Wishbone!

After some debacle (I picked out the wrong bone as the wishbone :) ), Kate & Brynn pulled the wish bone apart this morning :)

5 Months Old!

Brynn is 5 months old today! I got this picture of her this morning with her bear :) She's doing so great. She is really into making raspberries and she loves looking at her feet. She "talks" a lot and is doing such a great job of sitting up by herself.

Here she is sitting up

Kate loves her baby sister and Brynn just loves her big sister. As soon as Brynn sees Kate she lights up with a big smile. Kate is the 1st one to go into her room in the morning and the last one to give her a kiss goodnight. I hope it always stays this way.

We also let Brynn try her sippy cup this morning. She has no idea what it is but it's a little extra something to chew on and to practice holding onto.

And, after a month of boring rice, we gave Brynn some oatmeal today. She seemed to like it :)

We can't believe she is 5 months old already. Time is flying by this time.

Thanksgiving pics & Raspberries

Here are Kate and Brynn on Thanksgiving. They wore matching dresses and looked so cute :)

Here is my little turkey making raspberries. Brynn entertains us daily with these raspberries. She does them so loudly and we just crack up. Kate wore this same shirt on her 1st Thanksgiving too!
Here is our Thanksgiving dinner. It was just the 4 of us at dinner, but we still had all of the food- including green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy. Oh, and cranberries. Kate LOVED the cranberries. Kate sat down and tasted the turkey right away also. She looked at me and started shaking her head and said, "You're a really great cook, Mommy." She also called me the Turkey Girl, Stuffing Girl and cranberry girl. It really was a great Thanksgiving.

Meet Hermie

Hermie is our elf on the shelf. He came tonight while we were out to dinner. Santa sent him to watch out for how we all behave. Every night, Hermie will go back to the North Pole and report and then come back. Kate is mesmerized by Hermie. She said, "Mommy, can I flush the toilet? Hermie might hear." As she was going to bed she said, "Is Hermie leaving now?"

Welcome, Hermie! We are SO HAPPY you are here :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving. The meaning of the day gets lost with all of the turkey, stuffing, cranberry talk.

I am so thankful for everything I have in my life. I have a wonderful husband who has given me my 2 beautiful daughters and our pain in the neck dog, that we really do love. I am thankful that both of my parents are living and part of my life. I am also thankful for my brother who finally realizes I'm not the pain in the neck older sister, and for all of my other family- both from my side and Rich's side. I am also thankful for the time I spent with my family who is not here. I miss them so much everyday and know that they would all be so proud my family.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving today with Rich's family at his Mom's house for her traditional Thanksgiving breakfast. After that, we'll come home and I'll make a dinner for the 4 of us. It's Brynn's 1st Thanksgiving and while she has no idea, it's so meaningful for me to have her here with us. Kate is excited about the turkey and usually likes the potatoes and stuffing so we'll see what happens this year. After that, we're going to try to stop by Rich's brother's house to visit with everyone again. We were invited there for dinner, but I had already bought everything to make the turkey here.

I am thankful for:

My husband

My beautiful, smart and funny 3 1/2 year old:

My beautiful, sweet & happy 4 1/2 month old:

And, my furry, hyper, but unconditionally loving dog.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Grandparent's Day Celebration at school

Rich and I went to Kate's grandparent's day celebration for Thanksgiving at her school. It was really cute. Kate's class went first and they were dressed up as Indians. You can see Kate right next to the pillar. They made their Indian hats with feathers and also made vests to wear. Each one had a name and Kate's was "Princess Dry Thumb". I swear, her teachers are the best and so creative, and no, they do not know about this blog :) Kate sang every song and loud enough that Rich and I could hear. They asked us not to wave, but I did anyway. I can't not wave back to my baby. And, I wanted her to know we were there because she kept looking out for us.

It was hard to get pictures because they section off the 1st rows, but it was really cute and they did such a great job! Afterwards, there was a reception of cookies, brownies and juice.

Leaves

Since we live in a very wooded area, we have tons of leaves. They were always such a pain until Kate could play in them :) She and Rich worked hard to rake the leaves into a huge pile and then she jumped in. Molly followed her, then Rich and we even got Brynn in on the fun.

Check out how high this pile is!

There she goes!

Molly checking on Kate to see if she's okay. Kate is having a ball in this picture

Loving life

Brynn joined in for her 1st leaf pile. Next year she'll be just walking so it will be fun to look back at this picture.

Daddy joined in too

Kate having fun. Molly is trying to get in on the pile also.

FEET!!!

I am not a fan of feet, but baby feet are one of my favorite things. And, guess who found their feet? Brynn saw them and has been looking, but she's become more obsessed and intrigued by them.

And, here is Kate finding her's. These pics were both taken when they were 4 1/2 months old!

Pilgrim Hats

I made these fun little hats for Kate's class. They were so easy to make. Hope that they like them! Rich & I sampled and they were delicious. This is about as Martha Stewart as I get :)

Picnic in November

We had a picnic in November! It's been a pretty mild November so we enjoyed the weather and got out for a picnic a few weekends ago.

Brynn felt a leaf for the first time. She liked touching them and crinkling them. It's so great to experience all of these 1sts with my babies. It's amazing the things that we take for granted that are so new to them.

Sitting up!!

Kate's 1st school project

Kate had her 1st school project a few weeks ago. (I am so behind on my blog, but lots has been happening!) We had to do a poster of pictures of Kate with her family. So, we chose a poster board and we bought these stick on puffy letters. I let Kate find the letters to spell her name and she peeled the paper off. Rich and I helped her place them. We also chose pictures of Kate with all the members of her family. We got some of my fun scrapbook scissors and cut the pictures- Kate even helped cut! She presented to her class on November 10. She told her class that her favorite food is pizza and mommy AND daddy both cook for her.

putting the letters on

finding letters to spell out the words

finished product

Cute outfit for presentation :)

Heaven

Kate has not been feeling well the past few days. She has a cough, which is waking her up at night. So, I've been going down to her room. At 4 am, we had a philosophical conversation. Not one that I was expecting to have at 4 am :)

I was putting some Vicks on her and I told her that my mommy used to do that to me when I was a little girl and had a cold. She said, "You were a little girl?" I said, "Yes" and Namma is my mommy. She said, "Did you have a Daddy too?" She knows who everyone is, but it was 4am so she was out of it. I said, "Pop Pop is my Daddy". So, she says, "Was Daddy little?" I said, "Yes, and Grammie is his mommy and Pop Pop in Heaven is his Daddy." She said, "Daddy's Daddy is in Heaven, in the sky?" I said, "Yes, and he knows God and Jesus". Kate has a CD that has a song, "God is bigger Than the Boogie Man". We listen to this CD over and over in the car. She said, "Does Pop Pop in Heaven sing "God is bigger than the boogie Man?" It's so amazing to me the things we take for granted that we know. I wasn't planning on having this conversation with her at 3 1/2, but she's curious, and what else is there to talk about at 4am? I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Blessings

This sweet girl. In school, they asked the kids what they were thankful for. Kate's paper said, "My baby". Rich asked her which baby, thinking maybe her baby doll, or something, and she said, "Brynn!" What a sweetheart!

Brynn's 1st food

I took Brynn to her 4 month check up yesterday. She's hitting all of her milestones and doing great. The Dr. said we could start her on rice cereal, so we were going to wait, but I was excited, so we tried this morning. Kate wanted to know if she could eat Fruity Pebbles. LOL.

Here she is with her 1st bite

Not so sure about this cereal stuff

Now what?

She did great for her 1st time. We'll keep trying.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year! We woke up and went to church, and then met our good friends for breakfast out with the kids. As soon as Kate woke up she asked if she could go trick or treating. I went through our agenda for the day: wake up, church, breakfast, lunch, nap, dinner, trick or treat time!

Here are Kate & Brynn opening their Halloween baskets. Kate got a Tinkerbell marker kit, tinkerbell stickers, glow in the dark pez dispenser & money from Namma and Pop Pop. Brynn got a book and a pumpkin.

We got all ready and here we all are! We had an extra skirt and wings so I dressed up too :) Kate LOVED it.

Kate checking out Brynn's outfit

Brynn's 1st Halloween
Kate was busting at the seams to go out. Rich found the glow in the dark lightstick wand too.

Brynn was all ready also.

Here we are with Luke. It was so fun to go out with him this year- this was his 1st Halloween too. We were a walking commercial for Disney. Gracie (their dog) is not in the picture, but she came out too and was dressed as a turtle.

Here are all 3 of our girls

I got this picture of Kate & Brynn sitting on the step.

And, here they are again :) Such a great time! Kate went to all of the houses, knocked on the door and said Trick or Treat. She would show everyone her shoes, wings, her baby sister and tell them all about it. It was just adorable. She had 2 pieces of candy when we got home. She skyped with Namma and Pop Pop to tell them all about it. Pop Pop asked if he could have a Reese's, so Kate ate it. She was in heaven. I think it's her new favorite thing.

Here is Kate checking out Brynn to make sure her outfit is okay :)

3rd Stamp!

Kate got her 3rd stamp at swimming last night!! Gooo KATE!!! We are so proud of her! This is a huge accomplishment- it means she can jump into the pool and swim the length of the pool and back- all by herself. She does it freestyle! YAY KATE!!!!