Yes

Seven years ago today, Matt drove me to Mt. Rainier on a beautifully sunny day. We drove to Paradise, where we got out and walked around in the snow a bit. Then, Matt knelt down in the snow and asked me to be his wife. And we've been living our dreams ever since. I love you Matt!

Ads

Well, it happened. Erika found the toy catalog from Target. All morning, I've been hearing, "I never had that doll before." "I never had that game before." "If I'm good, I'll get it for Christmas."
Um, little does she know that she will not be getting the doll for $50 that you have to change its diaper. How is that a "bonus" on a doll? Maybe I'll put a bow on Laurel for Erika on Christmas morning, "Here you go, change her diaper!"
I thought I had a couple more years before commercials, ads, or magazines attracted my daughter's attention enough to ask me, nay, tell me that she must have this particular item. Sigh.
I guess it's never too early to teach thankfulness for what we already have. I've been working on that with her so that whenever she says, "I want that doll" I remind her that she has a bunch of dolls and isn't she lucky to have so many dolls to play with already? We'll see on Christmas morning if my words are making an impact or not. Hopefully, and this will probably be the case, Erika will be so excited with the toys that she did get, that she'll forget all about the ones she thought she wanted.

Playing and Reading

Too busy wiping snotty noses to write anything of significance. Just some videos to enjoy!

Who doesn't love a ride in the laundry basket?

Erika loves reading to Laurel. Her little voice is hoarse from her cold. :(

Picture Thanks

It always seems appropriate to post what makes me thankful in the month of November. So, here it is.

I am immensely thankful for:

And:

And:

And how the girls play together:

And especially that they can both boogie like none other (just like their Mama)!

What a blessing they are to me.....I thank God for them every day!

Backlog

We just got our computer fixed so no more virus! Hooray! Which means I have a bunch of pictures that you get to see since I haven't been able to do anything with our computer for a while.

I love fall! I love the colorful leaves the most. It's even lots of fun to rake them up. And fun to watch Erika jump in them.

Jumping in the freshly raked pile.

Erika kept yelling at Wyatt to hold still so she could put leaves on his back. He didn't obey.

The entire family got to rake.

Even Laurel enjoyed it.

Next year we're buying the girls little rakes and we'll sit inside watching them rake the entire yard by themselves!

Matt made the girls their first blanket fort/tent/house. They love it! Erika's imagination has exploded lately so she'll take a bunch of her stuffed animals in the tent with her and have little conversations with them. It is so much fun to listen to!

The tent.

Erika had to coax Laurel to go into it with her.

Then she couldn't keep her out!

Wyatt enjoys the tent as well.

Laurel has discovered that if she sits on the top of the slide and scoots back and forth, she will eventually go down. It's pretty cute!

Virus

Our computer contracted a virus.....and we are no longer surrounded by our good friends who also happen to be master computer fixers! So, blogging has been put on hold for a while, until I went to Sarah's house to use her computer. And, of course, Erika has been saying the funniest things that the entire world should know about. Therefore, I will try and remember her sayings and provide them for you in this enjoyable blog.
-We were at the dinner table the other night and Erika was eating a Tootsie Roll pop. She had eaten such a sucker before, but had never made it to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie roll pop. As she bit into her mini sucker and tasted the chocolate, she got a disgusted look on her face and started spitting the chocolate out (she doesn't care for chocolate). Then, she got kind of quiet and quizical and said, "Why my have chockie in my mouth?" Note: "chockie" = chocolate. We probably laughed for about 5 minutes!
-We were watching Charlotte's Web and in the beginning scenes, Fern is crying because her father is going to kill the runt pig. Erika doesn't like it when people are crying and she said to me, "She's crying because she can't find her mommy." She has said that phrase a couple other times when she sees a character crying. I guess that is the saddest thing Erika can think of....not being able to find one's mommy. I kind of like that!
-Laurel had a rough night last night....I think she might be getting new teeth. One of the times I went into her room last night, Erika had woken up from the crying so she gave me some advice on how to help Laurel calm down. "Mommy, she needs some medicine," Erika told me and then promptly laid back down and went to sleep. Thanks for the help Erika!
Ok, I'm sure there were more times that she was funny, but that's all I can remember. Hope you enjoyed them!

My Girls

Wow, I love these girls!

Songstress

Bonus: Laurel is 10 months old today!

"Thank You For My Candy"

After a week of practicing trick or treating around the house, Erika finally got to do the real thing this weekend!

We started the Halloween festivities by participating in trunk-or-treat at our church on Friday night. It was super fun and we had a really good turnout for the first time this church had ever done this activity. After dinner on Saturday, we loaded the girls into the wagon and went around our neighborhood. Erika beat her old record of trick-or-treating at 3 houses to going to about 12 this year. She only tried entering one person's residence while they were giving her candy. And one little boy called Laurel a boy; whatever, boys can wear blue tutus I guess! After we were done in the neighborhood, we headed home where we put Laurel to bed. Matt stayed at the house with her, watching football and handing out candy, while Sarah and I took Erika to a party that a local church was hosting. We met up with her friend, Jake, and had a great time! The church did a really good job putting the party together. All their classrooms were decorated and people were handing out candy. In their gym, they had games and bounce houses and food. It was really fun! So, this was probably the best Halloween I've been a part of for a while!

In other news, Laurel said her first word, "ma-ma"! Yeah for me! Erika's first words were "da-da" and "hi" so I feel pretty special. She can also say "hi" and something that sounds like "nah-nah" but I have no idea what she is trying to say. However, she usually says it as I'm removing her from a dangerous situation (like pulling her off the toy organizer like just happened) so perhaps she's saying "no-no". She is walking along the furniture like a champ which means I am even more busy keeping things out of her way. It is a lot more difficult with her than it was with Erika because Erika doesn't know not to leave things laying around that Laurel can get into so I'm cleaning up after multiple people. But, it's fun to have Laurel more mobile and I think she is enjoying it as well.

Alright, here are a bunch of pictures!

Erika painting her pumpkin. It seemed easier than carving.

Such concentration!

Very proud of her beautiful pumpkin.

Happy, loud little ballerinas.

As you can see, Laurel is going as a ballerina who didn't take her V-8.



Excited for candy!

Trunk or treat.

Her friend, Jake is quite the gentleman!

Jake and Erika at the church carnival.

Erika spent the majority of the carnival eating popcorn.

Very proud of getting the balls in the holes.

She screamed the entire time she was bouncing.