Fall Is In The Air

It was definitely fall while we were in Michigan because it was so cold! Grandpa got to spend some quality time with Syd at home while my mom took us to an apple orchard for some yummy fudge and fresh apple cider. They also had a petting zoo there, where Hallie got to ride a horse named Fred and she got to feed some goats and a llama!

A "Great" Aunt

While we were visiting my parents, we were able to see Cam's Aunt Kathy who lives in my parents stake (which we didn't find out until after Cam and I got engaged)! We showed up at church with my parents (late as usual! That's a Voge thing!) and we noticed that Kathy was sitting next to my parents when we walked in. It was my parents' ward conference and since Kathy is the Stake Primary President, she was able to spend all sacrament meeting with Sydnee and Hallie. That was such a treat! Kathy just loved seeing the girls and Hallie loved spending time with her before we left church.

Chick or Treat!

This past weekend, Cam and I were able to go to the temple in Detroit and stay with my parents. I made the girls' Halloween costumes early so they could wear them to my parents' Halloween party at their church. This year was especially fun doing "trunk-or-treating" at the party because Hallie understood the whole dressing up in a costume and getting candy thing better than before. After "trunk-or-treating" I asked Hallie if she would share her candy with me and she said, "No! It's MY candy!" Yep... she definitely understands the Halloween festivities!

I am so proud to say I made these costumes! They were the cutest chickens in the coup!


Above: They had all the kids walk in a costume parade so they could show off their costumes. Hallie kept asking, "Where's the candy, Mommy?" Her mind was focused on only one thing.


Above: Grandma and Hallie played some games and made some crafts at the Halloween party. Hallie then enjoyed a piece of candy that she worked hard for!

Cutie-Pa-Tooties

Above: One of my favorite pictures of Sydnee.


Above: What a smug face; but she's still cute, even when she's acting two. When one of my girls is pouting, the other is smiling...thank goodness for that perfect balance!!

Toddler Yoga

It's about that time again...where I start losing my "pregnancy" weight....only to do it again in another two years!? In an effort to get back to my pre-preg body, I am not only running, but I started doing Yoga with my friend, Marci. While I do Yoga, Sydnee usually cries next to me, and Hallie plays with Marci's girls. The other day, after we got home from doing Yoga, Hallie was doing some stretches on the floor so I asked her what she was doing. She said, "Doing my exercises." I laughed when I realized she was trying to do some of the Yoga poses, and said, "What are they called?" Hallie replied, "Go-ga." So here is Hallie's version of Go-ga.

Hallie is even doing the "downward facing dog" pose, too funny!

Twlight Movie Countdown: Are you ready?

Video: Jump, Jump, Jump

At the pumpkin patch, there was a giant moon walk that the kids could jump in. At first, Hallie wasn't so sure about it since Cameron or I weren't able to go in with her, but once she got in, she had so much fun. Here's a video of her jump, jump, jumping away!

Cutest Pumpkins in the Patch

I may be a little biased, but these two were definitely the cutest pumpkins in the patch.

Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to a pumpkin patch today. This was the first year that Hallie actually understood what we do at a pumpkin patch and she loved it. We expected a crisp fall day (since it has been pretty cold lately) but we were surprised when it turned out to be 80 degree weather! We were pretty hot, but we had a lot of fun. It was the perfect way to get the girls out of the house and to give Cam a break from studying.

Above: At the pumpkin patch, they had this giant face painted onto a huge bail of hay. Hallie got to ride a pony, go inside a hay teepee, go through a hay maze, and go on a cow painted wagon ride with Daddy.

Above: They had a petting zoo there and as you can see, Cam felt right at home petting the goats.

Above: I took Hallie through the hay maze and at the end, we had to climb this two story-high stack of hay, which Hallie did over and over again!

Above: The cream of the crop.

Hoosiers For A Little Longer

Yes, you've heard right, we are staying in Indiana for at least a couple more years. Which means we have truly become "hoosiers" (what they call Indianans). Cameron is currently studying to take the GMAT so he can start his Master's Degree program in January (a two-year program) and he takes the entrance exam in a week and half... wish him luck!

We are still waiting for Avery to finalize the papers for his permanent position here in Fort Wayne, and Cam is growing anxious (well, more like nervous) to start school again for round two. It has been fun house hunting, although we aren't too serious yet, but will be in the near future but it's been fun window shopping for now!

When it does come time to move in a few months, we will certainly miss our house! These pics were taken when we first moved in so of course we've added decor, toys, and a daughter to our home (and we've suddenly outgrown it since!), but it has been our favorite home that we've lived in so far.

There's been a few perks living here like living close to family and friends. Although we've loved it, we will certainly not miss some things when we move: like a one car garage, only having two bedrooms, not very much storage space, having a small kitchen, did I mention we won't miss having a one car garage? I can't complain though, this house has been good to us, despite the cat hair mishap when we first moved in... that is still a delicate subject so I won't open up that can of worms! We have loved having a backyard though.... Hallie especially has loved that and our awesome toy room in the loft upstairs. We'd love to have more visitors, but in case you can't make it to our humble abode before we move next year... here's the home that I clean every day!

When we moved here, we upgraded from apartment life to "townhome life" and with that we got a backyard, a second floor (meaning another floor we have to baby-proof!), a fireplace, another bathroom, a garage, and our own driveway...woo hoo!

Above: The family room and the toy room in the loft. Ignore the beautiful red blanket covering our fireplace, that is our way of winterizing!

Above: This is the girls' room. Believe it or not, all of their furniture (except the crib!) was free or from goodwill. My favorite decoration in their room is Hallie's name that hangs above her bed, it turned out so cute (thanks aunt Nicole)! Even though we didn't paint the room, the color matches almost perfectly.

Four Months Old And The Results Are...

I took Sydnee in for her four month checkup earlier this week, and she weighed in at an astounding 10lbs. and 6 oz.! What a small baby!!!!! She is growing believe it or not, she is just maintaining the third percentile in everything. The doc asked if we had a short gene in our family and I said, "Yes, my sister-in-law is short." So Kath, you're not the only Voge with short genes!!! At least I get to keep Sydnee small for a little while longer! Although it will be nice when she can finally start wearing the 3-6 month clothes that we have for her!

A Lot of Dinners!

I've had the impression lately that I need to get crackin' on our food storage supply, so I've worked on it faithfully for the past 8 months, collecting one or two items every week. Up until last night, the food storage has been in the girls' closet, but we have so much that it had to be moved to our bedroom so we could add more shelves, and to our surprise, it's pretty filled up! Although, we guess that our food storage is enough to last us only a couple weeks!? But our food storage is growing slowly, but surely! Someday, Cameron and I will have a bedroom that isn't the office and the food storage rooms as well!

Hallie helped us move the food storage out of her room last night before she went to bed, but she didn't see the finished project until this morning when she walked in our room. She was shocked when she saw where we put the food storage and said, "Wow, Mommy, that's a lot of dinner!" She then helped in her own way by adding some toys to fill up the shelves. I project that will be an ongoing game for her since the food storage is out where she can see it (and play with it!) every day.

Feeding Time

Hallie always asks if she can feed Sydnee and since I was always nursing (until lately since I've lost my milk), I realized that she can now feed her! It was a great experience for the big sister... but Sydnee wasn't too happy about the wobbly arm that was feeding her. Hallie's favorite part was burping Sydnee (with mommy's help of course!). She felt so accomplished when Sydnee burped (Sydnee actually just had the hiccups but I didn't dare tell Hallie that it wasn't a burp!). Now, whenever Cameron and I cough, Hallie comes running over to us and pats us on the back saying, "I burped you, you okay now?"

Daddy's Magic Touch

Above: I finally captured Sydnee smiling! As soon as I snapped the picture, she had had enough. Sydnee is the queen of making pouty faces!

Above: Cameron has the magic touch of getting our girls to smile at him by just smiling at them! Here is a picture of Hallie smiling at Daddy when she was a baby... see any resemblance?

Playing House

Poor Sydnee was born to a big sister who thinks Sydnee is her doll, sent to our family so Hallie could be her little mommy! Thank goodness Sydnee just goes with the flow. Daddy put Sydnee in Hallie's doll stroller, and of course Hallie thought that was the coolest thing ever! So we let Hallie push Sydnee around for a minute (yes, she was supervised!) and thankfully Hallie hasn't tried putting Sydnee in her doll stroller since then... yet anyway!