A is for Abigail and A is for Angel

4 Memorable Moments with Charlotte from today

All ready for church- French braid and new dress and necklace.

She's started falling asleep randomly on the couch lately- something she never did before.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that she's waking me up at least once every night for the last couple of months.  She slept 12 hours every night almost without fail for over 2 years.  Who knew 3 was the year for waking up again?  I might have to bite the bullet and give up the nap... sniff, sniff

Charlotte can be a real handful sometimes- she can be an anxious kid with lots of unusual things that upset her (like wind). But she is so full of fun and personality too, and today was one of those days where she was just pure fun!

Four moments with Charlotte I want to remember from today:
1.Upon finding the movie Sleeping Beauty at the library she hugs it to her chest and says, "I'm so very excited I didn't see it there a-fore!"
2. "Mommy ba ba baby starts with B just like my friend Brielle!"  Why yes smarty pants it does!
3.  I often tease her that various body parts are "mine" and I pinch them. That sounds weird when I write it down,but it's basically just a tickle/wrestle session with lots of giggling. Well today it backfired a little bit.  "That not your tushy bum mommy, that my tushy bum. Your tushy bum is big, mine is little."  Ouch!
4.  While playing red light green light she kept having to stop on a red light and run to give me hugs and kisses, "I love you so much mommy!"

Washing her apron after finger painting.

Lady bug girl makes a daily appearance at our house

I love being her mama!

View from Our Back Porch

We finally got real patio furniture!!  I get one furniture purchase per year in our budget,so this was it for 2011. I thought about a picnic table but I wanted to be able to move the chairs around the yard to sit by the kid pool, sand box etc. and I wanted to be more comfortable. Our previous patio furniture consisted of two rapidly ripping camping chairs.  I waited until the the end of summer sale ($200 off!) at Wal-Mart (I'm not getting paid to advertise for them- and I really only go there once every 2 or 3 months) .  This is the perfect time to buy patio furniture in AZ because the 8 months of summer are almost over so you'll be able to sit outside without hyperventilating from heat stroke.  I didn't want metal because it will get so hot.  I love the look of wicker but I must admit a few pieces are already coming unwoven-  I called the company and they are sending out new pieces to replace them for free so I'm overall still happy- but I do hope they hold up well.

Matt put in about a 3 foot deep (yeah it's really that deep- if we ever lose a kid in there it will be a lot of digging) sandbox right off our porch- by far the kids favorite toy and of course the messiest.  

Yep mom- it's a keeper.

In case you were wondering here's what my porch usually looks like!

I'm excited to be able to eat outside more.  Now I just want to get a kid sized table so we can have more backyard parties with our BBQ and patio set- too bad we took off our misters when we painted...

First Haircuts

I knew it was time to cut Olly's hair when 6 people in the same week asked me when he was going to get his first haircut.  So many comments about how unfair life is when Olly gets so much more hair than either of his sisters at that age.  Matt claims we don't want hairy daughters anyway- which is true- but some on their head would be nice.  Avoid all those hats and sunscreen!

Charlotte was a little scared and didn't want to do it until right before her aunt was about to leave.  We just trimmed it a little in the back to even it out.  It looks so much better.  The front and sides are still way shorter but I'm hoping they will start to catch up soon- I really don't want to do bangs but it's impossible to keep the hair pinned to the side with a toddler.

Charlotte after- first time in her life the left side isn't longer than the right!

Check out that mullet- also longer on the left!  I got an impressive pony tail for his baby book- I'd be thrilled if this was Abby's hair!

After with Auntie Katherine- there were a few tears but she's a pro and he got over it pretty quick with some singing.

After- so handsome- he looks so much older too without his baby curls!

Thanks Auntie Katherine for making the trip and being so good with our kids!

LIttle Miss Abigail should need her first haircut in about 4 years or so!  

Trick or Treat Fireplace

Have I ever told you that the space above our fireplace- the focal point of the whole house- was blank for three whole years?  Should we do a painting? Mirror? Clock?  And when we finally did agree on a picture it was a picture of us?  How vain is that, right?  I mean it shows that our family is important.  

Whenever we get new family pictures I order a 20x30 print from Costco (it has to be off a super nice camera to turn out well at that size) for $10.   I had it matted and framed at Hobby Lobby for about $40 which isn't bad for that large and much cheaper than all the paintings we were looking at.  My sister-in-law made us the Whitmer sign for Christmas and even remembered to give me the vinyl names when the twins were born.

Anyway, the real reason I was taking pictures of my fireplace is that I finished the trick or treat banner- even a couple of weeks before Halloween.  Of course I cut out the letters and bought the fabric last year, but oh well.  It's a knock off of Crockery Shed like all my good ideas.  After I cut out the letters I thought I should have done, "spooky" or "boo" or "eek" or even "Halloween" would have been shorter.  I also wish I'd done "or" smaller to fit on one triangle.  I followed the directions for the banner from this link.  I've made one other banner and I have a few others I might make.  They aren't too hard but they do take some time.

I've been wanting the fall leaves garland for a while but could never find them on clearance after fall- so this year I used my 50% off coupon and bought at the beginning of the season.

The candles in the fireplace are a Crockery Shed copy cat as well, I bought mine at Wal-Mart.  Picture me sitting on the floor in the candle aisle for about an hour messing with the design.  I'm a little obsessed- I mean inspired, by Crockery Shed.  I saw a cute link where they filled their fireplace with a ton of different sized pumpkins for fall.  So fun.

Another fun fact- we've never used our fireplace for a fire- not once. Boring huh?  In our defense it is summer about 9 months of the year and we never had it inspected to make sure it's safe to use and there are a lot of "no burn" days because of pollution anyway.  It's basically just a very large decoration- that eliminates any usable corners in our family room- but does provide some extra (albeit hard) seating when needed.  The kids use it as a sort of toy table as well.  Matt wants to tear it out if we ever get around to getting new flooring.  We'll see.

Halloween 2011

Each year the holidays with kids gets better and better!  Our costumes got a ton of use this year with three separate parties and trick or treating.

1st Party
Summer 2010 Babies party plus siblings

The start of the party with 7 out of 9 babies in birth order from L to R

Here's at the end of the party with 8 out of 9 babies- minus some costumes

Here's what it looks like when you try to get that many one year olds to hold still- there was candy corn bribery involved in the other shots!

Charlotte's costume was a real challenge this year.  She actually had an opinion instead of just letting me have my merry way.  Approximately every two minutes she would change her mind. 

The time line:

• Beginning of September buy cheap red tutu and wings- "Don't you want to be ladybug girl?" "No, I no like it." (She does wear them at least once a day but apparently it was NOT Halloween costume worthy.)
• End of September "I wanna be Sleeping Booty!"
• Try to borrow a gorgeous Sleeping Beauty Dress
•  It's too long
• Look at pattern- decide it's not worth giving up every nap time in October to make it.
•  "I wanna be Cinderella!  Night and day it's Cinderella!"
• Find easy Cinderella tutorial online- almost make it
• Friend Kelli offered her adorable homemade Snow White dress. 
• Try it on... drum roll "I wanna be Snow White!"
• Proceed to seal the deal by watching the movie in costume every day for a month while acting it out- especially the dancing and scared in the forest screaming

 I lived in constant fear I'd have to make Kelli a new one- but the dress survived intact. Snow White is also a rough and tumble girl- we should have made her a Snow White rag dress to wear the rest of the time...

Snow White skin and Snow White hair- I drew the line when she asked for brown hair.  She loved the dress- thanks for making Charlotte's month Kelli!

Olly inherited the bear costume and took it off every chance he could.

Event #2 Our friend Easton's birthday party

Abby the fairy- no relation to Sesame street- she was not a fan of the trampoline- unlike Snow White who spent a good portion of the party on there. 

She was a fan of the play house

Sorry Matt- this was the only picture in focus and Abby looks so happy I had to put it in!

Party #3 the tail end of the Church Trunk-or-Treat- we missed the chili and games but managed to make it to pass out candy

Auntie Kori pumpkin and cousin Spencer the train conductor

And the family shot- any guesses which dwarves we were?  With that many gnome hats lying around it was just too easy- even though I had to make a bigger hat for Matt- possibly the tallest dwarf ever!

The actual Halloween- trying to keep the kids inside between trick or treaters- by the end of the night I let them run around on the lawn and I brought the candy bowl out there since it was still so warm.

Charlotte shared a sucker with each baby- by the time I found them they'd already eaten through most of the wrappers- oh well it is Halloween right?

Best part of Halloween besides the costumes is actually getting to know your neighbors- this was our first time really trick-or-treating and we loved it!