Trick-or-Treating

We were excited about our first year trick-or-treating! After naps we hopped in the car and headed to Collin's house to hang out with several of our best friends. As we loaded the car Matney decided that she didn't want to be Tinkerbell and that was only going to wear her "castle jammies and ballerina shoes" with a giant flower headband. I don't think she appreciated how much we paid for that Tinkerbell costume!

We had pizza, played in a big inflatable (HK was ecstatic to be able to jump and climb without getting in trouble), had yummy cupcakes and changed clothes to go trick-or-treating. Thankfully, Matney's friend Mackenzie was also Tinkerbell and convinced M to change clothes. Shew! We tried a group picture of the kiddos. Fail. We tried to get a family picture. HA! Double fail.

As we set of down the street HK saw a little girl dressed as Minnie Mouse and went chasing after her screaming "Mouse, mouse!" It was so funny...but I think she scared poor little Minnie! The little ones quickly ended up in a wagon (and stole food from each others buckets all night long) while the big kids walked around. Both of our girls had a great time but we were all worn out at the end of the night! Thanks Hardy's for having us over. We had a great time spending the night with you!

We were excited about our first year trick-or-treating! After naps we hopped in the car and headed to Collin's house to hang out with several of our best friends. As we loaded the car Matney decided that she didn't want to be Tinkerbell and that was only going to wear her "castle jammies and ballerina shoes" with a giant flower headband. I don't think she appreciated how much we paid for that Tinkerbell costume!

We had pizza, played in a big inflatable (HK was ecstatic to be able to jump and climb without getting in trouble), had yummy cupcakes and changed clothes to go trick-or-treating. Thankfully, Matney's friend Mackenzie was also Tinkerbell and convinced M to change clothes. Shew! We tried a group picture of the kiddos. Fail. We tried to get a family picture. HA! Double fail.

As we set of down the street HK saw a little girl dressed as Minnie Mouse and went chasing after her screaming "Mouse, mouse!" It was so funny...but I think she scared poor little Minnie! The little ones quickly ended up in a wagon (and stole food from each others buckets all night long) while the big kids walked around. Both of our girls had a great time but we were all worn out at the end of the night! Thanks Hardy's for having us over. We had a great time spending the night with you!

Halloween Practice

I got a new camera a week ago and just downloaded 399 pictures. I am so excited! I'll be posting lots of fun things this week because we have been BUSY. I know some of you are waiting to see the cutest Tinkerbell and kitty cat ever so I'll start with Halloween and go backwards as I have time.
First though we had to make their buckets. I wanted something cute and fun for them to carry so I got black Frankenstein buckets from the dollar bin at Target. Then I found cute black and orange polka dot napkins for $1.50 in the party supplies. We cut the napkins into strips and then Mod Podged them onto the buckets. Or, Jared Mod Podged them on the buckets. Aren't you impressed? He wasn't...but he helped anyway. Once they were dry I tied funky ribbon on the handles and we were good to go.

Halloween was on Sunday this year so we had a little practice session on Saturday night. The girls dressed up and we went to Matney's school for a Trunk or Treat. Matney was determined to be Tinkerbell. She's worn that costume around the house for weeks. Of course, she would have been wearing it out of the house for weeks but I told her that the wings wouldn't fit in the carseat! Halle Kate was a kitty cat. It was one of the only costumes I could find that was cute in the 6-9 month size that she wears. My little Peanut.

 We tried another family pictures...FAIL.

 Halle Kate wanted to be best friends with the giant lion. She kept running up to him and yelling, "ROAR!". It was hysterical and lots of people gathered around to watch her. The lion though it was funny to so he got down and danced with her. Anything the lion did HK tried to copy him. So cute.

 Matney ran far far away from the lion and demanded to be held. She was terrified.

 We ran into Matney's friend Mr. Potato Head  Collin as we were leaving. He was ready to go bounce on the inflatables.

 HK wanted to be in on the action...she was so proud that people had put things in her bucket. We all had a good time. I am thankful for places that make Halloween things "not scary" so that little kids can enjoy the night too.

Playgroup Halloween

I was so super bummed this year that Matney would be in preschool during our playgroup Halloween party. Most of the playgroup kids are in some preschool and they all go different days of the week so there was no way to have playgroup on a day when they all could attend. I finally worked it out so that we could get M to her Halloween parade a school, get to playgroup for the pictures and then get Aunt Vickie to where she needed to be. I figured one child in the pictures was better than none. If I were smarter I'd photoshop Matney onto this couch! This first picture is the original playgroup minus Matney and Mikey.

 We added the next playgroup generation - HK and Caleb. Baby Jackson was still napping.

 HK will pose for M&Ms. Who knew? She heard the word candy and was Lindsay's new best friend.

 The kiddos and moms. Lindsay (sitting next to me on the left) and I are the only moms not pregnant. Everyone else is expecting in Feb or March of 2011 and so far 3 out of the 4 are boys. It's going to be an even more wild group!

PS Lindsay, if this giant horse ever disappears from your house HK probably stole it. She loves him!

If you'd like to walk down memory lane here are the pictures from Halloween playgroup 2009 and here are the ones from 2008. Time is FLYING!

Preschool Costume Parade

Matney's school had a costume parade a few days before Halloween. The instructions that were sent home said to send them to school, dressed in their costume over their clothes. The kids went inside, the parents parked and lined up along the side walk. Once all the kids were in their classrooms they paraded out the school's front doors, down a side walk and back into a side door while the parents took pictures. Poor kids, half of them went back in the building crying when they were not allowed to stay with their moms. Let me just say that putting Tinkerbell on over M's regular clothes was not easy. I understand though that it made it easy for the teachers to quickly remove the costume and get on with the day.

 Here is Matney arriving at school. Jared's Aunt Vicki was in town from TX and she quickly became Matney's best friend. Matney only wanted "Aunt Icki" to walk her into school.

 This was the one year old class. Are they not the cutest things? And all contained! I wish I could put my girls in a crib and just wheel them around!

 After seeing every child in the entire school Matney's class finally came out last. Her teachers were dressed as salt and pepper shakers. Cute! 

Saving the best for last! Matney ended up being the very last child at the end of a very long parade!

Heald Pumpkin Patch

The girls had illness number 1,097 for 2010 and we were not ever able to go on our annual trip to N GA to the pumpkin patch. Jared knew how upset I was about not going to so one day he made us our own patch in the backyard. That's impressive, huh? He and Matney planted pumpkin seeds several months ago just for fun, little did her know we'd need those vines. We bought pumpkins at the grocery store (our patch didn't grow any. I think we started too late in the season.) and Jared made us a sign. He put the pumpkins out by the vines (that had grown) and when the girls woke up from their naps we made the trip to our backyard patch. The best part was that Matney really thought her vines had sprouted these big pumpkins and she was very proud to "pick" them. And just for grins, I realized this as I posted these pictures, Matney wore the jammies HK's in the night she carved her very first pumpkin. They were snug at 8 months old. Ha!

See HK's face? Wonder why? Matney touched her. Lord help me survive these two!

Wild Ride

We are all still here and I promise I am going to get a new camera so that I will blog again. These are pictures I found that I had downloaded to the computer but don't think I'd posted yet. Our dumb camera takes a picture fine but when you put batteries in they last less than 5 minutes and the whole camera shuts off again. That's not even time to get pictures off the camera...unless you put new batteries in and repeat the process. It takes AA batteries and I am sick of spending money on them (I do use rechargeables too, neither one makes a difference). I just want a tiny, cheap camera that doesn't eat batteries!

I keep forgetting how tall Matney is getting and leave things in her reach. A few weeks ago I left the big container of animal crackers on the counter. After a few minutes of quiet I knew they were up to something and went after them. They'd gotten the container off the counter, talk about a good day for little girls! They were so happy they were rolling all over one another laughing. Any day they can touch without hitting/fighting/biting is impressive.

In other news, Matney is still loving preschool, especially the carpool. I had to walk her in one day not long ago because I was "play dough mom" for October (I had to carry in the container of homemade play dough that took me 3 flipping batches to get right). Anyway, Matney about came unglued because she "wanted the teacher to get me out (of the car) and not Mommy to come!". Thanks, Matney, I love you too.

Halle Kate and I have finally gotten in good routine of running errands/playing alone while Matney is gone. She is totally the opposite of her sister - she is loud, wild and hates to sit still. Matney loves to curl up and cuddle while you read her a book or feed her one Cheerio at a time. HK? Toss her a black bean and let the girl go! Ha! I love having one-on-one time with them because they are so different and funny by themselves. Together they are a giant cyclone!

Work for Jared is normally busy but this month is particularly crazy. He seems excited any night he gets more than 5 hours of sleep. Not this Mama, I couldn't survive. After looking forward to it for a while he did take a trip out to TX to see family recently. After this month he'll probably need to get away again. Hopefully what they are working on at the office will get wrapped up in the next few weeks and he can have a little more down time over the holidays.

I feel like, after 3 years of "big things", life is finally calming down. The past years have been a big blur - I took a new job, we got pregnant, lost the baby, got pregnant, J graduated and took the bar, J took a new job, bought a house and moved, had Matney, survived the first 4 months of Matney screaming 24 hours a day, got pregnant, made it through M's first year while planning for another baby, had HK, heaven-help-us-survive a 14 month old and a newborn, made it through a year of 2 under 2 while taking paycuts, battling naptimes and fighting every germ the girls could possibly find, enjoyed our first holidays as a family of 4, planned for M's 2nd bday but spent the month loosing my Grandmama instead, made it to HK's first bday..and after several months of trying to adjust it finally is starting to feel (for me) like I might have my head above water for the first time in a LOOOOONG time. A 2.5 year old and a 1.5 year old is WAY WAY WAY easier than a 1.5 and  6month old. I am still not sure when I'll have all 3 of us girls dressed, the house clean and dinner on the table when J comes home but at least right now I do shower almost every day. That's improvement, folks, that is improvement.

I say all that and right now Matney and the computer are sitting on my lap, it is before 7am and poor baby girl spent all yesterday with a 103 fever. Ugh. Both girls just got off antibiotics two weeks ago. Frustrating. When M realizes that she is missing Pajama Day at school day it isn't going to be pretty. But, for now, curled up with my sweet baby girl is a great place to be. One day the germs won't bother us so much, there won't be 1,000 toys on the floor, we won't eat pb&j for dinner and I'll be missing sweet girls trying to steal the animal cracker container. Having kids is certainly a wild ride...and I so thankful to be on it!

Favorite Fridays

Our favorite place to go on Friday mornings is an indoor playground place. They sell playground equipment and have an "open play" on Wed and Friday mornings. I need to get a picture of Matney on the trampoline. Two months ago when we went for the first time she couldn't jump (on the ground). After some trampoline practice she is always hopping around the house like a rabbit!