Thanksgiving

Pictures from Thanksgiving at my Aunt Liz and Uncle Jim's house and Caroline's "Thanksgiving feast" at school.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been teaching Carolione some facts about Thanksgiving and we learned a song about the pilgrims. Here is Caroline singing her Thanksgiving song.

monster

I absolutely love my little boy, but boy has he been a monster this past few days. He has no interest, whatsoever, in anything that is a toy and has been quite fussy. I can have 15 toys - all things he has liked in the past - in a room, and one "no" item and he instantly goes right for the "no". What's fun to him right now? Chucking his pacifiers and monkey lovey out of his crib and then crying for them. Taking the yard stick we have (or had) next to his crib (for purposes of fishing the pacifiers out from under the crib every morning), pulling it into his crib and banging it around. Hiding behind his chair in the nursery and yanking out the plug from the outlet. Climbing up or down any stairs. Trying to put the vacuum cord around his neck like a necklace (lovely.) Taking out all the Halloween candy from the basket and spreading it around the kitchen floor. Slamming doors. Climbing up the stepstool to the sink (which is there for Caroline) and trying to turn on the sink. The list goes on and on, but these were the ones from the top of my head. How on earth am I going to keep this kid occupied all winter! Especially since he refuses to walk! (He can walk, but chooses to walk on his knees instead.) Please pray for patience and creativity for me!

hair bows

If any of you have little girls and like hair bows, I found a website that sells hair bows (in multiple styles and sizes). They are having a 50% off sale right now. So, if you are looking for hair bows for the holidays (or just for every day), here is the site...
http://www.pictureperfecthairbows.com/

winter

Winter is coming rapidly. Look at how bundled we have to get just for a short stroller ride!

Growing with Mr. Bear - 15 months
And such a little ham, posing for the camera...

Walking practice

Here is Caroline helping Clayton learn to walk. At some points, it looks like they're dancing!

Our family

Finally, we manage to get a family picture...

Birthday party

This weekend, we went to our niece Alyssa's fourth birthday party. The kids decorated cookies, played pin-the-feather-on-the-turkey, danced to "freeze dance", and had a great time.

Welcome home Daddy!

Does coming home from work get any better than this?

Mission aborted

It started off in such a promising manner! Unfortunately, the next 3 days were horrendous. She tinkled through countless pairs of big girl underwear and pants, pull-ups, etc. and really didn't tinkle on the potty at all. Potty training mission will be suspended for now. Ugh!

This is one of my favorite songs right now, eventhough I can scarcely listen to it without crying. Carrie sang it live at the CMA awards and it was an unbelievable performance. I'll try to post that live version if I can find it, but here is the official video of Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream".

Potty Training

I started official potty training with Caroline yesterday. She made it all day without tinkling in her "pull-up underwear". Yeah! I was so proud of her and she was very proud of herself. :)

Uncle Taylor

Uncle Taylor stopped by for a visit. The kids LOVED seeing him!

She may not like real dogs, but she has grown quite attached to this stuffed dog named "Spot" .

It's a...

BOY!!!!

hospital

Well, these last few days have not been very fun. I was in the hospital Sunday - Wednesday with kidney stones, bad abdominal pain, and couldn't keep anything down without throwing up. Ugh! Thankfully, I was released today and get to see my babies again this afternoon! This was the longest stretch I've ever had away from Caroline and Clayton and it was terrible. I missed them SO much. We are so blessed that both grandmas stepped in and cared for the kids while I was in the hospital. Kevin was also a sweetheart going back and forth from house, work and hospital. Let's just hope I can get through this next few months of pregnancy relatively comfortably because I do NOT want to end up in the hospital again before March!

Halloween Festivities

We had a great Halloween this year. Caroline carved pumpkins for the first time, or watched anyway!

Caroline dressed as Cinderella and Clayton was a monkey.

Caroline got to wear her costume to school on Thursday for a Halloween party.

Then the kids got to trick-or-treat at the nursing home across the street.

Downtown Libertyville has trick-or-treating in all the shops so BB came up and we all went together.

And then, of course, there was trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

What a Halloween!