Happy Halloween

Carving/Painting Pumpkins

We have started a fun tradition of painting pumpkins with the girls while daddy carves one and lets the girls help him take the guts out of it. Last year, I ended up with paint all over my face, this year much better; however, Liv decided to paint herself after she was done with her pumpkin! What a goofy kid. They really enjoyed it, then hoped in the bath so they could watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown before bedtime. It sure is fun to have little family traditions!

I let Addison and Olivia paint their pumpkins however they wanted. They were very serious while creating their "masterpieces".

Once Olivia was done with the pumpkin, she moved onto painting herself.

All cleaned up and posing with the masterpieces.

Halloween Parties

The girls have had a few chances already to wear their costumes. We had much debating about what to be this year. I had planned for Olivia to be a clown, and Addison to be Sharpay from High School Musical. We had the outfits, and I did not want to buy anything else. Pulled out the clown outfit, Addison wanted to try it on because I told her she had worn it one year for Halloween. It fit great and she decided that was what she wanted to be. It wasn't worth arguing about because Olivia didn't know the difference. So Liv gets to be a cheerleader. Of course Addison still tells me she wants to be Sharpay until I tell her that Liv then gets to wear the clown outfit. She doesn't like that idea and sticks with the clown!

Addison got to go to a Halloween party at the Omaha Childrens Musuem. I think she had fun. She didn't want to be left alone and was terrified of the Haunted House they had that you just walked through in the dark. She was upset that there was no time for her to play in the museum. Oh well kid!! We also took the girls to the Boo at the Zoo in Omaha. The weather was AWFUL!!! Cold and windy. Hardly any of the animals were outside. The zoo is pretty big and I bet we weren't even there 2 hours. But a good excuse to wear the costume. Olivia made little effort to have any fun, as evident by the pictures!!

"Zip it Momma"

I took the girls to Omaha this weekend for some Halloween festivities. After work I picked the girls up at daycare and headed out. I got the report from the sitter that Addison did not take a nap and Olivia had only slept for about 30 minutes on Friday. Oh good, I am thinking to myself. After they eat, both of them will fall asleep. Addison did, Olivia just wanted to talk to me until Ella started crying. (By the way, I was also expecting Ella to sleep the whole way - she didn't). Olivia didn't like Ella crying and started telling her to zip it. "Zip it Ella". Where in the world did she learn this I am thinking to myself. I kindly explain to her amongst Ella crying that we should not say that because it really isn't nice. The more I say it to her, the louder I get, "zip it momma, zip it". I am not having any of this. What is happening to the sweet innocence of my 2 year old? So now I am ignoring it. She is still saying it...but when she realizes I am not responding, she does stop. So to all of you out there...don't say "zip it"!!!

Hurry Home Daddy

Daddy has been out of town for the last couple of days, and we miss him like crazy!

Olivia misses her daddy in the middle of the night when she likes to wake up for no apparent reason. Daddy walks her back to her room and she goes back to sleep, usually! Mommy isn't cuttin it tryingto be daddy and march her back to bed. She wants mommy to sleep with her. Mommy misses him more. Means she needs to get her butt out of bed instead of nudgin him to take care of Olivia in the middle of the night when she is standing beside you staring. (A nursing mom needs her sleep for good milk supply!!)

Addison wants daddy to come home so she has someone to rough house with. Mommy just isn't as much fun as him!

Mommy and Ella need daddy too. Ella needs her daddy for her nightime feeding and mommy needs to sleep some more. Come home fast daddy, we miss you!!!

Scarecrow Patch

Addison had Grandparents Day at Preschool this weekend, and part of the festivities was taking the grandparents to the Pumpkin Patch. Depsite the incredibly dreary, wet and cold weather, we went anyway. We sure had a good time though and found our pumpkins. The girls did not want to leave, even when it was raining steadily on them. We took Grammy and headed out to have some fun and enjoy the company of one another. (We missed Mamo and Bampo though who were in Wichita celebrating Sydney's 1st Birthday! Sorry we missed out on that guys!) The girls were not overly cooperative with pictures, but who can blame them when they are 4 and 2. Ella was smiley at times and had fun out there also (she maily slept!).

Addison enjoyed shooting pumpkins, playing in the water with the rubber duckies, and her most prized moment was being able to do the zip line all by herself. She did probably about a hundred times. She was so happy!!

Olivia rode the pony and loved playing on the slide and falling into the barrel of corn. I did not catch any pictures of that. I will have to steal some off Grammy's camera. I was feeding Ella and trying to stay dry and warm. Did I mention it was freezing out there? We thought it was supposed to be nice weather until late afternoon. Not the case. After Ella was done eating, she was wide awake and very alert. I took the oppurtunity to catch some fun facial expressions and catch her being cute!!

We tried numerous times to get some pictures of the girls in the middle of the pumpkins and a family picture. The family picture was not working as Olivia was done with pictures and did not want to sit on the pumpkins because they were wet. Addison just wanted to pose.

Family Fun Time

I am back at work now and going to try and keep the updates more freuqent. Oh by the way, we have digital cable at home, so I can do this from home now!!! My husband rocks!

I really enjoyed my maternity leave and was a little weepy coming back to work. The girls have been really good with Ella. I am handling my emotions much better this time. I feared the postpartum depression throughout my entire pregnancy, but I am really feeling pretty good. The girls can get under my skin at times, and I feel like I loose my patience, but I have worked really hard on patience with the girls and their attitudes and temper tantrums.

The month of September went really fast for me and the girls. We had lots of visitors to keep us busy and to give me some extra help as I recovered from my c-section. Grammy came and stayed the 1st week, and thank goodness she was here because Olivia had the flu for 7 days. It was awful. Thankfully no one else got sick. After that Jenny and Leo flew in fromIdaho for 2 weeks. The girls had so much fun playing with Leo and taking walks. I think Leo got in touch with his feminine side, much to his father's dismay. He enjoyed walking around with princess umbrellas, playing barbies with Addison and playing with the girls princess castle. Jenny and I even got enough time to make Hallooween t-shirts for the kids.

The kids got lots of time at the park, playing and being loud. The decible level with two 2 year olds was loud. We also got a chance to celebrate Leo's 2nd birthday while he was here.

Addison and Olivia have been great helps for mommy. They both love to hold Ella and constantly want to know where she is, what she is doing and if they can give her a kiss. I am not brave enough to take a shower with the girls alone with Ella, but they have been great. Olivia has recently started wanting to try and pick her up. We came in from a walk one evening, and Ella had been siting in her carseat, not buckled, just sitting in there with blankets from the walk. I ran to the bathroom real quick. As I walked out, Ella started crying and I saw Olivia run away from her carseat. I better check out what happened while I was away. Ella was halfway down her carseat...Olivia was trying to pull her out of the carseat. I need to be sure I have my watchful eyes on all the time. Addison has taken a real liking to helping with her bottles. I have even got some helpers for "tummy time" with Ella.

Check back soon for some more pictures of the parade we went to and the Pumpkin Patch!

Hannah Montana Watch Out

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