Halloween 2008

I have always loved Halloween. No, I am not one of those people who go all out and put spooky bats all over my house or skeletons and scary goblins in my yard...those are my neighbors! Ha! I guess I loved it as a kid because I enjoyed dressing up and getting free candy. Isn't that every kids dream? To knock on a door, mutter a little phrase, and get a handful of candy? Awesome. Anyway, now that I have children, and to see how excited they get when the holidays roll around because they know what traditions we as a family enjoy together, well, that's enough to make me excited too.
So this year, Chloe was Mulan (the Chinese warrior in the Disney film,) and she was so excited to wear make up with her costume. She looked great. Macie, being three, changed twice. (She changes twice on a daily basis, just because she is already a little fashionista,) In the afternoon, we went trick-or-treating in downtown Auburn, and she was a bumblebee. In the evening we went to a carnival at their school, and she was Snow White. Adorable! Dawson was a little spider. Poor guy. He had this look on his face like, "get me out of this thing!" Nonetheless, my kids were so cute!
A Halloween tradition that I started when Chloe was little was to paint a character on our pumpkins, instead of carving them. So I let the girls pick which characters we should put on our pumpkins, and they chose the cast of Beauty and the Beast. So after our treck to the pumpkin patch, I took on the task of drawing and painting on our precious gourds. The kids love it...but I think I will recruit them next year to paint them themselves. It's a lot of work! (I do enjoy the outcome though!)
Damian and I went to a costume party at our good friends, Ryan and Corie Clark's house. Being so close to the election, we chose to dress up like Sarah Palin and John McCain. It was fun going through my mother-in-laws suits to find the most "Sarah-esque" outfit. I think I pulled it off pretty well! Damian on the other hand...let's just say that I was happy to see his hair back to normal!

Rock of Ages Festival

On Saturday, Damian and I (and Dawson) went to Napa to the Rock of Ages Festival. Damian was invited to play worship with our friend, Brad Butcher, who is the president of a ministry called Passion for People. Brad was preaching at the end of the day and wanted Damian to play worship for the prayer time/alter call. So we drove through the beautiful wine country to the fairgrounds and sat around in the 'green room' (why do they call it that, anyway?) for most of the day. We listened to bands like Salvador and Jaci Velasquez, 1000 Foot Crutch, Christafari, and the Newsboys.

On the way down, Damian and I had this conversation about some musicians that we used to know and how they had this 'rockstar' mentality and didn't care much about the 'little people.' We talked about how we hated that. So we were walking to the car so I could feed the baby, and we walked right past the Newsboys talking outside. I thought for sure that they were the same way. When we were finished, Damian decided to go talk to Peter, the lead singer. After having a 10 minute conversation with him, I was so impressed by the way he talked with us. He was friendly and warm and actually gave Damian some industry advice. Cool guy. I told Damian that if he shaved his head and put on a little eyeliner, they could be related. We'll see if that happens!

We were also able to meet Jaci Velasquez. Like Peter, she was also very personable, friendly, and she wanted to hold my chubby baby. She loved his roly poly arms and couldn't get over what a chunk he is. Pretty funny that Damian and I were just talking about rockstars and their attitudes; I was very glad to have these two change my mind.

Apple Hill

At the beginning of this week we went on a field trip with Chloe's first grade class. We went to Apple Hill, past Placerville, to have some fall fun. It is so beautiful up there; we were surrounded by apple orchards, farms, mountains and trees. We had a nice little tour of the farm before we enjoyed some of the farms treats. When going to Apple Hill, you HAVE to sample the many yummy apple treats. Our favorites are the cider, the pies, and most of all, the chocolate covered, carmel apples!

Little Miss Macie

I have many interesting conversations with my three year old daughter, Macie. She makes me laugh and makes me wonder what exactly is going on in her preschool brain; I don't have to wonder for too long because she usually spews out exactly what she's thinking. She's the kid that says things in public that everyone is thinking, but no one is bold enough to say or ask.  Being her mom I often cringe when those moments come up, not knowing how the other party involved is going to respond. I usually end up laughing later. Here are a few of those precocious moments:

Today she saw two high school age girls walking by with purses and on their cell phones, and she says to me, "Mommy, do boys carry purses." And I said, "No, they have backpacks or wallets." Her response was very confidently, "Yeah, and I-phones and hats."

Last week she snuck out of her bed and I was watching "Dancing with the Stars," and I let her watch it with me for a few minutes.  She saw the couples dancing and said excitedly, "oooh,  Mommy, you could be on Dancing with the Stars, so you could dance with a boy!" I said, "Oh, yeah, you think I could do it?" And she went on to tell me that I look like the girls on Dancing with the Stars! What a compliment! (; Then she went on to say, "You could wear a bra like that one too mom," pointing to my oh-so-fashionable, black nursing bra. 

Up and Blogging!

So here I am, writing a blog. This is quite the experiment for me, because as a mom of three, one being an infant, I often don't have time to eat a meal sitting down. But I really wanted to chronicle the happenings of my daily life; not because I think others really care about what's going on in the Horne household, (I know you really do!) but because I don't want to forget those cute things that my kids do or the funny thing that one of them said. So this is really for me. If you're reading this, I hope that you're amused by my talent in juggling my crazy (yet lovable) life. Enjoy, and save your parenting advice for someone else! (wink, wink...)