Gra beads
another pink cell phone
medicine dropper
another comb
our old home phone
plastic diamond ring
another medicine dropper
hair clippy
Holy Rosary (we aren't Catholic but found this in the seat of the van, guessing it belonged to the previous owner)

I think all she's really missing are her hooker shoes...

Raw eggs and ballet

How do these two things possibly fit together you ask? Well, that's easy to explain...Natalie experienced both yesterday! We celebrated Nannie's birthday with dinner at our house and Natalie helped make the cake...and subsequently ate a lot of the raw cake batter while I was flouring the pans. :) Oh well, she is still as healthy as ever today.

And as you might have guessed, yesterday was Natalie's first day of dance class at Jody Phillips School of Dance here in Pittsburg. She looked so stinkin' cute in her ballet gear, but her attitude was anything but prima-ballerina. She threw a fit when I tried to leave the studio and I watched her pout on the floor for the first 5 minutes of class while the others twirled around her. She did eventually get up and participate and I am hoping next week is less dramatic.

Oh and Happy Birthday (yesterday) Nannie and thanks for being so great, we love you!

We Miss You!

This morning Natalie and I were talking about what we were going to do today and she said "let's see Anderson"...well, this broke my heart because I know she loves and misses her little buddy Anderson. Afterall, she practically grew up with him the first 2 and a half years of her life. I explained to Natalie that Anderson didn't live near us anymore but that we should look at pictures and remember how much fun we had when he did live by us. So today we took a trip down memory lane and saw pictures of many of our wonderful Wichita/Residency/St. Andrews friends that we miss so much. If you are reading this guys, we hope it brings you a smile to remember when too.
















PS - Joy, Angie, Rachel...why don't I have more pics of our kids together? If you have some...send to me! :)