Fall Fun

Monday night I made Jello Pudding - Pumpkin Spice flavor (FYI - not that great!). However as you can see below...Hailey and Dominic LOVED it!

Today we went over to Amy and Brad's and 'borrowed' their leaves. **Thank You Uncle Brad for raking them into nice piles for us!** Kaelin and Dominic had a blast. Surprisingly, *sarcasm*, Hailey hated being in the pile!

Hailey did think it was fun to watch the other two playing though - as she wandered around the yard.Kaelin piled up a nice cozy bed - and told us she was sleeping.
I tried to get a cute picture, but as you can see, Hailey was not impressed by the leaves.
Kaelin LOVES walking, playing, burying, throwing etc. She loves the leaves during fall!
Hailey kept doing a dance. She would squat down and say, "Ah, Ah, Ahhh!". I thought it was funny. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween weekend was BUSY! Friday night we went trick or treating at the Southern Park mall with Aunt Amy and Dominic (Cookie Monster). Saturday we went trick or treating at Papa and Nana Theodore's (Uncle Brad's parents), our neighborhood, and then to Great-Grandparents Howell's (Grandma Barb's parents). Sunday we went into Grove City and saw: Papa Tom and Grandma Barb, Great Grandparents Magee, Great Grandparents Trezona and Grandma Cindy and Papa Keith!

The girls were great with their costumes - I was shocked at how well Hailey put up with hers! Kaelin had a rough night sleeping Saturday - waking up every hour or so - I think due to the SUGAR! It was so much fun this year!

Here are some pictures:

This is not the best picture - but it is the only one I have of the two girls together!

Here are 2 pictures - Hailey poised to run off and Hailey running!

Our little CinderellaHalloween Night - Kaelin and her best friend AbbyKaelin handing out HANDFULS of candyI love Hailey's eyes!and here she is showing us her eye (she knows belly, eye, nose, ear, toes and tongue)Our little Chicklet (hopefully she grows into those teeth!)Hailey snuggling with Great Grandpa MageeWhen we were done for the night, all three kids (Kaelin, Hailey and Dominic) went swimming AKA took a bath in Grandma Cindy's big tub. Hailey and Justin were playing peek a boo and I loved this picture!

P.S. I am not sure why blogspot is bolding and underling my captions - but I had to give up fixing them, or I am not going to get a shower before naptime is over! :)

Wacky Wednesday

Here are a bunch of pictures from yesterday. We carved pumpkins last night, so most of the pictures are from the evening activities.

However, yesterday Kaelin spent some time playing in her room. When I peeked in on her, this is what I found:
Where did everyone go? Hmm. It appears the family from her dollhouse relocated to the bottome of her dresser!

After dinner we carved pumpkins. For Hailey this meant simply keeping her occupied! We gave her markers to use for the first time. The pictures are cute-she had a blast! Note- there is a bit of marker around her mouth though, as she kept trying to taste them.

Once the pumpkins were scooped out we let the girls touch and play in it. Hailey wasn't so impressed. Kaelin loved the feeling of the seeds!

While we carved pumpkins, we gave Kaelin two little pumpkins to color and decorate. She used markers and stickers. They turned out beautiful!

Here are the pictures of our finished pumpkins and decor. Our front door has Halloween Princess clingons (Dollar Store!). Kaelin picked our scarecrow out ($4.99!!). Justin carved his usuall pumpkin face - triangle eyes and nose. I attempted a spider this year - it turned out okay.

Updates and Fun

First off - the girls are growing like crazy! Kaelin is still in 4T clothes (barely hanging on to the pant length though), but I just had to buy her 10&1/2 size shoes!!! Hailey is wearing 18 months (and will be for a while I think) and she is in size 5 shoes. She is no longer our chunky monkey - she is a string bean...but she is holding on to her cheeks still :)!

Both girls are doing well. Poor Hailey was sick Monday & Tuesday with some stomach bug, but no fever thankfully! She seems to be bouncing back today! We also had an awesome day of weather here today - 70!!! We spent an hour at the park and LOVED every minute - until Hailey got stung by a black wasp on her hand. She literally grabbed it while trying to hold onto a handrail while going up some stairs! Poor girl - can't catch a break!

We had fun this weekend! We went to Wagon Trails (again!) with Amy, Brad and Dominic. The girls had a blast! Hailey actually held food out and fed some animals and laughed - even when their giant tongues caught her hand!

Here are some pictures from Wagon Trails.
Kaelin and Sponge Bob Hay Bale.

Kaelin and Hailey on the Monster Bale.

Dominic, Kaelin and Hailey - Our Angels. Not the greatest picture, but I loved the way the light hit!

Baby Zebra was only 1 month old! So CUTE!

Hailey having fun

Kaelin feeding the animals.

Do you think she is having fun?

Check out the tongue!

Dominic and Brad feeding the animals.

The past few weeks~

I know I haven't updated in ages! We have been busy, though I can't remember why! A few 'big' events in the last month included - Uncle Brad's birthday and GCC Homecoming.

For Uncle Brad's Birthday the WHOLE family pitched in and got him a PS3 - he was VERY suprised!

Then on October 4th we went to GCC Homecoming. Kaelin had a blast at the parade catching candy, and had her face painted! The girls were exhausted on the way to dinner (so they took a nap in the parking lot at the outlet mall for a while, during which Justin shopped and I played Frogger on my phone)

Here are some other random pictures of Hailey brushing her teeth (she is obsessed with her toothbrush), and the girls princess jammies - as Kaelin calls them, and of the girls snuggling on Hailey's Tinkerbell couch..

I'm a Mom...

I am a mom. God made me to be a mom. At least that is how I feel about 99% of the time. I love my girls. I love lying on the floor in the playroom building towers to be knocked down. I love watching Kaelin’s staged ‘concerts’. I love folding tiny clothes, bath time, reading stories and snuggles. (I will admit I don’t like wiping noses, changing diapers or cleaning up food off the floor!)

This being said I decided to go back to work – part time. I am going to be working on Mondays and Saturdays (with an occasional extra shift here and there) at Something New (a florist/event shop in Canfield). Sometimes I need adult conversation, and to feel like I am contributing to our family.

Monday was my first day at work. The girls are going to be staying with their Auntie Amy while I am at work on Mondays and their daddy on Saturdays. I knew this first day would be hard, but not how hard it would be. Sunday I started feeling sick to my stomach and nervous – not about work – but about leaving my girls. I knew Kaelin would be fine and that at the worst she wouldn’t want to take a nap and would be tired at the end of the day.

Hailey is a totally different story. She is the most sensitive little one I know. She started clinging to me the minute we got to Amy’s and I could still hear her screaming as I backed the car down the driveway. The day was rough for her (and in turn rough on Amy). I know they can adjust after a few weeks. Though, I feel guilty for forcing them into this situation. I am grateful for Amy being willing to watch them (3 kids ages 3 & under are a handful!), but I feel bad that Mondays are going to be crazy for her!

Yesterday evening we got home (after dinner and playtime at the park) with two very tired and stressed girls. I spent part of the night just crying; partially due to guilt and partially due to being overwhelmed and anxious.

Today they are both very clingy and whiny. Question is – is a bit of time out of the house for me and some ‘grocery’ money worth putting them (& me) through this? I believe that I can do it for a few months and see how things go, however I fear that every Monday will be like yesterday. In sticking with it – I am hoping that in a month or two I will drop the kids off on Monday and both will smile and wave goodbye to me. (Of course then I will probably cry because they don’t need me anymoreJ)

Please pray for all of us during this transition.

Fall Festival

Our family has been trying new churches for the past few months. Lately we have been attending Greenford Christian Church in Greenford, Ohio. We really love the teaching and Kaelin loves the children's program.

On Sunday they held a fall festival. It was amazing! There were like 2000-3000 people there! There were fair concessions you could buy, but they provided free hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn and games for the kids

They had several bounce arounds/mazes, a mechanical bull, a bungee/trampoline thing, animals to pet, a rock wall and Foam Fun! This an enclosed area of bubbles - they say it is the fun of a bath without the water! Luckily they warned parents to bring a change of clothes, because Kaelin needed them!

They had a motorcycle/car show as well. And- they did several give a ways - flat screen tv, gift cards etc. They also set off fireworks at 9:30 - but we didn't make it that late.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone (I forgot the camera!)The mass chaos of Foam Fun.

Kaelin - she had so much fun!

Kaelin after Foam Fun - yep she needed to change. She was soaked!
Hailey - testing the overflow bubbles. She played for a minute, before she started eating them!

Hailey Loved the cotton candy Daddy was sneaking her!

Ok - moving onto Monday...

Monday evening we took the girls to the park to get rid of some nervous energy. Boardman Park is amazing. It has a huge big kids wooden maze/park, and a younger Tot's Town. Tot's Town is filled with 4 different climbing/slide structures, baby swings and a bike area - where they provide tot bikes! Our kids LOVE Boardman Park and it is only 15 minutes from our house- we go OFTEN.

Usually Hailey will climb up on the structures and one of us will go down tube slides with her, or hold her hand if it is an open slide. This time she climbed in and did it herself! She went down backward and on her belly --- and LOVED it! She did this repeatedly, I think I lost count around slide number 10. Here are 2 pics we got - not great, but they give you an idea.

from the top of the slide

from the bottom of the slide