Trick Sick or Treat

It's Halloween night! We survied trick-or-treating despite Carter being sick and running fever all day yesterday. Today he felt better, took a two hour nap, and after a dose of Motrin, we ventured out in the neighborhood for some candy. I will admit, I wanted (and needed) the candy more than he probably did so my motives for getting him out in the cold for trick-or-treating were a little selfish! :) We had a good time. We met up with our friends a few houses down and hit the neighborhood together.


I carried Olivia the cutest little pumpkin you ever did see in the sling and she slept the whole time.



Now, it's 10 p.m., I am exhausted, Olivia is wide awake, Carter is down for the count...hopefully, and Theo is watching the world series. I wanted to get these pictures posted before it wasn't Halloween anymore.

Olivia enjoyed her first Halloween I think. The weather was quite nice, a little cold but nothing like the snowstorm we got earlier in the week. We went up the the outlet mall this afternoon for a little while. This is her pre-trick-or-treating outfit (thank you Nanny aka godmomma for getting this for her!)



Next year, I'm sure she'll enjoy getting and eating candy, but this year she was content to be held in the sling while I did most of the candy gathering for her sick big brother.


Carter was dressed as Pablo from the Backyardigans.

The head piece was too small (naturally, because my children have really big heads!) so I sewed a piece of Diego scrap fabric underneath it to make a chin strap. Thankfully I have learned how to sew or I don't know what he would have done.

I hope you all had a great Halloween night! I'm going to bed!

Playin in the snow: Southern boy style

The snow is really coming down today. I have been wanting to take Carter outside to play in it but honestly, I was dreading it. But I got over my own desire to stay warm and cozy, donned our snowsuits (well, Carter's snow suit, my multiple layers of mismatched clothes and a coat) and braved the cold so Carter could play. Well, it took more time to get dressed than the time we were actually outside but that is neither here nor there.



Carter doesn't have any mittens though and after many failed attempts to put socks on his hands, tuck his hands inside his coat, etc, etc, we finally decided to come inside. But Carter still really wanted to play with snow. So this is what I came up with:




When Theo called, and I told him what I had done, he sounded a little horrified that I would actually do that. But oh well, what can I say? The boy wanted to play with snow! :) It has been entertaining him for a while and I imagine it will until the snow melts. Then we're going to make hot chocolate and take a hot bubble bath. Olivia is still sleeping fortunately because I am NOT ready to drag her out in this for sure.

Olivia's room updates

I have done a couple of new things for Olivia's room that I wanted to share. The first being I took the letters of her name that were over her crib and added scrapbook paper to them. I saw this exact same idea in a catalog that was charging $11 a piece per letter. Well, the frugalista side of me said there has got to be a better way. So for less than $2 a letter, I came up with this:

BEFORE:



AFTER:

I also found this at Hobby Lobby on sale this past week for $20!



I haven't added anything to it yet but it goes perfectly in her room.

I embelished a couple of white picture frames to match with her room too. I may have posted these already but I moved the 8x10 frame off of her dresser and hung it over the wall above the changing table.



If you didn't know this about me, I love doing crafty things. The problem is that I'm kind of good at a few things, but not really great at anything! I'm working at that though. Next project for princess' room is to find a rug and get some curtains!

Subliminal messages

Carter spends more time than we would like watching television. I will be the first to admit I am not always consistent when it comes to limiting his tv time.....especially now that Olivia is here. It is so easy to give into him when he asks to watch a show. I realize I have boundary issues when it comes to my son but that is a whole different post!! :)

We usually watch Noggin (which is now Nick Jr) because that channel has most of his favorite shows and I like that it doesn't have commercials. But lately, he has been watching more Disney because of Little Einsteins. Unfortunately, Disney does have commercials. And so does FOX which is heard playing in our house on Sunday afternoons while Theo (and I) watch pro football.

Carter apparently is absorbing more messages from the commericials than I first realized because now he is often heard saying the following things:

For lunch, we'll discuss what he wants to eat, he'll say "I want Egglands the better egg for lunch!"

When I tell him we are going shopping, he says "Let's go to live better, save money, walmart."

When I tell him I need to clean the bathroom, he says "Use Lysol-disinfect to protect".

I kid you not, this boy doesn't miss a thing and has the most incredible memory. Now, we just need him to memorize his lowercase letters instead of advertising slogans!

Beauty

Saturday morning, we all slept in. When Olivia woke up, we were playing with her on our bed. We were holding her, talking to her, and kissing her all over. And everytime I said "Hey beautiful!" she just broke out in the biggest grin. So I would say other things, and then say "Hey beautiful!" and she would get another huge smile on her face. Even when Theo called her beautiful, you could tell she just loved it. It made me think about what we all desire as women, and young ladies. We want to be beautiul. We want to feel that someone is paying attention to us, noticing us, and not just for our physical beauty, but our inner beauty too. Whether we are blessed enough to have parents who raised us to know our beauty, or are blessed enough to have a husband that thinks we are beautiful, we always have God. He created us and knows our true beauty more than anyone else. After all, we are created in His image, and nothing is more beautiful than that. So here is to all the women in my life. Each and every one of you is beautiful, inside and out. I'm blessed to know you all. And I'm even more blessed to have a beautiful daughter. I hope I can show her everyday just how truly beautiful she is!

My mom made this outfit for Olivia. She added matching fabric on the trim of the shirt, made the diaper cover, and the leggins! Aren't they cute?? This outfit she wore today while we were out. The outfit below, she wore this past week while we went to the park. Mom even made Livie's little shoes. One day, maybe I can sew like that! Perhaps, when I have a little more free time....like the year 2030!



See, Olivia thinks her outfits are great too!

Capturing a smile

I took these pictures Sunday after church. It was the first time Olivia wore a real dress! She looked so cute. I literally took dozens of pictures trying to get her to smile at me. But the only two I got with a smile are ones where she is looking sideways. Oh well.




Yes, I know....I have my mother's thighs!

Saturday, we decided to make a trip to Old Colorado City. This was our second time going. We first tried to go while my mom was in town but it started storming so we didn't get to see much. Saturday the weather was great so we were able to walk around for a couple of hours. Olivia slept the whole time in the Baby Bjorn and Carter was pretty good most of the time.

Old Colorado City is a very ecletic part of town, equipped with quaint little restaraunts and little shops.







We went to an Army Surplus store that was really cool! Carter enjoyed that part the most.






There is a little French restaraunt I want to try next time we go. And a coffee shop. There is so much to do here it's hard to fit it all in! Theo and I decided to make a list of all the places we wanted to go and all the restaraunts we wanted to try while we were here. That way when we have the converstation about what we want to do and can't come up with anything, we'll just pick something off our list.

We saw this on our drive back. I've been wanting to take a picture of it and finally did. Not sure if it has a name but I think it's really pretty!

Random Ramblings

This is just a post to update everyone on the everyday things that are going on in our house these days.

Carter got his flu shot this past Friday (and another vaccine). He did okay but was more mad that I brought a brown tootsie roll pop for him instead of a red one! Fortunately, the nurse had a bag of the same suckers so she gave him a blue one.

Olivia went with us to the doctor but didn't have to be seen. I did, however, weigh her on the scale and she gained almost a pound (15 ounces) in two weeks! Yea! I was so relived. As frequently as she nurses, which is still about every 2 hours during the day, I often wonder if she's getting enough. Obviously she is since she gained that much weight in two weeks.

Some good friends of ours were in town this past weekend for a wedding. It was so good to see them. We really miss them. I got to babysit their two girls while they went to the wedding. Carter so enjoyed having them over to play. But I will admit, although the girls were very well behaved, I was still tired at the end of the night :) They all played outside for almost four hours!! I wish I had the energy of three and five year olds! We were able to meet for lunch on Friday before the wedding and ate at Pei Wei. My mom is the one who had first told me about it. It's an Asian restaurant and the food was great. Carter even ate it!

We went out yesterday afternoon to Old Colorado City, which I will post more about later. We had a good time. The weather has been great this weekend. Olivia finally went to bed at 8:00 last night. This was a nice change from her usual 9:30 and 10:00 bedtimes! I ended up going to sleep at 8:20 because I was so tired. I fed her at 7:00and she didn't wake up until 1:30 to nurse again. At 3:30 she was a little cranky (I think it was gas...hers not mine!!) and so I put her in her crib and she slept 3 hours in the crib! She just will not sleep in the pack and play for some reason. But I was so glad she slept in the crib. I may start trying to put her in it at night but right now, it's so convenient to roll over and nurse her at night instead of actually having to get out of the bed. And anyone who knows me, knows I am all about convenience!

We are about to get ready for church and then go grocery shopping this afternoon. And then it's back to work tomorrow for Theo. Oh, some good news for me.....I have been writing exam questions for the national pediatric nurse practitioner exam over the past few months. I got an e-mail yesterday asking me to join the PNP exam writing committee! I was so thrilled. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be getting paid for it but I will get an all expense paid trip to D.C. for their annual conference in May. It's the week of our wedding anniversary so we are goin to plan on making a trip out of it and bring the kids! I have always wanted to see D. C. so I'm super excited. Anyway, gotta get ready for church. Check back tomorrow for pictures of our outing to Old Colorado City. Hope you all are having a good weekend!

Photo Shoot

Is she not simply gorgeous?!!













Lest you think she was all smiles and cuteness....



And my two favorites.....