Best Gift!!

We visited my sister & her family last weekend, we were trying to get Christmas pictures of our little girls (before the new baby comes). Well that didn't quite go as planned. We dressed them in matching dresses, my sister did their hair soo cute, and we got the picture props all ready to go. Sadly, they were a tad cranky whenever we brought out the camera. However, when we would put them down or away they would do the cutest things! They would play together so nicely or jump up and down on the sofa together and say Bounce, Bounce, Bounce. Or have the prettiest smiles. But bring out the camera and they were the most stubborn little 2 year olds.
Since we were visiting my sister gave me my Christmas gift early, (there have been so many nasty snow storms lately that we weren't sure if we're coming down on Christmas). So she gave me a one of a kind book. Its my blog since the first day I started it when we came home from the NICU with Heidi Anne to Nov. 2009. I LOVE it!! I keep looking at it over and over. Its just beautiful. I'm bringing it in on Monday to work to show off as well. THANK YOU Bekah!!

Finally Getting Better!!

Sooo I've been very sick the last few weeks with pneumonia I am finally starting to feel better!

Soo quick recap, we painted over the last few weeks. We painted our ceilings white, (they were the same color as the walls, a light tan shade, but it made you feel like you were in a moving box.) We also repainted the bathroom, it was this deep brown color (we called it the cave). Now it's a nice light blue.

Before: After:

We also painted the office a nice light green, which Heidi Anne helped pick out. We call it Tinkerbell Green.

Morning Fun

Heidi Anne is soo fun at breakfast, mornings in general. She is such a morning person! Today she was trying to whistle, which sounded sooo funny! She also tried dipping her toast in her scrambled eggs like we do with our eggs over easy. She had this look of, "I don't get what's so good about this." I love her!

Baby Alices' Blessing

Grandma & Alice, Grandpa & Heidi Now on to Sunday! We went to Alice's baby blessing. (She is Heidi Anne's very first cousin on Char's side of the family). It was such a great day too, much warmer weather down there. The blessing was super sweet. Alice got to wear the same dress her mom (Emily) was blessed in too!
I have this pet peeve of parents not respecting other parents' baby blessing. It's a milestone, such a precious moment, and it only happens once. So when all the sudden a scream from a cranky kid, it just always seems to put a damper on it for some reason.

I really didn't want that to be my little girl, much less have it happen to her cousins blessing. Weird pet peeve I know, but one just the same.

The Three Generations of the guilty grin. Grandpapa, Dada, and now little Heidi Anne.

Mimking Dada! These two are inspearable!

Afterwords, (roughly 45 people thereabouts) of family and friends went to Emily's home for a sit down lunch. (I felt a little bad because I had lost my hearing in my left ear over the weekend, so I am sure people tried to talk to me, but I honestly couldn't hear a thing. If Char was helpping in the kicthem, so he wasn't able to translate for me that I can't hear, or to pass the message to the family that I really can't hear. So if you tried to talk, I'm sorry I couldn't hear, and still can't either.

Back to Emily, She went all out, decorated the tables, had floaral arragments, very detailed, you can tell she worked hard on it. Great food too, which when feeding so many is a feat of itself!
Heidi Anne had fun watching people, playing with the dogs, and loved Emily's front porch. We got soo many cute pitures of her there. It almost looked like a photo shot. We got so many great pictures. Here are some. More will be on my facebook soon!

Halloween on Halloween

It was a blast! We went to visit my sister and her family. We got there around Noon and had some pizza for lunch. Bekah got each girl a small pumpkin, washable paints, and paint brushes. Then we let the girls paint their pumpkins.

Rekailah caught on like a pro, she painted so carefully.

Heidi Anne took a more messy approach, she finger painted her pumpkin. It works! Then we got them ready to Trick or Treat. Kayla was a lady bug, she was sooo cute! My sister made the tutu herself, she was just to adorable! Heidi Anne was a butterfly, we couldn't find any antena's for her, so we did piggy tails!

For the finshing touch we used watering cans instead of bags to hold their treats!Heidi stayed in her stoller so nicely, and Kayla could have gone on walking for hours if given the chance! The mall was soo crowded. Afterwords we took Heidi Anne to her Grandma's so she could she her all dressed up. All in all it was a great day!

Halloween at Work

Our office has the best Halloween celebrations ever! There is a costume contest, we do a big group photo, and almost everyone dresses up. What's really fun is the fact some teams do themes. Like one group were the Smurfs, another were house moms (complete with pink robes and hair rollers, another team were all vampires, and yet another were a group of gals at a slumber party). There are tons of treats and potlucks. Later in the day, our families can come trick or treating to each desk. I just love to see every one's families and the costumes!

Here I am-A Hawaiian Tourist-I think I'll wear this for the next Hawaiian Shirt Day

The Smurfs!

The Devil, The Nun, and the Angel-See We Get Creative
Me-Hawiian Tourist, Tab-as an Umpalumpa, and Val-Robin Hood
Char (a Hippie Beach Bum) Me (the Hawaiian Tourist) and Heidi (Adorable Coastal Tourist)

Heidi Anne playing after a round of desk Trick of Treating

Pumpkin Picking 2009

On Wednesday we were able to go pumpkin picking. Which went very quickly because is was super cold and had just snowed the day before (yes SNOWED). Which was a complete opposite from last year's adventure, when it was in the 60's and sunny. This year we went to a roadside stand. This way we wouldn't get all muddy. It was tons of fun and there were soo many to chose from! After a few chilly minutes Heidi was getting very cold. She picked her pumpkin, which oddly enough, was the one Char had pointed out to began with. Here she is proudly showing it off at home, where is was nice and warm. She keeps sitting by the pumpkin and just giggles.

The Circle Crayon Adventure

So an Internet friend of my told me how to make circle crayons, so we decided to try it on Sunday. We got some cheap crayons, and cut off the wrappers. Char helped a ton with this part. Heidi Anne helped by keeping a close eye on the crayons. She was very confused as to why we would take the wrappers of the crayons.

Next we broke the crayons into smaller pieces, greased muffin cups, and then sorted our crayons, mixing and matching colors. Heidi Anne loved this part.
You can see our pretty mix of broken crayons.

Now you bake them for about 5-7 mins at 250 F. When your done they look like this..so let them cool awhile. We let it set for about 90 mins. Then they looked like this (the paper plate pic).

She loves them!!!

Pumpkin Walk 2009

As part of our October tradition, we took Heidi Anne to the Pumpkin Walk on Saturday, (between the little rain showers).

We took her during the day this year so we can keep a better eye on her. At night they light up all the carved pumpkins, light up the displays, have sounds, warm cider and cookies, (but it gets pretty crowded) so maybe we'll go at dusk next year. As you can see she was loving the little walk, the hay on the sides was a perfect fence for her, couldn't get under it, and just a little to high to climb over. Perfect!

Each year the displays and cravings are done by local people, families, friends, schools, churches, all participate. Its a pretty big deal in this little town. Every year there is a theme, this years theme were commercials.
This Michale Jackson "Thriller" inspired is from a Pepsi commercial in the 80's, it was soo cool.
Another favorite was the Geico Caveman.

It was a great walk and just loved to see how creative people can be with paint, pumpkins, displays, and imaginations!

Piggy Tails to Piggy Flu

Well Char has been super sick the last few days, really high fever with chills, and just plain sick. The Doctor thinks he has Piggy Flu. So he's been banished to the sofa and I have been given meds to make it so I don't get it, and he got meds to make it so he doesn't get worse. At least I didn't hog tie him, if only Piglet was so lucky!

Now on to the Piggy Tails, little Heidi Anne! I love her in piggy tails!

Like her little bump on the head? The joys of learning to run!

Squeaker Shoes

Heidi Anne went from crawling and walking here and there, only when she wanted too (and as long as no one was looking) to toddling everywhere and anywhere.
She loves to help push the cart at the store, walks where ever she can, chase the cats, and make her shoes squeak. She has these really cute squeaky shoes my sister got her, she just loves to make them squeak. I love those shoes, I always know where she is when she wears them.
I need to get more in the next size up! All baby shoes should have the squeakers.
Furthermore, there is no such thing as toddler proof with her. Everything is just a challenge, a puzzle, or a game. I will admit, it's fun see her trying to figure out how to get to where she can't go.

Little Artist

Heidi Anne is much like her cousin Kayla, she loves to color!!

16 Months old and she doesn't even try to eat the crayons.The regular cayons are a bit harder for her to use, but somehow she does it. We are going to get her the cubby crayons soon and some coloring books. Right now scrape computer paper is working wonders for her. I was able to get a few pictures of her coloring. See looks so serious.

Here she playing with Daddy!! I love this face!!

Little Heidi Anne Antics

Heidi Anne is a ham!! She can walk, but she chooses not to do it. However, today at pre-school she would take a little step without any help or holding onto anything. For each step the little kids would cheer for her. After a few times she was walking! She would take a few steps at a time then wait for their applause, and then take a few more steps, more applauses. To cute!!

I Have Ikea-itis

I used to think people who loved Ikea were super weird. Until I myself became afflicted with Ikea-itis. I LOVE Ikea!!!

So we went down and did some Christmas shopping this weekend (at Ikea). Char's mom watched Heidi Anne while we went out. (I know she's a baby, but still, seeing your Christmas presents before hand and not being able to play with them, that's double the torture no matter the age). It was fun going around the show rooms and seeing all the cool ideas or being very puzzled by some of those really out there designs. It was great just hanging with Char. Also a plus, not having to rush though to beat the potentially cranky baby clock.

After wandering around for 2 hours, we settled on some cute art easels, one side is a white board and the other side is a chalck board, so two kids can be entertained at once!!

This will be just perfect for Kayla, she is quite the little artist. We got them little chairs as well. Can't wait for them to use them on Christmas!!

I had this thought a while back, since the girls are going to be a butterfly and a lady bug for Halloween, it would be cute for them to use a watering can instead of a basket for their trick or treats, but I couldn't find watering cans in the middle of September, not even an ugly one.

Ikea to the rescue once again, they had a whole shelf of watering cans, and in different colors.

For Heidi Anne we found a wall lamp for her room with a child safe cover to protect little fingers from the light blub.

Heidi's room theme is green & pink, mixed with an Amish /pionner theme. Well, I have been looking for little candle lanterns for years for Heidi Anne's room, Ikea had some!! So we got two of them.
For us we got some nice wall lights for the living room. Sadly, we got the wrong size light bulbs.

Afterwords, we meet with my sister & her family at the Carter's store. My new favorite store. Carter's has the best baby / child clothing hands down! The styles are nice, prices are great, and the clothing is sooo durable, and interchangable. If you have kids, or will soon, I highly suggest Carters.
It was a great shopping day and now most of the Christmas shopping is done. Yeah!!!

Sick Parents

Soo Now we got what Heidi Anne had, only it landed us in the ER on Firday. She wasn'y nearly as sick as she got us.

Sick Baby Girl

Poor Heidi Girl was super sick all day yesterday. So Char stayed home with her, where she got tons of cuddles! She's doing better today, still a little cranky, but no worse for the wear. She'll be back to her full giggly, active, happy self by tomorrow I bet.
If only Mommy & Daddy had faired as well. Ever notice having a sick baby is harder on the parents then the baby? You just want to make everything all better, but you can't. It's hard at times, at least all they want most of the time is lots of cuddles, which we are very good at.

Looking for Baby Books

I am on a hunt for board books, mainly, any Lift the Flap books. Like the ones by Karen Katz, (the What Does Baby Say? Books). Soo Any suggestions are great!
We have Peek-A-Baby, Grandpa & Me, and finally, What Does Baby Say.
Please....I NEED variety.

Labor Day Weekend

Finally, able to tell about our Labor Day weekend, Ahhh, playing catch up!
We went to Char's sister's Sarah's house to help out with her yard. We went down at 9-ish in the morning and got there around 10. Since no one was there, Char helpped himself to the backyard. Just Kidding. He just cut open the back fence to bring the tiller
around. It made such a funny picture, I had to take it! Him in his sun glasses, and dark shirt. It was too much to pass up!
He got right to work tilling the whole backyard. It took about two or so hours.
Heidi was having fun in the dirt.
She enjoyed supervising everyone's work as well. She had a blast playing with Sarah's dog Mae, playing with bubbles, crawling in the dirt, rocking in the rocking chair, playing with her grandparents, she "helped" moe the lawn, and just plain wandering around. After many hours of hardwork we had a barbacue.

Heidi Anne also learned a new word, "Rarah!!"

When we were inside She kept pointing outside to Sarah and saying, "Rarah!"