Halloween Treats AND Tricks

This year we found lots of treats AND an awful trick.

The festivities started a little early.  We have an annual Halloween party with Beau's family every year. It's one of the parties we all look forward to.  And, as usual, we had a great time.  It was held mid-October this year.

We dressed up as a bottle of Ketchup, a Police Officer, a Lady Bug, and a Kitty Cat.

And, here is a group picture of everyone!  The costumes are pretty awesome.  We had a huge Toy Story clan, Peter Pan/Wendy/Tinker Bell combo, a scarecrow, and a runner.

And, to follow tradition, we followed all of this fun up with some delicious food and family games.

As Halloween finally approached I knew that pumpkin carving would be on the agenda this year.  Evie has been WAY into pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns for years now.  I mean, she seriously hasn't stopped talking about Halloween stuff since LAST year.  She's a riot.    So, now that she's old enough I decided to bite the bullet and make jack-o-lanterns with her.  We grew pumpkins this year, so we went out to the garden to pick the perfect pumpkins.  When we got in the house I told Evie she could choose the faces.  We jumped on the computer to look for patterns and as we started looking through them she wanted NOTHING to do with the ones that looked cute and happy.  We MUST have scary/spooky ones.  So . . . she chose her favorite 2 and off we went.

We started carving and I had Evie pull out the "guts" of the pumpkins while I scraped them down.  She was NOT a fan of the slime.  Not one bit.  She lasted for about 2 handfuls and then passed that job right back to me.  LOL.  Once we started carving, Evie was thrilled.  And, then she fell asleep right in her chair with her head down on the countertop.  I had to keep carving because I didn't know how much time I would have until Addie would wake up from her nap, so I got both pumpkins carved before both babies awoke.

But, when they awoke, they were both thrilled.  Evie loved her pumpkins and she especially loved that they looked like Draculas.  They passed the "spooky" test.  We had to light them right away to see them glow.

Then, the day before Halloween was filled with all sorts of fun.  It started out with a Halloween lunch at daddy's work.  Everyone in Beau's office dresses up, so it was fun to see all of the costumes.  And, of course the girls LOVED getting to spend some extra time with their daddy.  I did too.

After lunch, we went to pick up cousin HaLee for the afternoon.  She went with us to Aunt Amber's work to trick-or-treat.  They had SO much fun and loaded up on SO much candy.  I think they really loved the trick-or-treating part, but they loved playing with Amber in her office even more.  What a fun treat!

After that, we hurried home to eat dinner and then we went to our neighborhood trunk-or-treat.  This involved trick-or-treating as well as a dance party.  It was way fun.  Adel and dad handed out the candy.

I took HaLee and Evie around to all the "trunks" to trick-or-treat.

Then, it was home to get some much needed rest, because we had parties and trick-or-treating to go to the next day.  After all, the next day was actually Halloween!

And . . . that's where the BIG trick comes in.  Evie caught a stomach bug and "spit up" in her bed around 4am.  She called it "spit up," but it was full-on throw up.  It was everywhere and it was disgusting and awfully sad.

And, like flies, we all started dropping.  Daddy was sick within a few hours of that.  I managed to last until the late evening (thankfully, because I don't know who would have taken care of the girls if both Beau and I were down-and-out at the same time).

It really was a mean Halloween trick that hit our house.  Addie had been sick a few days before, so I think she started it.  I just didn't really know she was that sick until it started hitting the rest of us (those poor little babies can't really tell you how sick they truly are).  So, needless to say, we missed our annual Halloween parties at the grandparents homes.  Major bummer!

But, today we are all feeling good, eating without wanting to puke, and we've found our smiles again.  So, I dressed my babies back up to get some good/decent Halloween pics of each of them.  They are sooooo darn cute!

Here's our darling little kitty cat.  The costume fits her well because her favorite animal around our house is indeed our black barn cat.  Man, you just want to grab her off your screen and squeeze her, don't you!?

And, here's our lovely lady bug.  She is charming in every way imaginable.  I hope you all had a fun and safe and sick-free Halloween weekend!

Baby Adel is 10 Months Old

Yep!  It's true!  My sweet little Adeline is a whopping 10 months old.  What in the world!?  Time goes WAY too fast sometimes.

She has become so busy, busy, busy!  She can really move around so she's exploring everything she can possibly explore.  I know a lot of moms hate this stage because of all the messes these little babies make, but I actually really love it for that reason.  I don't mind that the toys get strung all about the house, or that the DVD's are pulled off the shelf 12 times a day, or that she has to go through 27 books before she finds one that interests her.  You get the idea.  And, by all of this you can probably gather that my house is rarely organized (I do try to keep it clean…..wiped down, vacuumed, etc).   But, I wouldn't have it any other day.  There are days I look at the mess and think, "I should clean this place up."  But, usually I look at the mess and smile and think, "I'm so lucky to have these girls that make these messes."

And, while Adeline goes about her busy business, she is usually as pleasant as can be.  She's happy to explore, to crawl and climb.  She LOVES to follow her sister around and usually wants whatever Evie has.  I suppose that's natural for siblings, right?

Here's what Addie is up to now:

• She's finally starting to like books a little better.  She'll actually sit through an entire board book (so long as it's not too long).  At this point, that's about all I can get her to do, but I'm happy to see her start enjoying the "reading" world a little more.
• She has another tooth on bottom.  So, she now has 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom.
• Thanks to those teeth, I haven't hesitated to start feeding her table food.  She is SOOOO sick of pureed baby foods . . . to the point that she'd rather go hungry some days than gag down another serving of it.  So, I started cutting up chicken, giving her brown rice, and chopped up veggies. She's a HUGE fan.  We've started trying her on all sorts of stuff and she likes most of the stuff we give her.  She still loves to follow every meal up with a bottle.
• She's babbling much more now.  She loves making the sounds all day long.
• She's ditched the "army crawl" and just crawls on her hands and knees.  
• She is much more confident and sure when she pulls herself up to a standing position while holding onto stuff.  She isn't even wobbly as she walks along furniture and she's figured out how to gently get herself down to the floor.  She goes everywhere I tell you!
• She definitely understands "no" (but doesn't always obey it).
• She started using a sippy cup.  She prefers the straw ones.  She can also drink out of a normal straw (it just sometimes comes up too fast and scares her).
• She caught some strain of the flu.  While she was a little more whiney and clingy than usual, I still wasn't sure what was going on with her because she was still pretty pleasant and happy overall.  It wasn't until Evie got it (and then Beau and I got it) that I connected all the dots.  I mean, how can I complain too loudly when I have a baby with the flu that is still relatively pleasant?
• And, as annoying as it is, Addie even got her flu shot this past month (do those things REALLY ever work!?).  She was a champ when she got it.  She cried for about 5 seconds and was over it.  (I won't mention how long her older sister cried.  Ok . . . for minutes!  But, it was super cute because Evie got her shot first.  Then, when the nurse was about to give it to Addie, Evie looked at Addie and told her it was going to poke really bad . . . as if telling Addie to run for her life.   Then Evie yelled at the nurse to not poke her baby Adel.  Evie was TOTALLY watching out for her little sister. I love watching exchanges like this.)
• She loves to go through the animal sounds.  She cannot make them, but she sure recognizes them.  She gets most excited for dog and cat.  Although, duck and anything that roars is starting to become more amusing to her.  
• She LOVES to snuggle up to her blankets.  If her blankets aren't available or handy, she'll sometimes find other things.  I've caught her laying on the floor with a dish towel, Evie's blanket, pillows, or anything else soft.  She's such a little cuddle bug.
• Addie is busy and into everything.  She is curious and wants to explore anything she can possibly explore.  She's into the toys, the books, the DVD's, the shoe bins, the dishwasher, the diaper bag, the garbage (ugh!), and she's even tried to stick her hands in the toilet.  This girl is seriously into everything.  Busy, busy, busy!

We just love having this sweet pea in our home and family.  She's a dream come true in every way.  

Cornbelly's Tradition With Four

Well, we took our annual trip to Cornbelly's.  This year it was FOUR of us, instead of three of us.  I just love my little family!

Cornbelly's seems to get bigger and better every year.  There was more for us to see and do . . . more than we could get to in three hours of time (who would of thought we would need more time, let alone the girls would last longer than three hours!?).

We had lots of fun doing the traditional stuff . . . riding the cow train, going down the giant slides, going on wagon rides through the corn fields, jumping on trampolines, playing in the corn pit, etc.  This year we got to watch a dog show where the dogs did tricks while catching frisbees as well as jumped into a pool of water.  The girls loved that part.  We also got to see a firework show.  This is one of my favorite family traditions!

Baby Addie with her daddy.  So cute!

The girls . . . on our wagon ride through the corn fields. 

Evie got to watch the dog show from her daddy's shoulders.  Lucky girl!

Mommy and Evie playing together in the corn pit.

The awesome firework show.  

Baby Adel at 9 Months

My sweet Adeline is another month older, wiser, bigger, etc.  She's had a great month and continues to amaze us in her development, her sweetness, and her beauty.  She's the most darling, little thing there ever was.

Here's what she's up to now days:

• Evie started calling Adeline "Adel" a few months ago.  It was Evie's endearing, little nickname for her baby sister.  Well, it has really stuck and now we all call her Adel.  So, Adeline truly responds to 3 names now . . . Adeline, Addie, and Adel.
• She's eating solids way better.  She now loves her rice cereal when I mix it with fruit.  She still has her favorite veggies . . . sweet potatoes and carrots.  She enjoys fruits now.  I've tried her on a few baby foods with meat in them and she is NOT a fan of those yet.  I'm going to try making my own instead of using store bought to see if she'll tolerate it a little better.  She loves the baby snack items (puffs, yogurt bites, etc.).  She still LOVES her bottle the best.
• She has 3 more teeth, folks!  They appeared in her upper gums.  She now has 4 teeth on top and 3 on bottom.  This girl is ready to eat!  Let's give her a turkey leg or something.  LOL.
• She is sleeping ALL the way through the night now.  She'll sleep 10-12 hours at a time.  Well, unless she's teething or sick.  But, that goes without saying.  
• Her interest in animals has piqued.  She is becoming more and more drawn to them.  Her favorites around our house are our little, black cat Louise as well as our giant mule Tiny.  She tends to get more excited around both of these pets as opposed to the others.  However, she still loves to watch the others too.
• She LOVES to watch us brush our teeth.  She's actually loved this for months, but I've forgotten to write it down.  She grins and giggles when we brush our teeth.  It's pretty funny.
• She loves fabrics, clothes, and jewelry.  It's becoming very obvious that she is quite the girlie girl.  It cracks me up how she is drawn to clothing and jewelry. She loves to play with her clothes and dig in her clothing drawers/baskets.  She also loves all jewelry and will tug and play with anything I have on.  
• She is a hair puller.  She's pretty sly about it too.  She'll gently grab your hair and then she'll quickly yank.  As you can imagine, it doesn't feel super awesome.
• She's finally babbling.  I've been waiting and waiting for this and she's finally gibber-gabbering.  It's ADORABLE!  She's unleashed all sorts of sounds . . . just within the last week.  Dada, Gaga, Zaza, ShaSha, VaVa, GuyGuy, and last but certainly not least . . . Mama. :) The babbles are so fun and it's hard not to HIGHLY encourage them.  We all get excited and chat right back with her . . . mimicking her every sound.  
• She loves nature.  She's love this for many months too, but I haven't really written it down.  She loves to watch the leaves on trees blow in the wind.  She even loves to be on the grass.  Her first touch of the grass never bothered her, it just intrigued her.  She doesn't hate the texture of it at all.  
• She can now officially crawl on her hands and knees.  She still prefers to "army crawl" because she's more efficient and can get places faster this way, but she can officially crawl.
• She can now get herself in and out of a sitting potation.  
• She's pulling herself up much more now.  She can even crawl up stairs (oh no!).  She loves to pull herself up like a big girl, but often times finds herself stuck there afterwards.  Sometimes she'll plop back down on her bum and sometimes she'll whine for me to help her.  She's even starting to walk a little while holding on to furniture, but she's super wobbly.  
• She's starting to show more sensitivity.  One day she grabbed something she shouldn't and Evie hurried to grab it and tell her no (which I often have to remind Evie that I'm the mom and can tell her no when needed. . . .ha, ha).  A big frown showed up on Adeline's face which was quickly followed by big alligator tears.  She was so sad.  She's also been known to sympathy cry when others are crying.  
• She's starting to tap to the beat of music.  She'll sometimes bounce a little, but she mostly waves her hand/arm in line with the beat of a song.  She's loved music since birth (well, probably even before that) so it's fun to see her start to move with it now.  She really loves it when I dance with her in my arms.  She has huge smiles and loud coos.
• Oh my word!  If there is anything to be found on the floor that will fit in her mouth, she'll find it and eat it.  I am vacuuming constantly.  She'll seriously put everything and anything in her mouth.
• She is totally understanding certain phrases.  It's amazing how fast these babies learn languages.  She responds and acts accordingly to the following phrases:  No, Good Job, No Touchies, Look, Look at Momma, Where's Evie, etc.
• She's still a momma's girl.  She hasn't "grown out of it" yet.  Speaking from a mother's intuitive place, I don't think she really will.  I'm sure it will ease over time, but she's just not one to get too far from her momma's eyesight or arms.  I'm perfectly okay with this.  That all being said, she has really formed a darling bond with her daddy.  And, she still adores Evie to pieces. 

Adeline is a happy, happy baby.  She loves to smile, she loves to play, she loves social interaction, and is a pure delight to be around.  Needless to say, she's irresistible to squeeze and kiss.  We love, love, LOVE her!!

Adeline at 8 Months

Another month has gone by and our little Sweet Pea keeps growing.  She's starting to show some independence at this young age and is getting braver and braver as she moves around and works on her movability.  She's an absolute joy to watch and have in our presence.

Here's what she's doing now:

• She can now totally sit upright on her own.  She likes to do this if we put toys in front of her.  She does struggle to get out of the seated position once she gets bored of this. 
• She still "army crawls" everywhere.  And, I must say, she is pretty darn fast.  She hasn't figured out how to crawl on her knees.  She'll get up on her knees and rock, but she doesn't do anything past that.  
• I added fruits to her diet this past month and she definitely prefers veggies over the fruits.  She always gives me a sour face when I feed her fruits.  She eventually gets used to the taste, but she won't eat nearly as much of them as she will her veggies.  Sweet potatoes are definitely her favorite.
• She has developed the ability to pick up tiny objects with any part of the thumb and pointer finger.  She has developed extreme accuracy with this.  Her favorite things to grab are cheerios/baby puffs.  She can been them herself with those.
• She has more teeth.  She has one more on the bottom (making that 3 on the bottom) and one the top (one of her eye teeth).
• She still LOVES peekaboo.
• She loves songs with actions. . . "patty-cake" and "itsy bitsy spider" are favorites.
• She loves her dad's hair.  I guess the pokey texture is awesome, because when she touches it she bursts out into giggles.

She is as adorable as they come!  I know; I'm her mom so I'm biased, but I'm guessing you'll totally agree.  :)

Adeline's Baby Blessing

We blessed our sweet Adeline in church today.  It was a special, special occasion.  Beau gave the sweetest, most tender blessing and I'm pretty sure the spirit was felt by everyone.

We were so grateful to share this special day with so many loved ones.  Most of our family members were able to attend.  We also were graced by Adeline's birth mom and some additional members of her birth family.  It was so nice to be with everyone.  Addie is surrounded by so much love and we are SO grateful.

We've certainly enjoyed all of these special occasions this past month to celebrate our sweet Addie.

Adeline at 7 Months

She's done it to me again.  She's another month older!  That little stinker.  Man! Time sure goes by fast.  As you've been able to tell on the blog, our month of July has been chock-full of events.  We've had a lot of fun, been really busy, and that is usually the formula for time going by super fast!

This little Sweet Pea is just that . . . still super sweet.  It is so much fun to watch her grow.  She's really developing into more of a "person" . . . meaning she knows more of what she wants and how to voice it. She keeps growing bigger.  Those growth spurts seem to be very obvious to me when they occur.  She is so darn cute that I can hardly stand it.  I think that it's nearly every night when Beau gets home from work that he says, "She is so adorable."  He says it almost as if he can't believe how cute she is from day-to-day.  She is a pure delight.

Here's what she's doing now.

• She kicks her legs when she is either excited or frustrated.  For example, When she sees me coming, she'll kick her legs in excitement. Another example in the frustrated area is when she's hungry and I'm not making a bottle fast enough, her legs kick hard and fast.  
• She started teething this past month and has two little front teeth poking through on her bottom gums.  She really wasn't a horrible teether either.  She didn't have any crazy symptoms (fever, runny nose, etc.), she just wanted more comfort and needed to be held more.  Naps and night sleeping were a little more interrupted from the pain, but a little consoling helped her tons.
• She now fusses when a toy is taken away.  She knows what she wants and is not a happy camper if something is taken from her before she's ready to give it up.
• She loves her water time.  She enjoys taking baths and she loves to go swimming.
• She is a mover!  She's totally scooting wherever she wants to go now.  It kind of looks like army crawling.  She is constantly scooting to get a toy that's out of reach or to find me in another room. Just today she actually pulled herself up when holding onto something.  It happened when I was taking pictures of her and she held onto the basket and pulled herself right up.  She also started (today) to get on her knees.  You can tell that she knows there's supposed to be a way to crawl, but she can't quite figure that out yet, so she goes back to her tummy and scoots.  It seems like she'll be crawling and walking before we know it.
• After that, it probably goes without saying that she can stand holding on to someone or something.

This is the picture I took today when she pulled herself up.

• She can almost sit without support.  I can sit her up and leave her and she'll stay for a second, but she'll usually plop over. 
•  She started solids this past month. She initially didn't really like anything I fed her.  Come to find out, I started feeding her right when she was teething, so I'm sure the spoon in the mouth didn't feel good plus she mostly just wanted the comfort of a bottle.  Once we got through the teething I tried again and she did better, although she still didn't love anything I fed her.  It seemed as if she was saying, "Come on, Mom.  The bottle is so much easier."  However, after she figured out how to eat, she has done much better.  She doesn't eat a ton at one sitting, but she's eating the food without crying now days.  She is not a fan of rice cereal, although she's tolerating it a little better now (after a full month of breakfasts).  She likes peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  I haven't really given her fruits yet, but will soon.

Looks tasty, doesn't it?

• She still wants to eat every three hours during the day.  I'm sure it's because she really doesn't eat a ton at each feeding.  If given solids at a meal, she'll eat a little of those and then about 3-4 ounces of formula.  If not given solids, she'll drink about 5-6 ounces of formula.
• She's on a pretty regular sleep/nap schedule now days.  She takes a short nap in the morning (usually an hour) and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  She then stays up until bedtime which is usually between 8pm and 9pm.  She'll usually wake up once or twice in the night crying for her binkie, and then she'll wake between 5am and 6:30am to eat.  She then goes back to bed until 8:30ish.     
• She is getting that fine motor skill down to put her own binkie back into her mouth.  This is something I've been hoping for her to do so that she doesn't need me during the night to do it for her.  Unfortunately, she can't always find her binkie in her crib at night, so I still go find it for her, but I'm grateful for those times that she can find it because I can continue to sleep.  :)
• She loves her dad's hats.  If Beau is holding her and wearing a hat, she'll always try to grab it.  Beau always helps to put it on her head.
• She definitely looks for dropped objects.  She'll drop something and look for it.
• She still loves peek-a-boo.
• She can pass an object from one hand to the other.
• She is actually a pretty quiet girl. . . . that is until she wants/needs something.  She is usually pretty chill and doesn't babble much.  She is a quiet observer.  However, when she needs something she is not afraid to voice for it.  She has a loud cry and she'll kind of scream sometimes too.  I really don't need the baby monitor at night because I can clearly hear her when she wakes.  She is a silly little baby.  So, I guess she's quiet and loud . . . depending on the moment.  Lol.
• I've been meaning to put this down for a couple of months, but she does fine in the car now.  She out-grew the crying in her car seat stage.  Thank goodness.  
• She is a true mommy's girl.  This sweet babe will cry for me if I'm not the one holding her.  It's always worse if she can see me and she'll reach for me while fussing.  I gotta admit . . . I love that she loves me so darn much.  It's hard to get anything done effectively with her so attached to me, but this stage doesn't last long and I'm happy to put stuff on the back burner so I can relish the snuggles with this sweet pea.

We're so blessed to have this Addie baby in our family.