Living the Life and Loving It!: October 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

A Little Fun with Paper Dolls!

Thanks to my sister in law, Ellie, we have this great book called "The Preschoolers Busy Book". Several years ago when she gave it to me Emily was tiny, I couldn't even comprehend using it. But now that we have 2 preschoolers in the house I am so grateful that I held on to it!! And it is absolutely perfect for really hot days, or really cold yucky days like today! Emily loves to look through it to find recipes and art projects! Today she was looking through and found an idea about making paper dolls! She got really excited about it and I thought it would be fun too! So I found a pattern online, cut it out using cereal box cardboard and asked them what kind of clothes they wanted, cut them out and then I let them go crazy with coloring and making hair (seriously check out the hair on Emily's doll!!). And after they made them, they played with them together nicely for over an hour!! It was AWESOME!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that book, thanks again Ellie for passing it on to us!!

Emily and her Purple Doll, that coincidentally matches her!!

Haley with her cute creation!

Halloween, Part ONE.....Ready to Go to The Belvedere Fall Festival!

We went to our Fall Festival here in Belvedere, our neighborhood, yesterday and the kids got to debut their Halloween Costumes!! And of course, you know us, we had to snap a few pictures! Especially with the most adorable threesome of a mermaid, a fairy, and a ladybug!!

The girls were in LOVE with their costumes which we borrowed from a friend, and Ethan, well, he tolerated his! What can I say he is such an easy going little nine month old!!

After we snapped these few pictures we headed over to the Village Green for a Neighborhood Fall Festival!! They had games, food, a chili cook off and lots of grown ups and little kiddos to socialize and play with!! And to top it all off the weather was AWESOME!!

First Shot, with the Pumpkins!

Our Little Trio, Ethan is REALLY ready to go!

Even though Ethan was done, we still got one more picture of the girls!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Micah the Kayaker!!

Micah has run several 5k runs and a 10K run, but his next goal is to participate in the New River Triathalon in September 2013! It consists of running, biking, and kayaking! Micah has run and he quite good at riding a bicycle, but the one area in which is knows he needs some practice is kayaking!

And since Mimmi and Dooders own 2 kayaks he asked Dooders if he would mind taking him out for a paddle around the reservoir yesterday morning! Since Dooders enjoys kayaking and relishes in the chance to spend time with any of his children or children in laws, he said yes! Even though it meant rising out of bed early on a Saturday morning!

While they were gone Mimmi and I and the kiddos got to hit several yard sales! And we even got some good deals too:) Overall it was a good experience for all of us involved and Micah is now even more excited (if that were even possible) for his triathlon next fall!!

My Cute Micah!

Doing his Thing!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Time for a Fall Craft Project!!

One day last week we decided to stay home for the day and before we headed to the park I wanted to get them going on a fall craft! I really enjoy doing fun little art/craft/learning projects with my kids, it's probably one of my favorite things to do together with them!!

I was searching, because we have done lots of coloring and sticker art with fall themes in mind but hadn't really done an actual PROJECT yet. One day when I was surfing the web before the day got started I found this cute little idea to do fall wreaths! And I was even more excited when I found out we had all of the supplies to make it already here at home!

So, after Sesame Street, Curious George, Breakfast and getting dressed we all headed out to our craft table on the front porch and went to work! Before long there were leaves, glue and glitter flying everywhere! It was not until this day that I found out how fast 2 little girls can go through THREE containers of glitter!! It was Amazing!! It has been over 2 weeks since we did this craft and there is still glitter all over the porch and randomly throughout the house!!

Needless to say, after completing our project we moved onto BATHS!! Everyone was happy and clean for lunch!!

Ethan ready for some action!

The girls just beginning to learn about glitter!

And shortly thereafter they were PROS!!!

After Emily finished hers she was anxiously excited to help Haley!!

Then it was time for the finishing touch.....The leaves!!

Emily displaying her masterpiece!!

Together with their wreaths!!

All Three Together!!

First it was Crowns, Now it's Head Bands!

Seems like every time we turn around these days the girls are dressing Ethan up! We thought dressing him up like he was their doll would only happen when he was brand new, but apparently we were wrong and it is in full force now! At least they haven't tried to get him into a princess dress yet though:)

"No pictures please!"

"Okay, now that I found my cheerio I am ready!!"

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Micah's VERY FIRST 10K Run!!

Micah has run several 5K races now, but he has been wanting to do a 10K for quite some time now. He started training for it several months ago and was set to run in one this past Saturday, October 20th. I guess a week before the race he got an email that said due to the UVA Football game that was being held that same day the race was going to be moved to the following day, which was a Sunday:( That made us both sad, because we knew that because we choose not to do things of that nature on Sundays that a Sunday race was out of the picture for our family.

Then when Micah was thinking about it, he came up with a Great Idea!! He decided that he would still run his race on Saturday morning, he would just run it through our neighborhood and Dunlora (the neighborhood right next to ours). We both got really excited about it!! And continued to prepare. The morning of the race, was a little bit chilly, but a really nice and sunny day for Mid October!! Mimmi came over to keep the kiddos and I company while we waited for Micah as he ran, we walked a little, made a finish line, waved pom poms and cheered every time Micah passed us and we were all there and excited for Micah as he crossed the finish line (that Emily and I drew) only ONE HOUR ONE MINUTE and FORTY TWO SECONDS after he began!! We were all so happy and excited for Micah and all that he has done to get to this point in his running!!!

His next goal.....training for a Triathlon, next October!!!!! Stay Tuned.........

Before He Began, with his home made tag in tact!

Just minutes after he started, about to shed his jacket already!

Emily and I by our home made finish line for Daddy!

Here he comes after Lap ONE!

Micah and E Buddy just after he finished (the girls had already headed back with Mimmi!)

Every race has to have a Finish Line...so here are Emily and I getting the finish line ready!!

A Little Out of Order, but here are a couple of family shots BEFORE Micah's race began!

Oh yeah, we were READY!! We even had a cheerleader and pom poms!!!

The video of the Finish!!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Our Little Buddy Has Made The Past NINE MONTHS Awesome for Us!

Seriously, after having our two little princesses I really had No Idea how much fun it would be to have a little boy join our family!!Ethan is such a great little boy!! We all love him to pieces!! He is so smiley, and happy 90% of the time, but when he is not feeling well or he gets hurt or is sad we ALL know it too!! He loves to be held and get attention, he loves to watch his sisters play and be silly, he loves to eat, and he loves his mommy!!He is growing and learning and eating more every day!!

Here are a few things he has been up to in his NINTH MONTH:

~ On September 12th, the day he officially turned Nine Months he woke up with his FIRST COLD, and then the next evening he was getting worse and coughing a lot more, so we took him in to the doctor (thankfully they just started having evening clinic hours), and she quickly told us that it was croup! He got a steroid shot in his leg and he was better in no time. Even through all of that he was a trooper!!

~ He is STILL not crawling, but I know he is on the verge!! Being a mom of three, I am totally fine with that though, all in due time (maybe even tomorrow or later this afternoon he will be all over the place and I will be chasing him!)

~ His Favorite Food these days would have to be Cottage Cheese, much to my dismay! For whatever reason I can not STAND cottage cheese and it is a true labor of love to feed it to him for breakfast or snacks! But he tears it up!

~ He has 7 Teeth now! Four on the top and 3 on the bottom!! Much better to chew all the yummy bread he loves to eat!!

~ He is still doing his "flying Belly crawl" and I LOVE it!! He is such a little entertainer!! He keeps us laughing, that is for sure!!

Nine months has come and gone so quickly, I am so grateful for my sweet little baby boy and the great little boy he is growing to be!! He has a great personality and I am excited to get to watch it unfold with each new day!!

Checking Things Out!

Looking on the porch at his sisters and wondering when he gets to go!

I know this one is blurry, but it is just proof that his hands and feet are CONSTANTLY moving!! The only 2 times they are still is when he is nursing or sleeping!!

The 3 Amigos in one big green chair!

Love these photo shoots!

It's a Father/Son Moment!

Mommy with 2 out of 3 of my kiddos!

We decided to switch angles to see if it was better....not so much!

Ah! Now I have all Three Kiddos together for a brief moment in time!

Family Shots are even quicker!!

One last one of the trio!! Couldn't pass up the look on Ethan's Face!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Adventure Farm was a Great Choice!

I have wanted to take the kiddos to a pumpkin patch for a few years now, and this year we finally decided that they were old enough! I was searching the Charlottesville and the Albemarle Family magazines for the perfect one for our family! I thought I had found THE ONE in Ruckersville, VA until I was driving back from taking Mimmi and Dooders to the airport a couple weeks ago. I saw a sign that pointed towards Earlysville that said Adventure Farm Pumpkin Patch!! I got excited, because it was a new patch that I had never heard of before and it was a lot closer than Ruckersville!!

When I got home I did a little research online and called them and talked to Micah about it, and together we decided that it would be a good one to try out!! This past Saturday we loaded up in the van around 1 pm, it was a gorgeous day but a little chilly in the morning though, and headed for the Pumpkin Patch!!

When we got there we noticed a lot of cars, so that was a good sign!! Then we went in, the cost was only $5 per adult and the kids got in for free. They had a corn maze, which we decided not to tackle, lots of hay bales (which Emily LOVED playing and jumping on!!), a pumpkin patch and I think our favorite part was the hay ride!! They took us through the fields and up to their cow pasture. The driver stopped the tractor and called all the cows over to us! That was CRAZY!! For the most part, however, the kids really thought it was neat!!

Since the pumpkins were quite expensive, we decided to just walk through the pumpkin patch before leaving to show the kids how the pumpkins started out and then we left and headed to Wal-mart, where we found a good size pumpkin for only $3.88!! It worked out well for everyone, it was a teaching moment for the kids and it was easier on our wallet too!! Overall, heading to the pumpkin patch was a super fun Saturday activity for us, and with gorgeous weather like we had we really couldn't pass it up!!

Our Tractor Princess!!