Oh baby

 

If you are 16 months old and you want a drink of water you should push a stool over to the fridge, get a cup and proceed to make a huge mess all while being extremely proud of your forward thinking and accomplishment...... She filled the cup all the way to the top and when it started to spill she decided that wasn't right and proceeded to dump out the entire cup on the floor before trying again..... all while I took pictures...... :) This girl is a problem solving handful!

Hailey Hailey

 

Hailey loves to dress up in anything and everything. The other day she brought me this costume - the Thing - from Fantastic 4 - and wanted me to put it on her. She was so happy about it. She even wears the mask. I threw in a picture of me for good measure. Maggie was the photographer. My eyes look so tired. I am so tired! Fingers crossed, I think I am starting to feel a little better but still exhausted.

Mags

 

Maggie loves to put on singing and dancing shows for us. She is always wanting me to take videos of her so she can watch them. I think I see a kids digital camcorder in her future :) She still wants to wear a skirt or dress everyday even with the cold weather. Oh well. I wonder what Hailey will be like as she gets older.

Graham cracker houses

 

We made graham cracker houses not long ago. The kids loved it. Hailey just wanted to eat everything - expecially the frosting but Jackson and Maggie were enjoying the building and decorating. Maggie kept saying "how beautiful, how cute" as we added pink sprinkles.

First day of sledding 2009

 

Whew! I have caught up through Nov. Bear with me :) Matt's parents came to help out while Matt was off to Florida again. We got a few inches of snow and the kids were so excited to go sledding. Hailey loved it and wanted to go again and again until she got cold. Maggie is an avid sledder. Where she is fairly cautious with a lot of things - sledding is not one of them. She goes all on her own - over and over. She is hardest one to get to leave. Jackson heads straight for the paths with the jumps and takes off. We had terraces just outside our house when I was growing up and we went sledding A LOT so it's fun to see the kids so into it. Although I would love to have the hill in our backyard.... Oh, and this time of year - I completely covet a mudroom. We have NOWHERE to take off snowstuff so there is always snow tracked through the house when we come home.

Oh Hailey.

 

 

Hailey is very insistent on feeding herself. She has been that way for months of her short life already. Most of the time she does a really good job. This was obviously not one of those times. She thought it was great though. We just have to catch her right when she's done or she starts to get creative...

Off to school

 

While the weather was still fairly nice Jackson started riding his bike to school with the pack of neighborhood kids. The 9 year old across the street said she would be in charge of him. We tried it and he did excellent. He is the youngest of the group (there are about 5 of them). He started riding withought training wheels in August so he was still pretty wobbly when school started but after a little while he was getting better and better and kept begging to ride with the other kids. He thought he was so cool riding his bike with the big kids. Our elementary school has free breakfast this year for the whole school so they head in early and eat before class. He loves it and since he has been listening well to Alli I let him keep going. Now one of the other Mom's drives all of them since it's gotten really cold. It's usually a high of 15-20 during the day.

Window decorations

 

We have discovered that you can draw on the window with whiteboard markers and it will just wipe right off. The kids love to do window art. Jackson was drawing a turkey to decorate for Thanksgiving. It's hard telling what Maggie was drawing but it involved a lot of pink and purple. I usually only let them draw when Hailey is asleep because she is a menace with a marker or anything that writes for that matter. She is a firm believer in "the world is her canvas". She draws on everything - walls, floors, herself....

Hailey has a silly hat

 

It's amazing how this is the third time we have had a 1 year old and yet the things they do are still so cute. Maggie at this age would put on a hat and sing "sil-l-l-li 'at". Hailey will say 'at every once in awhile but mostly she just loves to dress up in anything and everything! Can't forget the messy, messy shirts of this age either.... :)

Popcorn

 

This was one of those grill/campfire popcorns. We just did it over the stove top. The kids loved watching it get bigger and bigger. Jackson was starting to get concerned it was going to explode. Hailey said "oooo" when I opened it and she could see all the popcorn inside. Very fun to do once in awhile.

Talking to Dad

 

Since Matt has been a lot for Florida trips we have a bluetooth headset to make talking to him easier. The kids love to put it one and talk to Dad. It's so funny to watch the little ones walk around with and talk. Hailey will do it too but the expression on her face is very funny when she does. She will say "Hi" and then she just stares at you with big eyes when Matt talks back to her.

Leaf clean-up

 

Fall is always such a fun time... until you have to start cleaning up all the leaves. The kids love it but Matt and I? not so much. I love the sound of leaves blowing in the wind and the feel of the crisp clean air but it's a pain to rake and clean up so many leaves!! Notice Maggie's mismatched shoes? That's her solution when she can't find a pair or sometimes even if she can. She will just grab two and put them on.

Happy Halloween

 

Better late than never....... The kiddos loved Halloween. Jackson was a power ranger, Maggie was Cinderella, and Hailey was a dragon. They were so excited to go trick-or-treating. It was hard for them to wait patiently until it was time. Hailey went down for a late nap and missed the fun. It was hard to convince Maggie to wear a coat over her dress eventhough it was so cold. They loved coming home and going through their loot. Hailey was excited to find candy everywhere when she got up from her nap. We watched a movie in the living room and took turns answering the door for other trick-or-treaters.