Thursday, November 1, 2012

Doctors, Dragons and Princesses...Oh My!

Dressing up for our neighborhood block party


Layla as Doc McStuffins and Grady as the dragon

Doc McStuffins is a cute little show on Disney Jr.  I like to watch it with Layla and I have to catch myself as I find myself laughing at Stuffy (the dragon) in the episodes :)  Yikes!

Carving pumpkins with friends



Preschool Halloween


Layla during the Halloween Sing at preschool

Trick-or-treating

Layla decided at the last minute that she wanted to be a princess from the dress up bin for trick-or-treating.  This was fine with me as the Doc outfit was already used three times and the individual pieces will be used again and again, but the princess look wasn't quite as pulled together as I would like.   But in the end, Layla was happy as Belle and I was able to stuff lots of layers under the dress!





Grady loves this costume.  My dad gave it to Layla when she about 18 months old and she was always scared of the costume.  But Grady wore it all night long and never hinted that he wanted it off.  It was perfect for the cold night!


Layla and Grady loved greeting trick-or-treaters at our door.

Our first part of trick-or-treating consists of driving and seeing family and friends that live nearby.  I was able to get a couple pictures before it got dark.  My flash on my camera is broken.
Here is Layla with Ryan's Aunt Nancy.

And the kids with Cindy.  She works at Ryan's school and the kids love her. 
Layla loved getting candy all night and Grady really enjoyed seeing all of the dogs. 
Trick-or-treating was a success.



We hope everyone had a happy Halloween!!!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Fall Fun

Last week, our local pumpkin festival kicked off with downtown trick-or-treating.  The weather was in the upper 70's and the downtown was PACKED.  We had to do a last minute costume change for Grady.  His dragon costume is like a snowsuit and it was way too warm for 70 degree weather.  And yes, he is rocking a pair of Layla's  leggings as football pants :)
 


The doc is in....Doc McStuffins!
 
Next up, the weather cooled down and Ryan and I headed to a wedding weekend for Scott and Leslie.  We stayed for two nights and had a wonderful time.  Thank you to my parents, Joan and Cassie and Jamie for helping with the kids while we were gone! Special thanks to my mom, as she is Grady's BFF when I am gone and I know that is a lot of work :)  Sorry, the few wedding pictures are phone pictures. 
 
Right outside our hotel room

Cocktail hour

The newly married couple!
 
Sunday morning we woke up and rode home to take the kids to the carnival and pumpkin parade.  We were exhausted by Sunday night, but we had a lot of fun riding rides, catching up with friends and family and watching the parade. 
 


Sleepy boy.  Parade time coincided with nap time so Grady (thankfully) took a good nap in the stroller for part of the carnival and about half the parade.


Ryan's cousins had a nice float in the parade.


It is that time of year....Ryan rocks the ear warmers ;) 
He says they are essential for bus duty at school!

 
Happy Halloween week!!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Pumpkin Crazy

Halloween is upon us!  We have been having fun celebrating and preparing our pumpkins for the big town festival.  Grady participated in the pumpkin decorating this year.  He may have painted himself a bit more than the pumpkin, but we were excited he tried out some painting.  Layla worked hard on her Cinderella carriage pumpkin.  I envisioned a white glittery Cinderella pumpkin.  Layla envisioned a multi-colored pumpkin with a face colored on the side.  She, of course, created her own vision and it turned out really cute. 










 
The almost finished products.  The Cinderella pumpkin still needed its wheels attached!
 
My wonderful friend Steph hosted her pumpkin party this weekend.  It was so much fun.  Hayrides, crafts, a huge leaf pile, lawn mower rides, a teeny kitten...the party had it all!   AND Grady was even nice to the kitten.  Progress!!!
 






The kitten.  Ryan made sure Grady had nice hands!

 
Happy soon to be Halloween!!!  Lots (and lots and lots) of photos to come soon.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Closure

We finally closed on our house.   Many people have asked how we felt when it was finally a done deal.   I think relieved is the best word to describe our feelings.  We hit some snags along the way with both houses, (let's just keep it very simple and say the rental house needed a new sewer line and road repair) but everything worked out okay and the constant worry about moving again is gone. 

Layla no longer needs to ask, "Did we hear from the bank today?  Did we get the house?  When can we unpack the rest of my boxes?"  Yikes, she might have caught onto the stress of buying a short sale.  And actually...many boxes still need to be unpacked!

The actual buying of a short sale house was complete craziness.  We hear this is pretty common.  But it is all behind us, and we got a great deal on a great house.  It is not particularly huge or anything extra special, but there is plenty of room for the kids and pets to run and we just really love the house.  We can picture ourselves here for a very long time.  Oh, and we are very happy with Layla's school she will attend next year too.  Which was the whole point of this crazy adventure.  So all's well that ends well.
 
Sorry for the lapse in blogging.  My free time has gone to eBay and craigslist.  I am selling items and looking, looking, looking for furniture for our new house.  We scored a solid Crate and Barrel table on craigslist for a very low price.  Ryan has been working hard on my vision for it (well, a vision I found on Pinterest!) and we are excited to start using it.  Well, first I need to thrift and paint five more chairs to fit around it :)  Anyone else love a good thrift store hunt?

We have also been working on our first remodel job in our house.  Randomly, the kids' bathroom ended up being our first room to work on.  The towel and toliet paper bars had all been pulled out of the walls prior to us moving in and the holes were driving me crazy.   So late one night, Ryan and I started in on the bathroom.  It is still in progress.  With two kids, things are going to be slow moving around here in the remodeling department.  But that is okay, we are just thankful for two tubs so we can work on a bathroom project for more than a day!



Very in progress....
In between house projects, we are still trying to fit in something fun besides trips to Lowe's :)  This weekend, we headed to an aquarium for some fun. 





Otherwise...

Grady is still a sweet little ham...

and constantly taking tumbles.  The Doc Band may have come in handy this fall!

The kids have been playing more together, but also battling a bit more too. 
Grady is a bit on the physical side and Layla is a bit on the sensitive side. 

Layla still loves her books.  She makes up stories to the pictures or memorizes the words we have read to her.  She could sit in your lap and be read to all day long.  You should see me at the library trying to read to Layla and keep Grady under control at the same time.  I am sure it is a frazzled sight :) 

And Layla has started to get into my camera.  I let her wear it around the first floor and take pictures.  I like this picture she took above from the playroom.  Although...do you think our wood floors need to be refinished?  My sister says the floors have character...I think we will go with that idea until we are able to refinish them!