I celebrated my 26th birthday earlier this month and Dad called a few days before to let me know that he would be in town for work on my actual birthday.  The kids were VERY excited for Papa Tim to stop by and I was glad to catch up.  Unfortunately I didn’t get the camera out while he was here :(  However, I did get to enjoy a nice cup of coffee on my birthday with my Dad!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts, I had a great day! 

On a funny side note, Tim took the kids to get me a gift card from Michael’s.  While there, Emma picked out some lovely stickers to add to my gift.  She was so excited for me to open “my” gift that she forgot it was “mine” and immediately asked for the stickers she picked out.  Of course, she made me a lovely sticker collage with them.  I wonder why she picked them out for me?? :)

The weather has been unbelievably beautiful in Arkansas.  We have had a LOT of rain, but really mild temperatures to go along with it!  The kids love being outside when the weather is nice so Tim has been taking them up the street to the duck pond some evenings.  He took the camera last time and captured some cute photos!

Emma is hilarious, constantly chatting and telling us stories.  She LOVES playing dress up…even sometimes in our clothes.  She started out with her own dress up box and then apparently moved on to the pile of clean laundry on our bed!!

A couple of weeks ago Emma got to bring home the “basket” from her preschool class.  Mrs. Howe explained that when each child gets to bring the basket home, they are to bring back a snack for each child in the class and that child gets to be the “leader” for the day.  Emma was VERY excited about bringing the basket home!  We made (well, mostly I made/decorated) cookies for her to take to class.  Apparently, they were delicious because Mrs. Howe said the children inhaled them!  Each child got 3 cookies each; a bat, a pumpkin and a ghost!

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been 2 months since I’ve updated our blog.  This is me attempting to get it back to shape.  October has been unbelievably busy for us.  Between school, work and all of the birthday parties for friends this month we have been going crazy!

Everett is almost 11 months old, he’s crawling and cruising around furniture.  On occasion he’s stretching really far, without letting go, to get between the furniture!  Emma is almost FOUR!!!  She knows her alphabet (by recognition of each letter) and all of the sounds the letters make.  If you ask her what letter a word starts with, she can answer you (correctly, most of the time ;)!  She’s loving preschool and especially her teacher, Mrs. Howe.  She’s especially looking forward to Halloween and “trick or treating” at school.

Tim and I are doing well.  In fact, we are both losing weight and we have changed our lifestyles a little bit.  Tim has lost 16 lbs and I have lost over 30 lbs.  In addition to being more mindful of what, when and how much we eat, I go to the gym regularly and Tim is using the Wii Fit in the evenings and continues to ride his bicycle to work.  Tim is actually doing a weight loss challenge through work, “Lose a turkey by turkey day!”  The idea is to lose 10% of your body weight in 10 weeks (by Thanksgiving) and he’s almost two-thirds there at the halfway point!  I have been on my B-12 injections for a few months and am truly starting to notice the difference.  I am doing them every week at home now so I don’t have to go into the doctor’s office during cold and flu season. 

Anyways…enough about us…onto the kids!

Grandma ReeRee came to visit:

We got the kids a bubble machine for the bathtub!!  They LOVE it!

Spencer’s Birthday

My friend Kelly’s son, Spencer had his first birthday this month.  I made the “OSU” themed cake for his party!

Photos taken by Joel Culberson.

Everett was too cute, we were supposed to wear our “team gear” to the party!

Little Everett…he’s into everything now!!

Obviously, he LOVES Baby Einstein!!

Emma and Lucas on the Trampoline

Once again I have failed to keep the blog updated!  We have been crazy busy and I am finding it hard to keep on top of this thing.  Anyways, enough of my excuses, here is the good stuff…

Everett Pictures:

First chocolate chip cookie!!

Helping with the laundry!

Picture of Everett refusing to sleep in his crib…he jumps up and down! (poor quality from the video monitor on the tv!)

Everett in the bean bag, his favorite chair!

Emma Pictures:

Dolly “washing”

Emma dead asleep with all of her lights in her room on.  She is refusing to take naps, so some days she falls asleep on her own when she gets bored.

Cheese!

Miscellaneous Pictures

Family dress up time and reading Emma’s favorite book that helped her learn her alphabet, “On Market Street”.

Westin and Summer came to visit on Labor Day weekend.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed their visit!  While they were here Summer helped me do some craft projects in the house, she’s really talented!  Thanks Summer!!

This is chalkboard paint on the door!

Cakes

I have been doing a lot of cakes recently.  Different requests, some baby shower and some birthday, but LOTS of cakes!  Tim always comes in and tries to get pictures of me working on the cakes.

Razorback Cake

Baby shower cake

Sewing

I have been making lots of Emma’s dresses for the winter!  I made this outfit out of an old pair of shorts.

Everett has learned to play peek a boo all by himself.  Tim managed to catch him on video the other night while he was playing with me.  It’s pretty cute!

Tip: If you are viewing this in an email, you will have to click on the “Peek a Boo”  link at the top to go to the website to actually view the video.