Happy Halloween!

Loads of Halloween pictures for your enjoyment! Mia really got into trick-or-treating this year.  Ellie was beautiful as a teddy bear and a Flamenco dancer :)  Sean and I have ridiculous amounts of candy to eat now!

Crazy Baby

Ellie is going through that stage where she basically acts like a wild, screeching Tasmanian devil all day long. She shrieks during diaper changes, screams randomly (and happily) while at restaurants, and puts anything and everything in her mouth with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Restaurants are much more work now with 2 kids. Last night we were all discombobulated (sp?? is that actually a word?) at a local diner, and the waitress put a plate of hot fries down near Ellie. Of course, she stuck one in her mouth before we even noticed, and was not a happy camper.

She has perfected the army crawl and will not leave poor Elliot alone. Our attention-starved cat will tolerate some vicious hair pulls for a while, until we rescue him and/or the baby.  She crawls straight towards electrical outlets and wires, and has already tried to pry open the DVD player. Sigh... We have a lot of baby proofing to do, NOW! I don't remember Mia being this mischievous, but I guess we always tend to forget the trying times :)


It is a good thing she is so cute!

 Got him!

 She got in and out all by herself :)

Lord help us!

Funny Faces

We take lots of pictures around here and still only manage to get a few keepers. I thought it would be fun to post a few of the funny faces we get when trying to capture a moment. Mia and Ellie will thank me for this later, I'm sure :)

 Don't remember what the meltdown was about, but tried to distract her by taking a picture. Didn't work :)

Not happy here either. This is a look I imagine I'll get a lot during the teenage years.

 Cottage cheese face!

 Woah, who's that?

 This is a favorite of Ellie's. She loves to scrunch up her face and make sniffing sounds. It is pretty funny.

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Happy Birthday Sean!

We just had one of those great fall weekends where the weather was perfect,  fall festivities were going on everywhere, and the kiddos were happy! And it was Sean's birthday :) We spent a lot of time outside as you can see below. Lots of photos in this post!

 It started with pumpking picking and hayride.

 Then just relaxing in the sun (and Ellie's first experience eating grass).

 A little soccer practice.

 Wrestling with friends.

 And kite flying too!

 Some porch decorating

 And Mia's first official treasure hunt!

Finally, we made cake!! My first ever (edible) carrot cake. Sean and Mia made the icing and it was all absolutely delicious!

My Girl

Poor Ellie. Over the past few weeks, she's been greeted as "Little Guy", "Little Man" and "Hey Buddy" a bunch of times. I'm just not a very "girly" mom and I've never really dressed the girls in lots of pink or frills. But I decided to purchase a few flowery hair bows to see if she'll keep them in.  I'll let you know how it goes.

 Showing off her two bottom teeth!

 Flashdance Baby!!

Yep, she's crawling :)

It's Fall!

My favorite month is finally here! I just love the crisp air, wearing jeans, putting pumpkins and mums on the front porch and trick-or-treating! I can't wait to go to the pumpkin patch and fall festivals and the whole nine yards! What is it about this time of year that we all love so much?

Anyway, last weekend we went to the Children's Festival in Norfolk. It was a gorgeous fall day and there were tons of people there. We had a nice time and Mia got to meet a few special people :)

 Legoland!

 Good ole' Clifford.

 Leading the way on the obstacle course.

Those with small children will recognize this guy...Mr Steve (!) from PBS Kids :)

Ellie Update

Elena Anne had her six month checkup last week. She's 16.9 lbs, 26 inches and just as sweet as ever. She's about average for height and weight and is doing all sorts of new and adorable things. I love this age! Now if she would just drop her 4:30 am feeding, I would be thrilled :)

Some of her cute new things:

 Sitting up unassisted and playing with toys :)

Graduating from the swing and bouncy seat to the walker/exersaucer :)

Discovering the cat!

And the cutest of all:

Her first official "babbling"! I will try to get a better video of this, but you can clearly understand what shes' saying, right? :)

Mia's Forest

I love where we live. We have a great old neighborhood with lots of nice people and we can walk to schools, restaurants, shops, movies etc. etc. Recently our little Colley Avenue even got street performers, which I think is super cool.

That being said, we do have a rather urban existence. Yards are small, so we walk to nearby parks on a regular basis. We are also fortunate enough to have a Nature Preserve at the far end of our neighborhood. Mia loves this place, which is only open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-5. She calls it her "forest" and asks all the time if it is "open". My poor kid is growing up thinking that forests have operating hours! :)

One day I dream of moving to the country with no neighbors and only fields and horses and forests as far as I can see. For now though, we'll make do with Mia's forest.

Playing Tarzan!