Bubbles and Puppies

We played outside for awhile Sunday evening and I actually had my camera outside to take some "real" non-iphone photos.  Katie Wynn had her Minnie Mouse bubbles out and was determined to use up the whole bottle in one evening.  You would think she would want to run after the bubbles and pop them but no, she would much rather be the one blowing them.  "I do it," she tells me every single time.

There is really no point to these pictures except that I thought she looked so cute with those puffed out cheeks and pursed lips.  

Thomas enjoyed getting to watch the bubbles and help Daddy pop them.  (P.S.  Look at that peach fuzz hair that's starting to come in!  Blonde?)

My sweet girl...

We were having fun with the bubbles when all of a sudden she threw them down and started running for the back door.  I had no idea what had happened until I turned and saw two of our neighbors, Sunshine and Charlie Brown, making their way down the street.  Sunshine and Charlie Brown are two dogs that get walked past our house almost every evening and since their owner, Mrs. Linda, is always so kind to stop and let us pet them, we bought them a box of treats.  Now, anytime we're outside (or at the dinner table and see them through the window...) and see them coming, Katie Wynn runs inside to get two dog bones for them.  

Katie Wynn loves the idea of giving the dogs treats, but always ends up getting scared as they get close and throws them down on the ground.  I don't blame her, Charlie Brown is pretty aggressive when it comes to getting those treats!

Truth be told, Charlie Brown always ends up eating both treats.  Sunshine is more interested in getting to say hi to Lolli.  It is always crazy and chaotic when they stop and Mrs. Linda always ends up wrapped up in leashes, but we love it when we get to see them!

And then, every single time as the puppies continue on with their walk, Katie Wynn asks, "Puppies go nigh-night?"

I want to be sure to remember these nights of getting to feed treats to our neighbor puppy dogs.  So much joy for this little girl!

Four Months Photos

I think I mentioned in the post about Thomas's newborn photos that we purchased a First Year Package from our photographer, Lisa Mac.  The First Year Package includes 4 sessions worth of photos to see how he grows over the year.  Lisa takes pictures during the first two weeks, at 4 months, 8 months, and at one year.  Since Thomas is 5 months now, we've already been to see her for our second photo shoot.  I've just gotten the edited photos back and once again, I love them all!

Thomas was a complete ham for pictures!  It's like he knew exactly what he was doing - he smiled and grinned and cooed for Lisa right on cue.  I think she had a full roll of perfect pictures of him within the first 15 minutes!

She had some great pictures of him grinning on this blue blanket, but we chose this closeup below instead.  His hands in his mouth is just so representative of how he is right now.  We have to fight him to get him to put his hands down!

But that doesn't mean we didn't choose any with big grins...how sweet is this one of him on the green blanket?!  I love that it shows off his gummy smile and his bright blue eyes.

As great as Thomas was for the camera, his big sister was the exact opposite.  She was running around and laughing when we first arrived, but as soon as it was her time to be in front of the camera, it was meltdown city!  She wouldn't stay in front of the backdrops and cried and cried.  I took her new yellow rainboots, rain coat, and umbrella because I thought they would make a cute picture, but she wasn't very cooperative with keeping her boots on.  She also wouldn't touch her umbrella, so this was about the best Lisa was able to get.

Finally got the boots on, but definitely not smiling!

The only picture that I knew for sure that I wanted going into the shoot was one of Thomas in the baptismal gown that my mom made for him.  I plan to have his gown framed like I did Katie Wynn's, and I wanted to have some pictures of him wearing it to hang with it.  Since he was so sick when he got baptized, I didn't even bother trying to get good pictures of him in it.  Plus, I knew Lisa would do much better.  Look at this happy face she got!

I chose the one below to have a full shot of the gown, even though you can't really see the details.  Like always, my mom outdid herself with all her detailed handwork.  

Lisa had to work her editing magic for the picture below.  I really, really wanted one of Katie Wynn wearing this heirloom dress with Thomas in his gown.  Lisa took Thomas's face from one photo and hers from another and put them together.  She also removed the bright red sucker that Katie Wynn was holding in her hair.  I hate that her hair is a mess and her bow got cut off, but if you knew how horrible she was being, you'd know how lucky we are just to have this!

We are supposed to get 10 finalized pictures from each of the four photoshoots, but I only chose 8 from this round.  I'm hoping Katie Wynn will behave better at the 8-month or 1-year sessions and we'll have more options to choose from.  Here's hoping anyway!

Halloween Overload

Do you like Halloween?  I think I like it in theory.  I always get excited about it when it's still a month away - when people start pinning cute recipes and costumes on Pinterest and I always get the itch to throw a costume party so I can serve all the yummy (and spooky) dishes.  But usually, by the time the actual day gets here, I'm way over it.  This year was no exception.

Our Halloween festivities started a week early with our neighborhood Halloween parade.  I worked all night on Katie Wynn's homemade costume...a hot air balloon!  Remember those gigantic balloons I used for her 2nd birthday party?  Well she loved playing with them and that's really how the idea of her costume popped in my head.  When I ordered them on Amazon, one of the suggested items they had to go with them was a net that would hold it to a flower arrangement.  Or, in our case, a basket for a hot air balloon.  :)

The basket itself has a hole cut out of the middle for her body to go through, and it has strings attached that act as shoulder straps so she can easily wear it.  I cut all of those tiny letters out of felt to make her sign, and then just attached the giant balloon in its net.  I was so pleased with how it turned out.  So stinking cute, right?

Guess who disagreed and had a cow when it was time to put it on for the parade?

Our ride for the parade was waiting on us so we didn't have time for a meltdown.  Luckily, I knew there was a cheerleading outfit in her closet that she got last year for her birthday, so I ran and grabbed it and changed her on the golf cart.  What cheerleader doesn't have a bow and pom poms?  Mine, apparently.  Oops.  We got to ride on the back of the cart with Queen Elsa of Arendelle!

Did I mention that it was blazing hot?  That's why Thomas wasn't in his costume.  We were all sweating by the time the parade was over.  It ended at the lake in our neighborhood where they had games set up for the kids and lots of food and candy.  Katie Wynn found a balloon on the ground and snatched it right up!

Please check out the little girl behind Katie Wynn dressed as Richard Simmons.  That's her real hair.  Is that not awesome!?

Hey there, cleavage.  Why would a size 2T outfit be so low cut??

We didn't stay long at the neighborhood party because we had another Halloween event to get to.  This one was with all of my bunco friends and their families.  Last year we did Zoo Boo but this year we decided meeting at someone's house would be much better for our little ones.  The Earls hosted us for "Costumes and Cameras" and we munched on hot dogs and chili and other goodies.  

The first order of business once everyone had arrived was getting a group picture of all the kids in their costumes.  Katie Wynn had another cow when Matt tried to put her in the hot air balloon.

My kids totally rocked it out for the group pictures.  I mean, they're like mini professional models.  #sarcasm

So what if he was falling over?  Couldn't he have still smiled at the camera?  #kidding

Thomas was dressed as a pilot to go with Katie Wynn's hot air balloon.  It was a last minute purchase but ended up being great because it was just like a pair of pajamas.  He wore it with no problems and didn't get way too hot in it.  Since K-dub wouldn't wear her costume, we put Thomas in it (away from the crowd) for pictures in it.

Of course, Katie Wynn had to make sure he knew that it was hers.

Here are some of our friends from the party.

Caroline the lady bug with Henry the teddy bear

Olivia the bumble bee with her mama, Meghan

Cliff and Stephanie with Liam the dragon

Teddy Bear Henry with his parents, Jenny and Darrin

Me and Jenny with our boys

Liam the dragon

Snow White Wesley

Sock Monkey Everett

Olivia the lady bug likes the hot air balloon!

Actually touching her costume!

Grant protested against his costume too.

Sock Monkey Everett with his parents, Chris and Allison

Olivia likes to swing as much as KW does!

While making the sign for Katie Wynn's costume, I also made a Pin-the-nose-on-the-Jack-O-Lantern game.  Basically just a big orange pumpkin with lots of black triangle noses.  I thought it might be a good idea to have an activity for the toddlers.  They were really into it for about five minutes, which is longer than I thought they'd be!

The week leading up to Halloween was one of those crazy dress up weeks at daycare.  I have mixed feelings about this week.  I like that they're doing something fun and different for the kids, but at the same time, it was really hard for me to put KW in pajamas in school when I spend so many mornings telling her she can't wear pjs to school so that she'll get dressed.  Tricky.  Thankfully, she has not asked to wear pajamas to school again so maybe she won't remember.

Monday = Hat Day.  She wouldn't wear hers but still won an award for cutest hat??

Tuesday = Mix Match Day.  So very hard for this matching mama to do!

Wednesday = Pajama Day.  Skeleton pj's with candy corn in the belly were perfect!

Thursday = Pink Day for Breast Cancer Awareness.  Also known as just another day for Katie Wynn.

Friday = Costume Day.  Thankfully we had overalls in her closet for a makeshift farmer/cowgirl costume.

Guess who had skeleton + candy corn pj's to match her on Wednesday?  Nope, not Thomas...it was Charlie!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, by the time it we needed to get ready for Trunk or Treat, I was so over it.  I didn't even try to get her to wear the hot air balloon since I knew that would just be another meltdown.  I did talk her into wearing her bandana around her neck to be a little bit more convincing as a cowgirl.  I don't think many cowgirls wear white keds...

The temps dropped fairly low so our church moved Trunk or Treat into the gym and rented a big bouncy house for the kids.  There were tables set up for them to trick or treat at.  The event was open to the public and it was kind of a big, chaotic, sugar fest mess.  Katie Wynn was, like always, too shy to do anything other than cling to us, so we only stayed long enough to hand out our candy.  While she would not actually trick or treat, she had no problem filling her bucket up with candy from the basket I was trying to empty.

Thomas was happy-go-lucky when we arrived but all the chaos proved to be too much for him.  Poor little guy feel asleep sitting up in his Poppy's lap!

By 6:15, we were in the car and calling it quits on Halloween.  And I was A-ok with that.  Maybe next year we'll actually try to go door to door for candy!

Blinded by the Light

Warning: this home improvement update is not very exciting.  But it's worth mentioning thanks to the money we just shelled out for it.  It's kinda like a new roof - way more money than you want to spend but you know it's necessary even though no one other than the homeowners will really notice or appreciate it.  

So here 'tis: we got custom blinds.

WHOA!! I CAN'T HANDLE THAT MUCH EXCITEMENT!!

I know. Crazytown.

---

Our living room is a two-story room that has four windows up high on one wall.  I would show you a picture of them sans new blinds but I seem to have deleted those.  Oops.  The windows bring a lot of natural light into the room, which I absolutely love, but there are times during the day when it's just a little bit too much sunshine.

Take sitting on the couch for example.  Let's say you're on maternity leave and you've been snuggling up with your cutie pie baby for oh, 4-ish hours watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit reruns when, like clockwork, ten minutes into the 3pm episode the sun beams are so strong you can feel your sweet pea starting to fry like bacon.  Do you know how annoying it is to have to uproot the little nest of necessities you've built around yourself so you can relocate to a chair in the shade?  Seriously, the sun rays are so intense it's amazing our couch hasn't caught on fire yet.

And then, after you've survived the hell that is the couch in the mid afternoon, you move onto the kitchen for a nice dinner at the table with your family.  But then, boom!  The 6:15 sun beams dart through the living room and straight into the kitchen to blind anyone trying to enjoy their chicken enchiladas.  No chair is safe as the sun moves around the table within the hour.

After a full summer of being blinded by the light in multiple rooms, we decided to do something about this little first world problem of ours.  We called in some professionals to see what they could do.

What they couldn't do - at least not on the first visit - was bring the right sized ladder.  Whomp, whomp.  I even sent pictures so they could see the window we needed help with and they still came up short.  (Ha! Punny.)

On their second time out, they had an extension ladder and the rep was able to climb up to do some measuring.  I think he measured for longer than the install took.

And he had quite an audience while he was up on that ladder.  Thomas couldn't keep his eyes off him!  And Lolli...well, she had to keep her eye on the stranger in the house.

Six weeks later, after maternity leave and SVU marathon days had ended, our custom plantation shutters finally came in.  Rep #2 came to install them only to find out that they'd forgotten the hanging strips for one of the four windows.  Whomp, whomp again.

A week later he was back with the missing piece - and a buddy to hold his ladder for him.  I probably should've offered to do that the first time.  Maybe that's why he was sweating bullets.  Oops.

Now we are no longer getting sunburns in our living room!  Of course, the seasons have also changed so the sun shines in in a different place now, so the true test will be next summer.  Maybe I'll have to take 14 weeks off again to make sure they're doing their job.

I took these two pictures below at night so you can see how the actual shutters look when the sun's not blaring behind them.  Right now they are pointed up so we still get natural light bouncing around those upper walls, just no more laser beams frying us to pieces.  I may have to test them out pointed down a little because I do kinda miss getting to see the sky.

So that's our most recent home improvement project for ya.  Not super exciting, but something that will hopefully add value to our home, or at least drastically reduce the amount of SPF we have to apply before hanging out in the living room. 

The end.

Rotten Pumpkins

Have any of you ever tried to get a good picture of a 2 year old and a 4 month old together?  It's hard.  Like, insanely hard.  In fact, it might not even be possible.  

Let me take you through one of our recent photoshoots.  These pictures were taken on a Saturday afternoon after they'd both woken from naps, a time when they're generally in a good mood but still sitting semi-still as they really wake up.  I asked Katie Wynn if she wanted to have her picture made with Thomas in their matching shirts and she excitedly said "Uh huh!!" and climbed up in the chair.

I sat him in the chair too and we were ready to start.

But obviously the blanket and paci needed to go.  When I took those away from her, her body stopped working.  She could no longer sit up on her own.  

So I sweet-talked her and promised her a treat and wrestled her back into an upright position, but by then Thomas was mad.

She stole her treat - a blueberry muffin - off the side table and consoled Thomas as if she hadn't just had a meltdown herself.  

I'm not exactly sure what happened next but I think she jumped down and ran off and Thomas fell over, because when the pictures start again they've switched spots.

I tell her to sit up so I can see both of their shirts.  She gives me this.

Followed by this.

And then she jumps down and runs off again.  I give up and take pictures of Thomas who is much happier without his crazy sister around.

He doesn't even mind sitting up if he doesn't have to worry about her jumping over on him.

Sister returns and wants back in the game.  

"Oh, you want to lay down?  Yes, that's a good idea!  Let's lay down! Isn't this fun!  Wait, where'd you find that paci?"

I take the paci away again because we haven't met our quota of meltdowns yet.

Dangling the paci overhead like bait for a smile doesn't seem to be working.

Yes!  Now all the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch are crying!

I give up.  Where are the plugs?  Everyone gets a paci.

The blanket returns and we're back at where we started.

My precious little rotten pumpkins win again.