Trick or Treat!

Tonight we Trick or Treated with our friends, the Powells & the Phelpses.  The weather was cold and as the buckets got heavier the kids slowed down a bit but they were SO excited.  When we got in the car to go home Charlotte said, "I had so much fun to go trick or treating, Mom".  Nona gave the girls glow stick wands and they were a big hit.     

 Charlotte let Hadley borrow her wand.  She just laid in the stroller, holding the wand, wide-eyed during the entire hour walk.  

 Sweet little happy girl

3 Months old!

On November 1st Hadley will be 3 months old.  I'm so in love with this kiddo!

Bonding

I spied this sweet moment while I was off doing laundry.  Lily Kate is reading Hadley the book she made at preschool.

Look at those little faces staring up at the pages.  Precious.  

CCC Fall Festival

 My cowgirl & my Indian princess.  Mom, the red boots you got Kate inspired the outfit!

 And my little cow.  

 June & Caroline, the cutest little ducks

 Sam, a sweet little horse.  

 Samuel, the little pirate. He had a blast, by the way.  I appreciated his enthusiasm all evening!

 I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the Laniers.  Oliver was a Monkey and they were the Zookeepers, it was great!  Here is Shaunna, the pumpkin (due in early Dec) and Cassidy.  Our church has a trunk or treat in the parking lot at the end of the festival every year where the kids stock up on candy (that Parks and I end up eating most of!)

 Not sure what was going on with the lighting here, but it was worth posting.  Here is Lily Kate with two of her favorite girls, Maddie, the ballerina, and Maggie, the mermaid.  So much fun!

Ode to Pinterest

Are you on Pinterest.com?  It is my new favorite thing!  The concept is basically virtual pin boards where you can pin all of your ideas (recipes, sewing ideas, decorating inspiration, etc) on different boards.  It is genius.  I and so many of my friends have done this for years, tearing pages out of magazines and tucking them in folders.  Now it's all at my finger tips.  Playing on Pinterest has inspired a new craftiness in me.  I saw some of these hair flowers on there and started making them...  

 ....which led me to search for a way to store all my flowers and bows where I can see them all.  Which led me to make this easy guy.  Bought a super inexpensive framed piece of art ($6) and wrapped fabric and ribbons around the picture.  

 Also stumbled upon these gold pumpkins and had to make them.  Spray paint and tape - super easy.  

I haven't become more creative.  Now I just have access to everyone else's good ideas!

Another Room Redo

This one is not as much of a "redo"as it is a "facelift".  Same face, just perked up a little :)  I have to preface this by saying that I'm not sure there is anyone out there interested in this but me.  I love me some decorating and rearranging.  I outfit almost all of my rooms in phases as I learn what I love and as I make "finds" here and there.  So, here is my "computer room/ second living space" before.  Desk on the left, sitting space on the right (and, not pictured, but usually kids art supplies all over the floor)

 Here is the subtle After.  I am learning that I love kelly green.  The skinny dresser in the back right was moved to the left of the desk and painted.  New desk chair and more green.  

 The chairs were repositioned to create more of a cozy spot.  Dad brought me these paintings that flank the window when he came this summer.  And Parks (my hero!) built the kiddos an art table.  No kids chairs yet but he has a lot on his to do list, so maybe in November.  

*Melissa, do you recognize your old breakfast table?  We used it as our breakfast table, then repurposed for the porch, now painted and cut down for the art table.  The thing has 9 lives!

 The curtains wouldn't photograph well with the sun coming through.  I have been wanting to add some gray to the room.  

 Here's Parks' hard work.  He cut the legs shorter, took the apron off, cut down the top and put the apron back on.  Good as new.  Now I want to find a fun way to display the kids' art.  

YaYa

My friend, Stephanie, is the girls' YaYa. When Kate was little we feared that Stephanie was too tricky for her to learn to say so we subbed it out for YaYa.  Wouldn't you agree it has a catchy ring to it?  The girls love their YaYa, they play Barbies and dress up with her and she often has fun treats for them.  Hadley has recently discovered YaYa and she is enamored.  She locks eyes and smiles and coos whenever Steph holds her.  Precious!

What we've been up to...

Friday Lily Kate's class had their first field trip.  They went to Old McFaye's farm.  I went on the trip with them with Hadley in tow.  I was equipped with my camera that informed me that the battery was out and the power was shutting down after 2 pictures.  I kept trying the last ditch effort of holding the camera up with the power off, waiting for a good shot, & quickly turning it on hoping for enough juice to catch another photo.  But, with Hadley on one hip and 4 yr olds running around chasing chickens I have to say these were the only two I got.  We had a blast.  I LOVE Kate's teachers, they are fantastic.  

 And here is one of Hadley these days.  Usually smiling and often trying to suck on her entire fist.  We keep trying to pry open her tiny hand and show her her thumb, but so far she prefers the whole fist. 

11 weeks

I have been wanting to do a comparison post and I'll try to do them periodically because I'm interested in whether or not our girls look as much alike as people say they do.  Here they all are at 11 weeks.

Lily Kate had the most and the darkest hair and, obviously, the biggest blue eyes.  Man, she was a cutie.  She was very social, very early and loved to smile and coo at strangers and anyone whose eye she could catch.  She has never been a cuddler, more of a mover.  

 Here is Charlotte.  I think that they look pretty similar.  Their noses are different.  Poor Charlotte's hair took forever to fill in on top.  We always said that Lily Kate had a toupee and Charlotte had a mullet.  Her eyes are pretty huge though and were still blue at this point (they are green now).  The big ole cheeks and tiny chin seem to be consistent :)  Charlotte liked to cuddle and suck her thumb.  She was more sensitive.  She didn't give her smiles away to everyone, but she was very loyal to her favorites.  (Emily & Brittany!)

 And here's Hadley!  She is the biggest of the three at this age.  Check out that belly.  I really don't think she looks "just" like them.  I think she looks more like Parks, especially in that lower picture.  The shape of her face is more like Kate's.  So far, she is the most content baby that we've had.  Smiles easily, cries very little.  She likes to watch the movement around the house.  I am predicting a less opinionated child.  Hopefully I won't be eating my words.  So, what do y'all think?

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Church

Every year we go over the "pumpkin church", snap a few hundred pictures, and buy a few pumpkins.  I think this just may be our first family-of-five picture.  

Look at all these teeny pumpkins!

aww, and look at this teeny pumpkin

Lily Kate and our long-time friend, Ella Barclay.  

Precious Caroline, somehow I didn't get one shot of her sister, June, that wasn't blurry.  A girl on the go!

Lily Kate and her sweet Hadley.  Truly a wonderful big sister!

Charlotte, Lily Kate, and Samuel laying in the sun

Samuel and Charlotte were hilarious.  He would run and pounce on her back and she would just giggle. He would roll in the hay and laugh like a true boy.  They had a blast. 

We always try to get a picture of all the kids.  We take around 20 and then I weed through them, hunting for the "best".  This time I just looked for the worst.  This is only 4 out of the 8 kids because they kept running away/ falling over.  I think Lily Kate and Ella look bored out of their minds, Samuel looks goofy, and, Charlotte looks plain crazy!  Perfect!

And I thought this was only fitting for the end of my super long post.  We all sort of felt this way when we left.  Happy fall :)

Serene

Hanging out at home

Charlotte isn't alone with Hadley very much but they are starting to bond more and Charlotte is embracing her big sissy role. Yesterday she asked if she could read Hadley the Little Mermaid. Dressing alike never gets old around here.
Look at this sweet little face and this big chunky belly. I can't get enough. Hadley is so sweet. I know we say it all the time, but she is really calm and happy most of the time. Lily Kate has perfected the art of "giving Hadley some space" and now that she isn't 2 inches from her face Kate can make her smile and coo by talking to her. It is precious. Charlotte hasn't perfected the art just yet :)