Halloween 2013

It seems as though every Halloween the weather is so yucky. The day before? Beautiful. The day after? Beautiful. But, Halloween? Nasty. The town next to us (& where the girls' school is at) actually postponed "Beggars Night" this year due to the predicted weather forecast being "unsafe". Unfortunately, our town doesn't do that. Halloween is on regardless if you can trick-or-treat or not. So, we were patiently waiting to see how the evening was going to turn out.

The day started our beautiful, high 50's and clear skies. As the day went on, the temperature stayed the same but it began to get gloomy and rainy. The girls were starting to get bummed thinking that trick-or-treating wasn't going to be happen. Luckily, by the time 5:30pm rolled around, all dressed in costumes, the weather held out for us. Still "warm", little bit of rain mist but nothing that was going to keep us from going trick-or-treating. The girls were excited that several friends went with us trick-or-treating. They lasted about an hour and fun was had from all. It was so cute to see the three big girls so into it and saying "thank you" everytime someone gave them candy. Not to mention, how adorable Lainey was. She has such a sweet tooth and was just beside herself that this bag she was carrying was full of candy. They all obeyed and didn't open any candy while out but Lainey was taking it very seriously. There were several suckers (her favorite!) that were just not able to go into the bag, she insisted on carrying them. Then, when she got something else that looked better, she'd hold it and throw one of the others into the bag. SO cute!

Here are some pictures of our Halloween fun!!

 

 (this picture was taken a couple days prior to Halloween when we went to a fall festival. Gianna had changed what she wanted to be- wanted to be an owl again (like last year), but then decided for her school party and Halloween that she wanted to be a Mermaid instead. I don't have a very good pic of the mermaid costume :( )

 

Kinsley's First Halloween & Pumpkin:

 

 

Pumpkin Carving:

This is their silly/gross face that they insisted I take a picture of :P They were awful girly with the pumpkin guts :)

 

 

 

Our jack-o-lantern this year:

 

Trick-or-Treating:

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, Friday, November 1st, I woke up to this:

 

A flower had bloomed. It completely caught me by surprise but must of been that beautiful spring like temperatures that we had for a couple of days. Definitely made me feel thankful on the first day of November. So fitting <3 p="">

7 months

Ive been working really hard at trying to stay up-to-date on Kinsley's month birthday so I don't forget any of the milestones hit! If anything is going to make me update this blog, it'll because of that!

Today we celebrate Kinsley's 7 month birthday.

Her 6th month here with us was very exciting for her.... & very exhausting for us ;)

She has mastered crawling and can pull herself onto her knees.

Her and the door stoppers are best friends!

She finds everything. Her new favorite places in the house are the bathroom, dog food/water, and baby wipes.

She has mastered eating puffs. She *loves* them. And we love watching her eat them :)

She can sit unassisted now. She can also go from a laying down to sitting position like its her job.

Her sleeping habits are nothing to complain (or brag about). They are tolerable and shes well rested. About once a week though, she loves to stay up late and party with Mom & Dad. We secretly like though! :)

The other day, she even babbled Mama. Daddy wasn't pleased but we were both still excited that another milestone was hit so perfectly. (Note: she hasn't done it since :P ) I sure love her and her snuggles. Even on a rainy, cold, no shower, stay in your jammies kinda day.

Sooo excited to see what is in store for us next month! :))

Ava's 5th Birthday :)

On October 15, 2008 @ 7:44pm., 6lbs. 10oz. and 20 in long of a little girl came into our lives and changed us forever. I think about that day so much, I re-read her birth story on every birthday. Feeling all those feelings again. I wonder how I ever got so lucky? The girl that made me a Mama has made me so proud day after day for the last FIVEEEEE years?! How its been 5 years, I have no idea. But, we spent the day celebrating HER! And how much we love HER! She had a wonderful day. And most of all, loved hearing about every memory we have about the day she was born at exactly the same time.

After she was born. She just starred at me with those big blue eyes. She knew I was her Mama. I was all she needed. (... & she still looks at me that way ;) )

1 year old

 

 

2 years old

 

3 years old

 

4 years old

 

 Happy 5th Birthday, Ava Josephine!

 

Stats at her 5 year well baby check-up: 34lbs and 42 inches.

 

 Ava wanted to spend the day at home playing with her sisters. Which is no surprise since its her favorite thing to do. We played all day. I played whatever she wanted that day and she definitely took advantage of it. Rick stayed home until she woke, that was she didn't have to wait until he got home that evening to open her gifts. The #1 gift on her list this year that she wanted was Legos. I was hoping that the excitement of "girl" Lego's would die down after Ben went home this summer. But, unfortunately it didn't. I say unfortunately for two reasons: 1. Ive never been a big fan of putting Legos together. Maybe its just because I'm not all that creative or maybe its because its boring to me but either way, I knew her having them would require me to "help". 2. This is really our first "toy" that has super small pieces. Having a baby that just learned to be mobile and small Legos definitely isn't fun for me but it made her happy and that's the whole point of getting them :)

 

 

(ahhhh! soooo many pieces!)

 

 

(we just did this last week together. It was fun for us both <3 em="">

 

Ava's birthday muffin with candles!

Our kiddos get to pick where they want to go for their birthday dinner every year and if we are lucky they will pick Benihanas, which she did! Good thing for us, is she loveeees their shrimp!

 

After dinner we came home and decorated the cupcakes for her school celebration the next day.

 

(her special birthday cup from dinner :) 

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl. I love you so much and am sooooooo thankful God choose me to be your Mama!! Xoxoxo!

Fall

October is by far one of our busiest months. Busy is a good way, of course, but nevertheless still hectic. Since I knew I would never be able to write a single post for every exciting thing this month has brought us, I will do a quick recap!

Apple Picking:
Our first time apple picking was last year. This is something we have never done before moving to Ohio. Its definitely on the top of our "Things We Love!" list. Fun is always had by all!

We decided to head to Michigan for my and Ava's birthdays this year. Im glad we did. We had a really good time. Its been alittle difficult for Ava having our birthdays so close together. She gets SO excited about her birthday and then to have to celebrate mine two days before her big day makes her pretty bummed. :)

Rick and I were able to get a date night together to celebrate my birthday. It was nothing too exciting. We were able to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and do alittle shopping. Alsoooooo, I GOT A TATTOO! Ahhh. I had been thinking for a while about getting one... just something simple. Something that could easily be covered up. I started looking on Pinterest for some ideas. I figured that on my foot would be the easiest place to get something small but not too noticeable. Needless to say, I went through with it and Im really happy I did. I didn't cry. And since I rate everything on the scale of what it feels like to have a baby, it didn't hurt one bit! :)

 

While we were in Michigan, we decided to have a dinner at my parents house (that just happened to be on my birthday) to celebrate Ava's birthday. My parents, Ricks parents, my brother (my sister and her family were not able to make it!), and Beth with a couple of her kiddos came and Ava was so happy! Im so glad we were able to do that for her!
 

More on my baby girls birthday coming up next... :)