Kaylin's Halloween Parade

At Kaylin's elementary school, they do a Halloween Parade where they let all the kids dress up and walk around the playground field. It was cute. Kaylin was really excited to wear her costume to school! She made such a sweet little fairy (with blue jeans! lol) Her teacher, Ms. Jennings, is the one dressed as Raggedy Ann.

Happy Birthday, Annlee!!!

We celebrated Annlee's 4th birthday with her friends this Saturday. She was so excited!! She woke up that morning asking how long until her friends got here. She had a princess party and wanted everything on her castle cake to be pink. She and her friends made "sand castles" in little plastic bottles and made crowns. They all had fun. Thankfully, the rain held off and it was a nice day - a little overcast, but not hot.


Annlee had had her eye on this big balloon at the grocery store for a very long time. She was so excited when her Daddy brought it home for her party!


Annlee and some of her party guests sitting in our swing.

Making sand art

Making crowns

Showing off their crowns!

Opening gifts!

Blowing out the candles

Playing in the back yard with her goody bag at the end of the party.

Carving Pumpkins!

Yesterday, it was time to start carving those pumpkins we picked out at the pumpkin patch! The girls were so excited and had looked forward to it all morning long. I debated doing it while Maryella was napping, but I'm so glad I let her be a part of it. She had so much fun! She actually got into it a little. She heard the girls saying how gross it was so she kept walking around touching the pumpkin guts and saying, "eww". It was pretty cute. Just like last year, we had a hard time convincing Kaylin and Annlee to get messy, but once they did, they had a good time. They then picked out the designs to go on their pumpkins and they helped us carve them. They really turned out cute!

Fall Festival

We had our fall festival at church yesterday. It was a huge success! We estimate that over 300 people came. They ran completely out of food in the kitchen! I guess we know to prepare for more next year!

The girls had a ball! They are going to be fairies this year for Halloween and they got to get a little extra use out of their costumes! Here's several pictures of our fun day!

Bobbing for apples!

Face Painting! Annlee wanted a fairy and I was so impressed by what Chris, our friend, painted on her face!



Arts and Crafts! Here's Kaylin with her friend Jackson

Candy Walk

Playing in the bounce house - I call this picture, "The Fairy Takes Flight"

Wheee!

Invasion of the Tree Frogs!

Does anyone know a solution for getting rid of tree frogs? While Maryella loves trying to "catch" them through the window, I'm getting rather tired of their dirty little legs hopping all over the glass. Sometimes it's so bad that you can't see clearly out the window the next day! And they also stay all around the back door. Anytime you want to go outside, they jump on you. Ahhhh! Seriously - any home remedies that you have heard of would be greatly appreciated! (And it doesn't necessarily have to be a humane option at this point!)

My 15 month old sweetie!

I can't believe how quickly time has flown! Maryella will be 15 months old tomorrow! What a sweetheart she is. She loves to give hugs and big slobbery kisses. She hardly walks anywhere anymore - she's usually running. She doesn't meet a stranger - everyone gets a wave and a really loud "bye-bye" when she passes them. She will pose for a picture and say "chee". She loves to laugh and smile.
Her favorite times of the day are meal time and bath time. When I say it's time to eat, she runs to her high chair. And she will hardly let me get her clothes off before she's trying to climb in the tub at the end of the day.
She can identify lots of body parts - eye, ear, nose, mouth, head, hair, arm, hand, foot. She loves her big sisters and wants to do everything they do - which isn't always so welcomed, especially when it involves taking their art supplies.
Her two favorite words are "my" and "mama". My means mine. She says this as she grabs something and tucks it under her arm. It's usually followed by the sound of Kaylin or Annlee yelling that Maryella took something of theirs. Maryella calls mama through out the day whenever she needs me or has something to show me. Most other adults are mama as well, though. Except her daddy, who is "dada". She starts running to the door as soon as she hears our security chime in the evening when Jeff comes home, saying, "dada, dada!"
I just commented to Jeff the other day that she is becoming more and more a toddler every day. Where did my little newborn baby go?

Gone Fishin'

At Annlee's preschool, they learn the "Florida" alphabet. Every letter is associated with something beachy or having to do with Florida. So far, they've talked about alligators, boats, conch shells, dolphins, and everglades. This week is F and the theme is fishing. They are also talking about ovals, yellow, and 6 this week. It's Annlee's turn to bring a snack tomorrow, so this is what we came up with. Fishing for 6 yellow fish in an oval pond.

We were planning on doing cups of blue jello with gummy fish "swimming" in it. However, would you believe that the child who brought a snack on Monday did that?!? I was disappointed, but it turned out for the best. I like our new snack even better!

A few updates...

Just wanted to post a few updates. Kaylin and Annlee went off to school this morning in matching dresses! (The hot pink ones you gave them, Lindsey!) So maybe our matching days are not over yet! I'm glad. It's so much fun to dress them up! Plus, I've already got my eye on some matching dresses for next Easter - so I need them to humor me for a bit longer still.
Also, Maryella has done pretty well without her paci. She goes down for her naps and at bedtime without a problem. We really only had two nights that she protested. She doesn't even notice that she doesn't have them when she's awake. She even stayed in the nursery at church yesterday and made it through 2 dirty diapers without having her paci! I was proud of her. However, she does still wake up during the night and I think she misses it then. At first it was really awful. She would scream and scream. For the past several nights though, she has either slept through or just kind of fussed for a while when she wakes. No more blood curdling screams. I'm sure the neighbors are appreciative.
And just one more thing. Kaylin has picked up a couple new expressions at school (at least that's where I'm guessing it's from). We were eating the other night and she was so excited about all the mushrooms that were in her stir fry. She exclaimed, "oh sweet lovings!" And then when she dropped one on the floor, she said, "oh darn nuggets." I told her that one would be ok to say, as long as she dropped the darn. It was so funny when she said those things, though, I just had to laugh. I'm sure everything she learns at school won't be so funny...

More from the Pumpkin Patch

Maryella was in the mood to take more pumpkin patch pictures this morning after church! Of course, I had my camera ready and I was able to indulge her. :o)

Little Angels

We've had a children's choir in our church for a while, but it hasn't been overly organized. We're in the process of trying to really get it going again. Somehow, I volunteered myself to lead them. I'm still figuring out why I did that! haha Anyway, this morning they all sang. It was the first time in their robes. They were so cute and they did really well! The congregation enjoyed it a lot.

Kaylin and some of the boys in the choir. The little boy that she's leaning on is apparently her "boyfriend", Carson.


Annlee sits in between two of her good friends at church - Chloe and Siena


Annlee did really well! She sang really loud, just like I had asked!

Maryella's Silly Laugh

Maryella has made this funny sound ever since she was just a few months old. We've called it a laugh, a horse sound, and Chewbacha. All we have to say is "Do it again, Maryella" and she will make this noise (regardless of what we are asking her to do again. Kaylin and Annlee try to imitate it, but it just isn't the same as Maryella. It's become her trademark sound around our house. I finally got around to getting it on video to share with everyone. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch Day!

Our church has a pumpkin patch and today was our day to work the patch! We stayed from 9-12 and the girls had a ball! Kaylin decided she was in charge of the money and Annlee was in charge of giving stickers to all the kids who came. We had lots of fun and sold about 12 pumpkins while we were there plus lots of little mini pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn. Of course, my favorite part was getting some great pictures of the girls. I've been looking forward to that opportunity all week!

Matching... no more

For the first time this morning, Kaylin and Annlee asked that they not wear matching clothes. What a sad day! They both have the outfit that Kaylin is wearing, but Annlee didn't want to match. What I want to know is this... when did they grow up enough to even notice or be bothered by it? As much as I love watching them grow, there are certainly occassions that I wish I could stop time for awhile.

UH OH!

That was what Maryella came to me saying this morning after she got her hands on a red marker! At first glance, I thought she was bleeding, so I was relieved to find out that she had just been testing her skills as a tatoo artist.