It Is Finished

Hello Christmas Advent Calendar! I've been wanting one of these forever but didn't want to make it. So, me and my Reed sister-in-laws all shared the honor of making the ornaments and based our pattern off of one Janae found mixed with the one they grew up with. I just finished it about 20 minutes ago and had to post it.

Here we are with the empty calendar as it now sits on the wall. Waiting for December to add ornaments...

And here it is all decked out in its beauty.

So happy right now!

My cuties

Just wanted to share some pics from the other night.

Doesn't it look like they're up to something?

Blood... no, it's paint.

I don't know why we don't finger paint more. It's very entertaining and it is never as messy as I think it's going to be. Seriously. Now you don't know if I'm kidding or not.

Here are my cuties, all messy and...WHAT? Smiling for the camera? Now you know why I blogged about finger painting.

Evelyns work.
It looks like she cut her finger. The paints mixed together always make this maroonish color. Don't know why. Should it be black or white or something?

Who's happy?

Cat n' Mouse

Here are the shyest cat and mouse in all of Halloweenville.

Vacation

I think that the definition of vacation should be: the best thing in the whole world. Anyone agree? I LOVE to go on vacation. We went on a cruise last week with Dereks side of the family and had so much fun.
Here we are enjoying the sun, sand, and warm weather at Coco Cay.
Swiming in the ocean at Paradise Islands Cabbage Beach. Most beautiful beach we had ever been to.

All of us after snorkeling at Nassau, Bahamas.

Formal night. Loved it.

We had a great time and made some great memories. Namely, Goldies Fish Fry.

Pumpkins? Yes Please.

I always forget how much I love carving pumpkins. I love watching the girls pull the slime out of their pumpkin. And how do you like our green pumpkins? We decided they didn't get enought sun, is that right? Anyone know? After trick-or-treating we decided that next year we could just paint them, like a few that we saw.
Anyway, it was so much fun.

Beautiful Island Park For a Day

A couple Sundays ago we went to Island Park for the day. It was in the middle of Harvest so me and the girls were so happy to spend time with Derek. We knew it would be our last time up before it snows. (We cant wait for it to snow.)

Here we are walking down to the lake. It was so pretty, and did I tell you that we were so happy?
Cute pic of the girls just having fun.

A couple tries later and we got a pic of all of us!

Anyone else love these three so much?

Sisters!

Spud Harvest...

... is over!

Zucchini

I'm sure you're just DYING to know what this blog post is about with such an interesting blog title, right?
There is a picture of me and my dad when I was probably three years old. We're both sitting at the top of our stairs on our deck. He's holding a massive zucchini and I'm holding a regular size zucchini.
I've been saving one zucchini to grow all summer long, without picking it, just for these pictures. Well, I picked it last night and it was everything I hoped it would be! I was so happy, if you were spying on us, you might (would) think I was crazy. The zucchini was a monster and we had a few smaller ones ready to be picked just for the girls. Without further ado:

This picture further shows its massive size.

So big, Gwen can't even hold it.

Anyone want some zucchini?

Yep, She's Struttin' Her Stuff

I thought her aunts would like to see little sister Gwen walking around like a big girl. She thinks she's hot stuff, and on occasion she still likes an applause when she walk to us. I tried to get a video of her, but she was in no mood to perform. No surprise. Oh well, this blurry photo will have to do.
PS- Is anyone else self-conscience about posting their amateur-ish photos with so many professionals out there?
Also, the rule, "I before E except after C" does not apply for conscience. Or science for that matter.

Three.

Well, Evelyn turned three this week. Does anyone else think that birthday parties are way too hard to plan? Sheesh. Anyway, Evelyn has been counting down the days since little sisters birthday that was OVER TWO MONTHS AGO! We were all very excited for her birthday to come, to say the least.
This was also the first time that we invited friends in addition to family. Evelyn requested these two cute friends of hers:

Enjoying everything!

All the kids.
The biggest event of the day was receiving this $1 jump rope from Pama. Her cousin got one on her birthday and so Evelyn has been asking for one.

Family picture...

Little sister was happy!

After the party was over Evelyn wanted to re-live the event and watched it over and over. Then she asked for another party. Sure? Why not? It was no big deal.

Bye!

Baby baby Bjorn

Gwen has turned into quite the little loving mother. The other morning she was carrying around a baby and a scrap of fabric that Evelyn weaseled out of my fabric box/bag/mess/don't ask. The John(my dad) in me had the great idea to make her a little baby sling. Oh boy, it was a hit! She was pretty cool marching around with this bad boy tied around her.

We definitely recommend it!

Bummin' A Ride

This is what happens on laundry day since I can't carry Gwen and a load up the stairs separately.
She doesn't seem too upset about it.

Boating

A few weeks ago we spent the whole day out on the boat at Gem Lake. It was one of the most beautiful days of the summer. We brought plenty of food with us, and would have stayed out longer if we'd brought dinner. Anyway, it was so much fun.
Here are my little cuties soaking up some rays.
Derek snapped this pic of Gweners.

Have I mentioned that Evelyn is a wild one? She wanted to ride on the tube and she wanted it to be FAST!

Love the summer, can't wait for fall!

Camping sans Kids

I've got a great man who took me camping this week. We had to 4-wheel up a trail for an hour to get to our campsite, and it was so fun. Did I mention that we left the kids home? Yep, life is good.
Here we are all ready to go.
We hiked to this beautiful mountain lake, it was so pretty!

This was another hike, we camped on that lake that you can see. Here we are at the top...

...and here we are coming down...

...and down some more.

I'm telling you, get a babysitter and go!

Best Holiday Ever

We only took pictures of one thing on the 4th. It was this firecracker hair-do. It was awesome.

Gwener Girl Is One

Happy Birthday to my baby! If you look close, you can see that she got a quick grab at the cake before I moved it farther away. She was excited for some cake!
As we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her, she got really shy and leaned into me for a little snuggle. So cute!

I blew out her candles. Neither of my girls like to perform under pressure, so I did the honors.

This may have been the only time the Evelyn let her hold a present without 'help'.

She LOVED LOVED LOVED her cake.

The End

Ducks In A Row

Look at these little ducks in a row! I just can't get enough of these.
Future Best-Buddies.

Love her guts.

And what about this?

Fun with pama.

Do you want to eat them too?