Thursday, October 30, 2008

Happy Early Halloween

Pictures from a neighborhood Halloween party from last Sunday. The girls were too cute for words! Abby was facinated with looking like Noah and Margaret was the spitting image of Pippi. AP will have to wait until tomorrow to reveal his costume, since he was at soccer practice during the party. Happy Halloween everyone!
Our little baby is nineteen months- it is hard to believe. She is talking so much and is so smart- it's hard to believe she ever had to have therapy for speech and movement concerns. She is running through the house, skipping and doing silly dances. She sings so many songs- London Bridges, A Tisket a Tasket, Ring Around the Rosie and the ABCs are her favorites right now. She throws herself down at the part "We all fall down!"
She also sings the prayer at each meal. Whenever you give her food she breaks into a rendition of "God our father" and will keep going until she decides she's had enough to eat and then she flings all of her food on the ground with great pizzaz.
I never knew how much work a toddler could be. I remember watching Holly run after Josh when we met up with them last year in PA, but it still didn't occur to me that Abby would soon be like that. I am pooped.
I am constantly cleaning up the flung food much to her delight. She loves getting on the bathroom stool and turning on the water. SHe climbs on everything- even the kitched table. She loves hanging out on the stairs and seeing if anyone notices her daredevil antics.
She is really into flushing the toilet and saying "bye bye" to whatever was in there before the flush. She is experimenting with what happens when objects get thrown in and flushed too. She's REALLY keeping us on our toes.
Fortunately, I've trained her to make the salads and put the kids lunches into bags for me! She loves putting lotion on my face too.
Another thing she loves right now is one of the horses down the street from us- Fritsy. She wants to visit Fritsy everyday and throws a fit if I don't take her. She bends down and pulls out grass to feed Fritsy and cries when it is time to walk home. She is also still infactuated with Noah. She adores him- and he, thankfully, puts up with her amazing well. She calls every cat "Noah" and refers to the outdoor cat, Mrs. Piddlekins as "Noah-Pid." For some reason Noah has been pooping on the floor lately which makes him even more interesting to her!
She is saying so many new words- "b-button" for her belly button and "p-pop" for lolly pops are the funniest ones. She has actually picked up many signs by watching some sign language books from the library. She can do signs for table, cereal, cup, bird, refrigerator, computer, book, and more. Actually "more" is her most prominent sign. She uses it quite clearly when she wants "more p-pop, mama."
She is surprising us by putting together sentences too. Yesterday she was climbing up me and was delighted to announce to Patrick "See daddy? I walk up mama." She also calls out "Daddy where are you?" when she wants him all to herself. There favorite thing to do together right now is read books. Patrick also lets her "drive" his car (which she can''t get enough of) and bath time. Making farty noise bubbles in the bath water entertains them both long enough for me to clean the kitchen!
Well- better run. Tomorrow is another exhausting day!

October pictures

We have had a busy October, with soccer for AP five days of the week. He ended the regular season undefeated. Now he is practicing for All Stars, which will be held the middle of Nov. That might explain why I barely had any pictures of him this month!
We've had crazy weather the last few weeks. It has been either warm or freezing outside- and sometime both on the same day. We had very rainy weather last Sat. and the girls spent the whole day inside in their PJs playing dolls.
Abby also enjoyed playing with a box for the first time- drawing on it and crawling through. It entertained her for over an hour!
Enjoy the pics!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Trampoline, scarecrows, pumpkins and more fall fun...

The weather has been amazing. It's suppossed to get up to 89 degrees this week. We've enjoyed the fall nights. We set up Patrick's birthday trampoline and the kids have been enjoying it until sundown each night. Abby is so funny in it- she runs around in circles like a hamster in a ball.
We've been very busy with school and soccer season, but we've also had fun decorating the house for halloween. We went to a pumpkin patch today after the game and really had fun as a family. Abby enjoyed the horses the most and Margaret liked feeding all the animals. Patrick liked climbing all of the hay structures.
We took a hayride and selected our pumpkins. Then we went to the library for a quick story and out to eat. It was a great fall day.
Enjoy some pics from the last couple of weeks (below) or check out http://picasaweb.google.com/JHeelen/PumpkinAndFallPics# for more pictures.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Kings Dominon

We celebrated adoption day with an annual trip to Kings Dominion. hard to believe it's been 4 year ssince we adopted the big kids. Some days it feels like yesterday- some like an eternity ago.
Bubby got us discount tickets through her work which include free barbeque- can't go wrong. This was the first time for Abby and she had a great time. We split up and Patrick took AP on the big coasters. Margaret and I even had time to do some of our own while Bubby and Abby shared a lemonade. The rain held off and we had a lot of fun.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Day Trip tp Montpelier

We visited the newly renovated estate of James Madison- 4th president last Sunday. It was a beautiful day and after teh hustle and bustle of the week, we were ready to relax and enjoy the beautiful day. Plus, it was a perfect time to go- Sept. 17th is Constitution Day!
While an outing with three children isn't exactly relaxing- we did enjoy ourselves. The kids were initially disappointed to hear where we were going, but they ended up having a very good time. After a lecture at the visitor's center, we got to tour the house that has recently been downsized and remade to appear exactly as it did when the Madison's lived there. The kid's enjoyed the history tent and all of the period tools they could test. We had a picnic lunch and took a nice hike through a poplar forest. We also toured a nearby cabin of a free black family that was furnished as it would have been during the Civil War. The highlight of the day was probably the sow and her piglets that were in a pen next to the cabin- Abby couldn't get enough!
To add to the excitement-Margaret brought a pair of hand cuffs in her "car bag" that A.P. locked around his wrist. Unfortunately for him- she hadn't brought the key with her and he had to wait until we returned home to get it off! That explains the sunflower picture with the cuffs hanging down!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Annual Trip to Canaan, West VA

We spent Labor Day in Canaan Valley West VA. We go every year with Patrick's family and stay in a rental home at a ski resort. We had great weather this year. We enjoyed fishing (the kids both caught fish!), bunjee jumping , mini golf, crafts, a water balloon cpntest and volleyball. Both kids competed in a watermelon eating contest and Margaret was the winner! She won free passes to a "turtle slide" which is a tube ride down the ski slope minus the snow! We even won the family scavenger hunt, collecting things like pine cones, leaves, a bird feather and birch bark.
We also tried "geochaching" this year for the first time. It involves using a GPS to find hidden treasure boxes on a hiking trail. THe whole family enjoyed it. We also visited our favorite pizzaria- Sirinoni's and ate too much again this year. We look forward to it every year and then pig out!
We took so many pics, I posted them on Picasa. If you want to check them all out- send me an email and I will send you a link... but here are some of my favorites...