Happy Halloween!

For Halloween we skipped church (hurricane weather = the branch president calling it off), stayed home, sang primary songs with the boys, and ate some bananas from the trees in our yard... What? Did you get to eat CANDY?! Yeah, we miss that. Happy Halloween from the Caribbean! :)

Tomas

Tropical storm, (now hurricane) Tomas... is upon us.

Scary sounding, but so far so good. We have plenty of food and water and so far we still have power, although many people have lost theirs. We also have a back up generator just in case, which is a HUGE blessing. Most of the stores are now closed, as well as campus. Here is a news feed talking about the storm. In it they talk a bit about St. Lucia, which we are 2 islands north of.

It has been off and on rainy and extremely windy here, but I don't think anywhere near as fast as is predicted in the video (75 mph). Our island is so small, it isn't mentioned directly in any news that I could find, but we have been given a warning from the government to stay inside and stay safe.

The real concern is that on Monday, Paul has his 2nd mini exam. Since campus closed, he had to pack up his stuff and come home to study. He is over at Phil's house now trying to get in some more study time before he calls it a night. I hate it that Tomas disrupted his studying right before a test. :( Paul has been working so hard though, I know he will do fine. But keep him in your thoughts and prayers, that he will do well on the exam and that this storm will pass quickly without doing any damage. :)

In other news, we had a great afternoon at the children's fall festival. It was SO much fun. I got some great pictures from today and also yesterday the boys and I ventured to the interior of the island to visit Crescent Moon... Many pictures and updates to come. Happy Halloween! :)

homemade costumes

Yes, it's true. I successfully attempted and created the coveted (and intimidating) homemade Halloween costume! I made a shark costume for Hawken and a surfboard for Matix. I had lots of help though. Thanks to Kelly for getting the fabric for me from Roseau. Thanks to Sindy for letting me use her sewing machine. Thanks to Mike for driving it over to my house. Thanks to Tracy for helping me get my idea from paper into fabric. Here was the original idea. Paul made me take a picture of my sketch, please, no art critics. I am obviously not a professional artist.

Tracy worked her magic on the sewing machine. I had only completed the toothy shark hood when she came over. We had to talk everything out so she knew what I wanted, then she zipped it together. She was a HUGE help! :)

Then I cut out the surfboard for Matix, colored it and cut a bite mark. I think it turned out pretty good.

Here is the end result. Matix, the cool surfer dude.

Hawken, the cute baby shark. Adorable.

We went trick-or-treating yesterday and it was SO fun. More pictures and videos of that and all the other Halloween fun we have planned, coming soon... :)

umbrella

Matix likes to hold his own "ah-bella" sometimes when it rains... I love how huge it looks when he is holding it. :) He used to call it a "rainer". Clever, I thought, since he didn't know what to call it, but we used it when it rained. He's a genius I tell you, a GENIUS!

The umbrella is more of an accessory, than a tool to keep you dry, according to Matix.

Saying hi to his favorite cow!

Both Matix and Paul are making the funniest faces in this picture... I need to be better at counting to three before I take pictures. :)

fun with Shane and Keira

Matix and Hawken's friend Shane is going to be a big brother (hooray hooray!), so his mom, Kelly has been going to Roseau for her doctor appointments. When she goes, Shane gets to come over to play all morning! Woohoo! The boys couldn't be happier. We have so much fun. Digging in the sandbox...

Splashing in puddles on our walks...

Playing dress up with Keira when we stopped there for a visit...

What will we do without them? These are some of their first friends... I know we will make new ones, I am just going to miss these kiddos. They have all grown so much together, it will be sad to say good bye.

flowers

Some days when Matix is playing outside while I get dinner ready, I hear him talking to someone, saying, "oh, tayns" (oh, thanks). When I peek out to check on him, this is what I see. Granny (from across the street) bringing Matix flowers from her yard.

fall

Playing in the river on a hot fall day...

Normally, one would say, "on a hot summer day" but here it is always summer, and I am missing the fall. So although it doesn't feel like fall, or look, or taste, or smell like fall... I am still decorating the house with what little fall decorations I have, and making pumpkin soup, and dressing the kids up in their Halloween costumes to go trick or treating on Thursday. Happy fall! :)

handsome boy!

How cute is Hawken?! Admit it, after looking at these photos, you're in love, right?! He is TOO stinkin cute! :) I love babies in overalls!

true love

This is true love... Matix and Tracy (his nursery teacher and my friend). Matix loves her SO much, can you tell? And it's mutual. :)

the new calf

There have been a few new baby calves born in the past month or so. Matix and Hawken are in LOVE with the little cows. This one was so silly and playful. It was rubbing it's head in this pile of rocks while Matix was trying to show it where it's momma is. :) Cute.

Matix tried to feed the calf some rocks... It was funny to see both his and the calf's reaction.

The calf was just barely taller than Matix. Although it looks pretty assertive in the video, the calf was really scared of me and the mama cow was tied up across the street. So please, no frantic emails about the safety of the boys. :)

mud puddle

Oh, my sweet little baby... Now what has your big brother taught you?! :)

sweet

This is what happened. I put Hawken in the front seat of the double stroller. Matix likes to walk part of the time and ride part of the time, so the back seat for him is better because then I don't have to strap him in and he can get in and out by himself. We were on our way to the CAC, which we do a lot. Matix was zig-zagging all over the gravel road collecting things. Little rocks, dead bugs, flowers, sticks, you know, TREASURES! :) He was behind me and exclaimed, "Oh! Der ih is! (there it is) Mom! Way a me! (wait for me)". He came running up to Hawken and helped his little brother get his shoe back on.

Apparently it had fallen off somewhere along the way. Matix is such a great big brother. Paul and I are constantly impressed with him. Hawken just loves him to death and ALWAYS wants to be doing whatever it is that Matix is doing. I love our little family and I love watching our boys grow. :)

to the student

Paul... You are such a hard worker. So dedicated. So motivated. So silly!

I love that even though medical school is crazy hard, you still have your sense of humor. You are still the same Paul that everyone knows and loves. Keep up the good work, and know that we are at home cheering you on! We love you so much.

Love,

the wifey, dewds, and bros!

yum!

An avocado almost as big as my face... This isn't even the biggest one we have found! Giant sized produce... Yes, I will miss you Dominica! :)

Matix's "I don't want to give it back!" face. He will miss it here too.

happy

Afternoons at the pool with my boys = I love my life.

the scowl

This is Hawken's scowl... He does this while grunting a dinosaur-ish growl when he is frustrated about something. I haven't been able to capture it much on film, but I did get these two. Such an expressive little guy! :)

Paul says I make the same face and that he gets it from me... I don't know though. :)

helpers

Lazarus cuts our grass. He uses a little weed eater for the entire thing, front AND back. It takes him a few hours... The boys usually watch him from the window, noses pressed firmly on the screens, anxiously waiting for him to be done. When he is finished with the big parts of the yard and puts the weed eater away, I let the boys out. Then Lazarus goes through the little rock beds and the sand box and pulls out the rest of the weeds by hand or with his machete.

He always leaves a huge mess of the dead freshly cut grass everywhere, and so the boys thought they could help make some piles for him to clean up later.

What good helpers I have! :) Honestly though, they ran around picking up grass and making piles and it did actually help Lazarus get his job done faster. Not fast, but fast-er... Nothing around here gets done as quickly as I like them to be done. For example, Lazarus just came today to change our light bulb after it had been out for almost a month. Wow.

it's selling time

The boys and I took a few things up to the last RSO garage sale... The boys did a great job playing around and keeping busy while I tried to sell some things. This sale was incredibly small and we only sold a handful of items.

I don't want to have to ship home 200 pounds of toys, so we have to sell many more things before we leave. Luggage restrictions are a killer! :) So... for those island friends of mine, expect a list of items from me soon.

slow poke

Yes, I am a slow poke in many ways, but mostly when it comes to posting things on the blog when they actually happen. I am trying to get better, but for now I just really need to catch up.

Over the break (I know, that was at the end of AUGUST! Wow I am slow), we went on a ton of little trips. We mainly went to beaches, but we also did a few hikes. Here we are at Fort Shirley. This was the whole group. I really do love getting a group picture when we go anywhere with more than just our family. It is so fun to look back on.

We had only been here once before about a year ago. It was so much fun hiking around and trying to remember where certain things were. There are tons of ruins in the woods that we explored. This little cave had bats in it. So of course Paul and Matix had to go in and check it out.

Paul is always wanting me to take pictures like this of him. Should I be worried? :) Just kidding Paul, I love your silly personality.

Family picture in the woods. One boy in a backpack, one in a front pack... What will we do when we have more than just these two? We are running out of places to strap them! :) It was a hot day, so walking around in the shaded woods was perfect!

Sleepy Hawken. Such a cute baby. He can pass out anywhere, but it's especially easy when he is cuddled up with mommy. :)

The entire day Paul was hunting lizards. And although he didn't actually catch a lizard, he did catch a hermit crab... Well, the hermit crab caught him! :)

We found lots of wild life... snakes, crabs, and lizards, oh my! Matix was so brave and touched everything. I was not so brave, and kept my distance. Matix poking a crab in it's mouth.

Matix touching a snake.

Of course we had to take a family picture on the cannons overlooking the bay. Beautiful.

Paul found the boys a kid sized cannon for them later. :)

Last year, Matix was Hawken's age and LOVED this little water pump. We got some cute pictures of Matix doing this same thing then. Sadly, Matix fell just after his pics were taken, but happily, Hawken did not fall when we set him up there to do the same thing and had Paul just out of camera view to catch him if need be.

Family pictures. I love them. As always, in each picture something weird is happening. One has Matix chewing in a way that makes his mouth look funny, and in the other, Hawken has his hand on Matix's head... Of course. :)