Visit with Santa

Every year, one of the local mall's holds a private party for members of the media.  The first year it was a small party but it has grown every year. This year was the best by far. Our favorite part of the visit is Santa Claus. For weeks Abby has been telling that us that she shouldn't wouldn't cry when she saw Santa.  Her only request was that she sits next to Santa and Noah sit on his lap.

Waiting in line...

 She didn't cry but she was so shy she couldn't tell Santa what she wanted. Somehow Santa knew it was Abby's birthday that day so she was pretty psyched. One of the best parts of this event is we get free photos with Santa and can take pictures with our own camera.

 Neither kid cried, which is a success in our books.  Noah wasn't scared, but more intrigued as to who this crazy looking man was.

 Abby's reward, a sugar cookie, there was also balloon artists, cartoonists, and food, food and more food!

 Noah's reward.

So Curious

Now that Noah can crawl, he's become one curious little monster.  He's always following us around and watching what we're doing.  He is particularly fond of the bathroom on the main floor.

So the other day I was peeing.  I left the door cracked, not thinking anything of it.  In comes little man.  He raced over to the toilet, got between my legs, got his hands up on the toilet and pulled his head up.  He was so excited to see what I was doing.

We'll just say that it wasn't easy to get him away without making a mess.

Quotables: Smoking

On the way to see Santa tonight, Abby saw a car in front of us with a lot of smoke coming out of the tailpipe.  This lead to a 10 minute conversation about smoking.

This is how part of it took place, word for word:
Abby: "When my dolly was younger, she was smoking."
Peggy: "No way, did you tell her that smoking is bad?"
Abby: "Yes, I told her no smoking!"
**10 second pause**
Abby: "I raised my finger like this and said "no no no...no smoking."
Peggy: "Oh yeah?"
Abby: "She was smoking it up!"

Haha.  Where does she get this stuff from?

Big Boy

Just a week before he's 9 months old and he's starting to figure out this standing thing. He can't quite pull himself all the way up yet but once he's there he's getting braver everyday. He'll let go of the couch now and holding on he scoots his way down the cushions.

"How does this work"

 ""Check me out, I'm ready to go!"

 Down for the count... he's fine, gotta learn somehow. Time for more baby proofing!

Abby's 3rd Birthday Party

We had Abby's 3rd birthday last Saturday, a week before her actual birthday. She was a little confused as to why it wasn't her real birthday but didn't mind the attention and treats.

All Abby has talked about since her friend Charlotte's 3rd birthday is what kind of cake she wanted.... a caterpillar cake. As you may know Abby is a huge friend to all animals, especially bugs! So caterpillar cake we did. So we asked friends and family, to "creep, crawl or fly on over" as Abby turned 3!

Abby looked helping Daddy with the cake, I found the recipe and they went to work.

Didn't it turn out great? It was a huge hit. Abby loved it.

 Noah skipped the cake but spent some time bonding with his Godfather, Kai.

 She looks fine in this picture but within 24 hours of the party Abby spiked a fever of 102 and stayed that way for 2 days, ugh.

 Noah gets around, here he is with his Godmother, Nicole.

 Charlotte and Abby playing together.

 Cousin Lily did a great job making Noah laugh.

 Check out these two hammin' it up.

 Putting on her birthday pin.

 Noah really wanted to help open presents.

 I love how cute Charlotte is in this picture, like she's watching a great show.

The birthday girl and her family.

 Abby loves this card from Grandma and Grandpa, Ariel sings to her!

 This is great, they love each other so much.

Where does a mermaid sleep?

The Little Mermaid is a favorite movie of Abby's and for Halloween she decided she wanted to be Ariel and  Noah would be Flounder. Grams made their costumes, this was her third year making Abby's costume. She did a great job. 

These first pictures our from the night their costumes came in the mail.... No she's not hitting Noah, they were playing peek a boo.

Later in the week Fox Early Childhood held a Halloween Party. It was windy outside but it was really cute backdrop.

 For five bucks, Abby could play a ton of games. Most of the night Noah just crawled around on the floor. He loved his costume, never fought us about the hat at all.

 I'm sure Ariel never had a tattoo but Abby loved hers. Of course it had to have an insect look, she chose a huge spider web and spider.

The Student Council kids ran the event and did a great job.

 

 And this is Big Abby hanging with Little Abby, they are best buds. Abby loves hanging out with Big Abby at all the Student Council events, thankfully she's only a junior so Abby has another year of following her around.

 The day before Halloween we hung out with the Freeman Family. First stop the Kirkwood Farmer's Market. The girls ran, jumped and train watched.

 Noah was very impressed with the sandbox, made up of dried up corn.

 The next stop, The Magic House. They had a Not So Haunted House for the kiddos, employees were dressed as different characters and handed out treats, plus the kids could do all the activities. This is in the bubble room

 And check out this little guy, when did he get so big? He's crawling everywhere and pulling up on the furniture.

 One of the best things at The Magic House is the water room.... Both kids loved it but check this out, it has high chairs built in so the littlest kids can even get in on the action.

 Noah and Audrey playing together, Audrey is almost a year and a half, I think Noah has just as much hair as her.

 They've also got some great theme rooms where the kids can dress up and play. First up the Pizza Parlor and then into the Nursery.

 Noah was quite a trooper while the big girls played, he just loved taking it all in.

 Around naptime Dave and Noah, plus the Freeman's headed home and I stayed behind with Abby so she could work on a car and make ice cream! Thanks so much for inviting us Freeman's!

 We waited until the last minute to carve pumpkins. Last year Abby hated getting her hand gooey inside the pumpkin.... same thing this year. She was less than impressed.

 It was a little chilly.

So if you stuck it out this long....
Where does a mermaid sleep?
A Water Bed!