Happy Halloween Ya'll

It's a Halloween from the Wild Wild West...



Well, I'd say I outdid myself this year making these cute cowgirl costumes for both girls, but last year's costumes were pretty cute too when Hallie was the chicken and Sydnee was the chick... what do you think!?

Hallie wanted to be a cowgirl so by default, Sydnee becomes a cowgirl as well. I originally bought Hallie's costume, and when Cam asked why I wasn't making them this year, I didn't have an excuse. So to the fabric store I went and I let Hallie pick out the fabric for the chaps. I made up my own patterns for the vests and chaps, added a little fringe and waa laa! How could they not have matching costumes when they turned out so cute!!!! What will I think of next year!?

I thought you'd enjoy a little Halloween preview of how cute our girls are going to look Trick-or-Treating tomorrow night!!

Below: Sydnee's pointing out her chaps on her legs... she's so cute!

Sydnee's WALKING!!!!!

A couple weeks ago, Sydnee took two steps again and again so we knew walking was just around the corner for her and tonight while we were playing, I stood Sydnee up and told her to walk to me and two steps turned into three, four and five!!!! Before the night was over, she had walked six steps across the room. It was a very exciting time and just in time for nursery at church since she goes into nursery next month already!

As a parent, seeing your baby walk for the first time and master something so amazing is one of the best moments in my life, next to when they learn to tell you they love you. We are so proud of our baby girl and are still so amazed how she has overcome every obstacle that her doctors think she wouldn't be able to do so quickly due to her developmental problems! She has been so blessed by the Lord to be a perfectly normal and healthy girl. I think of all of us, Hallie is the proudest big sister I've ever seen... can you tell by her screaming!? We couldn't choose just one video so here are all four of our sweet baby growing too fast... enjoy!

Carving Pumpkins

Hallie has been very anxious for Halloween this year. A week before October, she asked if we could get our Halloween decorations out and decorate, so we did which kind of felt silly since it was still so warm outside, but now that the cold has hit... it's starting to feel more like Fall. For Family Night last night we carved pumpkins to get ready for Halloween.

I carved Hallie's pumpkin but I made her scrape out the seeds and pumpkin "mush"... and like a typical girl she didn't like getting messy, so I did it. Hallie wanted a scary pumpkin with a heart nose, so here's the finished product...


Sydnee helped carve pumpkins by picking up a seed that had fallen on the floor with only her thumb and index finger (making sure it didn't touch the rest of her fingers so as not to get dirty!?) and put it on the plate with the other seeds and pumpkin mush. It was a cute and funny contribution!

Goodbye to My Favorite Part of Summer...

This past summer Hallie has become really good friends with our neighbors' girls behind us. And as the days grow colder and colder, she's noticed she doesn't really get to see her friends Rose and Lana as much since neither of us are outside as often. So it makes me kind of sad to say goodbye to this until next summer....

Here's how this "talking through the fence" thing begun...

Whoever would go outside first (whether it be Rose and Lana or Hallie) they would stand at the fence and call their names until they came outside. And then, even though they knew how to open the gate, they would talk through the fence for the longest time before asking whether or not they could play together. They would even throw different toys over the fence to share them with each other and take turns playing with them!? Michelle (Rose and Lana's mom) and I laughed so hard over that so I had to take a picture. That fence has heard some great conversation over the last few months between two 3-year-old's and one 4-year-old! So until next summer, fence...

Teaching Preschool: Week 6

This week it was my turn to teach preschool again and the shape theme on Monday was diamonds, moons, and stars. So I taught about the creation of the sun, moon and stars, and I taught that we need to keep our bodies in good "shape" and we made some fun crafts like a skeleton to remind them to keep our bones healthy and strong...


On Wednesday, the theme was triangles so I made a file folder matching game with the shapes we're learning. To help them identify triangles, I made an "I Spy Triangles" book for each of them and had them glue candy corn on each triangle they could find. We also made pumpkins with triangle eyes and shakers to make music.

So after teaching preschool four times now, here are some things I've learned...

• The kids know the pledge of allegiance so well already, I'm so proud of them!
• The girls could spend 20-30 minutes more on each of their crafts to perfect them and enjoy it... when on the other hand, the boys do the crafts to please me and then are done before I can give directions.
• All five kids play in the toy room the last 10 minutes of preschool which usually includes playing house... which entails the boys being the "Husband" who goes to work and the girls are the "Mommy's." They've taught me that obviously our husbands are working too much according to them, and that the "Mommy's" yell a lot since as soon as they play house, Hallie will start yelling at them and telling them what to do. When I corrected Hallie and told her that Mommy's don't yell a lot, she insisted they do!? Why is it that kids always remember that one bad word you said, or that one red light you went through or that one time you've screamed at them instead of the COUNTLESS hours you've soothed them, loved them, held their puke for them or delivered them!?!?!?
  
• You never know if they're learning until one of them screams, "I have a booger," and another one responds, "That means your body is healthy!" I think I'm learning more from them than they are from me!
  

When Daddy Works and Studies Too Much...

The girls have been needing some lovin' from Daddy and some much needed Daddy-time. So on Sunday's and some Saturday's when he's home, I practically get the whole day to myself since the girls want time with Daddy since he's not around much these days. In between studying for his Master's and still working a 50 hour work week, Hallie and Sydnee enjoyed some cuddle time with him.

We miss Cam a lot during the week, but he makes up for it on the weekends and Hallie still gets her movie night with Sydnee and Cam and I every Friday night. I'm so grateful that Cam still makes time for the important things :)

Matching Shirts=Picture Opportunity

I took these because they were in matching shirts and they just looked so stinkin' cute that day so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.



The girls love to pretend play together lately and Hallie always has Sydnee pretend to sleep so not only does Syd lay her head down and pretend to sleep, she even pretends to snore!!! It's the cutest thing ever! So this is her pretending to snore...

Hallie took this picture... impressive huh?

Syd's Mastered the Stairs!

A couple weeks ago, Sydnee figured out how to open the gate to the stairs and up she went!


To my surprise, she made it all the way to the top without falling down and was in my room crying and looking for me when I found her. Yes, that was a scare, but hooray, cause she made it to the top without me ever teaching her!! So, since then, when someone opens the gate, she makes a mad dash for the stairs and giggles (yes, giggles) as she's crawling up since she knows she's being naughty. It quickly becomes a race to see how fast she can get to the top before she gets caught.

A few days ago, I let her and Hallie play on the stairs and we were there for over an hour... who knew that playing on some stairs would be so entertaining!? Because of their pj's you may think it's early in the morning, but no... this picture was taken at 3:30 in the afternoon and it was so fun to be in pj's all day. It was a much needed pj day.

Family Portraits 2009

Yes, we finally got family pictures taken... our first time since we've become a family! Pathetic, I know, but look how cute they turned out! Don't worry, family members, you will be getting some for Christmas, so just wait a couple more months, or "a couple more while ago's" according to Hallie. Either way, Merry Christmas!

Our Second HONEYMOON: Mackinac Island!

After all these years of saying and wishing, we finally went back! This past weekend, we left the girls with Grandma and Grandpa Drake and went back to Mackinac Island, where we honeymooned, to celebrate our five year anniversary! It was such a romantic, quiet, relaxed weekend, we loved every minute of it! It brought back so many memories from our honeymoon, and we were even mistaken for "newlyweds" at one point by a store owner, what a way to top off the weekend!

This time we stayed on the island (pretty pricey, but worth every penny!) at Harbourview Inn (pictured above) and staying on the island as opposed to off the island lets you experience Mackinac's streets at night and the night life on the island's restaurants and pubs which was so neat!

The island is set in a Victorian Era so all the shops and homes are beautifully restored to that Era. We had great food and of course fudge, since Mackinac Island makes the best fudge in Michigan.



Mackinac Island is an island north of Michigan in between Michigan and the Upper Pennisula, kind of where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. To get there, you have to take a ferry across Lake Huron (pictured above) which is about a 20 minute boat ride.

The night we arrived, it was cold and rainy and so windy that the waves were reaching about 6 ft. high! They actually closed the Mackinac bridge because it was too windy, so I was pretty terrified of taking this boat ride to the island. The boat ride was 20 minutes too long, with waves higher than the boat and our boat even CAUGHT AIR TWICE!?!? I thought for sure I was going to die there, but we arrived safely to the island. After checking in, we went out for dinner and hot chocolate...


Mackinac Island is known for the invasion that happened at Fort Mackinac (pictured below) which was invaded by the British after the Revolutionary War (who knew?) which we toured the next day. It ended up being a beautiful fall day so we went sightseeing at Fort Mackinac, the Grand Hotel and rode bikes to some beautiful places. Below are the pictures from Fort Mackinac...

Above & below: the view from Fort Mackinac


Below: this was a gun hole to place your gun to fire at the British through one of the walls around Fort Mackinac.





(Above: Mackinac Island bridge that connects Michigan's lower and upper peninsula's)

The coolest thing about the island is that there are no cars allowed on the island, so to get around you either take a horse-drawn carriage (pictured above) or ride bikes!


Cam chose which trail to take to Arch Rock and Sugar Loaf rock and the whole trail happened to be all uphill...not very fun! But the view's were breathtaking...



The way back to Main Street was more fun since it was all downhill. We were cruising pretty fast until we screeched to a stop when this fell in our path...

No worries... we just carried our bikes over the tree and went on our way.

The island is most famous for the Grand Hotel which is the first thing you see on your way to the island. If you know the film "Somewhere in Time" with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour, it was filmed on this island and in the Grand Hotel.


The Grand Hotel ranges from $500-$1100/night! Men must be dressed in a coat and tie and women must wear dresses when you're on the hotel's property... it's pretty fancy shmancy I'd say. They even make you pay $10/person just to walk on the porch if you're not a guest at the hotel. Instead of walking on the porch, we spent our $10 more wisely... like on fudge and ice cream.

We had such a great weekend, it was the best way to spend our anniversary together! Thanks Cam for making the weekend so magical and memorable!