Halloween

On Halloween, Logan and I sat down to color Halloween pages while Kayleigh took a long nap. We colored pumpkins, ghosts, and got to use the glow in the dark stickers Gram and Bapa sent us. Then we took them into his room to watch them glow. "Kewl."


The kids got dressed up, even if we didn't go trick or treating. Logan was a super cute monkey, complete with the stuffed banana in his back pocket. Kayleigh was a sweet little daisy. Here they are taking a picture together.

And here is Logan stripping off his monkey suit. He didn't like it at all - even if he was super cute. Guess we should have gone with a Tarzan costume since he ran around the rest of the night in his diaper. He even answered the door in his diaper. Whatever.

Auntie Hope and Auntie Phil were coming over for dinner, so I made a jack o' lantern pumpkin pie for dessert. I should have known that Logan would fill up on the candy they brought over for the trick or treaters.

This was also our first experience frying a turkey. This was actually our trial run for Thanksgiving. We used two different injections - Creole butter and butter jalapeno. Here the birds are after they've been injected. Shane said it felt like handling a zombie. Think he's played too many video games...

Then Shane got the pot of oil ready - as in heated it up to over 350F. We also stuck the coat hanger looking thing up the turkey.

After fryin' the turkeys up for a little over 30 minutes each, Hope carved them. The dogs were constant helpers as well. One of the turkeys was left in the oil a little too long, so was a little less juicy than the other, but it was still juicier than an oven baked turkey. Super yum! We all decided that we like the butter jalapeno sauce best. It really had a nice flavor, but wasn't spicy.

Here are the aunties and the kiddos playing the PS3.

We had a great night of hanging out, pigging out on turkey, potatoes, bacon wrapped asparagus, and pumpkin pie. Oh, and of course, the candy. Good times!

Sippy cup

Kayleigh is learning to use a sippy cup. She does best when she holds it at the top, not around the cup itself. And she doesn't quite have the idea that you have to tilt your head back to drink.

And here's her big brother showing her how it's done.

Swings!

Friday, we went out in the backyard to play on the swings. Kayleigh had a great time.

Logan had a great time, too.

Wheee! We LOVE to swing! Peease push! Mama, push! Peease!

Logan likes to push his sister. It's a lot of push and stop, but Kayleigh grins, and Logan has fun too.

While we were outside, the dogs had fun playing as well. Here they are having a standoff...

A nice day

Today was a nice day. While I was feeding Kayleigh, we watched Baby Einstein "Baby Monet", which is about the seasons and features Vivaldi's "Four Seasons". And not only do I like Vivaldi, but Monet is a favorite as well. Anyway, once Kayleigh was finished and sitting in my lap, Logan started crawling over me saying, "Down. Down." Then I realized, he wanted me to put Kayleigh down. But Logan where should I put her? "Kaykay, down." and he points to his lap. He wanted to hold his sister...for all of 5 minutes, but whatever! That was a nice big brother thing to do.

Then we went on a long walk with Bug and Zoe. I'd forgotten that it was Garage Sale Weekend in our subdivision, but we needed a new booster for Logan, and I found one. While I paid for it, the dogs sit and stayed really well. Such good puppies! So I put the booster on top of Kayleigh's sunshade. Then about 10 blocks from home, we saw another sale where they had a plastic easel, something I think Logan would really like. So I bought that for $1. Going home we must have been a sight - two dogs on the left, a double stroller with a booster seat on top, and me in the back lugging a four foot easel on the right! A lady in an SUV actually asked me if I needed some help, just as we were turning on to our road.

Once we got home, it was lunch time. So I made mac and cheese and decided it was too beautiful of a day to waste, so we had a picnic on the patio (grass is still wet for the almost 3" of rain we had yesterday). It was a glorious day - 73F and not a cloud in the sky. The kids had fun sitting out there, the dogs thought they'd get more food, and Logan saw lots of planes - some were even "Daddy planes".

What a nice day!!

Children's Museum of Houston

Today Logan, Kayleigh, and I went to the Children's Museum of Houston with my cousin Renee and her youngest, Faith. Logan, once he figured out he could touch everything, loved it. He climbed in cars, threw balls, rolled balls, played with water, and ran around like a crazy man. He had a blast!

On our way in, we asked the kids to hold our hands. And then Faith grabbed Logan's hand, being the nice big girl she is. After that, Logan thought he was supposed to hold Faith's hand, so even in the museum he was holding her hand for a while. (Okay everyone, "Ahhhh")

Here he is in the red Ford Mustang. Sweet! Much sweeter than the white Toyota Prius that was in the Kidopolis area. Boring!

This was one of his favorite exhibits, outside the flow works - roll balls down ramps. This could have been hours of fun in Mama didn't get bored so easily! This was supposed to be a lesson in friction, with the different colors of plastic having different friction factors (rougher or smoother for those of you non-engineer types), but whatever, it was just plain fun.

Here is a svelte looking Renee (seriously, she's lost major weight - I'm jealous!) and Faith. Don't quite know what the point of these balls were, but they were balls, so really who cares?

After the kids had a short snack, we went outside to the Flow Works. Super fun, and super wet. Both kids had a blast! And I have to admit, I thought it was pretty darn cool, too. You use squirt cannons to fill up the cereal bowl looking thing, then when it's full, it dumps all the water out. Wooo!


Here, Logan plays with the waterwheels. He was very interested in how they turned.

Faith got completely soaked. I'm talking "Renee was wringing her dress out" soaked. And this is probably why - she tried to hug the water. Or at least, that's what it looked like. She laughed when her hair got wet. Silly girl! Her mama had to go buy her a t-shirt from the gift shop to wear home she was so soaked!

Here are Logan and Faith playing in one of the water tubs. It was so cool. They had a dam on this one as well as a downward slope at the beginning (perfect for all those boats to go down).

And because Renee was there, I actually got in a picture! Kayleigh had a great time at the museum as well. She loves being carried, so she was carried all day long. She must have thought it was heaven. She was a happy baby pretty much all day until she got hungry and tired, and that was when we were at lunch. Such a good girl!

But note to those who may go to this museum in the future - (1) there are no restaurants nearby, but there are picnic tables in the museum, so bring a lunch; (2) bring a change of clothes if you're going to the Flow Works part; (3) paid parking is worth it, so you're not hauling around tired kiddos. But it's so fun! Think we might have to drag Daddy with us next time we go!

Jumpin' girl

Well, not only was Logan jumping, but Kayleigh was too! We found the little door jumper, and while we were all hanging out in Logan's room, we hung it on his closet door jam and put her in it. She had a great time, except for when her brother tried to dump her out so he could get in. But she really liked it when Daddy would help her jump (she thinks Daddy is the best, and grins pretty much every time she sees him).




And this is a cute picture from Saturday when she was chillin' in the Elmo walker. She is starting to push herself backwards, like Logan did at that age. Of course, she gets a little help moving from some slightly larger brotherly hands.

Jumpin' boy

Shane, being the wonderful daddy that he is, decided on Sunday that it would be an awesome idea to teach Logan how to jump out of his crib. Logan (by himself) would climb up on the crib rail (in the "down" position, so halfway up on the crib), half stand, and launch himself out into waiting arms. If there were no waiting arms, he was not so keen on the jumping part, even when there was a pile of pillows on the floor. That'll come, I'm sure.


Here are the boys being, what else, boys.


He was in a goofy mood after jumping off his bed for 45 minutes (note to self, he slept pretty well last night - this climbing thing wears him out). So here I am with Mr. Goofy after he knocked us down to the floor.


Oh, and just FYI, this is what happens to cute little noses when they have a run in with a wooden fence after the head they're attached to decides to get off the swing first at the highest point of the arc. Too bad it's not Christmas time - Rudolf the red nosed reindeer would be rather appropriate.

Tired babies

Today, as we were nearing the end of our hour walk with the dogs, I asked Logan a question. When I got no response at all, I wondered if he was ignoring me so I went up front to ask. Nope! He was asleep! He rarely goes to sleep in the morning, but he must have gotten a good 30 minute nap in, because he slept at least 15 minutes in the stroller inside the house!

Both kiddos were asleep when we came inside. So sweet, those sleeping babies.

Is it really October?

Yesterday we went for a walk after going to 24 Hour Fitness (Kayleigh is now old enough for kids club - so all 4 of us go). Anyway, the outside tempertature was 93F. The humidity was 86%. Yuck! Shane told me later the radio said the heat index was 101F!

Did I mention that it's OCTOBER??

Splish, splash they were takin' a bath

Yesterday, I was going to give Kayleigh a bath in the morning (she fell asleep before I could give her one on Sunday night), but if I run the bathwater, some little blond boy comes running. SO - it ended up being a bath for both kids. But they have such fun in the bath together.

Kayleigh is doing a great job of sitting up in the bathtub. She LOVES to splash and will splash and grin for at least half an hour. She also falls on her back occassionally, which freaks her out at first, but the third time she did it, she calmed down and was okay with it for the next few seconds.

Logan loves to soap himself up. He outside of the tub, he loves to wash his hands, fill the heads of his plastic screws with soap, and use the foamy soap off the boat. Just a little bit of a clean freak. Heehee. Anyway, he was having fun washing himself, and as you can see, Kayleigh thinks her big brother is the bee's knees.

Kayleigh's first tooth

Kayleigh has sprouted a tooth (finally, after 2 weeks of being Ms. Crankypants)! We can't actually see it yet (so no pictures), but we can feel that it has broken through the gums.

Birthday bash!

On Friday night, we had a birthday bash with Hope, Phil, and Hope's sister, Angela. Our birthdays are all in the same week - Hope is Oct 4; I'm Oct 5; Angela's Oct 7. To celebrate, Hope made some really yummy ribs (grilled in the cold rain, that's dedication), I made sweet potato casserole and a salad.

It was a fun evening, although Shane had to leave early to go to work. Logan loved playing with their plunger, the candles on the coffee table, watering their plants, and getting into anything he could! They were so nice to let him play the drums for Rock Band and make dog food soup with the dry dog food and water. Nummy nummy!

Phil had a fun time holding Kayleigh at dinner. Kayleigh really wanted her piece of corn and was pulling Phil's placemat to her so she could get it. Don't know what she would have done when she got it - suck all the juice out? Anyway, Phil was observing how fast she'd grown up. Just a few months ago, she could hold Kayleigh at dinner and the baby would sleep through the whole meal. No longer!

Oh, and I just wanted to post this - proof that Hope gets to hold Kayleigh on occassion!

Kayleigh got pretty tired towards the end of our visit, so Angela took it upon herself to try and get her to sleep. Kayleigh floated in and out - she was trying so hard not to miss anything!

It was such a fun night. What a blessing to have neighbors who really love our kids!

Funny little guy

Logan's a funny little guy - he likes to hide in our new closet/cabinet/thingee (which he helped build), take Daddy's shoes and socks off, and walk Bug.

We bought a place to put my scrapbooking stuff and also to use as an expansion to the small pantry we have. It's been really nice. The boys put it together right away. Logan actually hammered some of the dowel rods with first a claw hammer (too heavy), then a ballpein hammer (a little lighter). He got a little help aiming from Daddy.

Now, one of his favorite things to do it to hide in the closet and pop out. Reminds me of the cabinet we had in Cincinnati that we would use as a "big truck". We'd play in there for a long time. Anyway, I don't think Logan is trying to scare anyone, since he stands in the closet with the door closed and yells, "Mama!" Then when I say, "Logan, where are you?" he pops out with a huge grin on his face like, "see, I'm right here, you silly goose, you thought I was gone."

This morning, when Shane came home from work, he sat down at the table to take off his boots. As he was untying one, Logan untied the other. Once Shane had gotten his feet out of them, Logan picked up the boots and carried them to the shoe rack and put them in their proper spot. Then the little guy came back, grabbed his daddy's foot and started taking off his socks! Guess he knew that Daddy had to get ready to go "night-night".

Oh, and Logan stinkied in the potty today! Go little man, go! Of course, then he went in his pants 30 minutes later, but it's a start!

Then after a short trip to Kroger, we took the dogs for a walk. Logan now will walk Bug on our street back to our house. Bug does a really great job of heeling with him and not jerking him at all. Logan loves it!

The Callicott Family visits

This past weekend, most of the Callicott family was able to come down to Houston for a visit. It was super fun to have Chris and Amy (and kiddos) back in the US so we can actually see them! Lottie is 17 months (she's 364 days older than Kayleigh) and this is the first time we've gotten to meet her. Since they've been in Japan for the past few years, they hadn't even met Logan, let alone Kayleigh!

Since the fam was down, we had Kayleigh Shayne's dedication on October 4th. We dedicated ourselves to raise her in a Christian home, and basically, to show her Christ through our actions and words (yeah, I think I need to work on that). As Brett prayed for us, Kayleigh started fussing. Guess she was trying to hurry him along!

Kayleigh with Uncle Chris. He has yummy fingers. Tasty, tasty!

Kayleigh and Auntie Amy. Amy had a big box of Lottie's bows, so we were able to do up Kayleigh's hair. Of course, it slipped out once we got her in the carseat, but whatever.

Lottie and Uncle Shane. Uncle Shane was a hit. Not only did he calm Lottie down when she didn't want to nap, but we were known to Adam as "Uncle Shane and White Shirt". So yeah, I was just extra baggage.

Sunday after church, we slogged through the soggy side yard to the pool. The water was a bit chilly (78F) and the cloudy sky did not make for a great swimming day, but we had a blast anyway. Adam loves the water, and even when his lips were blue and he was goosebumpy, he wanted to stay in. Here, Adam, Uncle Chris, Lottie, and Gram enjoy the cool water.

Logan kept getting in and out of the pool (he must have gotten cold). But he really enjoyed getting to throw the splash balls at Gram. Fun times!

Kayleigh enjoyed talking to me and then would blow raspberries on my chest. Hilarious! "Dla, dla, dla, ptffft!"

Lottie and Logan enjoy the swings and the attentive grandparents.

Cousin music lessons. Right afterwards, Logan gave Adam a hug. Sometimes, that little boy is just a hugger - random kids at Chick-Fil-A, cousins, friends at church. Sweet.

Bapa gets down with the boys.

That weekend, Logan also learned to pedal his "bike" (I know, it's a trike, but he thinks it's a bike like Mama and Daddy's).

And here are all four of the cousins! Lottie, 17 months; Adam, 3 years; Kayleigh, 5 months; Logan, 21 months.