Costumes and a Christmas Program

 Just another generic post with recent cute kid pictures!

Maggie and Kate thoroughly enjoy their trunk full o' princess costumes.  Mix & match time!

Some Halloween costumes, some princess costumes... cuteness abounds.

My beautiful middle girl after singing her little heart out at Bright Beginnings' Christmas program.

Sisters

Last Game

Jack's last soccer game of the season was on his birthday.  He wasn't feeling 100% that day, and rather than force him to play (kicking and screaming, I'm sure), we had him suit up and sit out in order to save energy for his party.  We at least got some cute pictures of the girls that day. 

Sweet Sixteen

Maggie is 16 months now.  (I meant to write this post weeks ago, when she actually "turned" sixteen months, but life gets in the way!)  She is still THE sweetest, most adorable, lovely, friendly baby girl.  She's obsessed with her "lovey," and it keeps her occupied after she wakes up in the morning or from a nap.  When I go in to get her, she usually has it hanging from her mouth by a corner, and then she'll hold onto the side of the crib and bounce enthusiastically.  She also has a stack of books easily reachable from her crib, and she's taken to pulling them into bed for an after-nap read as well.  (Jack used to do the same thing at this age.)  She says "hi" to every stranger she sees while we're out and about, and half the time they say "hi" back.  If they don't respond, she'll repeat herself several times, louder and more insistently.  She loves imitating her dog, or other dogs, saying "fff fff fff fff" while bobbing her head.  She's super affectionate, often coming up and leaning her head on my back while I'm sitting on the floor to give me a quick hug (that is the BEST).  And she's become a little helper like her big sister: if there is anything spilled on the kitchen floor, Maggie hustles to the basket where I keep the washcloths, pulls one out, and goes to wipe up the spill.  We're still nursing, but only twice a day, and she's slowly losing interest.  Boo hoo.  I've been nursing babes and/or pregnant constantly for almost seven years now, so it'll feel weird to be out of that era.  I had Brian take this picture of me nursing Maggie the other day to commemorate what I figure will soon be ending in our household. 

My Halloweenies

Halloween 2012 is now in the books, and what a year it was! 

Maggie/Dorothy had fun playing with our pumpkin's accessories.

What a love!

A semi-successful jack o' lantern-inspired homemade pizza.

Trying to get a good picture of all three.  At the same time.  Nearly impossible!

Trick-or-treating at Grandma Pat's.  Still trying to get a good picture...

I can't believe how grown-up and pretty Kate looks here!

A correctly-facing Hello Kitty headband is always good.

Stinkin' donut.

I do believe this was Jack's first time swinging a golf club?

He hit a balloon on his first try!

"Angry Birds" catapult game... notice the bird mid-air!

Afternoon Bubbles

Kate and I went outside to blow bubbles the other day, right after her afternoon nap.  This girl likes to strip down to her undies for naptime, and then to go back outside I make her get dressed again, so it's usually in whatever clothes she can find quickest.  This is how I love my middle girl: scrappy, messy, mismatched, joyful.

Balloon Fiesta

With three kids and a semi-tight budget (thanks to Dave Ramsey!), we don't get to travel much anymore.  But last weekend, we did make it to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta!  We didn't actually go in the "official" park where they launch the balloons... thanks, again, to the budget (Eight bucks a person?  Seriously?).  But we did find a quiet street nearby where we could park and sit and watch the hundreds of balloons lift off into the morning light.  My first time... kinda cool.

Jack and Kate were not that impressed by the cold.

Maggie, however, is always a little trooper.

A rare picture of me!

Dedication Day

We just had our youngest dedicated at church this past Sunday.  We videotaped the event, but there was a smudge on the camera lens which we didn't see until AFTERward (unfortunate)... AND both older children behaved horribly up at the front of church during the dedication ceremony (annoying).  So, who knows if the actual video will be shared!  Maggie did pose nicely in her dedication dress for some pictures after church, showing her comedienne side as always.  What a ham.

Marshall Express

I know these pictures are a little bit blurry, but I think they're still adorable: our three kiddos playing train in the living room.  I don't think Maggie's smile could be any happier. 

 

First Days of School

My two oldest have both started the next chapters in their lives: Jack is a kindergartener and Kate is a preschooler!  Kate is in the Tigers class at Bright Beginnings on Wednesday and Friday mornings.  So far, she's doing well.  Each week they have a theme, so it's fun to hear her come home and put those themes into practice: "Come on, Maggie, let's play Camping!"

Jack is in Mrs. Lee's class at Fairacres, the same school that Brian went to.  I was a little worried about him on the bus, but he turned out to be a bus-riding pro.  He has two friends from his class who also take his route (even though he doesn't ever remember their names!), and they all sit in the row right behind the bus driver.  Phew.  Unfortunately, he's already missed three days of school due to a fever... but. hopefully, the sick days are over for awhile!  Words cannot express how unbelievably proud I am of him.  And how I really, really would love to be a fly on the wall of his classroom... but, I guess, there's a time in every kid's life when his/her mama realizes she has to let him go!

The Fun Baby Book

My favorite hobbies as a kid?  Reading stacks of books... and then writing my own.  Jack seems to be following in my footsteps.  He loves drawing elaborate pictures and then dictating the story to me so we can put a book together.  His latest creation was titled "The Fun Baby Book."  It didn't really turn out to be a "baby" book, but it is fun to see he's thinking about.  For all who'd like to take a read, I present:

The cover

People had a race and then they were too tired to race anymore, so they went inside and they slept and they got a drink of water and they came outside again and raced for forty days and forty nights."

The fire is burning a building down that is still being built up.  But will the firemen ever put the fire out?  Yes, they will.  They put it out fast and then they go home.

A boat crashed the land and it flew out to sea and it crashed another boat in the face.  It kept doing that until it wanted to go back to land.

The Transformer dump truck transformed into a dump truck that's standing on one wheel and dumped dirt into a pile and crunched it up because it was too big of rocks and they made a road.