Mama's girl

In my hat

Where to Begin?

I am so far behind on blogging after sicknesses, holiday craziness, and the busyness that comes from life in a family of six. I can't bring my self to post too terribly out of order so bare with me as I slowly work my way back to the present... 

 Things began to get complicated in mid November when Samuel had four days of high fever and then broke out with red bumps all over his body.

Poor little guy woke up that morning and told me that he had "boo boos all over".  I took him to the doctor and we determined that he was having a reaction to the MMRV vaccine he'd had 12 days earlier.  It took several days, but the measles rash finally cleared up.

We took advantage of some really warm (for November) weather and had some great outside play time.

We put the kids to work outside with some chores too to earn money to spend on their Operation Christmas Child boxes.  This is a favorite for them, and this year Samuel got to join in!

Tween

Really, this one is growing so fast!  So much about him is changing...

Such a good kid and a sweet big brother!

In uniform

Emma decided to join Daisy Scouts this year. She recently got her uniform and was thrilled to have the opportunity to make a matching Build-a-Bear in celebration of Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary.

Reminds me of another slightly older girl long ago...

Comfort

I love that Lucas {riding in the car} finds comfort holding Emma's hand...

Eyes

45:52 | EYES

Leaf Pile

We had some beautiful weather last week! A bit warm for November, but perfect for playing in the leaves!

 

Little elves

This outfit has always reminded me of something that little elves might wear.  Emma received it (and the matching doll) for her first birthday.

It was an immediate favorite!  By the time she was three she had really outgrown the outfit and was quite sad.  Lucky for her, Mom found that they were still being sold and bought the biggest size she could!

She passed the smaller one down to Samuel, and when he was 18 months old we surprised Daddy with pictures of them together in their matching outfits.

Now, Lucas has inherited the smaller outfit.

For months now Emma has been waiting for me to take her for more matching pictures... this time with Lucas!  I wanted to wait until the same time of year as she and Samuel, though Lucas is a few months older than Samuel was.  They both enjoyed the photo shoot and we picked two poses to buy, but there were many cute ones:

Melted

The other day Brian and I rented a movie from Redbox. We had a busy evening playing outside with the kids and a late dinner (pizza in the pizza oven). After we ate we were looking for the movie, which HAD been on the kitchen counter prior to dinner...

Suddenly I realized that I could see the case INSIDE the pizza oven.  As Brian was trying to figure out how it could've gotten in there, Lucas kept saying "me!"  Sure enough when I asked him if he did something with the movie he said, "Put it in there" and pointed to the pizza maker.  There is a little drawer at the bottom to enable easy cleaning...  on his tiptoes Lucas would've been able to just reach the knob.  I guess it looked like a good place for a DVD.   

We were ready to have to replace the melted DVD, but Redbox customer service is awesome!-- they advised us to buy a new empty case from the machine for $1.28, and return the melted dvd for full credit!  

22 months

Lucas spent his 22-month birthday struggling with a pretty bad case of Croup.  It has been so strange to hear his little hoarse voice!  He was a little trouper, and mainly hung out on Mom's lap.  Today he went to the doctor and received a steroid shot. Hopefully this will get him over the hump.

Some favorite recent pictures:

 Blowing kisses to Mommy

Favorite words/phrases:  "no", "actually no", "that mine", "hold hand pees", "my turn", "otay", "mommy (I) want you"

Kisses

I hope I never forget the sweet little slobbery kisses from this one...

Halloween Night

On Halloween night Emma and Samuel decided to participate in a program/party at our church. They got to dress up, sing, play games, and pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Emma had planned on being "Mama Mary" until a few nights before when she saw someone at a "trunk or treat" dressed as "Queen Esther". Samuel had talked for days about being "Goliath". When it came time to get ready, I put on his breastplate and he decided that was not the character for him. "I want to be Jesus", he said, which had been his original idea the first time we talked about this. And so, he was...

Superman Flashback

Samuel looked great in this Superman costume.  He wore his own cape that he got for his birthday, but the rest of the costume was one I made for Nathan when he was 3 1/2.

Trick-or-Treat!

We went trick-or-treating this year in style... Super Hero Style, that is...  it was a family affair!

Robin (Ya'bin)

Superman

Wonder Woman

Iron Man

Cat Woman (or "cat tail" according to Lucas)

(you can't see my cat ears or tail in this picture, but Emma took it so I wanted to post this one)

Batman

At one point this evening Samuel was doing something he shouldn't have been doing.  I tried to correct him and he said, "I can do what I want to do."  I got down on his level, looked him in the eye and said, "Yes you can... if you'd like to get a spank for not obeying Mom and Dad."  He said, "But you not Mom right now, you Cat Woman!"