Along came a spider...

Happy Halloween from Little Miss Muffet and the smiliest spider in the world!





Wednesday night was Trunk or Treat at our church. All of the kids got to go to the front of the auditorium during announcements before Bible class started. Can you guess which one is Wesley?? Guess, guess, c'mon guess! ...You're shocked, I know. The Star Wars phase is not fading. Anna Kate has been so cute going around reciting "Little Miss Muffet" to everyone.





Getting glow bracelets from Miss Debi. Debi held Carigan all night (as she always does any time we're at church) so Michael and I got to enjoy trick-or-trunking with Wesley and Anna Kate. Debi is such a blessing. She's been nagging me to take a date night with Michael, and we finally had a free night last night and she came over and made cookies with the kids. They were all disappointed when we came home (even Miss Debi)! I can't tell you how much it means to have someone love our kids like that. Debi says we need to plan at least one date night a month. Woo-hoo! Michael and I even got to walk the lake together last night, which is something we haven't done together for literally years. Lake Hollingsworth is a special Susan place for me, so walking it is something I've really been aching to do. It felt amazing to walk with my husband,(unhindered by bulky strollers) with a cool breeze from the lake on our faces and warm memories in our hearts. -Below- Anna Kate with Claire the fairy & Wesley with Jonah the Transformer.





Thursday night we went to the pumpkin patch at Anna Kate's preschool. Wesley has been very excited about picking out a pumpkin to carve!













We came home and got right down to business - Wesley and Anna Kate kept squealing in delight at the gross & glorious goopiness of it all! You can see Carigan in the background enjoying her first taste of spaghetti. She has just attacked solids this month. She'll still eat baby food, but nothing makes my baby girl happier than plopping her in her high chair with a tray full of Cheerios or goldfish crackers or peas or grapes (cut up into little pieces). This is the first time I fed her right off my plate though!





Mmmmmm, spaghetti!

-Below- Carigan dropping in on the finished product... we attempted to carve a Darth Vader face.





Proudly displaying our glowing jack-o-lantern. Last night when the kids were waiting on the porch for Miss Debi to arrive, Anna Kate said, "Mommy, can we burn up our pumpkin again?" I realized that meant she wanted me to light the candle. Only three more Halloween celebrations to go! (I'm telling ya, October is getting crazier than December with all these festivities!)

Halloween in the Magic Kingdom

Wesley's school had a teacher work day on Monday, so we headed to Disney after I picked Anna Kate up at noon. Michael met us there. We hadn't been to the Magic Kingdom since Anna Kate's princess dinner in the castle for her birthday in July. It was fun to see everything all decked out for Halloween. We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the afternoon parade, so we got to see princesses right off the bat (which is a relief, because from the second we walk in the gate at any Disney park, Anna Kate is asking for princesses!).





Disney World is getting tricky now that Wesley is familiar with all the rides... he's not the bravest kid and he's officially declared half of everything in the park to be "too scary." It was more fun when it was all new and he didn't know enough to protest! We expected him to be too scared to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, etc. (so Michael and I haven't done those in 6 years!). But now he refuses to do Pirates of the Caribbean, Stitch's Escape, the Tiki Room, and even the Tommorrowland PeopleMover (because it goes into Space Mountain where it's very dark). So our options are limited! I took the girls on the PeopleMover while Michael took Wesley to ride the race cars. Wes used to be too scared to hold the steering wheel and he just wanted to be a passenger. But this time Michael said he drove like a maniac, gripping his Disney drivers license the whole time! But Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is still the hands-down favorite of all three kids (Wesley, Anna Kate, and Michael).





-Below- Taking the train from the Toontown Fair to Frontierland.





-Below- The highlight of the day... the Main Street Electrical Parade! I have a vivid memory of sitting on the sidewalk watching this parade when I was 5-years-old, talking the head off the little girl sitting next to me (I told her all about my boyfriend Daniel). I had a vinyl record (one of the little ones with the big hole in the middle... I may be old enough to have had one but I'm not old enough to know what they're called!) of the music from the Electrical Parade that I used to dance around to with my sister. I haven't seen the parade since I was a little girl, because they didn't have it when we had annual passes before Wesley was born. They just recently brought the Electrical Parade back! The last couple of times we've been the Magic Kingdom we missed the parade while stuck in lines or on a ride. It was so magical to see it again! It was special to see Anna Kate react to seeing Cinderella inside her pumpkin carriage and to be able to remember exactly what that felt like as a child.





We still have yet to see Tinkerbell fly from the castle (my very favorite childhood Disney memory). The one time we got there early enough to stake out a great spot right in front of the castle, it had rained earlier in the evening, and apparently they can't do it if the line is wet. My poor kids were so disappointed! I told them Tink's wings were wet. The last time we had annual passes, we came with the Griffies and the Mosers (I have pictures of me with Susan and Thea right in front of the castle during fireworks) just to watch the fireworks, but Tinkerbell didn't fly then either. Not sure why. Anna Kate asks to see Tinkerbell fly from the castle all the time, but even when we come fully intending to stay for fireworks, we completely run out of steam (and I'm worried they'll scare Carigan, who got very upset today just sitting in the Laugh Floor show because of the noise). Some day soon we'll have to get a sitter for Carigan and come at night just for fireworks - one day I shall see Tinkerbell fly again!

-Below- Daddy and Carigan in line for the last ride of the day... the boat of countries. While walking up to the ride, Wesley looked up and read the sign & exclaimed, "Look Mom! It's not called the boat of countries... it's called It's a Small World!" Funny that he doesn't remember that I kept trying to tell him that!





On the ferry boat headed back to the parking lot. Good-bye Disney World!

Happy Birthday Claire & Jonah!

We celebrated Jonah and Claire's 3rd birthday on Saturday. Despite one achingly difficult absence, it was a day of celebration and joy. Jonah and Claire are truly the rays of sunshine that are penetrating this storm. It's because of them (and because of his solid and sustaining relationship with the Lord) that Tony is surviving and functioning so remarkably well. His focus is his children, and he's doing an amazing job of making sure they continue to feel as loved & safe & secure & celebrated as they did when they had their mommy.





I took Jonah and Claire to the bakery last week so they could each pick out a cake... this is the first year they've had "his" and "hers" cakes because up until now their interests have been alike. Last year Susan ordered them an Elmo cake. But now Claire is all about princesses, so I had to let Jonah go through the bakery book to pick out something a bit more manly for his cake. He doesn't have a clue what a Transformer is, but he sensed the boyness of it all and was adamant that he wanted a Transformer cake!





Jonah has the best excited face in the world... I love 3rd birthdays because it's the first year that kids truly get it that everyone is celebrating them! Susan had their t-shirts made earlier last month.





Daddy helping them blow out their candles. Both sets of grandparents were able to be there for the party (although I failed to get pictures! I got home and realized that was something that Susan would have made sure to do first thing. Her blog posts always made me laugh because she'd post the twins with every combination of family members possible... "Here's the babies with Mommy, here's the babies with Daddy, here's the babies with Mommy & Daddy, here's the babies with Grandma, here's the babies with Grandma & Granddad... "). Such a blessing to have Gigi, Pops, Grandma, and Granddaddy there... they drove a very long way to be there for their grandbabies.





Jonah was all about whacking the pinata... Claire hit it once and was ready for someone else to get the thing cracked so she could see what was inside. Girl after my own heart!





Gonna take after her Mommy!





Thanks so much to Stephanie for her help with the party - she practically passed out from blowing up giant punch balloons! I'm so grateful for her friendship and thankful for a friend that shares my memories of Susan and knew her like I did. Susan has always been a bond between us, and now more so than ever. Another thing Stephanie & I share: our love for these two little monkeys! I'll never forget the moment Susan called to say they were on the way, or the call to tell me that they were, in fact, two! I'll never forget that morning three years ago, camping out in the waiting room at LRMC in eager anticipation. I love them so much, and they have so very much of their mommy in them (especially Claire - it's like watching a miniature Susan sometimes when she makes certain expressions). We're all so grateful to have these two big pieces of Susan here with us every day. He gives and takes away, but my heart will choose to say - Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Inside Out Day!

Carigan is 9 months old today, which means she has now officially been outside my tummy just as long as she was inside my tummy... Happy Inside Out Day, baby girl! This means she's known me twice as long as anyone else. :o) This month has been full of cha-cha-changes for our dainty little flower. She discovered her temper and isn't afraid to display it from time to time, and her new friend Mobility has zapped her ultra-zen demeanor. She's a girl on the go!





Another new development this month... teeth! Two of 'em! Michael had to hold her upside down and I had to pull her lip down to to get a good look at her shiny new teeth... Carigan does not like people messing with the contents of her mouth (and since she's a human vacuum cleaner, we have to retrieve quite a bit from these jaws of steel on a daily basis!). Carigan's a little parrot now and she'll imitate any sound you make. She'll snort like a pig or make that "a-a-a-a-a-a-a" sound in the back of her throat (that sounds like artillery fire) on demand... just do it to her and she'll do it back. Mama is still the only real word in her vocabulary, but Miss Debi is always trying to get her to say "Bible" and she's say, "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba." Wesley always immediately claims that she is saying "brother."





World's best vacuum cleaner = Carigan Elizabeth. I introduced finger foods like baby puffs and yogurt melts in the past month and now she'll follow any pathway of crumbs. The downside to this is that I have to keep the floor very clean (which is a huge challenge with Thing 1 and Thing 2 lurking about). The benefit is that if I'm in a hurry in the morning, I can now feed Carigan breakfast puppy style - grab a bowl, fill it up, and set it on the floor. I failed to properly photo-document Carigan's first creeps of crawling, but it all happened so fast! She did it for Michael before she ever did it in front of me (she was more inclined to stop and fuss to be picked up whenever she spotted me... now she just speed-crawls to me and clings to my legs). By the time I finally caught her in the act of crawling, she was all over the house by the end of the week. She's much more daring than Wesley or Anna Kate ever were... she has no fear and she'll attempt to go up and over any obstacle. She goes right over the fireplace and keeps going! I've learned to decipher the exact tone of her "I've crawled somewhere and now I'm stuck or can't move" cry. I hear it quite often.





Another development in the past month... pulling up and standing. This is the first time she stood up in her crib after waking up from her nap (Oct 18). I saw her do it on the video monitor so I came armed with my camera. When I arrived (before even switching on the light), she was chewing on the rail with those shiny new teeth of hers. Anna Kate was 11 months old before she ever even sat up in her crib upon waking up! Now Carigan is pulling up on everything... she's almost always standing. Her favorite thing to pull up on is me. If I'm anywhere within crawling distance, within a few minutes I have a baby girl pulling up on my leg.





I took the girls to the park last week before picking Wesley up from school and I put Carigan in a swing for the very first time (Oct. 13). She loved it. It's funny because I just now pulled up Anna Kate's Inside Out Day blog post to compare pictures of the girls at the same age, and I blogged about Anna Kate's very first time in a swing on her Inside Out Day post! I guess 9 months is the official age of park swing induction. Make a note of it. Carigan did not keep a death grip on a side of the swing like Anna Kate did. No fear.





Here are the official Inside Out Day photos... Michael took the picture of me and the kids before we left for a Halloween party (Wesley's preschool buddy Erin and her family put on a huge production again this year. Nothing scary but they rent a huge slide and jumpy house and the kids all have a blast). Anna Kate did not wear her real costume for this year because I didn't want her to get it dirty. We raided her dress-up bin and she chose to go as Sleeping Beauty. She's wearing the crown and the gloves that Susan bought her for her birthday in July. I actually found a big crown with a picture of Sleeping Beauty on it in AK's bin and offered it to her, but she would not take off the crown from Miss Susan. I didn't put Carigan's costume on her either, because it's made of fleece and she'd burn up (many of these costumes are not designed with Florida climate in mind!). Wesley did (after 3 costume changes) finally decided to go as Darth Vader, his actual costume for this year. I took the picture of Carigan in her stroller after Daddy fed her a jar of mango baby food - you can always tell when Daddy was the one that fed her because he never wipes her mouth well enough when he's done! Same for the first picture in this post! Note that Carigan's bow is missing. Yes, sadly, she finally took notice of the bows I put in her hair and she promptly removes them. -sigh- We had a good run, anyway. Bring on the "such a handsome little boy" comments when out in public!





Several of the little girls from Wesley's preschool class last year were walking around eager to offer their face-painting services to everyone. Emily and Maddie were thrilled when they found a willing canvas in Wesley. After getting his face painted, Wesley was dying to take to the paintbrush himself, so being the great Daddy that he is, Michael let him go to town on his handsome mug! May I add that apparently none of the dads at the party love their kids as much as Michael loves Wesley, because all the other mens' faces remained paint-free for the duration of the night!





Then Wesley turned his puppy-dog brown eyes on me, but I told him he could paint my feet instead!