Pumpkin Carving 101 by Norah ....

Get Mommy to cut the top off of the perfect pumpkin :)

Scoop out all of the seeds and pumpkin guts. Separate the seeds for roasting, they're yummy!

Keep baby brother busy chewing on his pumpkin the whole time so he doesn't innterupt us.

Daddy is good at tracing the stencil face on the pumpkin for me.

Concentrate really hard when your using the pumpkin carving tool, it's tricky.

Smile for the camera! My masterpiece is finished!

I've had enough pumpkin fun for the night and I want to go inside! I don't care if my pumpkin face is all happy and glowing, get me my blankie.

He's only happy because they didn't make him go outside in the freezing cold and look at a stupid pumpkin!

Here are our finished products of our 2 night pumpkin carving mission. All we could do the first night(posted above) was help Norah carve her pumpkin. She did a really good job until the very end, where being too tired from no nap that day got the best of her. Nolan was a champ he happily sat in his highchair and watched us all carve the pumpkin. Night 2 was just Casey and I after the kids went to bed. It was a lot of fun spending some quality time just me and him. I carved the pumpkin with fall leaves and the one with the little N for Nolan. Casey carved the elaborate graveyard scene all freehand, no tracing, no stencil or anything. Happy Halloween, a day early.

9 month update

Nolan turned 9 months old on Oct. 11, he had his checkup today and here are the numbers:
Weight = 21 lbs 6 oz
Length = 30 1/2 in
Head circumference = 18 in
So he is really growing well in percentages he's off the chart for length and just over the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference. So enough with the numbers and percentages he is just so much fun! I love every minute I get to spend with him, and I especially love to watch him and Norah play together, she is such a loving big sister. It seems like he does something new almost every day, and my new favorite is him clapping his hands and playing peekaboo. He still just has one tooth but he does really good with finger foods and absolutely loves to feed himself. The messier the better as far as he's concerned. I can not believe that his first year is going by so fast and what a sweet precious little man he is becoming.

Oh what a fun Saturday !

Nolan, Avery, Caitlyn and her mama Erin
I love the expression on Avery's face in this one!

Tiffany and Erin with all the adorable little ones
(pretty much impossible to get them all looking at the camera)

My little monkey :)

The birthday girl herself, Miss Avery
Looking so cute peeking from behind one of her presents

Saturday afternoon was Avery's first Birthday party, and it was a blast. Tiffany and Kory did a great job of planning a fun Halloween themed costume party for all of Avery's friends. There were 5 babies there ranging from 9 mo to 14 mo, such a fun age range but, also making lots of chaos (the good kind). Norah was there too, even though we didn't get one picture of her in her costume. She was a cute furry mouse, but she got hot and was the first on to take off their costume. Thanks Newgard family for a fun time!



Saturday Night

Annual work Halloween party! All the girls and our costumes.
Casey and I
Casey was an undercover cop and I was his prisoner.
His handcuffs and badge are covered up by his shirt.

Tiffany and I. She was a cute little witch.

Tiffany and her husband Kory, he was as equally dressed up as Casey.
Aren't they cute.

Pat and Amy
The host and hostess!
Thank you for sacrificing your house every year

for us nurses to dress up, drink(usually too much), and get crazy.

Happy birthday Sis, and more....

My baby sister turned 24 yesterday, and I just can't believe it! She has grown into quite an incredible young woman. She is a great auntie to our kids, a great sister and a really good friend. She is finishing up (1 1\2 more years) of graduate school at UPS to become a physical therapist and I am so proud of her. Anyway on Sunday Casey went and picked her up and my family came over and we had a yummy dinner and dessert to celebrate, luckily I was able to get the first 4 hours of my shift off at work so I could enjoy it too. We all had a good time, it's always nice to be able to get together with family for a relaxing dinner.

I have been working the past 3 nights and am now off for 6 days, yay! This week was a big week for Nolan he had his first swimming lesson at the YMCA and he loved it! Norah started swimming lessons around the same age and she has become my little fish. We will take him twice I week and I look forward to every minute of it (OK I'm lying, I don't enjoy the 30 some minutes in my bathing suit. But I'm working on that). Norah had her first preschool field trip today so I stayed up after work to take her, it was really fun. Her class went to a pumpkin patch, this is her third trip since Friday, but she still seemed to have just as much fun.

Coming up this week.....
Thursday I help out in Norah's class at preschool, which is always a really entertaining adventure. 3 year old are a riot! Saturday is our good friends Tiffany and Kory's daughter Avery's 1ST birthday party and we are so excited for it. It's a costume party so all the kids will be wearing their costumes and it's going to be precious. Also Saturday night is my annual work Halloween party, which usually proves to be fun, crazy and make for rough Sunday morning, (if you know what I mean). And lastly the kids are having their first sleepover at Papa's house, they'll do great, thanks Dad! I'm really hoping Sunday will be spent lounging around the house in or PJ's all day!

Fall Fun !

Handmade Hats

She picked the set out herself

Nolan's hat is a little big still

My cousin Alesia's Grandma Virg makes these darling hats and scarfs for the kids. Norah has a couple of sets from last year that she has grown out of, so this week Alesia got a new batch and Norah got to pick out a set. She likes it so much that she wore it around all day today, to lunch with Auntie Jenny and Dylan and to Costco for some shopping and just lounging around the house. She even let me snap some pictures of her posing in it, which is rare because she doesn't like having her picture taken. Nolan likes his too he didn't even try to take it off, except of few times to give it a nibble and taste.
Tomorrow if it's not raining me and a couple other moms are taking the kids to Spooner farms pumpkin patch to play around and have lunch. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures of all the pretty fall sights. I just love this time of year, especially when the weather is like it has been this week, sunny with that distinct fall chill in the air. Anyway look for some posts on our trip, that is if it doesn't rain!

Bathtime fun !

My kids love the bath !

I almost never ....

take a nap, but today while both the kids were taking their afternoon naps I decided to sneak one in. Other moms know this but the only time I have to myself are those couple of hours in the afternoon when they are both asleep and I can really get a lot done. Let me tell you though it was great, and well worth it! I think it's the weather today that has been making me tired because all morning I was dragging. Not anymore all I needed was a 30 minute nap and now I feel great. I think I might try this more often :) And you other moms out there should try it too.