Halloween 2010!

Here are our Halloween 2010 pictures! We celebrated the whole month and had such a blast getting ready for the big day! To kick off the creepy festivities we started the month with a party with Piper's cousins. Piper had such a blast getting to hang out with ALL of them!! We had fun treats, did a craft, had a scavenger hunt around the apartment property, did the mummy wrap game and even watched a Halloween movie. Piper was in HEAVEN!

On Hallween, we went trick-or-treating with the kids in Donald and Julie's neighborhood and made bank with the candy!

Piper was a princess for halloween and Donald was her prince - giving her the royal treatment by carrying her! Bailey was the CUTEST bumble bee ever and cas content to hitch a ride in Julie's wagon and eat the pretzles she scored at the first house.

As we were leaving Donald and Julie's for the night, i snatched a chocolate dipped pretzle for ME to eat on the way home - obviously that didn't happen. Bailey caught sight of it and that's the end of that story.

Piper with her stash! Between that, the trunk-or-treat candy and the candy from school, I think she's set!

Leaves are Falling All Around!

So... we were SOOOO Super lucky to get to go home to IL last month to see Glam-mommy and Grandaddy AND Becky! We had a blast and the weather was GORGEOUS!! It was so nice to chill with mom and dad and see GG ang GG pa! We had lots of time to play at parks, go to the apple orchard and... play in the leaves! I've been building the leaves up for a while now and the first full day we were in IL I decided to take the girls over to GG's to play in the leaves. Piper would have NOTHING to do with it and I was SOOOO sad! I THOUGHT she had been excited for this moment. Turns out she was sick!!! So sadly I sat her in the car (didn't want her around GG and get her sick - danger) while Bailey, GG and I played in the leaves. She got better that night and the next day (and every day after) we came back and had such a blast. Bailey wasn't so sure about them but by the time we came back to TX I had gotten her to run into them. Then once she realized the leaves were touching her she would get out.

Glam-mommy got this little play set for the girls to play on in the back yard - It looked so dwarfed in their huge backyard but the girls LOVED it! We had lots of fun just with this little slide - makes me miss having a yard:(

I love that GG got in the leaves with Bailey! They just had so much fun! I could have watched them all day!

Curtis came for one of the weekends were were there and we got to go to the Apple Orchard!! Such a hit! We had a blast. So glad he was able to escape all his hard work and just play with us!

August continued

Ok so more of August. Curtis had to work a lot I mentioned and so one Saturday I was not about to hang out at the apt again so I decided to call up Julie to see if she wanted to hang out. We decided to go to the Alligator park. BOO! Julie was telling me about the one they had in Myrtle Beach that sounded so cool... this one was not as cool:( It was super pricey but not much to it. We got in - saw an alligator and that was about it - we were HIGHLY dissapointed and I was REALLY embarassed that I had suggested it. I mean we saw bigger alligators at Julie's house in Summerville! Their (the alligator people) only saving grace was a little learning show they did at the end. We got to pet a little Alligator, hold a snake and Piper got to hold a baby alligator, and they showed us Big Al which was a REALLY big alligator that the alligator man kissed. So that was cool.

Not sure why thse pictures wont rotate! but oh well, you get the gist right. Bailey, again, I think wanted to hold the alligator (the big one).



Her she is NOT excited that the snake is touching her - see the terror in her face!

Piper wasn't interested in holding the snake but thought she was REALLy cool to pet its head.

August

I was just looking through my pictures and saw some fun pictures of things we did in August and was wondering why I had never put them on the blog - SLACKER! August was a bust of a month for me personally because Curtis was working TONS. Like TONS +!! I'm not a fan of not seeing him that but whatever - He's an allstar and closed 18 houses!! Hooray for Curtis - he really is a FABULOUS builder! I'm glad I have him to build the rest of our houses for us (yes houses - I guess I have to get used to the fact that we will move a lot). Anyway, we tried to keep ourselves busy and LUCKILY we have Julie and the kids close by to play with. They invited us to go with them to the zoo in Houston and it was a blast. I just love love the picture of Rex and Piper on the fence. Piper just adores Rex and had so much fun with him and all the kids. There was a three month old elephant that was just SOOOOO fun to see! He was SOOOO cute and I seriously could have watched him ALL day. He was just so playful and curious. Bailey loved him too and I think wanted to hold him. Not sure how that would work.

There was a fun little petting zoo - always a hit - and they even had brushes for the kids to use on the goats. As I'm sure you can guess, Piper was in HEAVEN! It's hard to see in the picture but she has a brush in her one hand and was just going to town on that poor goat. I think she would have brushed it bald if I would have let her. Luckily I tore her away for this picture with the black goat. Isn't he a cute goat. Bailey of course loved petting them too - she is totally obsessed with dogs and I think she thought they were just big dogs.
All in all we had such a fun trip. I DEFINATLY want to take them back this fall/winter when it's cooler. Even though it was fun, it would be SOOO much better if it weren't 100 + degrees outside. Thanks for the fun trip Gerratts!

The park

Just thought grandparents might like to see Bailey (AKA: Babyzilla) walking. It's really funny!

New Pictures!

Maybe living in an apartment is a good thing! As a result of being so bored, I have been able to keep up on the blog! Haha! Anyway, I've been taking lots of pictures of these cute girls and the fun we've been having just hangin out in our apartment since it's too stinkin' hot to go outside.

This morning I had to go to the bathroom durring breakfast and Bailey was not happy about not having food in her minute at every second so I asked Piper to feed her some oatmeal. This is what I came back to. Isn't she such a good big sister!

Bailey was NOT about so sit still for this picture!

Bailey thinks it's the GREATEST thing ever to bite the spoon when i'm feeding her. This time she got it and was very proud.

Piper and I have been doing fun "school" activities. We have been playing pretend school on tuesdays and thurdsays (not always consistently) and this was us experimenting with objects to see if they would sink or float. She LOVED this activity!



My Bailey - not so much a baby anymore.

Play Room

Ok ...So I'm house dreaming. I figure, I'm going to decide exactly how I want my next house to be so when the time comes we can just build it and not sit around hum hauing. I think, if we build a two story (which i'm still not sure about), I want to have a loft that will be a play room (like yours carole and Kimberly). The only thing I haven't been sure on is is I actually want it to be a 'loft' or just close it off to be its own room. Mess DIRVES ME CRAZY. and if its open, i can see how that might be disastrous.

So today I was deciding I need to build Bailey her own book shelf for her room (trying to make this little apt more homey). I thought it would look cute with her little chair my mom gave her and that way she could have her own books in her own room and not have to go through Piper everytime she wants to read a book. I figured I might as well build it since I could probably do it cheaper and cuter than buying and that way WHEN we move again if I need to toss it I can. Anyway blah blah, I was looking on knock off wood to see if she had a cute bookshelf pattern and I came across THIS!!!! Isn't it ADORABLE!!!!! I LOVE IT! I think it's from land of nod?? Anyway I love it, love the colors, love the wallpaper, love everything and have decided that this will be what our next playroom looks like! (well more than just the shelf of course but i'm going to base it on these colors etc! hooray) Now I just need to find that wall paper!

Food = Happy Bailey

OH my gosh!! Bailey LOVES food! It is so funny! She will try ANYTHING and usually loves EVERYTHING! So this afternoon I fed Bailey a snack - pured carrots and apples - which she was satisfied with and went off to play after. I decided to sneek a couple of her little crackers. So I get the box out quietly and open the bag as quietly as possible which I thought was PRETTY quiet! All of a sudden Bailey comes tearing out of the living room with her mouth WIDE open. She KNEW! Somehow she knew exaxtly what I was getting into and she WANTED in on it!

My next house!

This sign or at least quote WILL be in my next house!














As well as this

She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny what?

No not yellow a no DEFIANTLY not a bikini, but YES YES to polka dots!!!

I went to Target yesterday to sadly buy hair dye. I know, it's a sad day when you go GREY! I have these pesky little grey hairs appearing every now and then at my part that makes me look a hundred times OLDER than Curtis - NOT cool! Anyway, so I broke down and stopped in to get some dye (it was on sale and I had a COUPON hooray!) and saw that their swim suits were on sale! BOTH girls need one too! Perfect timing. AND they even had matching suits in each's size! TOO CUTE! So we had to try them out today and show them off.



Side note: Bailey, it seems, for the last couple days had become VERY defiant! I mean like looks right at me and does exactly what I had said 'no' to two seconds ago!!! She is STUBBORN!!! So today she was obsessed with climbing up onto the chair and then off it. So I was hanging out in the water right by her, the chair was within arms reach, and she was doing this. Then all of a sudden she decides it would be cool to stand NOT holding onto ANYTHING - ON the chair! Danger Danger!! So I say, BAILEY NO NO! She smiles. I tell her again and that she needs to SIT DOWN or else I wont let her climb anymore. Now for all of you out there that think 'oh she's a baby, she doesn't understand' NOT true my friends! She knows EXACTLY what she is doing and what I am saying!!! So I proceed to tell her no and try to grab her and she moves back far enough in the chair that I can't reach her from the pool and SMILES at me!!!!!!! OH NO WAY SHE DID THAT!!! So I haul myself out of the pool and grab her, she cries, wails her arms about - I restrain her and she looks up at me and pouts. So I say 'are you done?' let her back down and she does it again in like 5 minutes! GRRRR!

Comparison

Per request, I have posted comparison pictures of the girls. Piper's on top at a year and Bailey on bottom at her year mark. What do you think?!?

Happy Birthday Bailey!

Bailey turned one last Tuesday July 27, 2010! Hooray! We love her so much! She is the FUNNEST baby EVER and we have had SOOOO much fun with her this last year. Since we took the girls to the Children's museum, I've been wanting to get Bailey a tunnel for her birthday. I thought she would love crawling through it since she is such an active little baby. So after much research and finding some amazing deals... I got her a play tent, two actually, that are connected by a tunnel. AND, the best part in my opinion... BALLS. What kid doesn't LOVE playing in balls? I know I did when I was little, the more balls the better. In fact, you could never really get enough balls! Anyway, I was SURE she would just LOVE this entertainment system and set it up the night before her birthday and was SOOOOO excited. ....She was not. Don't you love this picture! At least one of my kids LOVED it! Bailey was not impressed.

I think she either thought the balls were going to get her OR she felt like she was going to be drownd by them. Not sure which but she would not enter this tent willingly - being the good mom that I am, I forced her in!

She ended up liking the other tent ok, probably because there weren't balls in it and crawled through the tunnel a couple times following Piper. Piper was really excited about the tents but I think she needed someone to play with to really get the true fun potential out of it. It's ok, I'm SURE we will have lots of fun with it in the future.

So back to Bailey's day... I let her open my mom's present early because she was wanting desperately to play on Piper's chair and of course being the typical big sister, Piper did not want to share. Bailey LOVED her new chair and climbed up and down from it pretty much all day. Here she is pretending to read this book. The rest of the morning we just played and hung out. Piper helped me make frosting for Bailey's birthday cake and then it was naptime. Hooray for me! Cake decorating time. I was SOOOOO SOOOO excited to make Bailey's birthday cake and couldn't WAIT to get started. And then I started... and it was HARD...and I COULDN'T get it to look good or the frosting to hold or... needless to say Bailey did not get a silo on her barn...She was lucky to get a barn. Anyway, in the end it turned out pretty cute and she really couldn't have cared less what it looked like as long as it tasted good.


Curtis got home "early" from work and we quick opened presents so we could rush off to chuck-e-cheese to celebrate Rex's birthday. Bailey really didn't know what to do with her presents so piper graciously helped her tear into them.

I need to post the picture from the day after Bailey's birthday of these two playing with these blocks! They loved them - Bailey ESPECIALLY loved to put them back in the box while piper sang the "clean-up" song.

Gamma GG sent this cute pillow pal and Bailey was ALL smiles! She LOVES to cuddle blankets and stuffed toys.

Celebrating at chuck -e-cheese!

Piper was in HEAVEN! She asked me ALL day when we could go to Chuck-e-cheese and the time was FINALLY HERE!!

Bailey eating her birthday cupcake. She didn't get too into it. She actually was a lot like Piper was not wanting to touch the frosting. At first she touched it, realized she didn't like the feel of the frosting, then sat there with her mouth open wanting Curtis to feed her. Once she had a taste and realized he wouldn't, she dug in a little.

Other news:

Bailey is officially a big girl and gets to drink WHOLE MILK! Wahoo - freedom (as of yesturday)! Although it's slightly sad too of course.

and...

Bailey can walk (as of july 20th)...at least a few steps at a time before getting SO excited she actually did it that she falls down