MOPS Pumpkin Patch and Maguire Fall Festival

The church where we go to MOPS has a pumpkin patch set up for Halloween. I took the kids out there today after the meeting and we got some cute pumpkin pictures. Lily thinks the pumpkins are so cool. They also have a bounce house and some little games set up. Lily loved the bounce house. Ava thoroughly enjoyed all the hay laying around...yum!

I couldn't get them to look at me...smiling was out of the question.

There's a smile, but sissy was in la-la land...so, she's cut.

But, that's okay, because how cute is this smile?

And, of course, here are Lily and Madison. They are so cute!

Ava had a lot of fun playing in the pumpkins.

Lily kept this very serious face the whole time she was in the bounce house. I think she was a little nervous because of all the other kids.

I don't know if you can hear it in the video, but she was singing this silly little song the whole time she was bouncing. You will probably just hear my talking to two other little kids that decided to tell me their names.

We also went a Fall Festival at our apartment. It's something they do every year and it is always a lot of fun. Various organizations and clubs around campus set up tables and do games for the kids and give out prizes and candy. There are all these college students in costume running the games and everyone from the Housing Villages comes out to play and eat pizza.

This game, Monster Mash, is a musical chairs type game, but you don't remove a chair. When the music stopped, the lady chose on of the images and whoever was standing in front of that image won. Well, after the first round that Lily played, the lady running it helped her to get in front of one of the images and told her to stand right there, so when the music started again and the other kids started moving, Lily just stood there. Ava and I had to jump in for the next few rounds until she got the hang of it.

Here she is once she got the gist of the game. The bag she is carrying had all her candy and goodies in it. She would not put it down.

Here she is getting her face painted. She got a pretty little princess crown painted on her cheek.

Here she is doing the cake walk with her friend Sienna. Thank goodness, there was a helpful college student handy to show her how this one worked!

This one was Lily's favorite game. You had to dig through the slime to find 3 squishy eye balls. She loved it. She came home covered in slimey green ooze.

Lily trying to learn the "Thriller" dance.

Lily showing off some of her prizes, gotta love the neon pink vampire teeth.

Well...

I feel like I haven't been very good about posting much about the kiddos lately. We have been kinda busy, though I couldn't really tell you what we've been doing! I did get a new gym membership (yay!) and have been trying to fit that into my routine, which is proving more difficult than t thought it would! Housework seems to be multiplying all by itself...I think we have little elves that come and make messes (oh, wait, their names are Lily and Ava...and Nate). Not to mention our university run internet is running like crud. I am hoping to get that fixed next week (or else I am signing up for Cox again). So, I thought I'd try to put a couple of pics of the kiddos up...and by a couple, I literally mean two. I will try to get some more up soon once the internet is not being...ahem, silly :)

More dress-up...our little Hawaiian princess.

Hey, Mom!

Giveaways

Middle Aged Fan Girl is giving away a whole bunch goodies.
Your Impact Matters is giving away a GC for some super adorable hair clips!
MomDot is giving away an awesome book package as well as lots of other stuff.
As Usual, I Need More Book Shelves is giving a Surprise Book Package!
Momma Findings is giving away a Personalized Kids Book.
Busy Mom has a bunch of giveaways going on like Kid's Sunglasses.
Grosgrain is giving away a set of amazingly adorable skirt and shirt outfits! Oh, I hope I win this one!

Name Labels

Well, most of you mommas out there have seen or used the nifty little sticker name labels that you can buy to label all your kids stuff. Well, after spending quite a while (like a year) debating about whether I could justify the $20 -$50 on stickers for my kids cups just so they could bring them to MOPS (2x a month), I found this great shop on Etsy where I got 2 sets of 30 stickers fro only $10! I was even able to get two different colors. So cool. I have finally been able to try them out and they are working out great! They have held up to being washed and I love having the kids stuff labels when we go to places where they are around a lot of other kids (and Lily thinks it's super cool that her name is on everything). Anyhow, if you are looking for name labels, check out My Two Babes over on Etsy. It's also a mom run business, so that is always a great thing to be able to support. Here are a couple of pics of the labels:





Well, most of you mommas out there have seen or used the nifty little sticker name labels that you can buy to label all your kids stuff. Well, after spending quite a while (like a year) debating about whether I could justify the $20 -$50 on stickers for my kids cups just so they could bring them to MOPS (2x a month), I found this great shop on Etsy where I got 2 sets of 30 stickers fro only $10! I was even able to get two different colors. So cool. I have finally been able to try them out and they are working out great! They have held up to being washed and I love having the kids stuff labels when we go to places where they are around a lot of other kids (and Lily thinks it's super cool that her name is on everything). Anyhow, if you are looking for name labels, check out My Two Babes over on Etsy. It's also a mom run business, so that is always a great thing to be able to support. Here are a couple of pics of the labels:

Wordless Wednesday (Almost Forgotten About): Sweet Sisters

My Little Monster Baby - 10 Months Old

Ava is 10 months old today. Golly, but the time has flown by! I can't believe both my girls will be having birthdays in 2 months (oh man, better get on that and Christmas)! Ava has been such a little monster baby this morning. She has lovingly earned the name "Ankle Biter." We've been calling her this pretty much since she began to crawl because she is constantly at someone's (mostly mine) ankles trying to climb your legs to get picked up or just be touched and acknowledged. She is a snuggly little thing, but because of this seems to require a lot more physical affection than Lily. It's funny because I so wanted a baby who would sit and let me hold them and lean on me and snuggle (Lily was so not like that as a baby, still isn't), but little did I know that would mean she would be at my ankles all day long! I keep hoping once she is walking she will not be constantly under foot, but it may just make her able to catch me even faster!

She has also figured out she can climb. She can climb onto Lily's bed in like 3 seconds flat. She even scale our couch (getting down is a different story all together). Anything that is more than 5 inches high inspires her to hike up that little foot and try to conquer it! She has been really loving playgrounds lately because she can practice her climbing skills. The picture at the top of the post is from the The Swamp playground at the mall here in Gainesville. She had so much fun crawling around and climbing stuff when we went (no matter that there were about 20 kids running around trying to trample her).

She also loves to yell. She just screams because she can. It's like a game for her and Lily. Who can scream the loudest? Well, I think Ava usually wins. She gets mad at Lily sometimes, too, now, and will just scream at her. Not like crying just an angry battle cry. It's pretty funny. I think she may end up with more attitude and stubbornness than big sis (who thought that would be possible), but perhaps with a sweet streak a little different from my prickly little pear (Lily). Ah, my little Ava. So many challenges await us, but I wouldn't trade her for anything.

Home Again, Home Again

Well, we are home. What a whirlwind 2 weeks it has been! The cruise was amazing! Nathan and I had an absolute blast. We sailed on Royal Caribbean and went to Nassau in the Bahamas and Coco Cay which is Royal Caribbean's private island. It was a much needed break for Nathan and I. We spent lots of time sleeping...and eating. There was food everywhere we went. Thank goodness that YMCA membership finally came through, cause oh boy, are we gonna need it! We had a rough night the first night (about 12 ft seas), but other that, it was pretty smooth sailing. Here are the few pictures we took:

A pretty rainbow after the storms on the first day.

I was just amazed at how small the huge ship seemed being out in the middle of the even huger ocean!

Nate climbing the rock wall (in no less than 25 mile hour winds, while the boat rocked back and forth).

Us in front of the ship in Nassau.

It was a wonderful trip and I can't thank my in-laws and everyone who helped out with kids enough for making it possible for us to go. The kids did great with my father-in-law by the way (although I think he lined up lots of help)! Yay! Good to know that Ava is capable of surviving without being attached to Mommy!

Giveaways

Now Entering Momville is giving away an adorable book by Zaida Baby.
The Giveaway is giving away a $50 Gift Certificate to The Soap Box Company!
Terra Furnishings is giving two great prizes, go check those out!
Jamie's Precious Peas has a great giveaway for a $20 Gift Certificate to Apple Blossom Designs.
Mommy Vents is giving away the book The Sky Isn't Visible From Here by Felicia Sullivan and a $10 gift card to Starbucks.
Ohana Mama is giving away MomSpit.
There is another amzing dress giveaway over at Grosgrain!

Conversations with Lily

So, I am sitting on the couch with a headache and Lily is coloring with her little Magna-Doodle thing and pretty much being as loud as she can. I ask her, "Lily, can you please try to be quiet. Mommy doesn't feel good."
"No, I can't."
"But, Lily, Mommy's sick. Mommy's head hurts. Don't you want to help Mommy feel better?"
"I want you to feel better, but you have to do it yourself."

Thanks.

She then went on to tell me that I ate too many cookies (one) at the softball game (two days ago) and that is why I am sick.

Random Stuff

I've got a few random things to put up before I leave, so here it is:

First, just a sweet picture of Ava. I love her little smile so much. She such a little cutie ( I know, I am partial).


We went on a play date to Madison and Kim's house (I love how when you have a kid, your house suddenly becomes their house, no matter that you pay the mortgage). The girls had a ton of fun, of course! Ava even had a blast playing with all the new toys. I think Madison and Lily had the most fun playing dress-up and blowing bubbles. Kim is such a great mom. She always plays with the girls and really interacts with them. Anyhow, lots of fun was had by all!

The little princesses.

Dancing.

Bubbles!!!

Last night, we went to Nate's softball. I had this brilliant idea to bring sidewalk chalk to occupy Lily...yeah, not my most intelligent move. Both girls and I were covered with chalk by the time we got home (and Ava ate more than her fair share of it, too).







Alright, I think that will be it for now! It will be about 10 days or so until I get anything new up. Please, keep my poor in-laws in you prayers. And my babies...And pray for no storms for us (or rogue waves...I watched Poseidon a couple of days ago, bad idea). Have a great couple of weeks!

Wordless Wednesday: My Little Fashionistas

Giveaway Round-Up

There are lots of great giveaways going on right now. Here are a few:

MomDot has lots of great giveaways going on including one for Circle of Motherhood design necklace, valued at $120, from Pearl Girl Tags. MomDot is also giving away 4 copies of the new Veggie Tales movie, the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. This giveaway will also have a 5th grand prize winner who will receive a prize pack with lots of awesome Veggie Tales loot!

Ponytail Challenge is hosting a giveaway for a very cool clock from Bode 22.

Momma in Flip Flops is giving away a MomSpit Spitkit.

This great giveaway is for a kids art set.

Does Mommy Love It? is giving away a DripStik.

So, go check all those out!

A Bit of a Break

I just wanted to let you all know that there will be very few posts this week and next week. I am doing a garage sale with a friend of mine this weekend, so I am going to be pretty busy getting ready for that this week. Then, on Saturday after the garage sale, we are headed to St. Auggie for a bit and on Monday (a week from today), Nate and I are going on a 5 day cruise around the Bahamas! My very kind in-laws are sending us and my father-in-law has volunteered to watch the girls (though I have enlisted some of my sis-in-laws to help), so that should be a lot of fun! Anyhow, it means I am going to taking a bit of a break from the blog. I may get a few posts up this week, but I'm not sure and next week there will probably be nothing. I may see if I can figure out the auto post thing for a Wordless Wednesday, but who knows! Anyhow, hope you all have a great week!

Ava Milestone

Ava took her first steps today! They were very wobbly steps, bet she took two and then fell. She'll only try to walk to Nate (she can't get to me quick enough that way). I think by Halloween we may have another walker! She is growing up so fast. She's not even 10 months old yet! I will try to get pics and/or video as soon as I can.

my tiny star: Update! Nie Nie Auction and GIVEAWAY!

Check out the awesome giveaway for a personalized child's doll! Very cool!

my tiny star: Update! Nie Nie Auction and GIVEAWAY!

Bedroom Set Giveaway

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a photo contest sponsored by Home & Bedroom Furniture. They are giving the winner their choice of two different bedroom sets. We'd love to win the Lily Rose (very appropriate for my girls). This picture of Ava is my favorite and my entry to the contest. So go check it out!