Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween Celebrations are coming to an end! It has been really fun this year with a 2 1/2 year old. His favorite part, costumes. His least favorite part (maybe a show/exaggeration) is him telling me he is afraid of everything. It's actually pretty funny, but he is genuinely a little leery of the dark-a flashlight is his #1 companion.

We carved a pumpkin for the family. Jack loved the candle inside and the pumpkin's two teeth.


The kids were Minnie & Mickey Mouse! Our only picture from the ward Halloween party. Jack loved getting all of the treats. (I should nte that we had a soup/chili cook-off my soup took 3rd place...)

This is our 3rd Trick-or treating adventure (obviously not many pictures from the other two!)
We trick-or-treated to 3 of Grandma & Papa's neighbors, in our stroller, in the rain. The kids survived- Dan and I were pretty wet.
Happy Halloween! We dressed festive for today!
And I think that is the end of our celebrating. Jack sat down to watch a Mickey Mouse episode, in his Mickey Mouse costume. And I came back, he was sleeping sitting up. I helped him lie down so he was a little more comfortable.

I think this is a case of "Too Much Halloween." Happy November tomorrow!

Preschool

A couple ladies and I from church are doing a preschool co-op once a week. We each take a turn teaching, a turn watching the teacher's extra child (super nice to teach without Nora needing anything when it's my turn) and 2 weeks to drop off our child and have a couple of hours to get things done, without a 2 year-old.
It is a lot of fun to teach, but also really exciting to hear from Jack all about it.

The highlights (from a 2 year old perspective)
Week 1: He had a lollipop, used leaves, and made candy corn
Week 2: Played outside, and he was afraid of the turtles (pet turtles they showed for T week)
Week 3: LOVED the obstacle course. That is all he wants to do downstairs now. Oh, and we had marshmallows for snack (we sorted them, and counted them first, but who cares when you get to eat them.)


Our first day! (Sadly we didn't have a backpack for him, so he used a diaper bag/backpack we got as a free sample when he was born. LAME MOM move- but he's 2. He doesn't know the difference.)
But, I did find him one at my favorite rummage sale. McQueen too! He loves it, obviously. :)

Family Vacation

So, I'm a little behind. OVER a month ago, we went on a family vacation. We don't vacation much, so a 14 hour car ride with 2 kids was a new experience. We survived... actually we thrived! Dan drove, I took care of the kids and we made excellent time and we were all happy!

We stopped to visit friends in Indiana on our way to North Carolina. Jack loved playing outside with his friends. Dan played outside with all of the kids, kicking a soccer ball. It got stuck in the tree and that was Jack's favorite thing! He still talks about going to play with our friends and kicking the soccer ball in the tree.


Then we headed to North Carolina to visit Dan's parents and sister. They live on a golf course, so there was a lot of relaxing!

Jack riding in the golf cart with Grandma Diane.

Feeding the ducks with Auntie Katie.

A much needed nap- usually I got kids sleeping, so this was a nice sight to see when I went to check on the status. Notice Dan holding Mickey close. :)
Dan got to check North Carolina off of his Frisbee Golf list! Jack loved to go "ding ding ding" in the baskets.
This is actually the car ride there. Jack slept through our lunch stop, so we got him a bonus cheeseburger towards the end of the driving day. We had a fancy mini-van with the pull down DVD player and Jack was in HEAVEN- or "I'm the boss" mode at this point!

And Nora was there too!

Obviously the camera didn't come out much, but we had a great time! Dan golfed 3 times, I took a nap every day and got to go see the old buildings at Pinehurst. We went out to eat and just enjoyed relaxing, playing pool, and watching movies. It was wonderful!

6 months ago...

I was getting a whole lot more sleep. Sleep is very valuable to me, and that is something I have been without for WAY TOO LONG!

However, this little princess wasn't here 6 months ago, and even if I don't get to sleep more than 6 hours until she is over a year old, she is worth it!

She is wonderful! She has been taking really good afternoon naps (2 hours +), finally eating 1/2 a container of baby food in one sitting, she has had peas, green beans, squash (which might give her a belly ache), sweet potatoes, applesauce and pears.
She loves to be naked, take baths, and doesn't mind running errands in her carseat-awake or asleep.
She is very smiley and loves to laugh. We love that about her.

She is getting better at sitting every day! Not crawling yet, but is moving backwards and doing 360's on her belly. She loves to do these things in her crib awake, and in her sleep.

And of course- a celebration of this little man becoming a big brother! He loves to give Nora kisses, doesn't like when she grabs at his glasses, and likes to help feed her her fruits & vegetables. He's a great kid!

A special treat!

It was a normal Friday night. We sat down to eat tacos for dinner and chat before Dan had a Fantasy Football Draft (his 2nd of 3) and we saw flashing lights outside our front window. A fire fighter was out walking along the corner, but no other emergency vehicles were in sight. It was rather odd so we went outside to take a look at the fire truck. Jack loved it!

Apparently someone called in that they smelled natural gas at our intersection, so they were just there to check it out. No one could smell anything so it quickly became an awesome opportunity to get a VIP look into our city's newest fire truck!

Pretty lucky!

NOAH'S ARK

One of my favorite things about Summer- going to Noah's Ark!
We got it in on the 3rd last day of the open season, which was a little colder than we would have liked, but it was still a lot of fun!

The whole clan (minus my mom and Nora) on the Adventure River.
Jack loved this waterslide! (He loved everything there, but he was so cold!)
Cousin Cade and Jack watching the big boat going down the hill, making the big big splash.
Grandma and Cousin Lauren.
The Bumper Boats
Nora- the sun came out at one point so I dressed her to go in the water, but it was short lived. Honestly, she only was awake for an hour at a time so she was just too tired.
And the kiddie-coaster.

Still today- Jack is asking me to see Sponge-Bob (there was a statue of him at the park) and to go on waterslides. I am amazed at what Jack remembers from day to day.
We had a lot of fun, hopefully next year it will be a little warmer!

One day at a time...

I need a vacation. Don't get me wrong- I love being a mom- but sometimes it's a lot of work, with little reward, and no matter how much you prepare & plan, things just don't go my way. Some days I just would love for life to work out in my favor.

I'm sure we all feel like that sometimes...

At our house, we have sleeping problems. Besides still being up with Nora, once maybe twice a night, her favorite place to sleep during the day is in my bed sideways. That is the only place I have gotten her to nap more than 45 min. at a time in the past month. Some nights I even let her fall asleep there just to make my life easier.

Jack- well he wants to sleep on his floor. The greatest was when Jack came out of his room and dragged a pillow and his Mickey Mouse blanket all the way to the kitchen floor and made a bed there. I was making phonecalls and doing paperwork at the kitchen table. what a homer! at least he is sleeping. :)
Other things that cause me headaches- FRUIT FLIES, cleaning, pens that go through the laundry, naptimes, and the ever recurring scheduling malfunctions (it seems I like to schedule too much in too little time.)

On the plus side...

Nora and Jack are becoming best friends. I love that! They play together, and Nora just loves to watch him run around and be crazy. He definitely gets the best giggles out of her.


Oh- Nora has 2 teeth! Jack was 7 1/2 months old, so when these babies popped through at 5 months, I was less than thrilled!

Also- Nora should be eating rice cereal by now. I have been trying every day for the past 3 weeks, and she still can't figure it out!

But her smile makes it all worth it.