Happy Halloweeeen!!

Ok. This may be a bit disappointing, but we decided last minute not to dress up this year for Halloween. First of all, the kids went trick or treating here in housing on the 30th along with the local nationals. And, the times that they would be out and about Lana would be in bed. Nonetheless, we did have a nice time passing out candy to all the little ones and we did get a few pictures before Lana went to bed.

The base started the fall festival on the 31st, which we went to. Although we did not dress up we had a blast. And, BJ and I had a little fun because I wore a Texas shirt and he wore Oklahoma. Of course, I’m an OU fan, but Texas does hold a special place in my heart because Jayce was born there! It was however, amusing to see everyone’s reaction when we walked around. LOL! The haunted house on base was awesome; those guys did an amazing job, it was fearsome!! Actually, the whole event was incredible. There was a number of things going on.. It was like a miniature state-fair. Good times!! I hope everyone had a memorable day…..

Thanks PAPA for the light stick.

Lana was amazed with this globe in the pic above and below.

This is TOTALLY wrong.. heheehehe!

YIPPPEEEE--Cotton CANDY for me on Halloween.

Thanks Daddy!!

Favorite Halloween Moments

A Few of Our Favorite Halloween Moments: (not in any particular order)
Carving Pumpkins
Visiting Bush Gardens for Howl-O-Scream
Allen’s Ranch Hayrides and Haunted House
Trick-or-Treating
Haunted Bus Ride & Haunted House at Big Lagoon State Park in Florida
Making costumes and dressing up
Eating lots of candy and enjoying all the smiles and laughs

All Hollows Day

Speaking of traditions in my previous post, I wanted to share a bit of history in this post about Halloween and its origin. Quite a few years ago we were at Mass which happen to fall on Halloween and the Priest spoke in his homily about “All Hollows Day” which is also known as “All Saints Day". He continued to share in detail how it came about that people would dress up in costumes, the reasons for Jack-o’-Lanterns, etc…(which is similar to the information provided on the above link) This had a huge impact on me due to the fact that I’m a spiritual person, which I shared in my post about reflection and faith, but also because of my appreciation for the Catholic traditions and instilling those customs with my son and daughter. My husband had a very strong Catholic upbringing and I feel proud that we are providing our children with the greatest gift of FAITH. Ever since I heard that sermon I have a new found appreciation for reasons why my family endulges in Halloween, candy and all!

Jayce and me in North Carolina on Halloween.

Will and Jayce on Halloween in Florida. Jayce was a undead Harry Potter.

BJ (Will) looking very eerie.

I love this picture of Jayce and his AMAZING laugh, need I say more?

ME!

Jayce as a SUPER NINJA conquering the world.

Halloween party in Florida.

Spook-House Thrills

My mom’s comment brings me to spook-house memories of Halloween. By the way, Mom thanks for the laugh and also for being so great!! Of course, from reading my mom’s comment you can see that it was a tradition for my family to provide all the spook-house thrills which also included the preparations of decorating, costume designs, building of the spook-house and so on. If you remember in my previous post about Miss Piggy I have a very large family that is extremely close.

Remembering back… after I had volunteered my mom and told her about it, I remember the next day when I came home from school, me and my cousin Sammy walked in the house and I noticed my mom holding this really pretty dress that I had never seen before. As a child, this dress was beautiful to me and so elegant. It was a slim fitting long white gown that had beautiful, shiny sequence along the wrist and bottom hem of the dress, and I believe also around the collar. My mom smiles at us and tells me and my cousin to go outside and roll the dress around in the dirt. My cousin and I look at each other WIDE eyed and are like, what? My mom said it again and added, “Get it as dirty as you can!” And we were like, OK!! We grabbed the dress, ran outside, and rolled it around in the dirt, smeared leaves all over it, and were stomping on it. Sammy grabbed one end and I grabbed the other and we were trying to rip it apart...all the while, giggling our heads off! (Later, I learned that my mom picked up this dress from a consignment shop so that she could make her costume for Halloween.)

Anyway, we look over and my Aunt Louella, my cousin Billy, and my Mom are dragging HUGE cardboard pieces into the yard and begin to spray paint them black. Other family members start arriving with more decorations to send over to the spook-house on Halloween; this lasted for a few days as everyone was busy planning and scheming. I have very mischievous family members.

Halloween day after school I see my mom getting all dressed up as a dead bride that rose from the grave. She looked so spooky with her blacked out teeth, crazy hair, and fake-blood dripping on her face! My Aunt Louella decides to be a werewolf that year as she made her costume with old wigs and you could not see anything but her eyes and mouth. (In later years, my aunt dressed as a skull face which was awesome-she did it herself.) My Uncle Joe dressed up as the Incredible Hulk! And, my Aunt Cindy dressed up like a witch. I know others had costumes, but I can’t remember exactly what they were dressed as. But, my family put the spook-house together in a classroom and scared the daylights out of all the kids!!! It was a great time and as my mom mentioned, it became a tradition and lasted for many years…

It also led into a tradition of making sure we visit a spook-house every year… and we have been to some great haunted houses over the years, which will be saved for future post! :)

I'm hoping my mom will send me a pic of my childhood spook-thrill, but until then I thought I would share these pics of Jayce as a MUMMY...

Jayce had his own experience of rolling around his costume in the dirt!

Jayce was already playing the part while we were preparing his costume.

000000hhh SCARY!!!

Fall Celebration Kick-off!

Good Morning, I just wanted to make a quick post before Lana woke up. The boys left awhile ago for school and work. I’m just busy doing laundry. Nothing too exciting this morning going on! Though, I am excited about Halloween…. It’s one of my favorite days of the year! I love the autumn season… the changing of the leaves, the weather becoming cooler, going to the state-fairs, and of course the new fall clothing trends and handbags!!

Since Halloween is quickly approaching and I have been trying to decide what to make for Lana. I’ve been looking at old photos of Jayce and our past Halloween experiences. Over the past few days I will share some pictures from our past Halloween moments.

Thinking of past-experiences, last year, BJ was back in the states so he was not here with us, but Jayce and I volunteered at the trunk-or-treat on base and passed out candy. We dressed up for that event. The really great thing about our Halloween experiences here in Sicily is that the Italian children come to our housing area to trick or treat! They bus approximately 200 kids into housing with their families, and the Italians have very big families!!! It’s an immense way for us to interact with them and share a moment of our traditions with them. The kids are so cute trying to say," trick-or-treats." They LOVE American candy!! Some of them dress up, but the majority do not wear costumes. We had a great time passing out candy.. I’m looking forward to this year and BJ being here to see all the Italian children trick or treating.

Well, Lana is awake now so I will need to post more later, but here is a picture of Jayce to kick off our Halloween/Fall celebration week… Jayce was 7 years old and we were living in Portsmouth, Virginia when BJ was in Nuclear Medicine School at the Naval School of Health Sciences. I made Jayce’s costume and he was a black widow spider. In this photo he did not have the face paint on, but later we added face paint. We had a blast that night in Olde-Towne.

Peaceful Sunday Morning

This morning before breakfast we were taking some pictures of little Lana Roo… First, she was playing with her giraffe Sophie, which I ordered from Land Of Nod. It’s a great website!! LOVE IT! (just thought I would give them a plug-in :) Then she was in the kitchen with us helping BJ make breakfast. He cooked eggs, sausage and crescent rolls for breakfast.. It was good, good, good! We gathered around in the living room to eat breakfast instead of at the dining room table, which is where we usually have our meals, but we decided to finish watching the last disc of One Tree Hill on DVD before we get busy with our studies. We had a nice relaxing morning just chillin’.

It has been raining all morning and it’s a bit nippy outside. BJ opened the dining room patio french doors so that we could smell and hear the rainfall. We are approaching the raining season here, but it never really gets freezing cold, just cool enough to wear a light sweater and jeans. I plan on attempting to make Jayce his favorite pumpkin pie later this afternoon, as well as, some homemade chocolate chip cookies for BJ. One of BJ’s favorite memories is when his mom would make him chocolate chip cookies when it rained outside. He would always sit by the window eating his cookies while watching the rain. Jayce loves my mom’s pumpkin pie which she makes for him every year, but this year she will not be visiting. Hopefully mine will be sufficient enough until she visits in the near future.
I hope everyone has a peaceful Sunday…

Lana snuggling with her big brother.

Lana waiting to hand her daddy the eggs for breakfast.

Lana chomping on Sophie (it's the greatest chew toy for teething babies).

Breast Cancer Walk-A-Thon

As I mentioned before the boys went to the walkathon on base to support awareness for breast cancer. Overall they had a great turnout of people at the event. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and really got into it with pink hair and so on!! Below are some pictures.. Enjoy the smiles…

By the way, ladies do not forget to do the monthly breast self-exams and if your due for a mammogram then be sure to get it scheduled.

Such A Cute Brace Face!!

Yesterday Jayce got braces on his top teeth. He looks so cute!! I never wore braces so I really can’t relate to what he is going through, but I do know he has been a trooper. He’s been having dental work done over the past few months so it has not been easy for him. He’s still losing some teeth on the bottom, but as soon as they are gone, he will get braces on the bottom teeth. Everyone in the dental clinic has been great with Jayce. He says he does not mind the braces; he is just having a bit of discomfort… The cool thing about the braces is that for Halloween he got the colors orange and black put on, but he has already decided that afterwards he is going to get red and white for OU SOONERS!!! Jayce is such an OU fan; he definitely takes after my side of the family. The bad thing for us is that since we are overseas we do not get to watch the games. So far this season they have only aired one game here and that was the OU/Texas game which does not deserve discussing. Check out the cute pics of Jayce....

This picture is so you could see the orange and black bands! TOO COOL!

Anyway, today Will and Jayce went to the breast cancer walk on base. They took the camera so I should be able to post some pictures later. Lana and I stayed home because I have to complete 2 more papers this weekend for my classes. Which is what I should be doing instead of blogging, but we need a break every once in a while, huh?

On a side note, Lana is just about crawling, she has been moving backwards and sideways, but has not quite mastered going forward. I think she will be soon because she is really reaching when you put something in front of her and she has also started doing push-ups, which is so funny!! She is such a delight to be around!

Well, enough rambling from me, I have to get started on this assignment… Have a great weekend!

Casual Weekend Photos

Good morning friends and family, I wanted to make a quick post before I get started on my assignments and begin studying for an exam. This past weekend was very pleasant. Some friends of ours son stayed the weekend with us because his parents had to return to the states. He had a good time hanging out with Jayce while playing PS2 and basketball. We went and watched his soccer game on Saturday, and Will had duty yesterday so we just hung around the house relaxing. Other than that nothing too exciting has been happening. Here are a few photos from the weekend.