Trick-Or-Treat

Jacob, Olivia and some of their friends getting ready to Trick-or-Treat.

That's an Owl next to Olivia (her mask scared all of the kids)

We celebrated Halloween this year with good friends. We hosted a little get together with food and then ventured out for some Trick-or-Treating with the kids. Jacob and Olivia were both not in the mood for such an event and I seriously considered just putting them to bed. However, once we were outside and on the go Jacob realized that all he had to do was go up to a neighbor's door, knock and say "Trick-or-Treat" and he would be given candy, he was unstoppable! He led the way with no fear and after receiving his candy at each door, turned to me and said, "Jacob eat this". Most of the time, I gave him a nibble, just to keep him interested. The next day, he completely forgot about all of the candy, and has yet to mention it...where did it all go anyway?

Here are some photos that captured the event!

Jacob was Diego (for those of you who don't know he is Dora the explorer's cousin)

Jacob looking, less-than-excited about the whole thing!

Olivia, a baby bumblebee!

I don't even want to be a bumblebee

Jacob running to the next house, so that he can be first.
I guess he's competative by nature!

Our New Blue Bed

Here is a picture of our New Blue Bed!

We are so excited (Mostly, I am) to finally have an actual frame for our bed.

I guess now I'm truly a grown up.

Messy Life, Happy Life

Things are a bit messy around here lately. But when I look at those faces. The smiles and the laughter. I don't want to take the time away from my kids to clean it up. The kids will grow and someday very soon tell me to leave them alone, or "put me down". When that happens, then I will have a tidy home...until then, bring on the mess!

It's nice to meet you

When we traveled to VT, my Aunt Naida met Jacob and Olivia for the first time. She shook Jacob's hand and said, "it's nice to meet you". Jacob thought that this was the greatest thing ever and now does it all the time! Just the other day, I was pushing the two kids in the jogger and Jacob took Olivia's hand and started to shake it while saying "it's nice to meet you, Olivia".

He's so full of it!

3/4 of a camping trip

We thought we'd take the kids camping. We thought it would be fun to be out in the elements once again, eating smores around a campfire, sleeping under the stars in our "huge" tent and sharing our love for the outdoors with our kids. So we packed up the car, a 2+ hour ordeal, drove north 2 hours to Moosehead Lake and snagged a campsite on the shores of the lake. It was senic and beautiful. The water was quiet and peaceful. We had arrived.
I nursed Olivia on the stump of a tree. It looked like the perfect seat. As I got up I realized I was covered in tree sap! Of course this was my only pair of shorts. But I wasn't going to let this ruin our camping trip. We fed Jacob and ourselved lunch and prepared to set up the tent. With only minor setbacks, like the ocassional toddler fleeing our campsite, and our 4 month old deciding to perform her newest trick; rolling over, we managed to put up our "huge" tent. Now that we are a family of 4, this 4 man tent seemed tiny. Oh, well, we were only staying for 1 night, so we could all squeeze in, right?
With bathing suits on and towels in hand we walked down a path to the water and swam in the very shallow water. It was perfect for Jacob and we all had a blast. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and returned to our campsite to begin the art of building a fire.
After the fire was going strong, we cooked our "spider dogs" on the fire and filled our bellies with potato chips and pasta salad. Then, it was time for smores. My favorite part of camping! I taught Jacob how to make a smore and I think it must be genetic, because he was delighted. Shortly after we were done with the smores, we decided to get ready to settle down for the evening. Have you ever tried to make a toddler sleep in a tent? It's not an easy thing to do. Jacob was "all done" with camping! He repeadly kept on saying, "all done camping", "go home to Jacob's house". We looked at each other and without saying a word, we began to pack up all of our stuff.
After another 2 hours in the car, we arrived home, tired and worn down, but HOME.

My favorite part is the smores anyways!



Jacob eating his first smore!

Olivia rolling over for the first time!

Potty Training

I thought I wouldn't start potty training until the craziness of summer had passed. However, the other day, Jacob was naked on the deck and we asked him if he wanted to put a pee-pee into the potty and he did! Just like that. We were thrilled and so was he. I had told him several times previously that when he puts his pee-pee into the potty he will get a candy. This kid hardly ever gets to have candy, so he was very motivated. I dug out some Hershey's kisses leftover from the holidays. How on earth, is there chocolate leftover from the holidays in MY house? I have no idea. Jacob ate that chocolate kiss like it was the most delicious thing ever. I decided to begin pumping the kid full of liquids to give him lots of practice. Water, juice, milk, watermelon, cups with water and ice in them (a favorite now), anything I could think of that would make him urinate. Of course he did and he had some accidents, but for the most part, he got the hang of putting it into the potty. He's only in it for the candy, but I don't care!

Today was day 2 of potty training and he only wet his new underpants 1 time and it was my fault. He has yet to do a #2 on the potty, but I guess that will happen with time.

It's funny because a couple of days ago, Jacob was running around the house in his diaper and I commented on how different he looks from last summer when he was just learning to walk and wearing his diapers. I then thought about how next summer he won't be wearing any diapers. Literally the following day he decided to go ahead and grow up a little more on me and ditch the diapers all together. This part of growing up I'm ok with.

We are Busy

We are so busy lately, that I feel like I've fallen off the Blogging wagon!

Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to:

Olivia is growing like a weed: Look at those long legs!

Jacob explored the Montshire Museum with Nana and Papa. It was a BLAST!

Jacob convinces Papa to get Donuts! This boy LOVES Donuts.

We took advantage of a nice day (there haven't been many) and played at the park.

Run, Jacob, Run!

We get hairbows for Olivia! Yippee!

Olivia goes underwater for the first time. Don't worry, I'm a professional. I've done this before.

Jacob discovers what that truck that plays music is. I was trying to wait and put off the whole novelty of the Ice Cream Truck...but oh well!

We ride on a Merry-Go-Round. What fun!