Party & Trick-or-Treat

I was lucky enough to get away from work for a couple of hours to go to the Halloween party at Punky's today. The kids went on a little walk around the neighborhood to visit some of the retired people and then it was time for some fun and games back at the house.



These are almost all of the kids - yep, all boys! There is just one 3-year old girl missing (at morning pre-school) and Miss Vicky's 18-month old daughter and of course Baby Paige and Punky's Baby Nicholas.




Mummy wrapping Jett!


Luke's turn to be mummy-wrapped!


Buddies! (Jack, Luke, and Jett)


And a little musical chairs!


And one quick story - Luke's friend AJ kept saying "Hey Mom" to me and then telling me something. Finally when they were eating lunch, AJ said "hey mom" again and Luke looked at him and said "that's not your mommy". It was too funny and cute!

My little kitty who just minutes later had a blowout and that was the end of that costume for the day!


I was also lucky enough to leave work a little early today so we could get home and get ready for trick-or-treat! Our town's hours were from 4-8. Wally and Luke headed out around 4:45 for about an hour. Wally said Luke got tired of it and wanted to come home - ha!



Heading out!


Paige did a little bit of this while I handed out candy!




My favorite trick-or-treater of the night!


And just for the record, because a lot of people (ahem, Wally) think that I don't like Halloween, I do like Halloween. I enjoy dressing my kids up and seeing all of the kids come by the house, but I don't see the point in spending a lot of money on a costume that is worn once or twice. I think you can have fun cheaply. I also am not a huge fan of dressing up myself, but I will ALWAYS make sure my kids enjoy Halloween. So this year, just to show that I am not a Halloween dud, I picked up a little something from Wally World. Wally was quite surprised when I came downstairs in my "I'm the good witch" t-shirt and Halloween socks. He was very impressed he said. Now Wally says that he loves Halloween and always says he is going to dress up (at school and when he takes Luke out trick-or-treating), but he never does - so who is the Halloween dud now?!?! LOL Here are some pics to prove that I can and do dress up!

Luckily Paige had one more Halloween outfit hanging in her closet. I had kept thinking it was going to be too small so I never put it on her, but it fit perfectly! I guess she wanted to wear this outfit hence the blowout earlier in the day!

Happy Halloween!

Big brother Luke of course wouldn't pose for a picture (becoming the norm lately) so today you just get to enjoy baby girl!

Have a wonderful Halloween!

P is for Paige

and Pink! And a pink room was necessary (the walls are light pink in case you can't tell from the pics)!

Here it is all finished - I think! Well, I guess I need to put pictures of Paige or at least someone we know in the picture frames!.









I found the decorative hardware and cross at Hobby Lobby. I don't want to hang headbands on the other one (since they won't all fit), but I'm not sure what to put on there yet.


Also Hobby Lobby!


And one of the little Miss in her room because she was sitting so nicely against her Daddy :)

Halloween Weekend

We kicked off Halloween weekend with some mummy dogs and Frankenstein treats on Friday night followed by a Winnie the Pooh Halloween movie!





Saturday it was costume time! We headed to Crete to trick-or-treat on their bike trail. Little did we know how many people there would be. We waited for 2 hours to get to the bike trail and to start collecting treats. I think Luke was at the perfect age to wait though. He was just happy to be outside, playing in the leaves, and looking at all of the other costumes that he didn't complain like some of the older kids behind us. And thankfully, Paige took her long nap over these 3 hours otherwise we probably would have had to leave since it was too chilly for her to be out of her comfy, cozy carseat. Once we got to the trail, it was a lot of fun and Luke got a lot of candy!

Some pics before we left the house - introducing my handsome cowboy and little kitty!








Patiently waiting to get his treats!


Sleepy kitty!






Sunday was a pretty low-key day at home. We are having some painting done this week so we had to move some stuff around and Aunt Stacey came by for a little visit!



I can't wait to take a picture like this with my little niece or nephew in April!

What's that??? Yep, I am going to be an Aunt! We are so excited for Stacey and Michael, and I am so excited for my kids to have a cousin! Yeah!

Tough Week

:sigh:

Well, I survived.

My baby girl is officially a daycare baby with her big brother.

She (of course) did amazing. I (of course) did not.

Monday was terrible, just terrible.

I cried all morning while getting ready, I cried when I dropped the kids off, I cried on my way to work, I cried at work, I cried on my way to get the kids, I cried when I saw Paige.

All of the teachers raved about what a good baby Paige is and how she is easy to please. Once she starts fussing, it is just time to move on to something else or eat or change her diaper and then she is back to being a happy camper. I was told multiple times during the week what a joy she is and how her smile melts their heart - I hear ya teachers - she is awesome!

I was curious as to how Luke would be with her there, and as expected, he didn't care too much - ha! He got to introduce her to the other kids at group time and pushed her in the baby swing a bit, but that's about it. He has said multiple times to his friends that she is HIS baby sister - in a possessive way - which is cute!

But today I am off and home with my kids and will be with them every Friday (which I love and am so thankful for). 4 days of work and 3 days off - I'll take it!

Both kids are napping and really I should be too since this week's sleep has been less than stellar, but I thought I would blog and catch up on my almost maxed out DVR!

Before I go though, here are some tummy pics of Paige.

In case you didn't know, she is NOT a fan of tummy time. She usually screams her little head off. The other night though, she mostly just grunted and groaned but stayed on her tummy for about 10 minutes - definitely a record for her.



Check out those brows - ha!

One Year Ago Today...

I found out I was pregnant!

I enjoyed (for the most part) 9 months of pregnancy and now we get to enjoy this precious gift!




And see these two together!


LOVE both my babies cheeks :)

Dear Baby Girl,

Remember when I used to brag about you being an amazing sleeper? Well, the sleep has been less than amazing as of late. It has been one full week of long nights. You started out just waking at 11 and 4. You would nurse and go right back to sleep. And then those wakings became much more frequent. And then there was Sunday night – oh my!

I am 95% convinced that you would sleep through the night if you were snuggled up to me all night. You are a cuddler and are sound asleep in my arms in the rocking chair (or while I am doing the “bounce and walk”), but the second (or within 20 minutes) of being laid in your crib, you are awake. You often find yourself waking up in Daddy’s and my bed in the morning after one of us decide that 4 AM is too close to the 5 AM alarm and we just need to sleep for one more hour.

I know there have been some changes lately. Mommy isn’t around to play and snuggle with you all day long so maybe you just miss me, right? Believe me, I miss you too sweet girl. So much. We will get your new schedule all figured out and everyone will get a better night’s sleep. In the meantime, I will continue to tell myself that “this too shall pass” and continue to wonder if coffee drinking is in my near future.

We love you to the moon and back again (at all hours)!

The Weekend

We had a super relaxing weekend. Unfortunately, Paige caught another cold [and she hasn't even been to daycare yet :( ] and was definitely feeling under the weather on Friday so we just stayed in and snuggled up. Saturday we did some pumpkin carving and shopping. And Sunday we did church and some grocery shopping. Nothing too exciting, but always fun nonetheless and just what I needed before the dreaded daycare drop-off tomorrow morning.

I know Luke and Paige are in good hands. We have known Punky's family and the other teachers for 2 1/2 years now but somehow that doesn't make it any easier to leave your baby. I am glad that Luke is there with her, and I know that he loves going so that gives me a little peace. It's only 4 days. We can do this. I can do this. Already counting down to my Friday off and the weekend.

Anyways...now for some pics!

My little skeletons!


Both of their pajamas glow in the dark - Luke thought this was pretty cool, but he was also a little scared of being in the dark bathroom the first time we showed him in the mirror!


Big bowl of popcorn for Friday night movie night - Rio was Luke's pick! (Notice Nala creeping in - she certainly got her fair share that night!)


All ready to carve the great pumpkin on Saturday morning!


Ok...maybe just a little pumpkin! (I think he was pretending to blow out the candle...)




Luke didn't enjoy this part as much this year!


The cutest little pumpkin butt!


Proud Daddy with his little Notre Dame fans (too bad they lost though!)






I didn't even realize the matching polkadots on the boppy and Paige's outfit until after I took the picture - cute!


Fun with playdoh!






Check out that face and drooly-mouth!


What a look!


Bathtime!


And now bedtime...or what if I don't go to bed tonight, does that mean tomorrow never comes??? It's going to be a rough one folks :(