Emma 'n' New Kitty

... We are N*O*T planning on this kitty hanging around here forever. But I do feel I'm doing my duty to keep him indoors at least past tonight. I should have more faith in people - but there are crazies out there, and this black cat is with us for now! ;) He and Emma have been having fun playing... I missed the picture of Emma putting hiim in the bathtub and pretending to give him a bath. He just sat there the whole time until she was done, she even dried him off with a towel. Crazy new kitty! Here's some pictures :) Kids are dressed up today - I'll post pictures later!

More things Jake loves...

His Excer-Saucer!!! Since I am busily getting ready for my first craft show of the season this coming weekend, I turned to the saucer for some free hands - it worked beautifully! Jake loves it! About this time you may be asking yourself, "is there anything Jake doesn't like??" and the answer is yes. It's not having his bottle on time. That's about it. So here are some pictures of him playing in his saucer. Also just in case you think I'm forgetting all about Emma - I have some cute pictures of her playing with 'new kitty' to post. But for now I must go and get ready for my {NEW} evening JOB! The local scrapbook store! Yippeeeee!

Hungry Jake!

On friday's 4 month check up we got the O.K. to give Jake some solid food - so I started him out Sabbath morning with some cereal, and he {LOVED IT}. Later in the day I mixed it with some PeArS and he ate the whole bowl! (a small one of course) So our handsome boy loves the 'real' food and this mommy is loving that he is full for a bit longer! Wanted to share some of the c*u*t*e pictures!!!

Just a little pick-me-up

I don't think it's possible to have a bad day with this little guy around... Just in case your day needs a smile - I think it's safe to say you can find it here.... ENJOY this handsome little chunk of sugar :) (go clear down to the bottom of the page and pause the music that is playing, then come back up and click the play symbol twice - to my fam that wouldn't have known how to do that, your welcome!)

Lost in the corn maze

Emma is excited to get to the corn maze adventure that awaits!

It was cold and windy and that didn't seem to stop us from being adventurous. We packed up the kids and the various ways to carry them and headed to the Pumpkin Patch once again, only this time straight to the Corn Maze where we met up with our friends Jon, Christy and their sweet little guy, Ethan. I boldly took the lead (only because nobody else was...) and lead us straight into a small part of the maze that was self contained - with no way to enter the larger part of the maze. Yeah me! *s*i*g*h*

Out we came, laughing a little but annoyed... pulled out our maps (yes, they gave us maps!) and we entered a different way. With the boys leading, Christy and I lingered behind chatting while toting our heavy little boys! All in all - good times were had. It's always fun to get out and do something with friends. By this time next year the boys may have a little more fun playing together

At the {HARVEST PARTY} Emma and I had a little fun while Aaron gave Jake a bottle...

(from left to right)
Kylie the pepper, Friend Eggplant :) and Emma the Tomatoe

These two pictures are from the church Harvest Party two weekends ago... I know... I {KNOW} I'm just now catching up. It was a lot of fun and we ran into so many friends! Haystacks for dinner, with smores and carmel apples (YuM), face painting, huge blow up slide, lots of games, race cars {kinda}, face painting, pumpkin painting. SO fun!

And here is FaRmEr JAKE

I love this picture, it shows off those chubby cheeks just perfectly! And amazingly enough - I think this is the OnLy photo I took of Jake all night! I can hear the gasping... stop it! Emma and I spent a fun few minutes taking our own photo shoot. Slideshow of that to come...

Anyway, all in all I thought the Harvest Party was a success. I don't know who planned it - but they did a marvelous job. I even bought a case of vegi burger for a fabulously unheard of sale price. Mmmmmm shamburgers!

Two Black Cats

For those of you that don't know... we have one already. But today I thought I was hallucinating. I tossed a pillow at our cat, Puck (it's not mean if you know his personality) and he ran down the hall, I glanced over at the car seat to notice Puck was now under the ottoman sleeping. hmmm. How did that happen? Puck then rounds the corner with his tail puffed up and back arched. I'm seeing {DoUbLe}. There are now TWO black cats in my house. Hmm. How did this happen? Best I can figure is that I left with the kids this morning to run an errand and the cat must have come in the garage, then when I got home, into the house. BUT I didn't see either of those happen, and I tend to pay close attention when I'm coming in and going out of the house. And what are the chances that a cat identical to ours comes in??? Odd... and if you think it's odd reading it, just imagine being in my shoes - I REALLY thought I might be losing it!!! I'm not wanting to just throw a pure black cat back outside right before Halloween... any suggestions? Anyone want a {SuPeR} cute black cat? I want to keep him, but pretty sure the hubby wont go for that one. We now (at least temporarily) have two black cats.

OH! PS.... I know I promised pictures, I'll add some later today.

But this excitement has thrown off my afternoon.

Can't Believe It!!!

Tomorrow will mark one week that I have not entered anything in my blog. That is NOT because this blog is already being forgotten about... It is because I have two little sickies I have been tending to and it has meant a couple of back to back all nighters! hurray! So... watch for stuff today and tomorrow. I do have lots to catch up on. Last weekend was FULL of {FuN} events that I need to write about and post pictures from. So stay tuned, check back in around noon today (or a wee bit after) and definitely check in tomorrow! See ya then...

Bowling...

I haven't been bowling in years.... YEARS {like at least 8}. I had forgotten how fun and goofy it can be. Today it all came tumbling back! Aaron's office had a company party today - we all met at the bowling alley and ended up at an Italian restaurant. SO SO SO much FuN! And now for my gripe... I left my camera sitting on the kitchen counter, packaged up ready to go, but it sat there all afternoon and into this evening... lonely and left behind. I NEVER leave without my camera. Usually it lives in Jake's diaper bag, how it made it out of the car and to the counter I don't know. I just know that Emma went bowling for the first time and I missed so many fabulous Kodak moments. But I will forever treasure the look of excitement when her first ball went down and knocked over a pin "MOMMY MOMMY!!! LOOK LOOK! It all fell down! Woooooowwww!" and the twinkle in her eyes. Wish you guys could have seen it, wish I had my camera. But it was such a fun family thing and shared with so many fun friends from Aaron's office, I wanted to share it with you! I bowled a 58. Oh yea, I'm that bad! Aaron bowled a 100+ and Emma managed a 41! I think I should just let Emma do it for me next time.

Happy Weekend to everyone!!! Hope yours is a little less rainy and a little warmer than mine will be, but I will be enjoying candles and blankets and my snugly little family.

Happy Birthday Misty!!!

Just wanted to send a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my fab cousin Misty Noel!!!

Random Insights...

So here I sit, thinking.. "I should add something to my blog today, but what?" and I decide I will tell you something random about myself. (whoever 'you' are!)

I {LOVE} cold cereal. And I mean {LOVE IT}. Sometimes it's my lunch, or my dinner, or a snack... I like oatmeal and bran flakes, I like Corn Pops and Lucky Charms, I LOVE Captain Crunch but LOVE Kashi just as much. And it can be 2% or 1% or even Costco Soy milk... it doesn't matter as long as cereal is in the bowl.

Why did I tell you this? I dont' know, but I currently don't have any new pictures to share with you, so thought a tidbit about myself might work.

Happy Tuesday!

Picking Pumpkins

This has to be one of my FAVORITE fall activities, and it just gets better each year we go! Yesterday we headed to the {PuMpKin PaTcH} to pick our own pumpkins, run through the hay maze, color pumpkin pictures and of course - take lots of pictures!!! It made it ten times as fun that my dear friend Angela met up with us, and brought her beautiful new baby!!! {THANKS Ang!} Here are some of my favorite pictures...

Pumpkin Patch

Double Dunkin'!

We {love}, LoVe, L*O*V*E BATH TIME in this house! Well, I have been using Jake's little tub on the bathroom counter/sink and bathing him while Emma was in the tub. Until recently this hasn't been a problem... BUT as you can tell, Jake is getting these adorable rolls that are causing him to tip the tub a bit :) SO! This smart mommy came up with a plan. I filled up Em's bath first, bubbles and all - then Jake's bathtub, and it crams (and I do mean 'cram') between the edge of the tub on either side {PERFECTLY}

So I have solved my own problem, the kids still get their bath at the same time, no bathtub tipping for Jacob, and Emma loves playing under the new 'tunnel' that it creates! Cheers to happy, clean kids!

Lovin' Family Time

*Sweet* {CoUsInS}

emma, jake, kylie

I love being able to stay home with my kids ~ and an added bonus is getting to spend more time with my niece, Kylie! With the girls being so close in age, they seem to act more like sisters than cousins.

Kylie ~ we love you and all the time we get to spend with you!!!

Sticker Time

I was sending off a quick email with Jake in the bouncer beside me, and Emma playing at her 'tea party table'. Soon I hear giggles below from Jake and even more giggles from Emma... I glanced over to see Jake being decorated with Dora stickers! (THANKS Aunt Connie for the gigantic sticker book... I don't think we will ever run out!) Anyway. It was adorable, and since it's so easy to share these cute little every day things with this blog, that's exactly what I did! Have a GREAT day! And even though you don't have stickers on you (or maybe you do...) don't forget your smiles and giggles!!!

The end result of Jake's outfit :-)

Elephants and Clowns - Oh My!

Just clownin' around!We went to the Circus this weekend! What a blast!!! Worth every penny! Nick, Andrea, Kylie, Mom and us... Emma was in awe the entire time. She has recently had this fear of clowns, so I was nervous taking her... but we saw a clown that *kind of* looked like JoJo (her fav Disney channel character) and the fear quickly disappeared! We got our picture taken with a clown, tried out some hula hoops and did some 'clowning around' of our own with our special circus noses before the whole act began. It was a two hour show and for the entire first hour before the intermission Emma sat on the edge of her seat (quite literally) mouth gaping open, there was no disturbing her! The last half she showed smiles and oohs and ahhs - Jake slept through the majority of it, though when he was awake he was fascinated by the tight rope walkers and the elephant! Fun times were definitely had by all!!! (I think I might of liked it just as much as the kiddo's!) Anyway - enjoy the slide show!!!

The Circus

Daddy's Girl

At lunch yesterday Emma was in an extremely funny and loving mood. As we chatted about the upcoming events (the circus!!) she suddenly grabbed Aaron and hugged him, saying, "I love you Daddy"... Aaron replied, "Emma are you my Daddy's girl?" And back came "Yep", and quickly added "And your my Emma's boy".

Aww! It was so precious it made this mommy tear up! These two are always goofing off together, and though she has her 'mommy only' moments, she is definately a Daddy's Girl.

And on a little side note: Jake is definately my Mommy's boy!

oh, and this picture is from Rachelle's wedding in September.

Feeling so loved!!!

A huge {THANK~YOU} to everyone for all the sweet comments! It gives me even more motivation to keep this blog up and running. I have enjoyed the past two days, the feeling of "Oh, that's a great picture, I should put that on my blog" or Emma saying something cute and thinking, " I better post that on the blog!". So CHEERS to all my friends and family that have warmed my heart with the kind comments! More posts to come throughout today...

Grandma Gayle we miss you already!

This week was graced by a visit from my favorite mother in law (ok... so I only have one - but she's the BEST!). Emma was so incredibly excited to see Grandma Gayle, and I'm sure that Jake was too ;) She played and talked and cuddled with the kids. I know she treasures those times and we all wish they were longer and more frequent. Anyway, thanks for the visit Mom! And THANKS for some sanity time by myself! Your the best! LOVE YOU! Come back soon, and bring Dad with you!

Rainy day photo shoot

I have done it!

Whew. It is a definite sense of accomplishment getting this blog up and running - so here's to all the kids pictures, all the slides, and all the video clips to come - maybe even the occasional picture of Aaron and I! Family and friends, enjoy. Hopefully this helps all of you feel just a little closer to our daily lives. We love you all, and those that are far away, we miss you terribly. Keep in touch, comment lots, and create your own blog so we can see more of your lives too!