Happy Halloween!

Here's some pictures of our Halloween fun...

L and the girls at Boo Bash at Mars. We need more candy like we need a hole in the head but the kids had fun. We gave away most of what they collected tonight to our trick-or-treaters. V refused to wear a costume and S chose to wear pj's. Cutie Pie was a Mariner's fan.


Decorating some Halloween cookies. S had a great time, she used lots of pink sugar.

V also had fun. This was taken before she used my entire bottle of green sugar.

Our costumes this year were taken from our collection of dress-up clothes. S was a 'fairy' wearing a leotard and puffy skirt.

V also insisted on wearing her leotard but we only have one skirt. The only thing I could convince her to wear was a cape so she was a superhero. They were happy and that's what mattered.

We hope y'all had a great Halloween as well!

Story of the Mickey ears

We wanted to get some Mickey ears for the girls...how can you go and not get the ears? I wanted to make sure that they really liked the ones they got so we looked around and thought about it and tried several on. S really liked the pink pirate pair (pictured below). She is saying 'arrrr' when I took the picture. I thought they were cute and I liked the earring.



I thought this pair fit her perfectly- princess with a tiara and pink netting down the back. S was a good sport and tried them on but she didn't like them as much as I did.



When L and V returned from their ride they all went to get their ears. When they came back I was surprised to see what S chose....yes, she got the baby pair that says 'my first ear hat'. She said she liked the baby princesses on it. Serves me right for not going with them!

Then the girls started to fight over the silly pair of baby ears and V threw such a fit that S decided to generously give her the ears. V was very happy to get her way.

They switched for awhile (this is the pair that V originally chose) and S wore these around the park. I thought these were cute, the jewels are fun.

Since S was so kind to give her sister the baby ears dad told her she could select another pair. This is the pair she chose, basic pink. Very nice. Who knew such a simple souvenir could turn into such a dramatic story!

Just me and my shadow...

I'm suffering from the side affects of our trip. Cutie Pie and I are attached at the hip. While we were on vacation Cutie Pie hardly ever hit the floor. She was carried by me pretty much the entire time. V rode in the stroller most of the time. We tried the Bjorn carrier but Cutie Pie didn't like it too much. I'm at the point now in motherhood where I'm tired of the fights. You don't want to wear a costume to the work Halloween party? Who cares if you stop crying. You want to eat an apple every meal of the day? Fine with me. You cry if I put you down? Then I'll hold you if you stop wailing. So I've been holding Cutie Pie most of her waking hours. I'm getting pretty good at doing things with one hand. At least she's a cute shadow!

One of her rare moments in the stroller- the older 2 girls were swimming with dad.

We're back!

We got home safe and sound last night from our vacation. We had a great time at Disneyworld, it was so much fun! The kids were crying that they didn't want to leave and S asked if we could live in Orlando so we could go all the time. I will post more later and will make Ofoto albums to share.

5 months & cute outfits

Cutie Pie is now 5 months old! Wow, time has gone fast. She was 'talking' in the picture below, very cute squeals. It's amazing how fast babies grow. I saw a newborn at church and I thought she looked so tiny but Cutie Pie was tiny not so long ago!



S and V are looking fabulous in their matching sparkle pumpkin outfits courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. It's a little odd to think that Halloween is coming because we're still having 80 degree weather. I do miss the fall in PA, it was very pretty with the leaves changing color. S went to the 'pumpkin patch' (Ace Hardware) today and got a little pumpkin. Fun!

Funny Conversation

We went to Walmart yesterday and while shopping we came across some disposable sippy cups in Disney themed patterns. We had juice issues (lots of spills) on the plane home from Seattle so I thought these cups might be useful. V chose Lightning McQueen from Cars and I got Princesses for S. V likes cars and Spiderman and she keeps saying she's a boy. On the way to the car while holding her cups she told me the following:

"When I used to be a girl I liked princess things like S, but I like cars now that I'm a boy."

I thought it was amusing and a well formed thought from a 3 year old. S never went through any such phase. According to her pre-school teacher the boys in her class like bracelets and pink and the girls like cars and blue. Maybe she's just figuring out her world. Fun stuff!

*Update* Since writing this post we had this discussion:
V: I want to be a mom when I grow up.
Mom: Moms are girls, daddys are boys
V: Then I'll be a daddy first then a mommy!

1/2 Birthday for S

Today was S's half birthday! S and V's birthdays are just 10 days apart, so once April comes we're in busy birthday mode. We had a little celebration with mini cupcakes. If you look closely you will see that there are 6 1/2 mini cupcakes on the plate.


S is a very kind and tender-hearted girl. She is a fabulous big sister. She didn't want V to feel left out so she made sure V had a cupcake with a candle too. S is doing well in school and is reading a lot. I'm so proud of her! I can't believe she's already 6 1/2! It seems like she was just a baby not so long ago.

Fun with Cutie Pie

Bumbo chairs are so super cool! For those of you that don't know what they are it's a chair that helps babies to sit before they can sit on their own. It's especially great when the baby has older siblings that are playing and the baby wants to be part of the action. Last night Cutie Pie was playing with her sisters and had fun. She is starting to enjoy playing (or rather holding and chewing) on some toys. Although socks are really fun too.


S likes playing with Cutie Pie- here they are talking to each other. S can get Cutie Pie to squeal like no one else.


V likes to play with Cutie Pie too, although it never lasts very long. V is a good big sister and she's pretty good about being gentle.

V's 1/2 Birthday

V is 3 1/2! Shout for joy, we're half way to four! We had a little party for V this weekend. I was lazy (and still not feeling the best) so I bought cupcakes. Luckily no one seemed to care. When I feel up to it I like to make a 'half' cake for the 'half' birthday celebration. She was being silly when I was taking pictures.

After the little party when the girls were getting ready for bed we made a discovery. Apparently V has moved on to a new phase. She draws on everything in sight. First of all let me say that I'm overjoyed that the biting has stopped, that was awful. It would just be nice to have a little break in the 3 year old behavior.

List of things she drew on (with a ballpoint pen no less): Bathroom wall, lid to toilet, bathroom door, tile floor, kid rocking chair, her mis-matched outfit from the other day, Cutie pie's blanket, the dresser, the tablecloth, and the couch. Fortunately hair spray took most of the drawings out. I need to find my magic eraser, I'm sure there's more artwork to come!

Mis-match kind of day

Have you ever gotten to the end of the day and you look at your kids and ask yourself: 'Have you been wearing that ALL day?'

S is looking lovely in her blue Robinson Spirit shirt (Friday is Spirit day) with her pink striped carpi's. While this is not my favorite outfit she has worn it before. When she came in this morning to say goodbye I noticed that her pants were inside out. Good thing I caught it, I don't think dad would have paid much attention.

V (who was not happy about posing for this shot) chose her gigantic lime green 'Rumble in the Jungle' shirt from Zoobilee. She loves this shirt. I don't know why. I do not share her enthusiasm for it. She can only wear it when we don't go anywhere other than to get S from school. Much of the day she wore it as a dress (it's still really warm) and then she put on her pink pants that are several inches too short. Beautiful!



As much as I would like to blame this on my kids (they did choose the outfits themselves) I think part of it is my fault. With being sick this week and L out of town I was doing my best to just survive. I have kept up with washing the laundry but folding is where I seem to fall off the wagon. We have a large mound of clothes that need to be folded. V was looking for some shorts yesterday and came and informed me that they were all 'lost'. I explained that they were in fact clean but wadded up and wrinkled.

So if you see us wandering the streets looking like the mis-matched rag tag family that we are just smile and think this too could be you someday!

No voice

I lost my voice yesterday and it shows no signs of returning anytime soon. V keeps telling me to talk louder and I try to explain that I can't. I've given up trying to talk on the phone- it hurts and no one seems to understand me anyway. If you need to get a hold of me for any reason just send me an email or leave me a comment here. Hopefully I'll be vocal again in a couple days.

Waco Wild West Century

L has been cycling for several months now and he rode the 50 mile portion of the bike race on Saturday. He said it wasn't really a race but he enjoyed it. He wore his Snickers jersey for the occasion. We met him at a rest stop close to our house to cheer him on. V is absent from the picture because she wouldn't get out of the car.


Here they are waiting for dad to come. You would never know from this picture that they didn't want to come. I had to fight and talk them into going. S said she didn't want to go because dad would be 'hot, sweaty and dirty'. Well, yes but that doesn't mean you can't say hello! V sat in the car and then was upset after L left. Kids. We got to wave at him once we headed back home.

It could be worse...

So last night as I was nursing Cutie Pie I was feeling sorry for myself because I'm here alone (L is on a business trip) and that I'm sick with a nasty cold and that V has an ear infection and Cutie Pie is all congested from allergies, etc. I saw this show on TLC called 'Surviving Sextuplets and Twins'. This poor woman has 5 year old twin girls and 16 month old sextuplets- 3 girls and 3 boys. It was unreal, I can't even imagine having 8 kids that little.

She was talking about how they go through 30 diapers and a box of wipes a day. She has a strict schedule she adheres to in order just to get through each day. She works every Saturday as a nurse to help out with the bills. They rarely spend time together because of the overwhelming amount of work involved in taking care of their family. Both her and her husband just looked exhausted. All I could think was: wow, I have it pretty good. Things didn't seem so bad after all.

Milestone

We have lived in Texas for 13 months now with no foreseeable move in sight! This may not seem like a big deal but with as much as we've moved over the last few years it's very exciting for us. This is the 1st calendar year that we haven't moved since we left Washington in January 2003. We had been in Pennsylvania for just about 1 year when we found out we were coming to Texas. That was a big surprise because we thought we'd be in PA for at least 5 years.

We're really enjoying Texas. Everything is so much closer than what we're used to. L's commute is only about 15 minutes (it was close to an hour in PA). We love our ward and people in general are very friendly. The school S attends is awesome and so is V's pre-school. The weather is a little warmer than I like but after living in Phoenix I vowed never to complain about the heat (at least not too much). We're loving life in Texas!