Reading and Halloween Party

Here is Sunday at our house. Daniel reads the paper in bed and Ellie reads whatever ads came in the paper that day... lucky for her the Toys R Us Christmas ad came in this past newspaper.
This is where we have been finding the kids a lot these days. They love to go into Ellie's room and read books. Well, Ellie likes to read aloud to Owen and Owen likes to pull the books off the shelf and look through the books. Too cute.
Yesterday was our preschool Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. We played games, knocked down a pumpkin piñata, ate pizza and decorated cupcakes as seen in these pictures.
Elise was pretty proud of her creation. As soon as she was finished she licked all the frosting off the top and said "I'm done".
Ellie showing off her goody bag filled with even more candy (we had a lot of candy with the piñata and all).
Here is Owen getting in on the cupcake action.

He thought he was pretty hot stuff that he got to eat what the other kids were eating.

But, I think he takes the cake when it comes to the messiest cupcake eater.

Mom teaches Ellie and Owen to Dance

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Another Bun in the Oven

We are having another baby!! That's right, we are expecting baby #3! This baby was quite the surprise to us seeing as I was exclusively breastfeeding Owen and was taking birth control. I guess we are living proof that people can get pregnant when they are nursing and can get pregnant while taking birth control. I guess this baby really wanted to come!!!

Well, we figure we are due about the middle of June. Thankfully, I haven't been feeling my normal "pregnant"... no nausea, not too tired. In fact, we probably wouldn't have even known I was pregnant if I hadn't taken a pregnancy test that I take monthly, "just in case" (I am always scared I am going to get pregnant and still be taking the pill).

Elise and Owen are 18 months apart and Owen and #3 will be about the same (so Ellie and #3 will only be 3 years apart). YIKES!!! We are really scared and not sure if it has really registered, but also really excited. We just wish our other two would sleep through the night or at least cut down on the number of times that they wake up each night.

Our first appointment is November 8th so be watching for that blog! Overall, we are really excited for another little cutie to join our family. Daniel and I just keep telling ourselves how young we will be and how much fun we will have when all our children are out of the house since it will likely be sooner than anticipated. I always wanted to have all my kids by 30, but I didn't really intend to have 3 by 25.

Carving Pumpkins

Daniel and Ellie carved pumpkins this morning. I got Daniel an electric carving knife (not on purpose, it was all they had) so he was able to do some fancy carving with that.

Daddy helping Ellie with her pumpkin.
Ellie was in charge of scooping the goo out of her pumpkin.
Owen enjoyed watching, but I could tell he was a little jealous that he wasn't in on the action. Poor kid. Next year.
Daddy carving the big pumpkin.
Ellie scooping out the innards. She doesn't really like having her hands messy so she went straight to the bathroom after this and washed off her hands.

Owen looking very focused on what is going on.

Daniel starting to design and carve out the pumpkins.

The finished product. Apparently we had to do Homestar Runner. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a online cartoon kind of thing that is fairly popular.

Lucky Ellie had to do Homestar Runner, too. She didn't care though as long as the face looked "angry" and this one does I guess. Right now she is learning different facial expressions so when we asked her which she wanted on her pumpkin, she said "angry".

Picking Out Our Pumpkin

Last night we went to the "pumpkin patch" (I use the term loosely because it is just a church that has a bunch of pumpkins lined up outside) to pick out our family pumpkin. Elise was super excited and Owen loved running around outside for a bit. Ellie and Owen scoping out the pumpkins
Ellie leading the way, showing dad which one she wants to take home
Owen wandering off...he is a wanderer and loves to explore Ellie finds one just her size
SUCCESS!! We found the one! Here are Ellie and Dad paying for our pumpkin.

Trying to get a picture of the kids... Owen kept getting off or falling off and Ellie kept giving us a panty shot.

Here's Ellie. She didn't much care for that hay she had to sit on.

Mom, Ellie and Owen... of course we can't all have our eyes open, that would be too perfect. Carving pictures will be forthcoming!

Little Bo Peep and her Sheep

On Saturday we had the kids pictures done professionally (JCPenney---as professional as we were willing to go). We were very surprised that they were both smiling and that really got me excited for our upcoming Christmas pictures. Anyway, the camera broke after these five pictures so we weren't able to get ones of them individually but we were pretty happy to just have a selection of them together and both smiling! Anyways, here they are-- I imagine I only have a couple years left to put them in cute coordinating costumes. (sigh).

Bundled Up!

The kids and I have really been enjoying our morning walks/jogs. Ellie is especially eager to go each morning. The past few mornings have been really cold, so we have had to bundle up the children so they wouldn't freeze. I also put a big blanket over their legs. They seem fine so far. Probably when the weather gets too frigid, we will have to go out in the afternoons, but for now we are surviving.

Here are Elise and Owen warm and ready to go. I am actually going to go to Walmart today and buy them each a pair of sweats so I can just throw those on them every morning and don't have to wash a separate warm outfit for every day.
Owen doesn't really like having his hat on too much, but once we get outside, he appreciates his ears being covered. Afterall, those things can really catch a lot of the breeze! :)

Playing in the Backyard

Elise continues to enjoy preschool. She seems to be really thriving and learning a lot. Just now she is starting to actually tell me what she does at preschool which has been nice.

Here is a picture taken at preschool last week.

Yesterday the kids and I had a great day. This is rare for a Monday since we have nothing going on except cleaning on Mondays. It was really cold so we went to the store and bought winter hats for the kids, did a little grocery shopping for dinner and ate lunch together. It was nothing real special, but it really was a great day. This is in extreme contrast to this morning. Ellie sprayed Shout on Owen's face, spilled red juice on the carpet, colored pen all over her and her brother, got into my makeup and got it all over her and the bathroom, peed her pants five times and all of this before 9:30 this morning. It was quite a "2" morning for us.

Luckily, this afternoon (after naps), we've had a nice afternoon together. The weather is absolutely gorgeous so we opened up all the windows to let in some fresh air and the kids played out in the yard.

Ellie blowing bubbles... she loves bubbles.

Sweet girl.

Helping brother get the ball.

Owen enjoying the sun and fresh air.

Surprisingly, Owen doesn't really care to eat the grass or dirt, he just likes to feel it and walk in it.

Here's my big boy showing off his walking skills.

This is kind of a rare moment where Owen is crawling. I think he was annoyed because the yard has a slight slope to it and he kept falling.

In other news, we have been weaning Owen. It is hard but has also been going well. I started off just not giving him anything until he really wanted it. Then, I started taking away "snack time" feedings and then I have been eliminating feedings from there. We are down to two feedings, both at night. We will see how those go. I think he might be hanging onto those two for a little while longer. Night time is hard.

Evening at the Park

Since the weather has been so beautiful ( I love this time of year), we headed down to the park last night. The kids had a blast!

When we got there, the baby swings were pulled up really high, like 3 feet off the ground, so Daniel had to climb up and fix them.

Owen sure was happy that Dad was around to fix the swings.
Ellie spent quite a bit of time on this pirate ship. She liked to walk up and down the plank and peer over the edge at dad a lot.Owen and I.
This time around, Ellie was not as interested in sliding down the slides as she was climbing up and down the stairs and ladders. Father and son.
Throwing rocks down the slide.
Looking down for dad.
Ellie has never liked the swings...still doesn't... so it is refreshing to have a child that really likes them. Owen does get fussy when he isn't going high or fast enough. He is such a boy.
Playing in the rocks. I was surprised that he didn't try to put any in his mouth.
Owen walking around the park. As of last night at the park, Owen can now get up to the standing position from anywhere! He is a full blown, has all the tricks, awesome walker!
Cute bum.
On the way home, Ellie was making this funny noise with her lips and Owen was just busting a gut, he thought it was so funny. Both he and Ellie have funny, unique and cute laughs that make you laugh along with them.