Growing Pains

Grace received a Tooth Fairy pillow for her birthday... which totally freaked me out!  Well, I didn't have much time to get used to the idea of her loosing teeth as she lost her first one yesterday!  It has been loose for a while, and had been bothering her for some time before that.  In all my parenting wisdom, I rushed her to the dentist last month to insure this was normal..... yep - loose tooth.  Sheesh.  In my defense, it was not loose at the time, she has VERY tight teeth, and her dad had a terrible tooth-childhood - whatever.  Fortunately, they only charged us $5.  I also was surprised at how squeamish I was about this new phase.... really didn't like watching her wiggle it, and didn't see the need to keep the creepy little tooth.  It was strange.  Anyway, she pulled it out herself in the morning and the Tooth Fairy came last night and left $1!  Congrats baby girl!

(Always with the chapped lips and orange lips after eating Ravioli.  :)  )

Crafty Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  On Thursday we stayed home and had our own "First Thanksgiving."  We invited Dad over since mom had to work, but thank goodness it was just us!  The sweet potato casserole had large chunks of skin in them (because I don't peel potatoes) and my first attempt at deviled eggs invented the "ugly eggs".  Everything was quite tasty, but I wouldn't not have taken them anywhere public!  Tim and Cooper made the ham and Grace and I made the desserts.... pumpkin pie trifles!  Yummo!  We then spread out the fun over Friday and Saturday with the Pilgrims and Coopers.  We also were very crafty this year.... lots of hand print turkeys, tiny Mayflowers, and our fruit turkey!  Not many pictures as we were busy creating works of art! 

The Girl Can Move!

At the volleyball games last weekend there was music between each game and during time outs.  The kids LOVED it.  I was not quick enough to catch Cooper at his best but here they are working on some brother / sister dance team choreography and Grace doin' her thing!

Let's Make a Weekend of It!

We headed to the University of Indy to watch our setter from last year play in her conference tourney last weekend.  Since we were there, we went ahead and made a day of it on Saturday hitting the museum and seeing some friends.  It was so much fun to watch Meghan (freshman of the year!) play that we headed back on Sunday to watch the final!  They won in FIVE very awesome games!!  What fun it was to watch college volleyball!!!  Congrats Meghan!

The following pictures are:

The new frogs are very cool!

Grace was very cute curling up to read through the new map. :)

Science experiments rule!

Barbie - again!

Doin' volleyball with Dad in the stands this time!

The shoe: LOST on Saturday night when we changed in the van for the ride home. Discovered it lost on Sunday morning when we were looking for it.... FOUND the next day in the parking lot at U of I, right where we left it!!

Fall

Our trees are the last ones to drop leaves in town.  They don't even turn a pretty color - just dried brown and fall. :( The wind storm that blew through was helpful with the first tree, but then the other tree finally started dropping leaves.  So, out went Tim and the kids to "work" on the yard!  :)

School Pictures

I took the kid's pictures last week on picture day.  They get to pick the spot.  I save $30.  :) 

Ooops!

I haven't uploaded pictures in a while because I didn't think I had that many - but I just uploaded 50!  So, some catching up!  1.) Grace getting all dressed up.  2.) Cute treat bags made at preschool for Halloween treats.  3.) Grace's picture of things she is thankful for.  (Love that girl!)  4.) Babysitting swap with cousins.  Good times!  5.) My sleeping "babies".  6.)  Stationery set my good friend Mel found for me in a Japanese "dollar" shop in Abu Dhabi.  I LOVE IT!

113 Moms

Cooper and I attend a Moms group a couple of times a month. I love my time with other moms, and Cooper is getting better at warming up more quickly each time.  We used to be a M.OPS group, but have changed our name to 113 Moms - based on Psalms 113:9... "He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children."  I like it. One of my favorite days is the day we get to paint pottery.  :)  This could be my last year (just depends on if I have li'l Miss Remi while Cooper is at school next year) so I decided to make myself a cute mug to put on my desk someday when I'm back at work.  I love me some stick people!

Li'l Pumpkins

The kids wanted their Jack O Lanterns to be scary this year.  (They are so cute with all the "scary" stuff this year!)  I love the picture of Grace - she's not too impressed with what she found on the inside her pumpkin.  It still makes me smile - when I dreamed of carving pumpkins with my children, I didn't realize how very little there is for them to do!  They picked the designs and scooped out A LITTLE guts, but other than that they run around all excited while we carve!  They had a ball trick or treating with Tim - they were 2 of 8 kids out in town, I think!  :)

We Find Fun!

No matter where we are we find the fun!  We love this play ground (of course the swings!) in between vb games and we take up at least 4 bleachers with our "fun"!  Also, Nick did very well at his second (and third) VB games - the ear muffs helped and he didn't even need them by the end of the day.  The boy does love him some Elmo time - happy to pass along our ginormous Elmo!  :)