FBF: The Halloween Edition!

Happy Halloween from a couple of cows and a cowgirl! 

The girls had a fun day with Boom, and we had a fun evening with G-ma and G-pa trick-or-treating and handing out candy.

I have some awesome Halloween related flashbacks for you tonight. 

First up, Chris on Halloween in the late 80s/early 90s.

A Vampire, A devil, No Idea, A Dog

Next up: Henderson Halloween- for a NUMBER of years, we did coordinating costumes.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Peter Pan et. al, and a Royal Family

A Wedding Party, a Basketball Team (the Henderson Hoopsters) and Aliens

Then lastly, some FBFs with the girls.

I was a cowgirl for Halloween once, too.  Callie was a much cuter cowgirl than I was. Twice.

And finally, the girls as cows.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

FTPDThursday

In order to have a fun Halloween post tomorrow, I'm switching things up this week. So today is "Favorite Things Phone Dump Thursday" and tomorrow will be "Flashback Friday."

Here are the pictures:

Favorite Thing #1: Silly sisters

Favorite Thing #2: this one was pretty sick this week and had her crabby moments... But she had her sweet and funny moments too.

Favorite Thing #3: A fall walk

Favorite Thing #4: Play time

Parental Texts, Part II

The business of co-parenting is not at all sweet and romantic.

I mean, pretty often you DO look at your kids with amazement and think how cool it is that they came from both you and your spouse.  But other times you look at them with bewilderment and secretly blame your spouse for all of the kids' crazy (knowing full well that it was PROBABLY your genes that caused a lot of the crazy).

And realistically, the day-to-day parenting stuff is just two people in survival mode trying not to mess up their little ones too much and trying to keep their own sanity in tact. 

AMIRIGHT????

Last November I posted a round of texts between Chris and myself that were anything but sweet and romantic.

Well, it continues.  Here are Parental Texts, Part II.

***************************

Chris: Leaving to come home.
Kati: We are fine.  Just a lot of screaming coming from upstairs.

***************************

Kati: I'm cleaning Callie's bathroom and it is taking every ounce of my being not to puke.
Chris: Sounds like fun.

***************************

Kati:

Chris: What am I looking at?
Kati: Something that totally freaked me out when I walked outside.

***************************

Chris:

A big ol stinky gross poop woke me up.
Kati: Silly girl.

***************************

Chris: Is Callie off the potty?  See if she wants to go to Sam's Club for free samples.
Kati: She said no.

***************************

Kati: She got 4 poop chunks out.  Probably equivalent to a medium school bus*.
Chris: Sounds fun.
Kati: Both girls in bed.  Maya is already out.
Chris: Dang.

***************************

Chris: (from upstairs) Do you want any wine?
Kati: (from downstairs) I have some thanks.

***************************

*I'm not even going to try and explain this.  Just know that we have our own poop language over here, and pray that you never have to learn it.

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a pretty horrible winter here in the Midwest.  Which made spring shorter...and then summer was pretty mild and unremarkable.  But this fall has been ridiculously awesome.  This weekend was no exception.

We spent the weekend running errands, playing outside, having a couple play dates, and watching the girls being adorable.

Saturday
The girls and I ran errands in the morning and then I made my mom's potato corn chowder soup during morning nap time.  I have been meaning to make it for weeks now an finally got around to it.  It was delicious as usual.

Neither Callie nor Maya would eat the soup (STINKERS), but Maya did try hard to eat her mac and cheese with a spoon.  The utensil didn't last long though, when she realized that fingers are still much easier.

Auntie Cat came over for lunch (at least SHE will eat my soup!) and then babysat during dance class.

Speaking of dance class...it was HALLOWEEN COSTUME week, which was awesome.  The girls were all so cute.

Later that evening we went over to play with Avery. This was the best picture I could get of the girls, go figure.

 

 

Sunday

 

We spent a lot of time outside!  So beautiful.

 

The most anticipated event of the weekend was our play date with Callie's "boyfriend" Henrik, and his family.  You may remember Henrik from back when Callie called him her favorite person.  I connected with his mom at Mom's night at preschool, and we arranged today's play date a few weeks ago.  We went over to their house and went to a park.  Callie was SO happy.

 

 

Henrik has a little brother Kelan, but I didn't get any good pictures of him and Maya together.  Next time.

 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

FTPDF

Happy WEEKEND!!!!!!!

It has been another long week and I'm thankful for a weekend to spend time with Chris and the girls.

Here are the pictures!

Favorite Thing #1: Hanging out with Boom (and Bops!)

Favorite Thing #2: Beautiful fall weather

 

Favorite Thing #3: Hanging out with G-ma, G-pa and Daddy
(NOT the day when Mommy had a non-stop fever)

Favorite Thing #4: Pumpkin carving with Uncle Dan and Hanna

Favorite Thing #5: A beautiful fall run (in a tank top! at the
end of October!), lots of time outside, hanging out with two crazies.

Have a great weekend!

15-Months-Old/TBT

I was out for the count yesterday with a 24 hour fever, and had a 12 hour work day today, so this is going to be fairly brief.

But first, THIS GIRL is 15-months-old today and getting too big for my liking, though every part of her growing bigger is a delight to see.

I blessed Daddy with a big stinky poop after my nap today.

And to celebrate, here is a 15-month throwback- multigenerational style.

58-Months-Old!!!

This crazy footie-jammy-in-the-leaves girl is 2 months away from 5 and I can't even handle it.

She is a riot and a sweetheart and everything in between.

God Bless Maya Leigh!

It is Maya's 1 year baptism anniversary today!

God Bless Maya!

What a difference a year makes.  We love you little Squish!

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had SUCH a great weekend.  We had some fun plans, the weather was beautiful, and the girls were awesome.

Saturday

We started out Saturday with some playtime at home.  There is a lot of parallel play happening these days.  Maya wants to be wherever Callie is, but Callie gets annoyed when Maya tries to take her toys.  So she has learned to give Maya something she doesn't want to play with to distract her, and it works pretty well.  Most of the time.

Since it was so gorgeous out, we checked out a park that is not too far from our house on Saturday afternoon.

See that tire swing in the upper right corner?  It is most definitely NOT
a tire.  It is a big hunk of red plastic shaped like a tire.  But Callie LOVED it.

On Saturday evening G-ma and G-pa came over to babysit so we could go to an Oktoberfest party at the Suurmeyer's place.  It was fun to get out for a couple hours after bedtime on a Saturday night!

The only bummer of the weekend happened shortly before we left for the Oktoberfest party.  Remember when I mentioned on Friday how Maya is pretty unstable and likely to take a coffee table to her forehead?  Well, that sort of happened.  It wasn't a coffee table...instead it was a headfirst dive off the couch onto the hardwood floor.  She got a little gash and a big goose egg.  She was pretty freaked out at first, but was able to recover pretty quickly.

Last night (picture taken in the mirror); this morning.

Sunday

While Chris and Callie were at Sunday School, Maya napped.  Then we took a beautiful fall walk.

I went to Chris' cousin Sarah's baby shower this afternoon with Mary.  Sarah is due with a baby boy on Christmas day.  They also have another cousin due around Christmas.  Yay for Christmas babies!

Sarah's sister Beth made the adorable elephant on a motorcycle.  The motorcycle
was made of diapers, burp clothes, bibs, and bottles.

Later this afternoon we did some raking, which of course meant FUN for our 4-year-old.

"Mom!  This is like a dream come TRUE!"

We ended the weekend by going out to dinner, just us and our two goofy girls.

We have another busy week ahead of us and Callie is anxiously awaiting Halloween. 

I'll leave you with a couple of cute videos.  Have a great week!

Video #1: Callie dancing to "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" soundtrack.  It was a soundtrack my sisters and I grew up listening and dancing to.  It is amazing how I still have the entire CD memorized after not hearing it for YEARS.


IMG 0480 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Video #2: And then we have Maya playing peek-a-boo and showing off her high five skills after bath time tonight.


IMG 0506 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

FTPDF

Happy Weekend!  It has been a long week for me with 2 nights of conferences, but I got today off.  Whew.

I feel like I haven't done a girls update for a couple weeks.  Let's see...they have both been passing their snotty cold back and forth for the past month now, and this week they both had it at the same time.  So that was fun. 

Callie is frustratingly emotional and freak-outish at times, and heartbreakingly sweet and hilarious at times.  Typical 4-year-old stuff (I hope).  She would wear footie pajamas all day every day if she could.  She fights putting on coats and socks pretty often.  I'm not sure if she is just trying to hang on to summer that much longer or if she is trying to get used to all the layers again.  She continues to love preschool (and her friend Henrick, who we have a play date set up with next weekend).  It is fun to hear stories from her teachers about when she is social with the other kids and initiating interactions with them. 

Maya is on the move...occasionally.  She seems to forget sometimes that she can walk independently and still seems to prefer crawling if she wants to get somewhere fast.  But she is so proud of herself when she remembers, stands up, claps for herself, and then takes a dozen steps across the room before wiping out.  It is so fun to watch, but can get stressful because we have to watch her like a hawk now more than ever so she doesn't take a corner of a coffee table to her forehead (or something like that).  The other thing that is hilarious about her is when she is holding something she really likes, she will sit there and literally shake her whole body with excitement.

On to the pictures...

Favorite Thing #1: Fun at Boom's house
(See something funny in the bottom right picture?  Maya is enthralled
with the window washer outside)

Favorite thing #2: I got a couple of visitors during one of my conference nights.
Also, I straightened my hair (I usually wear it up and curly), and one of my
students looked at me and said, "Wait, are you Mrs. Gosselin???"

Favorite Thing #3: 2nd Annual Preschool Apple Orchard Trip

 

Favorite Thing #4: Hanging out at G-ma and G-pa's house

Favorite Thing #5: Lunch with Boom, Bops and Auntie Yoda,
Playing at home

Favorite Thing #6: Hanging out at Josh, Alison and Avery's new house (and
finding out that Avery is going to get a little brother in February)!

Have a great weekend!

TBT

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Here we go:

Babies playing

Babies' sweet faces

This week Callie and I went on her preschool field trip to the apple orchard for the 2nd year in a row.  It was a beautiful day (MUCH nicer than last year) and was such a fun thing to do together.

I have some video today again- walking babies!

Here is Callie at 13 months:


Pretty Much Walking from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Here is Maya at 14.5 months:
IMG 0285 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I guess now that Maya is walking I should stop referring to them as babies and start calling them toddlers.

They are such cute babies toddlers.

Um...nope.  I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The WALKING Edition!!!!

Yes, as the title conveys, we officially have a walker in our house.

She took her first real solo steps on Saturday.  By Saturday night she was getting pretty good.


IMG 0285 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

And then by today she was all over!  Like this:


IMG 0303 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

and this!


IMG 0306 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

So now it is a whole new ballgame!

Besides the walking, the rest of the weekend was also fun.

My friend (and college roommate) Melissa flew in from New York and we drove down to Luther for the day on Saturday.  It was our 10 YEAR COLLEGE REUNION.  Like, we haven't been in college for over a decade.  That made us feel a little old (that, and the 18-year-olds that we saw around campus), but we had a really fun day going back to all of our favorite places.

We even snuck in the dorm that we spent 2 years living in and took a picture in front of one of our old rooms.  It is amazing how all the buildings smelled the same.  It was so great to see Melissa again and wander around the place we spent four years of our life.

While we were gone, the girls spent time with Daddy, G-ma, G-pa and Auntie Cat.

This morning the girls and I let Daddy sleep in and we went on a wagon ride walk to the park.

Then later, we dropped the girls off at Boom and Bops' house so we could see a movie.  They also got to play with Auntie Yoda and Auntie Mari.

We had a good dance party and playtime tonight.  I got them to sit still for a couple seconds to snap a picture, otherwise they were both off doing their own crazy things.

Gosh, they are sweet.

Hope you had a great weekend!