Out of Storage!

I haven't forgotten you. . .I ran out of picture storage.  Apparently I ran out of my allotted free storage and had to buy some more.  Not expensive, just annoying.  I just like putting pics on here.  I honestly didn't know you could run out of storage.  I just bought the storage today and it should be available tomorrow. . .stay tuned!

Stop Singing!

Tonight we had supper at Pizza Ranch.  At one point I started to sing along with the background music.  Apparently Paige was also trying to sing along because she said to me, "Stop singing, I can't hear my voice!"

Neither of the girls like it when anyone sings with them.  It's sad for me.  I love to sing with them.

Halloween

Before we had kids I never thought we would "celebrate" Halloween.  I thought I would just get them candy and we would have a special day. (It is my birthday afterall.)  Then we had Paige and the costumes were just so cute and what harm could it do to dress up and trick-or-treat in our neighborhood where we know a lot of the people.  So that's what we did.  Then, between this year and last, Paige started having night terrors.  This year as Halloween approached I noticed that the decorations in the neighborhood are really pretty scary.  Mark and I really didn't think that we should be should purposely take the girls out where they could get visually and emotionally scared.  They are not old enough to really understand it is pretend, but that said, Satan is real and evil resides in darkness.  So this year, we were not going to participate in anything Halloween.  Then, we heard about a church nearby that does an alternative party with games, prizes, and food, and the girls could still dress up.  What a perfect solution.  The girls had a blast and we felt good about our decision. 

 Our Elmo and Kangaroo!

Bloomsbury Farm

I am so behind on my blogging that this post is from October 30th.  Yay, I'm almost to November!  Someday I'll catch up.  One of our favorite places to go in the fall is Bloomsbury Farm.  It's not all that far from here and they have so many fun things to do.  It wasn't very busy the Saturday that we went and as a bonus, Nana and Papa were in town and got to come with us.  Mark, myself, and Alaina raced Nana, Papa, and Paige through the corn maze.  We saw pigs race, then one got loose and ran into the corn maze.  I'm pretty sure they found him. And really just had a great day.  We started the day out riding in the barrels pulled by a tractor.

Paige didn't seem too impressed.

Then it was off to the giant Jumping Pillow.  Alaina loved to just run across it.

We couldn't miss a stop by the pedal tractors.  The adults even got in on it and raced around the bigger track.

 Lainey needed a little help.

 The animals are a favorite.  My girls have no fear of feeding animals out of their hands.

 Papa is so patient with them.  Mommy and Daddy were done with the animals and ready to shoot some corn cobs, but Papa made sure they got to feed the llama.

Paige was a great shot and hit the target every time.  Mommy and Daddy. . .not so much!

 The girls love anything water related, so we spent a considerable time "passing" the duckies back and forth.

 Lainey need a little help from Nana and Papa.

 The giant slide.

 Alaina wouldn't go down without me, so we all slid together.

 Paige making a corn angel in the corn box.

How do you hot tub?

A few weeks back I was painting at the church with my friend Amy.  She had her kids Mason, age 4 and Avery, age 3 with her and I had Paige and Alaina.  Our kids were playing in the gym together.  Tommy had been watching them all morning, but had to attend a staff luncheon at noon. So because they played well together, we just left the kids in the gym and checked on them periodically.  They knew where we were and we told the older two to come get us if they needed anything. 

Well, in runs Mason saying, "They are taking their clothes off."  Amy said she would go and Mason stayed with me.  I honestly thought that Alaina needed her diaper changed and took her pants off.  Not all that rare around here.  The next thing I hear is Amy yelling for me to come quick.  I get to the gym and just laugh.  There stood Paige, Avery, and Alaina buck naked in the gym with several of the women on staff trying to help, but mostly laughing.  I thought I was going to pee my pants.  Glenda was trying to put underwear on Avery, but Avery is exclaiming that those aren't hers.  It was just hilarious.  After we got all the girls dressed and "talked to", we found out that Mason had suggested that they pretend the plastic wagon they were playing with was a hot tub and take their clothes off .  Poor guy kept saying, "I said pretend!"  He was mortified.  My question is. . . why does Mason think you take your clothes off to get in a hot tub?  We wear swimsuits!  ;)

My cousin is a Top Chef!

I don't love to cook.  My dad was the cook in my house growing up, so naturally, I thought it was the man's job to cook.  Wrong!  I love my husband and he can cook up a mean cream chipped beef on toast, but he's not my dad who has always taken pleasure in coming up with culinary delights.  I enjoy food. . .A LOT and wish I had the time/love/money to really create delicious, healthy food for my family.  I try, but a lot of times it just "fills the gut". 

I really enjoy cooking shows.  They amaze me.  My favorite is Top Chef on Bravo. I love it not just for the cooking aspect, but the competition, and because I have a special interest in one of the cheftestants.  My first cousin on my dad's side was runner-up in Season Two. . .Marcel Vigneron.  Not that I know a lot about him, I haven't seen him since he was like 7, but he's still family.  It has been fun getting small, made-for-tv glimpses into who he is and what he does.  I would love, love, LOVE to taste his food, but alas, I don't live in LA, nor have I ever been there.  He is currently participating on Top Chef All Stars, so tune in on Wednesday nights at 9pm CST and cheer him on.  To read his bio go here.

photo Courtesy of Bravotv.

Alaina said it!

I know I'm super behind on my blogging.  I think I have about 5 catch up posts in the works. . .stay tuned.  But I wanted to get this on here before I forgot.  Alaina makes me chuckle.  I know I need to be careful what I say and what she hears because she really does take everything in.

Yesterday Paige had an appointment downtown.  As we were walking towards the building Alaina saw a bunch of birds flying over the building.

A:  "Birdies, look, birdies, flying."
M:  "Yes honey I see them."
A:  "Paigey, birdies, look, see birdies?"
P:  "I see them."
A:  "It awesome!"

Really, I had no idea she knew that word.  It's not a word we use, but oh so cute coming from my 2 year old describing flying birds.

Then today, after she went potty on the potty.  Yeah for that, it's been a long week, but more on that in another post.  So I asked her if she wanted to call Daddy to tell him.  She did, but in the meantime put our couch's arm rest cover over her head and walked into the doorknob because she couldn't see.  So she was crying.  I was trying to distract her and asked if she wanted to call Daddy to tell him she went potty and her reply was. . .

"No, I'm so mad!"

I had to smile, poor thing was upset with herself for getting hurt.  I love this girl!

V. Family Pictures

Over Thanksgiving my family decided to get some family pictures.  It may have been the first time we were all together since Amelia was born.  Mark likes to dabble in photography and I think he does a pretty good job!

My Prayer for the girls. . .

Alaina did it!

Alaina has been wanting to sit on the potty A LOT lately.  She takes her diaper off and tries to go about 3 times a day.  This has been happening on and off for a couple weeks.  She just has never actually gone potty on the potty.  Tonight, she did it!  We had been putting up the Christmas tree and decorating and to be honest, I wasn't thrilled to find her diaper-less in the bathroom.  But, I went ahead and let her sit down.  She has been kind of grunting when she sits on the potty, but it never clicked how to get started peeing until tonight.  I was shocked!  She kept starting and stopping, like she was discovering the whole process.  Of course, Daddy and Paige ran in and we made a HUGE deal of it.  I'm so proud of her.  I don't know that we are "officially" potty training, but if she keeps this up, it won't be long.

Gymnastics

Paige started gymnastics this fall when dance ended.  She LOVES it!  She was invited into the Advanced Kindergym class and has really having a lot of fun!  Here are some pics from Camera Day, when parents could bring cameras into the class to take pictures.