Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was very nice. I made a lasagna, figuring the kids wouldn't eat turkey, anyway (and I'm not really a big fan of it myself). Turns out Chase was very disappointed we didn't have turkey because somewhere he learned that you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving! Great. Guess what I have to do next time? Anyway, we invited Daddy over and we all ate together, which was nice.

I decided to tackle another creative holiday treat, but these were much easier and Chase got to help! Chloe watched, while whimpering because she wanted to taste. Well, Chase whimpered for that reason, too.

Do you like our pilgrim hats?

This year I am thankful for so much: My beautiful children, Brian for being so involved in their lives, my friends and family, my health, my job.... There's just so much to be thankful for.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

God of Patience

So I made a little movie about the drama-filled relationship that has blossomed between my daughter and my cat.  I hope you enjoy it!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Brian brought the kids over to my house before trick-or-treating so I could get some pictures of them in their costumes.  I made Chase's costume again this year and Brian was in charge of Chloe's. 

Chase obviously chose his costume, and he also chose Chloe's to match.  I am proud to say that BOTH of our kids won the best costume awards in their classes this year!  That's twice in a row for Chase (SCORE)!  Yes, I'm proud.  Anyway, I present to you... Mario and Princess Peach!

(I posted both of those pictures to show how impossible it is to get both of them smiling at the same time!  When one is happy, the other is either unhappy or making a crazy face.  Ah, well.)

Then we attempted one with me!  Chloe would not stay still, and Chase just watched our struggle, apparently enjoying the show:

(He looks like a little farmer!  Ha ha!)

We took a ton of photos, hoping to get just one decent one.  This is the last one we took, which is a pretty good reflection of how we were laughing at the pure insanity of the wiggle worm situation:

Chloe had a great time playing with the pumpkins on the porch, and decided Chase's jack-o-lantern was a chair! Chase was not a fan of that idea ("No, Chloe!  You're going to squash it!!").

More photos are in our Photo Album if you're interested.  Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Eve!

Tomorrow is Halloween! We had an eventful weekend preparing for the day.

My amazing friend Katie came for the weekend and I made her be domestic with us. I mean, we had pumpkin carving that had to be done!  Chase was so sweet at the pumpkin patch.  I picked my pumpkin out right away, and so did he... but then it took forever for Chase to find the perfect pumpkin for his baby sister.  It was so sweet because nothing he found was good enough for her.  I'm so glad we finally found one that was up to his standards!

My mom made me a "pumpkin carving apron" (because she knows I don't do much of anything else in the kitchen that would warrant an apron) and Chase loved it, so he got to wear it:

Gutting is the fun part (ha!) but Chase does not like to touch the goo. Katie gutted Chloe's and Chloe just sat there and watched us all get messy!

Chase got to design his own jack-o-lantern face this year, and he also drew his sister's!

And here are the finished products!  All original artwork by the three (OK, two of the three) C's, with special thanks to Katie, our gutter/carver assistant!

After pumpkin carving we started working on cupcakes! Now, you know my history with cupcakes... it's hit or miss. This year I decided to make jack-o-lanterns, which required a lot of candy carving... which Katie was so kind to help me with!

We screwed up the first batch of orange frosting trying to get the right color, and on the second attempt I still didn't get it the color I wanted (it looks a bit like silly putty) but it works:

Then last night Katie and I went to a Halloween party! We were the cutest ceiling fans EVER:

I can't wait for you all to see the kids in their costumes tomorrow! They are going to be so cute! (Oh, the suspense!)

More photos of our weekend are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

 

Pumpkin Patch

I took the kids to the Harker Heights Pumpkin Patch Carnival today, and the kids had tons of fun!  Chase had a great time in the bouncy houses, while I chased Chloe around the pumpkin patch:

A nice lady saw us roaming around and offered to take our picture:

Chase invented a game for his sister where he would "hide" a pumpkin in the path and then say, "Chloe, look!" to watch her run for it. It was so cute.

I tried to get the cute "kids in the pumpkin patch" shot, but, well... I wasn't quite successful:

(But I do love that shot nonetheless, because it makes me laugh!)

We also went on a hay ride. After we boarded, the guy working it offered to take pictures for anyone who wanted them. He got to us and I gave him the camera, only to get this shot in return. I'm not quite sure who he thought he was supposed to be taking a picture of here:

Thank goodness for cropping!

We decided to try to take one ourselves:

Ah, well.... It is what it is!

It was a fun day, though hot! It still feels weird to do Halloween stuff in the heat!  I miss my chilly fall weather from up north!

More pics of our day are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Chloe's 15 Month Stats

Chloe had her 15 month checkup last week. Here are her stats!

• Height: 31.25" (71st percentile) 
• Head: 18.25" (60th percentile) 
• Weight: 27 lbs 1 oz (93rd percentile) 

My baby girl is chubby-licious!

Last night we went to a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese for one of Chase's friends.  Chloe is fearless, and she ran around like she owned the place.  She climbed right up on the merry-go-round as it was moving and rode the horses around and around and around again.  Of course I couldn't get her to look at the camera but at least you can see her reflection in the mirror here!

A random little kid came up to me at one point and said, "She has a big belly, doesn't she?"  I said, "Yes, she does!" and he said, "Maybe you should buy her a bigger shirt."

Thanks, kid.

Beiber Hair

So the other day as Chase was brushing his teeth I was messing with my hair in the mirror. Chase looked up, mouth full of toothpaste, and said, "MOM!  You look like Justin Beiber!"

Then things just got silly!

Flashback!

If you want to see more of our crazy photo shoot, look in our Photo Album!

P.S. This is like my fifth post of the day (it's "blog update day!") so check out the previous posts if you haven't already!