Halloween 2011

Our little trick-or-treaters!

A blue macaw (Jewel from the movie Rio) and a workin' man!

 Lauren and Sophia being silly!

And these two win the award for most adorable!!  My nephew Carson as a werewolf and my friend Echo's little girl, Piper, as Little Red Riding Hood.  Carson and Piper are in preschool together this year and are both the sweetest little kids.  I guess all day at preschool today they kept finding each other to buddy up and stick together since they were the wolf and Little Red.  Then while we trick-or-treated they were holding hands a bunch too. :o)  It doesn't get much cuter than this!!

 After we were done everyone had to dump out their loot!

 Lauren kickin' her heels up and Sophs shakin' her tail feathers!

 And one last picture (at Sophia's request) before we washed her makeup off.

Another fun Halloween watching all these adorable kids make memories together.  Thanks again Justin & Jill for hosting a fun evening!

Pumpkin Carving

Sunday we carved pumpkins out at Great Grandpa Dick's house.

Sophia LOVES carving pumpkins!

 Griffin thought it was pretty disgusting and was

gagging a lot when we opened the pumpkins up.

 Grandma was there to help, too.  Once I pulled out

the carving tools, Griffin was much more interested.

 Aunt Michelle came after she got off work and carved a cute jack-o-lantern face.

 Here are the three we did.  Sophia's on the right,

Sophia & Mommy's in the middle, and Griffin & Mommy's on the left.

Pumpkin Patch x 2

Sophia had a field trip to the pumpkin patch with her kindergarten class last week.  I went along as a helper.  Sophia's classmate, Haley, was put in my care for the trip.  She was sweet and the girls had fun together.

 Sophia is quite the ham when her friends are around.  Always acting silly to get a laugh.

Kyle was off work early on Tuesday, which was so perfect because it was beautiful out. We decided to go as a family to the pumpkin patch.  The kids had fun choosing their favorite pumpkins.  Sophia told Griffin all he'd ever need to know about picking out a pumpkin. 

Big Boy Bed

Griffin has had four successful nights in his new toddler bed!  He loves it!

Today, I finally got around to finishing his blanket that I started about a year ago and tucked away...  I had the striped fabric and the polar fleece cut, but just had to cut batting and stitch it all together.  It fits the little bed perfectly and is soooo cozy.

We're so proud of our big boy.  Next step will be to move his room downstairs next to Sophia's room.  The office will come back upstairs, which will be so much more convenient.  I'm excited for my upstairs to be more functional, but sad that our baby phase is done...  We originally thought we'd have three children, but we're pretty content right now with two.  I'm ready for a break from babies and excited to watch our two beautiful kiddies grow and develop!  I am enjoying a little more mommy time lately, and would like to have even more mommy time and more date nights with Kyle.  Luckily my sisters-in-law are still in baby making phases, so I have plenty of babies around when I need a fix!

Cousins!

Baby Don 4 months, Abigail 22 months, Griffin 2 1/2 years, Sophia 5 years

September

We spent Labor Day weekend with my best friend, Sandy and her family at the beach!  It was a lot of fun and the weather was gorgeous!  The kids all play so nice together.   Dylan is almost 14 and Evan is 8.

The next weekend was Don and Deniece's 40th Anniversary.  We all headed out to the lake house (Grandpa Dick's) for a nice family dinner and celebration.  We had a great dinner and a great time.  It was soooo hot that day!

Aunt Kim - sometimes referred to as the baby whisperer.  Not that baby Don needed any special techniques to fall asleep - he's a pretty go-with-the-flow baby.  But my babies always had a hard time going to sleep during family functions and Kim was the one to have the patience to get them to sleep.  Love it!

Look at this beautiful little peanut!  He's so adorable!

Another fun-filled month.  Many more to come, I'm sure!

Goodbye Summer 2011

We all know it - summer came and went in a flash. But we had lots of fun anyway and took advantage of every drop of sunshine this year. As I sit here now feeling cozy in a robe and woolly socks drinking my coffee and looking out the window at the rain storm - I figured I better get back to blogging a little more often. And back to cooking dinner a little more often. And back to getting the kids to bed on time a little more often... Sometimes you just are so tired after a long summer day of play, that you just crash right in the middle of the living room...

We had a few days later in August that we were able to have Carson for the whole day! The kids love having a playmate. Carson is a sweet little boy and him and Griffin are great buddies!


Kyle's friend, Shawn, came to visit with his little girl Kennedy. She's about 7 or 8 months younger than Griffin. She is a rough and tumble little gal with an amazing personality. So smart and so funny!

We were also so glad to be able to hang out with Marisa and baby Don a lot during her summer off as a school teacher. Don is such a mellow little guy with the cutest smiles. He is mesmerized by Sophia and Griffin, thankfully not scared or overwhelmed.

We had a handful of days we spent playing at Kyle's Uncle Monty's house. They have a pool, and lots of blacktop to ride bikes, and a little 4-wheeler Griffin loved! Aunt Beth always makes it so nice for us to visit there and is so sweet to take such great care of our little family.

All in all, it was a great summer! It feels good to be into fall, though. We are back on routine and the house seems a little more in order. Sophia is loving kindergarten and Griffin is enjoying his special time with mom. We've been working on his colors and shapes and he's almost got them down. He's pretty good at mimicking counting and knows a few letters. Sophia has learned a handful of "sight words" at school and says her favorite part of the day is riding the bus. She's still taking her weekly dance class and enjoying it.

Kyle has been working long, long hours. We had some major house repairs we had to get done before the rain came. Pretty expensive at this point (don't ever let MC Construction build a home for you!!!). So he's been working a lot to cover those expenses - which means longer days for mom, too! I've been keeping very busy with my new little cake business - Party Cakes by Amy. It's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work with kids to referee and take care of while I'm baking, decorating, or cleaning up. So I've had a lot of nights that it's just easier to stay up late to get everything done while the kids and Kyle are sleeping. I am really enjoying it, though, and have a quite a few loyal customers at this point.

I'm hoping to start blogging more frequently, now that we're home more often. Stay tuned for our September update coming later this week!!

Goodbye to Grandpa Dick's Tractor

All loaded up and ready to go to a new home... An older gentleman just a few miles down the road from us was excited to buy this old tractor. Kyle is pictured below (Sophia snapped the pic) taking one last ride.

Off to Kindergarten!

Daddy stopped by to see her off and so did Papa Dan. Here we are waiting for Bus No. 1!

Here it comes...

Reality seemed to set in a little and she got kind of quiet...

The bus driver gave no directions, but Sophia knew what to do. Find a seat, sit down quietly, and make sure to wave to Mom!

Griffin was pretty sad that he couldn't ride the bus with sissy... Poor little guy will have to go through this for next couple years.

I've just been holding back tears all morning. It was a pretty weird feeling to watch my baby ride off on that big bus. I might have to go buy her a cell phone tonight so she can call me from the bus from now on! ha!