around the house

Today I went outside to take a few craft photos, and of course, the girls followed me. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. And then ... Josie spilled a bucket of water ... and instant fun was had by all! I figure wet pants and soaked socks can be changed. The girls had a good time, and then ... it was "run around in just a diaper" time! What kid doesn't love to be naked??

a perfect Fall day

Julie and I took the kids to the park yesterday. It was the perfect Fall day, complete with a romp in the dead leaves.

"if only we could get her to smile ...."

Eleanor is 11 months old! Well, as of today, she's actually 11 months and 6 days, but who's counting? I can't believe our little girl is almost a year old. My, how the time flies, eh? And what a joy she is to us! She smiles and giggles and laughs at everything, even things that aren't funny. She's still unable to sleep past 5 a.m., but she's always so happy when we finally go in to get her, she makes it impossible to be mad. Though her smiles haven't yet cured our tiredness, they've certainly tempered our irritation! Less than a month to go until she's one. I can't believe it! Here's a few pics from Thanksgiving weekend.

our little ballerinas

After one of those days when I would have sold my children to a passing gypsy for less than a dollar (Mom, I know what you mean now!), I fell in love with my children all over again when I got them dressed up to head out for a night of Halloween revelry. OK, it was an hour of Halloween revelry, but still, we reveled! We ventured to downtown Brea with the Pentons ... which by 6:00 was already packed! But Josie had a great time. She wouldn't play any of the games, but she watched Christopher play them, which was fun, and she definitely thought getting candy in her bag was pretty awesome. She loved spotting the moon in the sky and watching all the other kids play games. It was our first Halloween experience as parents. And, as exhausting as it was, we had a good time. And since our kids are young, we were home by 7:30, put the kids straight down, and we still have an evening! So now its off to watch Star Wars with my husband and crochet another hat. (Ack! The boutique starts on Friday!

There will come a day when she doesn't want to eat EVERYTHING, right?

Josie telling Daddy a story ... no time for pictures!

OK, so she's not built like a ballerina ... yet.

Still not up for pictures.

Isn't she cute? Those shoes left red marks on her feet, despite being on the loosest buckle. Her poor fat little feet ...

The best I could get of the two of them together. Ella's face cracks me up.

Tired baby. Just before this picture snapped, she was resting her head on Daddy's arm.

Happy Halloween

time flies

I can't believe it, but our little baby is 10 months old! Eleanor is crawling all over the place, getting in to EVERYTHING, and daily tries desperately to get her sister to play with her (as of yet, no success). She is an absolute joy, that's for sure. Even when you're up with her at 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning, she's so happy and smiley about it all, you can't help but smile back and give her a big bear hug ... and then sleepily put that pacifier back in and hope to high heaven it makes her go back to sleep.

She weighs in at 22 pounds and is wearing the same size diaper as her nearly 2 1/2-year-old big sister. At least I only have to buy one box of diapers at a time. Its awesome. I just love our huggable squeezable baby!

This dress was Josie's 1-year-old party dress ... and I could barely get it buttoned around Ella's middle!

Someday I'll teach her about the other awesome stuff you can do with yarn.

Caleb and I often joke about how we "wish we could get her to smile!"

As previously mentioned, Josie isn't too happy about having her little sister around all the time. But she was feeling left out of the photo shoot I think. This non-hitting moment lasted only a few seconds, but it was glorious!

Superbaby!