New Additon

(This is my 4th post of the day - so be sure to read below.)

Meet ??? We're not sure which name is going to stick. First Ava named it Vi ("VEE"), then ViVi ("VEE-VEE"), then Goldy, then Gold. She seems to be calling her Gold right now so I guess Gold it is.

Ava got her new goldfish for being potty-trained. Ava was one of those kids who just didn't see the need to be potty-trained when Mommy could do all of the work. Finally, I got some really good advice and it worked! (The advice in case you're wondering: "If you think she's really ready and really know how, just put her in panties." ) Sounds pretty obvious but I kept feeling like she needed to wear diapers or pull-ups and prove that she could stay dry first. We had tried panties before but probably gave up too easily. She did have several accidents but now has stayed dry for a couple of weeks and does it all by herself with no prodding.

So anyway, I could go on and on about our potty-trainings attempts and failures, but I wanted to say that we are very proud of our little girl. She decided she wanted a fish as a reward. So there you go. We have a new pet.

Here's a pic I took of Ava in Sept? with my old camera. We were trying to get some good shots of our girls but were very limited with my old camera. This is part of what pushed me over the edge to get my own nice camera and to learn all I could.

GO AVA!!

Pumpkin Patch

October Update #3 (Oct. 11 2008)

Pumpkin Patch Trip

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Ava & Elise's cousins William and Kate were there. Also there: my sisters Heidi, Kelly & Gina. Gina's friend Stephen, Chris and Gaia.

Elise showing the pumpkin some love.

Ava pumpkin surfing.

Our attempt at a family shot. This was before I had my new camera.

Below is a slideshow with more pictures from our fun day. Double-click to make the pictures larger.

Bouncy Fun

October Update #2 (Oct. 25th 2008)

Ava & Elise were invited to their neighbor friend Sutton's 3rd birthday party. His parents sure know how to throw a party. They rented this huge bouncy castle. It was big enough for adults to get in also so Chris and I went down many times - frontwards, backwards, you name it.

I was busy during the morning with Super Saturday at church so Chris took the girls to the party and monitored them in the bouncy until I got there. Here he is taking them all down together.

Besides having a big slide, there was a part for just bouncing, etc.

Elise did really well climbing up to the top of the slide part. She did it all by herself many times. After the party and later that afternoon (and after naps), they invited us over to get in some more bouncy fun.

PAINTING

OCTOBER UPDATE #1: While I've been a little better about blogging lately, I've still got just a couple of things to catch up on. Oct. 30, 2008

My brother and his wife recently moved to a new house on their same street. During the transition, I watched my niece, Kate. We decided to do some painting.

I'm trying to make more of an effort to do a craft time or mommy play time on most days. I love the smocks I picked up at IKEA. I have a set of 3, which comes in really handy when I teach our mommy's preschool.

We're still working with Elise on what's edible and what's not. Here she is licking her fingers as if she's eating pudding or something.

And here's her reaction to the taste of the paint after about the 5th time she did it. You'd think they'd get it after the first time. ;) Thankfully the paint is non-toxic.

September Update

While I'm at it, I may as well get all updated for September (and finish October next). Above are my two girls munching on carrots from our garden. I didn't even coordinate their outfits believe it or not. It was a matching carrot miracle.

What happens when a toddler decides to stand in a wagon and a preschooler pulls it? It all happened so fast. Poor Elise got some road burn. Ava didn't mean to do it. We were supposed to get our pictures taken the next day. That didn't happen.


Speaking of carrots. Since the carrots from our garden weren't that great and we have a couple of llamas that live nearby, we decided to go and feed them our homegrown carrots. They were quite pleased.

DEANNA ROSE FARMSTEAD

One day for playgroup in Sept, we went to the Deanna Rose Farmstead not too far away from here. We had never been. I can't believe this place is free. Of course it costs extra to feed the animals, do a wagon ride, or pony ride, etc...but they have to make their money somehow so we were fine donating to the cause.

The day was extra fun because we got to spend it with Ava's cousins - even Ryan and Ashley who don't live in our town. Grandma came too - even better.

We went on a horse-drawn hayride.

Ava & Elise especially enjoyed the petting zoo. Ava made friends with the only sheep in a petting zoo full of goats.

Elise was soooo sweet. She made a point to go up to each animal, bend down to look in their eyes and said, "HI!" to each one. We bought some feed to give them, right? Well, Elise, not knowing, ran out of feed then reached down to the ground picking up what she thought was more feed and tried to give it to them. Not feed my dear - but droppings! Yuck. Luckily they had hand washing stations nearby. She did catch on though - I found her reaching past the fence, stretching hard to get something just out of reach. She finally reached it and it was one stray piece of feed that she kindly gave to a nearby goat. ;) Resourceful, determined child.


Another cute thing the Farmstead had was a fake cow that the kids could try milking.

They had fun trying their hand at milking but it didn't take long for one of them to figure out they could squirt each other. All girls are pictured above but I'm pretty sure a boy started it.

Photo op on the tractor. Overall it was a fun day. The kids even got to run around in diapers and t-shirts for a few minutes in a little water area they had. If we had saved more time, they could've fed baby goats from milk bottles or gone fishing. Something for next time...

ROOM REDECORATING

Another thing that took place in September was mine and Chris' room redecorating. Since the girls were finally sharing a room and Chris and I got our room back, we, okay - I, decided it was time to paint and update. Why is Chris sitting on the armoire?? I tricked him into getting up there to try and hang my metal medallion. We decided I better do it to make sure it was straight. Instead of getting him the ladder like I had said I would, I got my camera.
Ava saw Daddy and gasped. We put Ava up too.
Then, Elise saw what was happening and we couldn't tell her no. I would've gotten up there too but then who would've taken the picture?? More room decorating photos to come.

The biggest thing we did in September was to travel to Omaha for a weekend. I put our pics in a slideshow below.

Sepia?

Ok, so if I'm just going to post pics all the of the time, maybe I should start a separate blog for that...anyway, I took a few more shots and was playing around with sepia tone? Thoughts anyone?

A few pics

I wanted to post a few random, but favorite pics, taken recently. The above photo was taken by a different photographer back in September. (For our Halloween post - see below).

Here's one I got of Elise when playing with my new camera. So cute she is.

This one is blurry but I still kind of like it. We were on the Baldwin train as part of the Maple Leaf Festival.

I don't know why but I kind of like this one.

And this one - although it isn't perfect for lots of reasons but I like the background.

I like Ava's sweet expression in this one.

Anyway, I haven't been able to spend as much time playing with and getting to know my camera as I'd like to, but I'm starting to have a little more time now. Yay!

Halloween

Like many of you, we also celebrated Halloween this year with a bit of Trunk-or-Treating at church as well as some Trick-or-Treating on my parents' street. This year Elise was a mouse and Ava was Cinderella.

Here's Ava in her costume that I made her.

Here's Elise in her mouse costume. My mom knitted the mouse ears hat. Then I just bought a gray sweatsuit and pinned felt on it for a tummy, patches and a cheese bow tie.

After the trunk-or-treat at church, we did some trick or treating on my parents' street. Ava and Elise got to go with their cousins William and Kate, aunts Kelly and Liz and of course Mommy and Daddy. William went as Harry Potter and Kate as Sleeping Beauty.

Here's Liz as an impromptu chef and Kelly as Little Dead Riding Hood. Kelly said a few times that she loves Halloween and loves dressing up.

The cousins. Every year we try to get a picture with all of the cousins in their costumes. Not pictured: Ryan, Ashley & Nathan. All in all it was a fun, but eventful, day. We got waaaay too much candy.