Happy Halloween

All three kids had Halloween shirts to wear this year - received as either gifts or hand me downs...it was kind of fun.



E & Em.....after this picture I was trying to get a picture of just Em - since she was so awake....but E absolutely refused to get out of the chair.


And so I just continued to take pictures of the two of them....


A & E - outside holding "their" pumpkins....I'm surprised they lasted this long...they were dropped almost every time we walked by them.


As soon as I got done taking this picture - both pumpkins - dropped again!

E - at the Halloween party we went to tonight....every game he played he got to pick out some candy...and of course every time he picked a "red" tootsie roll pop - probably because I never let him have suckers....now he thinks this will be how he finally gets to have one....he was insistent on not giving this one up.


He even jumped in the "castle" still holding his un-opened sucker.

Little Pumpkin #7

7 Weeks old that is....today!

The Butterly, Monkey & Pumpkin

We actually took this picture last night....we decided to do a trial run of the costumes last night...mostly to see if E would even put the costume on....to our surprise he did - we told him it was pajamas - so then we snapped a few pictures because who knows what tonight would bring.

Pre-Halloween....

As of yesterday we still had not even bought a pumpkin large enough to carve...thankfully E only had to go to 2 stores to find one....and so the carving began....


This was as close as A & E got to actually carving the pumpkin.....they wanted nothing to do with sticking their hands in it to help clean it out.



So Big E did all the work while the A & E were happy enough to sit back and watch....
(can you tell who is cutting teeth - fingers are always in the mouth)


The finished product......sad to say we didn't even light it up tonight....we were out at a Halloween party so no one was even home to give out candy.

Park

We literally have a park at the end of our street which has been really nice for the kids, especially since we don't have a yard yet and we sold the other playground.

Our house is 3 houses down from the green two story house you see in the background of this picture. It's very convenient!!

The ever popular floor mat.....

I brought out the floor mat for Em and it suddenly became a need of everyone's to be entertained by the floor mat.....good thing Em is so patient with A & E - so far she doesn't seem bothered by their overwhelming desire to smother her.

We are just starting to see some of the "first" smiles!!

Potty Trained??

Potty training has been a long time coming for us...I tried numerous times including a couple weeks with A this summer and she just didn't care....accidents all the time and I was beyond frustrated so we stopped and then with a move and a new baby...it just didn't seem practical. We still talk about it all the time and I knew the time would come someday......but buying diapers for 3 is getting bit expensive...Well to my surprise A woke up from a nap 2 days ago and told me she wanted to wear underwear...OK - she did really well all afternoon and evening - no accidents...of course she was going every 10 minutes on her own - just at the novelty of going "potty" I think. I was a bit skeptical of what yesterday would bring - but she got up and declared she wanted underwear on - so of course I am thinking we may just be making progress....5 pairs of underwear later - I gave up for the afternoon and put her back in a diaper. Especially when she makes comments like "mommy I just peed a little bit in my underwear" - ummm NO - we don't do that at all!! So I was unsure what today would bring...but I am happy to report....she again woke up asking for underwear and we have been accident free all day!! And it's really been no effort on my part...A goes all by herself - that would be the independent part of her - she insists on no help from me....so here's hoping for another successful day tomorrow!!

6 weeks old.....

It's just going entirely too fast.....although I relish at the fact of being able to sleep more than a three hour stretch at a time someday...I sure wish the weeks didn't go by so quickly!!

123......

Getting three kids to all look at the camera at the same time.....has become quite a challenge...Em (well she is just a baby) but I feel like I have to practically jump out of my skin to get A & E to look at the same time...

Peaceful sleep.....

There is nothing better than a sleeping baby!!

More House pictures...

A & Em's room....we had to get a bit creative to get all this furniture in their small room....but we did it.

Hallway between the 2 rooms...with a bathroom off the left....I figure everyone knows what a bathroom looks like...nothing fancy!

E's room - actually the smallest of the all the rooms but it feels bigger because his ceilings are vaulted....

House pics....

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the house....it feels a bit "sterile" right now with all the white walls but hopefully soon they will have some color!


view from the the hallway going to the kids room of the dining room and kitchen.



Standing in the kitchen looking into the living room....



Arched door way goes to the 2 kids bedrooms and the bathroom.

Poo stain remover!!

I promise no pictures of Poo - how about a cute picture of Em instead!

So in my attempt to figure out how to get the poo off my bedding a few weeks ago - my friend SB offered up some advice for getting the yucky stuff out! Well I just tried it for the first time today on some other soiled clothing and it works!!
Her advice - shampoo on the stain!!
I've always been a firm believer in oxi-clean so todays laundry concoction went something like this - a little detergent, a scoop of oxi-clean, a spray or two of shout and a big ol' glop of shampoo on a very large dried poo stain (yes I am not good about getting stains rinsed right away) and since this is what I always do minus the shampoo and the stains come out just okay - I know that the shampoo is what did it today....you would never even know that there was a stain!!
I did try and get a Mac & Cheese stain out of a shirt though also with shampoo and that didn't work so well....oh well!
I guess I will be investing in a bottle of shampoo specifically for the laundry room now!

The Great Pumpkin

Last Friday the kids and I ventured out with some friends to a pumpkin patch....or so I thought. I turned out being nothing more than a fenced in area with pumpkins that were brought in...but none the less the kids had a good time.

Hmm....which one do I pick??



This was a good as it got for E and going for a train ride...one picture sitting in the "car" and he was done - watching from the sidelines was much better for him.


And this would be the first time A was actually brave enough to venture out on one of these rides....we have a park in town that has a "train" and she has been un-willing to ride until now.


The "perfect" Pumpkin - this was E's pick. We'll see how perfect it is at the end of the month....E is insistent on carrying it around every time we step out the front door and needless to say it's been dropped more than once and seems to be taking quite a beating!


My one and only attempt at getting a picture with A & E - you can see how well it went!


E was so good and so willing to pose with the pumpkins for me...A on the other hand was another story....


After some bribery and encouragement - I finally got A to sit with E so I could get a few pictures of them.....where is em?? - sleeping in her car seat....it was hard enough getting pictures of these two - I didn't dare try and throw her in the picture too.

Our "New" House....

It's only the outside for now....the inside is not picture worthy yet.....of course will my house ever be picked up enough to take a picture of the inside with 3 kids - who knows.....but enjoy these for now - more to come!

Sweet Ema....

1 month cute....

Hard to believe its already been a month....and yet at the same time it's kind of been a long month! But Ema has brought such joy to our lives and she has been such a content and patient baby through this last month of chaos - I sometimes feel guilty for how much time she spends in her chair sleeping and not being held...but so far she seems okay with it.