Let the fun begin

We have had a fun few days latley and will continue with the fun through halloween!
Friday Neila and I met up at Gallrein Farms with the kids to let them play once more since the whole "fall theme" is over there this weekend. It has rained like crazy latley so it wasn't as enjoyable this time since everything was still wet and mushy from all the rain so we just got some pictures and let them pick out some baby pumpkins before heading out to lunch.





















They had fun just running around a bit and then we had a great dinner Friday night over at Nick and Neila's. I worked Saturday morning and Joe and the kids seemed to have a good morning since when I got home at lunch the furniture had all been turned into one big fort. Saturday evening we headed to Lexington to a Halloween party at James, Kirsten and Carlyn's house. We had a great time and the kids had a blast. We got to see Judy, Josh, Tab and Emma which was great. There house is gorgeous and the party was awesome.....she even let the kids bob for apples which Maggie and Owen thought was too cool.
















They both gave it their best shot and both ended up with apples....although I think they got some help from their hands. :)
















Owen spent a great deal of his time trying to get his hands on more candy corn...he loved all the food she had and since his nap was less than an hour yesterday he was quite a handful for Joe and I to keep up with. Maggie had a blast playing with Carlyn and loved Emma. Emma liked Maggie too, although it seems Emma loves everybody, she is the most adorable, happiest baby ever.












The kids were glad to get a chance to wear their halloween outfits, I got a few cute pictuers of them but I am hoping Owen will be more cooperative on halloween night with the camera.













Joe and Nick headed to Cincinnati this morning as Joe got club seats to the bengles/steelers game today. They were both pretty excited to see the game so I am sure they will have fun. I am taking the kids out to the SUMMIT this evening to their halloween night. It's an outdoor mall and radio disney will be there and the kids can come dressed up and get candy. They will be playing disney music so that sounded right up Maggie's alley of a good time....and with the candy Owen will be pleased as well. Tommorow we have our halloween party at library, tuesday is mag's fall party at school and then wednesday we have trick or treat.

Owen's potty training is still going well. Yesterday while Joe had the kids he said he went up to find Maggie and Owen coming out of the bathroom....Owen naked. Maggie said, "Owen had to poop and pee." So Joe said, okay, let's go. Maggie said, "I already took him and flushed it for him." So I guess between the two of them he will get trained. Maggie is getting excited about her baby sister, who by the way is going to be named Josie. We are trying to decide on middle names so if anyone has any suggestions they are welcomed. Owen on the other hand has no idea what he's in store for.....I told him the other day we were goign to have a baby and he said, "yeah?" I told him it was a sister and asked him if he wanted a baby sister. He said, "ummm, nope. I want a juice box." haha. He has been really sweet saying his prayers at night. The other night we were all saying their prayers together and Joe prayed first then maggie, than Owen began his. He always thanks God for daddy first....ususally several times, then proceeded to thank God for numerous things around Maggie's room (maggie's books, maggie's table) Joe and I were waiting for him to close with amen, which he did...after he thanked God for "lord of the beans" , which is a veggie tales movie he likes. It was really cute. I then began my prayer and Maggie says in the sweeetest voice, "I just love your voice mommy." Joe and I thought it was so cute.
Maggie isn't crazy about the name Josie, she thinks it's a boys name (i guess b/c of the Joe part) She prefers to call the baby Belle....although we have informed her she doesn't get the say so in the baby's name. She was praying today at lunch and said, "thank you God for my baby sister, Belle, ...you know because Josie is a boys name." Their prayers are so cute and kids pray the way we all should......they talk to God as they talk to anyone else. Well, I am off to get things together so when Owen gets up we can head out for some candy!
Here are a few pics of Maggie this morning before church, I thought he looked so cute. Owen looked adorable as well, but I couldn't catch him to get a shot!

He's ready....

I am not. :) So Owen has been asking to go to the potty more and more and wanting to wear underwear. I usually move on to something else because honestly I am just not in the "potty training mode" so much. Diapers to me are alot easier...especially the way we run around. Well, I suppose today he just decided to take matters into his own hands as I was in the kitchen and realized I hadn't heard or seen him in awhile and then I hear him in my bathroom moving things around. I head in there just in time to see him standing on the scales with several magazines stacked on top of it, diaper and clothes ditched at the door, leaning forward as far as he can trying to pee in the potty. Well, pee he did....not so much in the potty though. But I have to give him credit for his effort. It was pretty cute. So after he was done he says, "no more diapys mommy." So I decided to agree with him for the moment and got his CARS underwear out for him. He has had them on for awhile now and we have spent most of the morning letting him got pee.....I guess it's just boys, I don't know, but he honestly pee's all day long. With Maggie I can remember sitting forever just to get a little bit of pee.....with Owen it's like a never ending stream anytime you ask. So....I am hoping he either drops this or gets it really easy and fast! I also have to go out and get a little potty as I refuse to spend all my time cleaning up pee off the bathroom floors, so although his daddy thinks sitting to pee is going to take something away from his "manhood", that is what he will be doing for the time being. :)

Of course when I took pics of Owen, Maggie couldn't be left out of the photo shoot!

Another Party

Today was Maggie's birthday party at preschool which meant she got to wear the birthday crown all day, be the leader, and the "helper" for the day. She loved it all. I went about 11 or so after dropping Owen off at Shannon's to play with Bella for an hour or so. They were having playtime in the "gym" when I got there and she was playing with 3 other little girls in her class. I knew one of them must be Kate since that is who I hear about all the time. She was glad to see me and introduced me to all her friends and then wanted to show me all the things there were to do there.











I had brought cupcakes for their snack so after they sang happy birthday to Maggie and she got to pick out a "gift" from the birthday box they had their snack. It was fun to get to go spend some time with her and let her show me all the things she does at school and of course to meet her friends she plays with. She seems to play well with all the kids there and they all seem very fond of her so that is nice for me to know. :) Owen had fun with Bella, Shannon said they spent alot of the time just laughing at each other which is what they ususally do....who knows about what?

It has been rainging nonstop (literally) since yesterday at noon which I guess is good for the grass but I am a little tired of it now. The kids and I ran errands yesterday for several hours and they couldn't have been better. Maggie wore her new outfit Mimi got her for her birthday and looked so cute.










She loved it and told me she loved the color of it.....:) like I wasn't aware of that. Well, Owen is napping and Maggie is playing up in her room so I am going to try and clean from the weekend some.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MAGGIE MAE!!!

Today is Maggie's 4th birthday and she had a fun weekend of celebrating. Her best buddy Amanda got her Thursday evening so she (and Owen) were so happy to see her. They got right into play mode when they saw her and she didn't let them down. While she kept them busy I got to working on Maggie's cake for her party yesterday. She picked out a tough one and I must say it took me nearly 3 days all together but turned out really cute and she was so happy with it that it was totally worth it!












Her party was alot of fun and it was great to have everyone there to celebrate with her. She of course insisted on dressing up like a princess so I gave her one of her new princess dresses since her other one is a 2 and way too small. She told me that it was okay, since Owen was 2 he could wear it and it should fit him. ;) Don't worry, Owen didn't dress up like a princess for the party...haha.















She had her favorite for her birthday dinner, soup....and I made chili as well and got chick fil a nuggets for those who don't prefer soup.
















After that it was singing happy birthday and digging into the cake which was a big hit with everyone....especially all the kiddos as you can see. I think this is the only time all of them were seated for longer than a minute.




















We moved right on to present opening which Maggie did in record time....Joe says it was the fastest birthday party he'd ever been to.









Maggie loved her party and the kids all had fun, as well as the adults. The guys spent a good deal in front of the TV watching the UK game since I had her party right at game time....Owen had 2 of his buddies there...Bella and Carlyn. I think they had fun together and get the feeling the 3 of them could get themselves into quite a bit of trouble if they hung out together for awhile.....They are all within a month or 2 of each other and were so cute to watch.












Here are a few more pics from her party.





(I love this pic of you Sis......you have GREAT teeth!)























Today I got a great day of "rest" from all the work of getting things ready for her party. Neila Susan and I headed out early and went to Indidana to the outlets and shopped ALL DAY. It was great to get out and hang out with her kid free and to stock up on clothes for the kiddos. We had a great time and decided we need to make this a quartly trip.....we just have to get Joe and Nick onboard that idea I suppose.

Well, tommorow is library and I begin baking AGAIN for Maggie's birthday party at school on Tuesday. We are taking cupcakes with pink icing....which Maggie is okay with although she really wanted to take banana bread muffins but some kid in her class is allergic to fresh fruit????(weird) I am going to go help with her party and my friend Shannon is going to keep Owen for me. I hope to sneak in before she knows I am there so I can see her in action at preschool.

Fun, Fast Weekend

We had a very quick, but fun weekend. We headed into WV on Saturday for my Aunt Patti K's surprise 60th birthday party. I am so glad we live closer now so we can make it in for things like this. It turned out great and she was totally surprised.

Maggie had a blast the entire time playing with Gracie and TJ.

I wish we could get them all together more since they enjoy being together so much. Owen played with them some but was more interested in the mints, chex mix, and cake. He had way too much sugar that night which I am guessing is why he slept so horribly. After about a half a bag of after dinner mints he found dad and helped him put away some cake.














Maggie enjoyed her icing too.







This week has already been busy and it only going to get crazier I am sure. Yesterday I needed to get out and get some things for Maggie's party but we also had story time at the library which she really wanted to go to. So we went to library adn then ran into Louisville where she picked out her party stuff (princess of course) and I got some things for her cake. This could be quite a feat to get the cake she wants made but I am going to give it my best. My painter has finally pulled through for me........3 days before I am having a house full of people of course. He is supposed to be here tommororw morning to get started and I told him I had all the paint already (which I didn't but I didn't wnat to defer him anymore) so after we dropped Maggie off at preschool today Owen and I ran to Sherwin Williams to get our paint. Then we hit up Walmart to get a few more last minute things I had forgotten yesterday. So I think I have all I need for the weekend pretty much, now it's just getting it all together....with a housefull of painters in basically all my rooms (including kitchen). So for those of you that are coming....no promises on the condition of my house since I doubt they will want me cleaning under their feet! Well, my down time is about over. I need to get some things done before naptime is over and it's time to get Maggie to dance class.

Pumpkin Patchin'

My friend Shannon and I took our kids out to the farm here in town to play for the morning. It is finally fall weather and felt great out so it was a perfect day for this. This place is really cool and has hay bails set up the kids can climb or jump into, hay rides, petting zoo, and pumpkin patches. We ended up staying about 3 hours as the kids had so much fun and were great. Here is Maggie all ready to go in her pumpkin outfit.












They had so much fun playing in the hay and there was so much that even if they fell there was lots of padding.































We headed out on the hayride which the kids all loved






and then to the pumpkin patch where they picked out a pumpkin.







Maggie insited on getting the biggest she could find and I told her I couldn't carry it so she decided she would get a smaller one today and bring daddy back to get the really big one. Owen went from pumpkin to pumpkin and I finally just took one for him since I knew he would never decide on just one. We let them play around a little more when we got back and pick out some baby pumpkins before heading home. It was really fun and I am sure we will be going back there soon with Joe

Another Week....

So another week or so has passed and I haven't blogged, but we have been up to alot. Last week Mom and Dad came down and stayed through the weekend. I worked Thursday and Friday so Maggie and Owen enjoyed spending time with Mimi and Jaja. They had lots of fun and Maggie thought it was cool that Mimi got to take her to preschool. Mom and Dad got to watch Maggie play soccer too....and help chase Owen around the field. About halfway into the second half I look down and Maggie is looking up at me with huge tears in her eyes so I head down to get her and find out what is wrong. She comes running over sobbing and says, "mom, that boy keeps pushing me and it really hurts my feelings." Well, I guess I wasn't paying much attention but Joe said some little boy did keep pushing her and he told him to stop several times but he just wouldn't let up. So of course, here I am wanting to find out who the kids is.....like what was I going to do to a 3 year old?? haha. Anyhow, she ended up going back out and Joe held her while he coached the kids.
I have decided my kids either hate each other or love to drive me nuts thinking that. They are constantly beating the heck out of each other and last week they both ended up with a war wound. Maggie kicked Owen in the eye which resulted in this.....




and a few days later Owen bit a hunk out of maggie's stomach.


So it seriously is like WWF around here most days. I have tried everything from time out to spanking, and now have just found that I put them both in their rooms with baby gates on the doors and tell them they have to play alone. I don't know how much it helps but at least it gives me some time to get something done other than pull them off each other. I had a doctor appt. this week and everything looks good with baby, but they did take some blood to run a few tests on me since I have been alot more tired than I think I should be....and also have been really short of breath. Turns out my hgb and hct are low which explains that so I have a script to pick up that will hopefully help with that since I still have a few months and definetly need more energy to get things done around here. We are heading to mom and dad's this weekend and then the following weekend is Maggie's birthday party. She is so excited but once again I have not been on top of things and didn't get her "I'm 4" pictures sent out and doubt I will at this point. We have also been trying to decide on her cake she wants. My painter has yet to show up and keeps telling me is should be a few more days so my house is not going to be the way I want it by then but I guess it will get finished eventually. I had the drywall guy come this week and patch a few places that had cracked from the high ceilings and need my carpets cleaned (there is a reason I always had a "NO SHOE" policy) but don't want to do that until the painting is done so right now everything is on hold waiting for him. Gotta love contracters!

So Joe was showing the kids his jumping skills the other night and stacking chairs and such and decided to make them the target so he had them stand still and jumped them which they thought was so cool.



















No matter how boring our days our they always liven up when daddy gets home. :)





I got a call from Maggie's teacher the other day about something she needed to send me and she proceeded to tell me that Maggie was an absolute joy to have in class. She said she was always so helpful and excited about what they were going to do and played great with all the kids (which I was glad to hear after she adn Owen's week). Anyhow, she went on and on about how great she was doing and good she was which was nice to hear. She is having her school pictures this week and the following week she will have her birthday party at school....which she has already said she wants to take pink cupcakes...of course. Well, not much else to report just trying to get all the summer/winter clohtes switched since it has FINALLY decided to cool down here. Thank goodness