Halloween 2007...a couple days early

A couple days early, but we were leaving for a Halloween party and the weather was cooperating. Wednesday night all 4 will be all bundled up and you'll have to guess at what the costumes are.

Gotta love the tutu...

We were finally able to get Karis in her new tutu without too much of a fight yesterday afternoon before leaving for a Halloween Party.

Cars Addicted

Brennan is going to once again make it really easy on us this Christmas. He's still all about CARS and when going through a wish book or catalog the first thing he does is check out the new CARS items.

Karis' Tutu

I finally finished up Karis' tutu tonight. Super cute if I do say so myself. I just need to get a good pic of her actually wearing it now....It's going to be part of her Halloween costume.

First Completely Full Day

Usually when it's nap/bedtime he'll be put in a pull-up or when we are going to be out of the house for a decent period of time. Today was Mr. B's first full day in underwear and he's doing great. No accidents!! (only going to the bathroom 500 million zillion times) It'll be sooooo nice to have only one in diapers.

Karis has been showing some signs of being ready to start using the potty. She'll come and let me know when she's wet or stinky. Today she even asked to go to the potty. I think she just heard Brennan say it a hundred times today and she loves to copy him.

I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have a diaper free house. Hmmmmmm

Brennan's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Brennan had his first field trip last week and we headed out to the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun. Karis found a huge corn box to play in and Brennan loved playing in the mud. They each got to pick out their own little pumpkin. The owners make the trip a great time for the kids and adults with lots of things to keep everyone busy.
Here are some pics from our day:

My Cake

My final cake decorating class was this morning. Her is my end result. Nothing spectacular, but it's pretty cool if I do say so myself. I had a lot of fun and really learned a lot. I just need to find the extra time to actually get some practice in. I start the Holiday decorating calss next week. I really looking forward to it.

Halloween Costumes

I think we've finally narrowed it down and everyone is happy with their costume choices.

• Jadyn is going to be Vidia (Friend of tinkerbell)
• Taryn is going to be Minnie Mouse again (we've bought her minnie shoes for her costume)
• Brennan is going to be Mater again
• Karis is going to be a little witch with a tutu I made her. I finally found her a hat today, but she refuses to wear it. Stinker! I figure if I can just get her to wear the hat for 5 seconds I'll be able to get a good pic of her.

I'm hoping the weather will cooperate this year and we won't have to bundle up like we did last year. My fingers are definitely crossed!

Finally!

I got Miss Karis to stand still long enough to play with her hair.

Wooly Caterpillars

I love love love them! I loved playing with them when I was little and finally saw some last week. Jadyn and Taryn didn't want anything to do with them. Brennan held one and let it crawl up his arm. Karis held one in her hand for a bit, picked it up and threw it as far as it would go.

Haven't seen them since....wonder why....

So Serious...

Yesterday we were at Taryn's school waiting for the end of the day. Karis is over playing by a tree and I notice her hitting her head and say "ow." She keeps repeating the hit and the 'ow.'

Me: Karis you need to stop hitting yourself in the head. You've got enough problems.
**Karis Stops**
Brennan: Karis, you've got problems..... (It was totally said in this grown-up, completely serious tone)

Oh my!

I joined the preschool board in order to keep abreast of what's happening etc. I was on the board when the girls were enrolled, took a year off and now I'm back with Brennan. It's quite entertaining, but oh my goodness what have I gotten myself into?

In thinking of a fundraiser that wouldn't have the kids (parents) handing out catalogs of items that are way over priced and we really don't need , a few of the ladies and I came up with the idea of a chili dinner fundraiser. We're going to have a bake/craft sale and a small Christmas program added to the fundraiser.

What have I gotten myself into?!?!?!?!?!? We desperately need a good fundraiser and I have no doubt that the chili dinner will do great, but it's going to be a TON of work. I've got lists and lists running around in my head right now.

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it. 8 weeks and counting.......

Karis is (somewhat) done!

We had our annual EI meeting yesterday morning. Karis is doing GREAT! She's got to be 30% delayed in order to qualify to continue services. While she's doing absolutely fantabulous, there are still a couple of issues we want to keep track of.

We are discontinuing DT and she's been approved for a 2 yr old playgroup starting in January. We've kept PT, but it's going to be very infrequent...basically check-ups of her feet/ankles and visits every 3 months to make sure she's where she needs to be. Really it's a feet/ankle issue and we want to make sure they get better and not worse. Having someone that knows what they've looked like and will give us an unbiased opinion every couple of months will be fabulous.

We'll use the regular therapy days/times to do little fun activities with just Karis and I. She really needs to socialize more and adapt to different surroundings and people. Different activities around town should really help.

I am absolutely estatic that Karis has come this far, but then on the other hand I'm sad too. The therapists have become such a part of Karis and I. They'll definitely be missed.

Jadyn's self portrait

Kolin's Anniversary Present

I had a friend of my mom's make Kolin a one of a kind UofI Chief quilt. I've been hiding it for almost 2 months and was super excited to give it to him today. Kolin loves it and I definitely surprised him this year.

Now to come up with something absolutely fabulous for next year.....

Jadyn's Room Mom

I had a lot of fun last year helping out in Jadyn's classroom. This year though, helping out every week just isn't in the cards. I decided to sign up to be the room mom and got picked because I was the only one who checked the box. =) Now comes the fun part of getting other parents to help out with the parties and trying to figure out how to schedule the most fun in a 1 hour time span.

I've got treat bags bought for Jadyn, Taryn and Brennan's classrooms. Now we just need to figure out what to add to them and go at it. I think I might put some of my decorating skills to test and make/decorate cupcakes or cookies. We'll just have to see how ambitious I get.