halloween 2014

I'm a week late here, but I feel like I rarely take photos of my girls in their Halloween garb despite their continued cuteness.  This year, I vowed to document it.  I even made Olivia dress up in her costume JUST to take her picture...the other girls were already dressing up for another party.  

Claire and Meredith decided that they wanted to have a theme this year.  Meredith chose to be a detective (Nancy Drew), so Claire went with a robber.  

Claire put together her own costume this year.  She already had the pants, sweater (that used to be mine...gasp!!), and hat.  She made her mask out of felt and duct tape, and she made her money bag from a cheap reusable shopping bag.  So easy.  Loved that she did it herself.  

I wish Meredith could have sewed hers herself. :)  I made her detective cape from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  I've never made anything with the bias tape on the edge.  It was pretty easy to use, and I thought the edging really dressed it up.  She didn't want a hat (which probably saved me a ton of time), so I made her a quick headband to match.  She had a little magnifying glass earlier that week, but it broke, so she had to stick with just her notebook which had a photo of the robber inside. :)  

My little minion. :)  She won the creative costume award at one of our parties.  Yellow shirt and suspenders ordered from Amazon.  We took a sock hat and covered it in yellow duct tape.  With the help of Pinterest (of course!), I added goggles (Ball jar rings), pipe cleaner hair, and printed eyeballs and laminated Gru emblem.  It really was a fun little costume. :)

And my cute little chicken.  Awww.  This one probably came from a resale for less than $5. :)  I love that I can put her in anything and she's happy!  Makes things easy.  The best part of these kinds of costumes is how WARM they are!  I can't appreciate it enough for a little 3 year old on a cold Halloween night.  

oh those pirates!

Amelia is currently sitting at the counter drawing out of a How to Draw People book.

She's drawing a pirate.

A: I don't know...I guess I'll use this one for the skin color.

Me: Yeah, it's hard to choose a skin color since everyone has different colored skin.

A: Yeah, I know...especially pirates.

dusting off the blog

My poor, poor blog.  It is a little dusty around here. :)

I have so much I need to document in this location, and we have been beyond busy with everyday life.  Thankfully, November tends to be a slower month until Thanksgiving, so I'm looking forward to a little downtime.  

November also brings lots of hunting from the husband which means I actually get to upload photos and sit at the computer after all of my little people are in bed.  

There are several topics that I'd love to post on in the next several weeks.  Seriously, so much has happened around here.  I have a smartphone.  Our house addition is in full swing.  All of my girls are sleeping in the same bedroom.  Our youngest child is 3 1/2 (which totally changes my outlook on life).  My oldest child is working on 12 (which totally changes my outlook on life).  Needless to say, I have some posting to do.

We've been so busy that I haven't even uploaded photos.  I have a funny Olivia story to share, but as I looked at my uploaded photos, the most decent one I could find of her was from August at the lake.  Seriously, shame on me.  I'll work on it.  

Okay, so funny Olivia story...

Olivia LOVES to help me in the kitchen.  I was baking cookies this morning, and she brought our step stool over to the mixer to help.  She got her hands messy with something, so I told her to wash her hands.  This conversation followed:

O: (as she's getting off of her stool) Don't let anybody take my stool.

Me: Okay.

She then moves her stool over to the sink to use it to reach the sink while she washes her hands.

O: (looks over to where her stool was previously)  HEY!!  WHO TOOK MY...(looks down where she's standing)...oh...I'm standing on it.

Three year olds are lovely.

b.i.f. thirty

Amelia is getting her hair cut in a week.  Here was our conversation about it:

Me: How do you want your hair cut?

A: I don't know!

Me: Do you want it just trimmed a little or do you want it cut shorter like mine?

A: I want it cut short like yours!!!

(pauses for a second)

A:  Well, no...I don't think anyone would recognize me.  I better not.

lumberjack josh

Josh and Brian purchased a log splitter this spring, and Josh has turned into a complete lumberjack over the last month.  

He even has a helper:

The best part is that Claire is finally at an age where the term helper actually means helper and not just "helper".  :)  He commented several times how great of a worker she was.

Lumberjack Josh now has two full wood stacks out back along with a couple of smaller ones in other places.  There have been rumors that a wood stove is in our future.  I think we're ready for it!

sisterly love

Oh, how fascinating it is to watch big sisters and little sisters.  I kid you not, the pictures below were taken approximately 30 seconds apart.

Can you tell who wanted the first turn?  

lake pics

We spent a week at the lake a couple of weeks ago.  We had absolutely gorgeous weather and made lots of memories.   

Monday was spent painting fingernails with the new nail art kit that Grandma had bought with Amelia on the way up to the lake the day before.  Now, let me tell you that I'm not a fan of little girls painting their own nails.  I completely understand that they need to practice to improve, but it makes this Mama a bit crazy to have them all wanting to do it all at the same time...at your parents' lake cottage.  

This may have caused me a bit of stress.  I told Josh that I was not having fun on this particular morning, and (after everyone's nails had sufficiently dried) he ordered everyone to put on swimsuits and jump in the lake.  This improved my sanity greatly.  And on a side note, I'm going to beg my mom to go with the hula-hoops next time. :)

We ended the day with ice cream from the local ice cream shop and a pontoon ride (or "contoon" as Olivia calls it...she also calls her swimsuit her swimsoup...and popsicles hotsicles)  

Tuesday was another swim day along with an all-family wave runner ride.  Claire, Josh, and Amelia ended up in the water at one point.  After Amelia finished crying, she thought she might want to fall in again.  The girls and Josh also went tubing.  

Grandma and Grandpa came back on Wednesday, but we were gone most of the day enjoying some time with friends.  

Thursday was spent playing and preparing for more friends and family.  Josh's parents came for a visit and a pontoon ride on Thursday.  

Amelia and Eden can finally sit next to each other without fighting at mealtime. :)  Eden is currently OBSESSED with Meredith.  Anytime Jill asks Eden what she would like to eat, drink, do, etc., she responds, "Well, what is Meredith having/doing/etc.?"  Every. single. time.

The breakfast crew...where are Grandpa's smiles?!

 Amelia caught a nice catfish:

Claire hooked a soft-shell turtle:

Meredith and Carter are inseparable when they're together:

This Meredith/Carter relationship amazes me each and every time we're together.  Our families get together 2-3 times per year, and they play together (almost non-stop) for several hours straight.  I have a picture of them together from 2009 (when they were 4), and I distinctly remember them not leaving each other's side that day either.  They eat together, swim together, play together, talk to each other, and wait to do anything while the other one is in the bathroom.  It's awfully sweet.

Lake days have always been some of my favorite days and continue to be.  Looking forward to spending more time up there before school starts.