Halloween costumes 2015

I think every year I love the kids' Halloween costumes even more than the year before.  This year they got to choose whatever they wanted to be.  Andrew has been planing for months, and coming up with a different costume idea it seemed like every week!  He was finally closing in on Captain America.  And Emily was pretty set on Minnie Mouse.  Then a co-worker gave me a Buzz Lightyear toy a few weeks ago and Andrew decided he HAD to be Buzz.  Emily decided that if he was Buzz she would be Jessie, also from Toy Story.  I was really excited that they had picked coordinating costumes :) Then when we were at the store buying fabric so I could sew a Jessie costume Andrew said "you know mom, I think I want to be Woody" and I told him "I think that is a really GREAT idea" (partly because I knew Woody and Jessie costumes would be adorable, but mostly because I liked the idea of sewing a Woody costume much more than a Buzz costume...Andrew was wanting wings that popped out and a face shield that opened and closed...I can sew kid, I am not an engineer!)

So Woody and Jessie it is!  And Kenneth and I are going as Buzz and Mrs. Potato head (I really only have the figure for a potato costume this year!)

Our super weekend

We spent the past weekend at Universal.  We drove down Saturday and spent a few hours at the park, then headed to the hotel so Kenneth wouldn't miss any football :)  I took the kids to the freezing cold swimming pool.  Emily splashed on the stairs since she forgot to bring her googles, she told me she couldn't swim.  Andrew headed straight for the water slide.  I think that was his first time going down a water slide, and he must have done it 50 times into the freezing pool!  He also met some teenage girlfriends, they would slide down and ask "is that little tiny boy your son? He is just the cutest thing!"

On Sunday, we headed to the park all day.  Andrew just loves it there!  Emily gets a bit bummed when she isn't tall enough for the fast rides, she just need another inch or so and she can get on most of them.  We got to meet lots of superheros and some villains too, like Megatron.

Andrew was jumping up and down to get to meet Captain America and Spiderman.  Emily is such a Tom boy (the girly-est Tom boy I ever met) so she was pretty excited about the super heroes too.

Emily was really wanting to meet Hulk, but he wasn't there, so she got her picture with his poster instead.

Rogue sought Emily out in the crowd, she thought Emily was pretty cute.  They talked for a while, Rogue asked Emily if she is a princess and she responded "NO!"  Emily told her all about her Jessie Halloween costume and her boots and hat.  Then they met up again about an hour later and chatted some more!

Andrew and Kenneth went on the Spiderman ride and Emily and I had to sit off because they won't let girls under 40" or pregnant ladies on :( Emily decided she needed some Dippin dots and I told her she had to wait until her dad got off the ride with all of our money.  She is really not very good at waiting.  So, she decided she wanted to meet Cyclops...then she asked him for money!  After introducing herself and telling him where she was from, she said "my dad took my brother on a ride and my mom doesn't have any money and I really want some dippin dots!"  It didn't work out like she had hoped, but we all got a good laugh!

After the long drive home, the kids did some coloring on the dining room table, they think they do their best work sitting ON the table ;)

2 Wheels

Emily has been working her way up to losing the training wheels on her bike for a while now.  We would go out to play and she would have me take them off her bike, I would help her ride back and forth on the driveway a couple times, then she would ask to have them back on.  She has recently developed a fear of trying new things (which is worlds different than the Emily I knew 6 months ago who would try anything) so this slow process helped her ease into riding with just two wheels.  And about two weeks ago, the training wheels came off for good!  She is so proud of herself!  She has decided that she wants to ask Santa for a Minnie Mouse bike with handlebar streamers, a basket, and no training wheels for Christmas.

Baby # 3!

We are so excited to be expecting the arrival of baby #3 in mid January!  At the beginning of this month, we went for an ultrasound to sneak a peak at this babe.  Look's like we will be welcoming a healthy baby boy in just a few short months!

It has been so fun to experience this pregnancy with the kids.  When I was pregnant with Emily, Andrew was still too small to really get it.  But this time they both understand and are so excited about a new little sibling.  Emily has been pulling out all kinds of things from her room for the baby, baby toys she finds in her toy box, too small socks, baby rattles...she will bring them to me and say "this is for our baby, mommy" :)  

Names have been a struggle this time around!  We asked the kids for some input, Andrew decided we should name the baby Anna if it was a girl and Russell for a boy.  Emily chose Minnie Mouse...boy or girl!  Then when we found out it was a boy, she thought Mr. Potato Head would be a good option, ha!  We were having trouble finding common ground and I told Kenneth if we can't agree we were naming this boy Russell!  

His ultrasound pictures look so much like his big brother and sister's pictures did!  Here is his little baby arm...

And a big baby yawn...

Sucking his thumb already, he did that for most of the scan

Tiny baby feet :)

And his boy parts, he was not shy about letting us see if he was a boy or girl, we knew immediately when the scan started.  Emily was really hoping for a sister, but I think she is thrilled about a brother too.  Andrew didn't say if he had a preference between a brother or a sister, but after finding out he is so so excited to be getting a brother!

Casey Key part 4

One day of our vacation, Andrew woke up with a perfect heart shaped spot on his nose! I was hoping it would stick around for a while, but soon it was gone.

Towards the end of the week, Emily got a lot braver in the water, she took her boogie board out and was boogie boarding, she went out on the paddle board with Gramma, even stood (and jumped) on the board, and she was swimming all over with her vest on.

Emily did a lot of shell hunting, she found a few white shells with holes in them and used them to make necklaces for all the girls, she said we looked like mermaids :)

These next photos are some of my favorites from vacation.  We did a bit of fishing, but didn't catch much while we were there.  The day we left we had a bunch of bait to use up so we did some early morning fishing.  I woke Andrew up early so he could fish, he loves it and I think he is a natural...he was casting the line and reeling it in all on his own. And he caught 3 fish!  Well, 2 fish and one ray.  I love the excitement in these pictures, he is still talking about catching these fish.

 

Emily was not quite as excited about the fishing, or maybe she is just working on her serious top model look ;)