Sweet Blessings

Today has been a day of celebrations. Emma is now 18 months old! It is so hard for me to believe, and even harder to believe that she will be 2 years old before we know it!! Emma went for her well check at the end of last week, and she now weighs 25 pounds 12 ounces and is 33 1/2 inches tall. She is doing quite well for herself on the growth charts.

Not only is today special because of Emma, but now it is even more special because my sister and brother-in-law welcomed their first baby to the world! Owen James was born at 1:24 p.m. and weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces. We are so excited for Stacey and Chris, and very anxious to meet this new little man. What a great day to celebrate the lives of our sweet blessings!

Welcome to the world little Owen!

Krazy Kids

Pictured above are my two silly girls. Pictured below is a shot of Claire on our most recent family trip to Sam's. She is definitely experimenting with her own sense of style these days. Experimentation that often lends itself to grins and giggles from complete strangers. At one point, she was wearing clip-on earrings and about 5 bracelets. At least she chose to wear shoes that matched on this particular day. Rain boots on a sunny day, but they matched! Freedom of expression at its finest.

While The Cat Is Away. . .

. . .the mice will play! This past week, Emma snuck into Claire's room while she was at school, and, while wearing Claire's dress-up clothes, had a great time playing with Claire's princess things. She appeared to be relishing a break from the words "No, Emma, no!" Since half of Emma's stuffed animals reside in Claire's bed each night, I thought the intrusion was fair enough. It seems to be somewhat of a "blind" sharing for both parties involved.

Gym Time!

Once a month, a local gym offers "Scavenger Hunt" free play for toddlers. It is nice because they open the place up with various activities, and the kids can roam and do whatever they please. This week the children were "hunting" for animals. Emma had fun gathering as many as she could at one time. She also thoroughly enjoyed the slide this week, as well as her usual favorite - running across the tumbling trampoline.

Trick or Treat!

Harris, Hayes & Claire

James as Curious GeorgeEmma was out to steal every car and wagon in town. Poor Sam. . Can we say WORN OUT. . .

Last night we had a great time with friends that came over to join us for trick or treating. Our neighborhood is quite the Halloween hot spot, and the sidewalks were jam packed with herds of children in costume. Claire and her friends were so excited that they literally ran from house to house collecting candy. Although Emma did have fun for the brief moments of time that she was set free from her stroller, she was mostly suffering from the lack of a good nap earlier in the day. She was one tired little bumble bee! Sleepiness aside, everyone had a great time!

A Week of Fall Fun

Butterfly Class Field Trip to the Farm

Costume Day at Dance Class
The kids did a cute little Halloween dance for all of the parents. At the end, they all had to run to their parents in the audience and make a "scary" face.


Cookie Decorating
Claire's friend, Mia, and her brother, Owen, came over one afternoon to decorate some cookies. I'm not sure that the kids really ate any cookies, but they sure loved the icing and candy toppings!


Church Fall Festival
It was too hot for Emma to wear her bee suit, but we decided that since she still does not say much, she could appropriately be a mime for the night.


4K Fall Festival


Halloween Play Date
One of the parents of a classmate of Claire's at school helped to organize a play date on a local farm on Friday. Since it had been a pretty rainy afternoon, we, along with others, opted out of wearing costumes. Wet weather and all, the kids had a great time!

Claire taking a breather from her rush of activities. . .
Pumpkin Carving
We spent the better half of Halloween morning carving our pumpkin. The hard work paid off, and "Prince Phillip" (as Claire named him) turned out real cute.

Whew! What a busy week! I feel like we hit every fall festival and party in town. Pictured above are just some snippits of our activities. It was hard to capture it all, but definitely a fun way to lead up to the big Halloween weekend!

1st Easel Painting

I'm afraid that as a second child, Emma has missed out on a lot of the experiences in arts and crafts that I so eagerly introduced Claire to at an early age. It's not that I haven't wanted to do them with her, it's just that I don't find as much free time on my hands these days. However, this week I broke out the easel and paints for Emma. She had a lot of fun working on her own masterpiece, and was happily captivated by the activity for quite some time. Better yet, she only tried to paint her tongue once!

Planting Pansies

This past week was the annual planting of the pansies. I usually try to get my mom to visit around this time of year, so that she can do them (I mean help) for me. However, I think she caught on to my little trick, and I haven't seen her around these parts in October for a good couple of years now. :) This year, however, I had Claire as my handy helper. Please note Claire's most recent trend - wearing two different colored flip flops at the same time.

Fun Times at The Rock Ranch

Emma and Mommy on the cow train. . .

This past weekend we decided to take the girls to The Rock Ranch. The Rock Ranch is located not too far from where we live, and it is on land owned by the founder of Chick-fil-A. It is a great family place with tons of things for the kids to do: pony rides, bouncy houses, corn house, train rides, petting farm, and on and on. Although it was rather chilly, we had a great time, and Claire had the perfect excuse to indulge in hot chocolate (twice!).