Happy Halloween Y'all

Trick or treating was a success this year! Between her school party and roaming the neighborhood tonight Natalie has enough candy for a small army. She could not wait to go ToT after school. I had to set the timer on the stove so she'd stop bugging me about the time!

Getting ready to load up, and yes, we used both pumpkins.

Poor Harper just couldn't hang. We made it around the cul-de-sac to visit the neighbors and then I took her back in to stay with Byron. It was probably for the best. It was well past her bedtime when we got home.

We had a little sprinkle storm blow over about the time we wanted to leave so we had to wait it out for a few minutes. You know, cause heaven forbid this little fairy get wet.

Then we set off with Natalie's "girlfriend", Kaley, our sweet little neighbor who tried really hard to include Natalie even though she was with two of her school friends. 

Trick-or-Treat!

Man Natalie was up at 4:30 ready to P-A-R-T-Y and dress up for Halloween. Thank goodness she went back to sleep. Can you imagine what a pill she would be by lunch time?

Of course Harper could care less. She's been rockin' her Halloween jammies since last month. I just can't get over how big she looks sitting in Nat's lap, which is proving to be more difficult since Harper is want to sit up on her own and wiggle. Nat just wants to squeeze and hug on her and Harper doesn't really like that anymore.



































She couldn't wait to put her costume, wings and a little makeup (every fairy has to sparkle) and get on to school. I didn't stay for the party, most parents don't, and I'm sure she'll participate and have more fun without me to cling to. However I did snap a few pics of her and friends who were there before I left. I just couldn't resist.


Cannon, Reece, Bryce & Luke. Super heroes must be the IT costume this year, or maybe it's the age :)

The ladies - Natalie, Anna Claire, Mary Alice & Ella Rose 

I'm sure I will have more from tonight when we canvas the neighborhood with our neighbors. 

Pumpkin Carving

Is not something Nat was into as much as I had hoped. She was so excited to give her pumpkin a silly face until the seeds and stringy insides made an appearance. If I heard it once, I heard it 10 times, "that is so yuck Mom."  Oh well, I still enjoyed it :)

This is as close as she would get to touching the inside of the pumpkin.

I got the pleasure of scoping out the guts.

Not only would she not touch the inside, the outside had to be washed of ALL dirt.

She did enjoy drawing the face onto the pumpkin.

She has recently found Byron's guitar for the xbox and thinks she's quite the rockstar singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and If You're Happy & You Know It.

 

Just a quick pic of Harper fresh out of the tub. 

Sneak Peak

This is what has kept me so busy the last 2 weeks. Natalie decided kinda last minute she wanted to be the red fairy from Tinkerbell? Who's that? Exactly. Not an easy costume to find in the stores, I tried 2 Targets and multiple Walmarts to no avail. So on a whim I bought 2 yards of red satin, 1 yard of sparkle fabric and some trim and went to work.

Thank goodness Sue came down this weekend because I was definitely in over my head. I wasn't following a pattern and the top took about 3 redos before we got it to go over her head and arms.

All in all, I'm still proud and thankful I didn't have to spend $25 plus shipping on Amazon for a costume.

Harper's was easy peasy  I took an old sleepsack traced it and cut 3 different color fabrics to resemble candy corn. I think it took less than an hour and it should be more than enough to keep her warm while Natalie trick-or-treats.

Harper, Party of One

Harper has had a slight regression in her sleep pattern the last few days. Two nights ago after a 2:30 wake up call and bottle I thought she had peacefully gone back to sleep in record time. So I crawl back into bed get all snug and I hear not crying but all sorts of gibberish, squeals and giggles over the monitor. I mean seriously? It's 3AM child! Of course that only lasted about 15 minutes before it turned into crying but good grief. It's one of those moments when you can't help but laugh and wonder what she's doing in there, that could be that funny at the crack-of-dawn. Oh well, here's to hoping we get back on track soon. Between her sleep schedule (lack of) and Natalie coming in our room at 2 times a night there isn't a whole lot of peaceful, uninterrupted sleep in our house.

Don't we have a vacation (adults only) soon? (hint, hint).

And onto the part all the family cares about, pics of the two. Nat's been in a "let's have a picnic" mood this week. So each day after school we come home, spread out her blanket, and have a picnic in the back yard. It's nice but sad that it's mid October and we are just now able to enjoy being outside without dying of heat stroke. 

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

St. Paul's took their annual field trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. We haven't been since Natalie was almost 9 months old. She enjoyed it a lot more this time around seeing as she's older and all her buddies were with her.

Mrs. Deborah and her class of hooligans. Let's see if I can name them all. Back: Connor, Anna Claire, Madeline & Kirsten. Middle: Reece, Gage, Cannon, Mary Alice, Mrs Deborah, Bryce and Luke. Front: Ella Rose, Stella, Kate and Natalie.

Stella , Kate 7 Natalie

   

Stella, Anna Claire, Madeline & Natalie

Finding just the right pumpkin...Time to play before a picnic lunch

3 Months!

It seems like just yesterday Byron and I were trying to have dinner at Bonefish and timing contractions :)

You've grown so much in 3 months I don't even know if I can remember it all. You've really taken a liking to your Daddy now, I think the week he was home for his tonsils did you both some good :)  You are dying to hold your own bottle and sit up without assistance. You are most chatty as soon as you wake up in your crib or after a diaper change. I swear you say "I good" or "agoo" all the time. You've been blessing us by sleeping really well at night, I hope this never changes, and you still love sitting in your bouncy talking to the bunny, bees and dog. However I have caught you sneaking peaks at ESPN when we aren't looking.

You also give your sister some funny expressions. It's moments like those I can't help but wonder what on earth you are thinking. She loves to make you laugh and is just dying for you to be able to play with her more.

And I'm almost ashamed to write this, but I think this is the FIRST picture I have of the two of us. I'm almost always the one taking the photos but we got a good one yesterday on the iPad.

Nat's Shining Moment

This is a total brag on Natalie post. It might be one of my proudest mommy moments yet. She surprised upstairs the other morning by writing this on her chalkboard...


Come to find out she can write all our names (well at least the first letters N, B, J & H) without us showing her what they are.

Since August at her school they focus on 2-3 letter per month and I noticed that she had been bringing home papers where she had begun practicing tracing/writing her name. We also received a note asking parents to spend a few minutes each night helping their child practice. So this is what we do every night. She loves to do it and we brag on her just about as much as the first time she went potty!