November 2012

November 2012 was a busy and fun month!

A friend of ours loaned us her jumper for Mallory and she loves it!  I love that her head control is so good now and she loves being able to play with the toys and see what her big brother and sister are doing:)

Both kids came home with turkeys to decorate.  We decided Madeline was old enough to do it all on her own.  She went a little crazy with the glitter and the paper was very heavy when she was done:)  I'm not sure I will ever get all of the glitter dust off of our floors!

Will was told to create a disguise and thought a chef would be fun since he loves to pretend to cook.  Nathan, Will, and I all worked together and created this:)  It was a lot of fun!

Mallory started laughing!   Madeline and Will make it their mission to find ways to make her laugh all of the time:)

Nana came from Spokane and visited us for 6 days.  It was so fun to spend time with her and we stayed busy.  She loved picking out Mallory's clothes everyday:)

When we took my mom to Little Rock to fly home, we made a visit to see Lucy.  These cousins are growing so fast!

After watching my brother and Lindsey do so well with cloth diapers, we decided to give it a try.

What is this thing?

I like it!  It's so soft!

So far, we really like them.  We spent about $100 but that should cover us to potty training, way less than the cost of disposable diapers for that long!

The kids had American Education Week and were asked to dress up for career day.  Madeline was a Vet and Will was a Contractor.

Mallory started eating baby food!  She does so well with it and likes everything so far!

Will got ready for Thanksgiving by making a few crafts in Kindergarten.  He was so proud of everything he made!

The weather was unseasonably warm so we spent some time playing outside while the kids were on break from school.  We tried out the umbrella stroller and Mallory loved it:)

We went to see Nathan's family in Conway for Thanksgiving and had a good time seeing everyone.  She may not have eaten turkey, but this little one needed a nap.  Nathan grew a moustache this month in honor of  "Movember" to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

My sweet kids posing for a Thanksgiving picture.  I really need to be better about using my good camera because the phone pictures are not that good!

We stopped by to see Lucy again on the way home.  They did some tummy time together this time:)

We were finally able to get a picture of all 5 of my parents' grandkids!

Mallory turned 5 months old!  We no longer need the Boppy pillow to prop her!  Such a big girl:)

Nana ordered Madeline a bunch of books from the school book order when she was visiting.  Madeline finally got them in and was so proud of her stash:)  I love that books are always what she wants!

Halloween 2012

The kids were very excited about Halloween this year.  I had said I was not buying costumes this year because we have so many dress up clothes already.  We just created costumes from what we already have.  The Tuesday before Halloween, we went to a Halloween party at Hope Landing (Will's therapy center).  We made Will a pirate costume (Nathan actually painted the skull and crossbones himself) which actually won a costume contest at a birthday party the weekend before!  Madeline used several different costume pieces to create a rock star costume, and Mallory just wore a cute Halloween outfit my mom had bought her.  I thought we did a pretty good job and the party was so much fun for everyone!

On Wednesday, we normally go to "church school".  They hosted a trunk or treat with carnival games inside.  Mallory and Will wore the same outfits and Madeline decided to be a sock hop girl this time, using another dress up outfit.  She looked so cute!

Eating dinner with our church friends!

Having another baby has made me very nostalgic:)  So, I thought I would show our old Halloween pictures:)

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Hopefully Mallory will be standing well enough to join this picture by next year:)

October 2012

Now for a rundown of our October:)
We spent a lot of time at the soccer fields watching Will play games.  I was so proud of him because he has some sensory issues that cause him to be super sensitive to the feel of weeds and grass on his legs.  He used to cry if we even came near an overgrown area, but he managed to overcome that to play soccer!  This was his first year and I'm not sure if he really understands much of the game at all:)  He mainly ran with the pack and had a very short attention span with watching the ball:)  He had a few good performances at goalie though.  He never scored a goal but came close a couple of times.  It was a good social/teamwork experience for him and we will let him try again next year to see if he can learn more about paying attention, helping your teammates, and strategy.  He was always so excited to go to his games and had great coaches!

October is the annual "Read for the Record" event at their school.  Schools across the nation gather at the same time and read the same book to set a record!  They had to wear their red school shirts and posed so sweetly for me that morning:)

Mallory has rolled over a few times from the time she was 5 weeks old but really starting getting good at it during this month.  I hope this video actually uploads correctly!

Madeline finally lost her other front tooth.  So, now she knows just what she wants for Christmas:)

I was in charge of the October meeting for Madeline's Campfire Girls group.  We went to a local, fancy restaurant where the owner did etiquette lessons.  It was so fun, informative, and cute.  She used chocolate milk as the soup course:)

Mallory tried our her highchair with some toys.  She liked sitting higher and being able to see more.

October also means Red Ribbon Week.  They have a fun theme each day.  This was neon day because they are too bright to do drugs:)

They also had a mismatch day (I think it was not being mixed up with drugs).  This is what we came up with for Madeline.  Will had his trip to the pumpkin patch that day and had to wear a school shirt.

Mallory turned 4 months old!  She had a great checkup and her next round of shots:(  She weighed 13 lbs and was 25 inches.

Will's class celebrated the 50th day of school by having a 1950s themed day.  Here is Will's greaser outfit.  He was so cute!

Nana caught a good sale at Crazy 8's and sent Madeline a box of fun new clothes.  This was her favorite outfit.  I'm glad my mom loves shopping for my kids.  It is such a blessing to us!  Only Nana would buy her pink, suede boots:)

Next up. . . Halloween!

Madeline's 8th Birthday!

On September 22, 2012, this precious girl of mine turned 8 years old! She is looking so grown up these days! We decided not to do friend parties this year, but just keep things simple. Here she is in a new outfit her Nana had sent her, ready to open presents

Her Nana and Pawpaw got her a new outfit for her Molly doll. I love the vintage 1940s swimsuit!

Aunt Lindsey and Uncle John go her some Kanani books to read. They no longer make that doll but Madeline still wanted to read her books.

She also got his neat book about the year 1944. Madeline is fascinated by the WWII time period after getting her Molly doll so this book has been a lot of fun for her

Stopping to pose with her little brother. These two sure fill my heart with joy!

When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she only told me one thing. She wanted to go get a "real" pedicure and manicure. Now, I'm not really into making my little girl a diva and rarely get pedicures myself but she is such a good girl with such a good heart, that I decided to allow her to have it done, as it was all she asked for. I found a very reasonable place with a kid sized Pedicure chair. The people were so nice and treated her to extra designs for free in honor of her birthday! I let her choose the color, which was also hard for this mama!

Its not my style at all but it made her so happy! She so enjoyed the experience and had such a grateful attitude about it all that I was so glad I decided to indulge her on this request. She said she wants to do it again next year:)

For the rest of the day, we let her invite one friend over to play, and she chose, Macy. They played dress up a lot, hence the strange outfits below:) Madeline wanted to have her cake when Macy was over. She chose strawberry cake with cream cheese icing made as a sheet cake, not a layered one. The Happy Birthday candles came in handy again:)

So silly while we sang to her!

It was such a fun day of celebrating our big girl!

Dear Madeline,
I can hardly believe we are already celebrating another birthday with you! 8 years old sure sounds more grown up to this mama!
You have had such a good year! You loved first grade and became an avid reader. You love most books but most especially American Girl books. You join the Gifted and Talented program at school and scored extremely high on your state test at the end of the year.
You still love dance, gymnastics, art, and you started piano lessons this summer. You overcame your fear and can now do a back hand spring and round off back hang spring all by yourself. You are quite the performer at your dance recitals and did well in your first drama camp this summer.
You are an amazing big sister. You are so loving and patient with Will and love having a new baby sister. You already say that you can't wait to be a mama someday:)
You are growing spiritually as well. You have a bigger interest in the Bible and are developing in your prayer life. You have started classes to prepare for your First Confession and First Communion this next year. I am so proud of the deep questions you ask as they often challenge me and help me grow as a Christian too!
You still have such a good sense of right and wrong and want everything to be fair. You are learning to work through difficulties with friends and your brother. You still have your fiesty moments and love to question mom and dad but are easily redirected when you need to be:)
I love you so much and look forward to another year of enjoying my girl!
Love,
Mom