My Big Girl!

I took Kate to get her first "real" haircut a couple of weeks ago. I say real because this is her first haircut at a salon. I've cut her hair a handful of times but I have had a hard time getting it cut straight because surprisingly so she won't sit still long enough! Also, cutting curly hair can be tricky when it comes to layers. I have tried but I was ready to step aside and let the professional take over! So I took her to my hair lady, Rosa, who is amazing. She was able to even it up and put in some long layers. I love how it turned out and I love even more how still Kate was the whole time. She was like a statue and looked very sleepy. I kept asking her if she was sleepy and she said seriously, "No."
Every now and then she would look at me and say, "Mommy?"

so sleepy!

Can you see how serious she looks?? This is how she was the whole time!

Family Fun at the Park

After Grant and Kate's last baseball game we went to the park and had a really sweet time with the kids. The weather was overcast and slightly cool which left the park pretty much to ourselves. We didn't have too much going on that day and so we didn't worry about the time and just had some good old fashioned fun! I wish we had more days and times like this. I'm finding that sometimes times like this just need to be planned and that it is ok!

Buddy League!

It's been two weeks since Grant's last baseball game with Buddy League. He only had 3 games because the other 3 were rained out. Kate got to play in the last two because a lot of kids didn't show up. She absolutely loved playing baseball and it was so fun to watch the two of them "playing" baseball! Thank you to our sweet friends and family who came out to watch them with us! It really meant a lot to Joel and I and to Grant and Kate. I can't wait until the Spring when baseball starts back up again. For now, here are some pictures from this season:

Thank you, Aunt Jenni for taking the group shot!

Nana with Grant and Kate, who is apparently enjoying her snack. ;-)

Grant is getting his trophy at the end of the last game.

Uncle Daniel was Grant's buddy.

Aunt Christina was Kate's buddy.

Country Carnival!

On Halloween we went to our church's carnival from 5:30-8:30 and we had so much fun! The weather was perfect and the kids behaved themselves for the most part. We were there almost the whole time, which I did not anticipate the kids to make it that long. This was really the first year that both of them had any interest in playing all of the different games. Grant has always liked the fire truck and bounce houses but everything else he could care less for! So Joel took Grant to the bounce houses and I took Kate around to play games. After each game, she got a piece or two of candy and ate it by the time she got to the next game. It seemed like she always had a piece of candy in her mouth the whole night! Towards the end of the evening, I did tell her that she had had enough and needed to stop eating it. She just kind of looked at me like, "Huh? Why should I stop eating my candy?" But she was being so cute that I didn't mind too much. This night only comes once a year so it's not too bad, right? ;-)

Romo, dog owner, Dalmatian, and a BumbleBee

Nana stopped by on her way home from work to see the kids in their costumes.

trying to play and game while eating candy. 8-)

Kate really liked getting a bumble bee painted on her cheek!

still eating candy!

Grant, so happy in his Dalmatian costume. He loves it so much!

Early in October I talked to Grant and Kate about what they wanted to dress up as and each of them looked through the Party City catalog. Grant didn't take too long until he saw the Dalmatian costume and declared that was what he wanted. Kate took her time and looked intently at each costume. When she saw the bumble bee, she said, "Bubble bee!!!"
So that was that and I they really surprised me because anytime we talked about it from that point on, they not one time changed their minds! Kate's costume was easy: bought it at Party City as a set with all of the pieces. Grant's, on the other hand, wasn't. The Dalmatian costume was too small for him and I couldn't find one that was big enough. So I decided to make his costume. At first I was going to do something simple that involved white shirt and pants and felt circles sewn on, but I could not find white pants anywhere! So I went to Hobby Lobby to buy material to make white pants and low and behold, I found Dalmatian print fabric! So then I decided to make pajama top and bottoms for his costume. This was he could wear them for more than just Saturday night. It was a tad bit stressful making it, as it wasn't until Friday evening that I found the material and decided to make it. And then I didn't get finished until 4pm Saturday, an hour and a half before the carnival started!

The best part of it all was on Saturday morning. During breakfast I showed Grant the Dalmatian print fabric and I said, "Grant, what does this look like?" He looked at it, smiled, and said "Ne ma neigh!" (That is how he says Dalmatian.) Of course, I was so excited and happy that he knew exactly what it was. I showed him his pants that I made the night before and the pieces that I was going to use for his shirt and he payed attention to me. Throughout the morning, he looked at me and said, "Thank you, Mama!" So sweet and definitely made it all worth it!!! He loved wearing it Saturday night and was very proud to tell everyone what he was. He's worn it several times since then and I love seeing him running around it in. Makes my heart smile! :-)

Grandma's Visit

4 Generation picture: My Grandma Bev, my mom, me, and Kate! (and my two sisters, Jen and Christina!)

My Grandma Bev came to visit all the way from Seattle and these are pictures from our lunch at the Chocolate Angel. We had a nice time and it was really great to see my grandma. I haven't seen in her over 5 years and she got to meet Kate for the first time!

Fun at the Farm!

A few weeks ago, Grant had a school field trip to Owen's Farm. I was able to go with him and it was fun hanging out with him and his class. We started with feeding the goats, which Grant thought was pretty cool. Then we went on a hay ride, which Grant really liked. In this picture he was signing and saying "eat!" as we saw the horses eating grass. Then we saw some horses, ate lunch, took pictures in the pumpkin patch and then picked out a pumpkin to take home. All in all it was a great day and it wasn't until the end that Grant was wearing out and getting really whiney. But soon enough he was back on the bus and couldn't be happier. He LOVES riding on the bus and smiled all the way to the farm and back. The last picture says it all by his smile!

Late night phone calls...

Every night Grant goes to bed with his dog, phone, blanket, bear, Woody, Baa, and Flops. The only time he doesn't go to bed with any one of these is when he his behavior has been really bad at school or home. One night when I checked on Grant before going to bed, this is how I found him, except his eyes weren't squinting. I had to turn the light on to get a good picture and the light made him squint his eyes. If you look closely, you'll see his phone in the "talking" position. 8-)