Autumn

My new niece, Autumn Elizabeth is here!  She was born on Nov. 6th, weighing in at 7lbs, 11oz and is 20.5 inches.  Everything went really well for my sister, and she is happy to be home and adjusting to life as a family of 4.  I rushed up to the hospital as soon as I finished working, and I couldn't get there fast enough.  I was giving a quiz in my classes that day, and I was checking my phone every 5 minutes just waiting for a picture.  I was so happy when I finally got there, and I was able to hold her.  She is precious.  I'm excited for our whole family to have another baby in the family, for Kayla to be a big sister, and for my kids to have another cousin!

We had a great weekend, and it was one of the first weekends in a long, long time that we had absolutely no plans.  All four of us were home together, and it was kind of nice to just do whatever we wanted.  Sunday, we spent a few hours at the mall.  Unexpectedly, we ran into Santa!  We didn't even know he was there this early, but as soon as Kenley saw him, we knew there was no turning back.  We were just going to wave to him because the kids definitely weren't "picture ready."  Charlie had smeared chocolate chip cookie everywhere, and Kenley insisted on dressing herself that day, and was wearing a shirt about 2 sizes too small, and she had what we call "crazy hair." But, as soon as Santa saw us, he walked right over!  He wasn't busy at all, so he talked to Kenley and she sat on his lap in with a shy sense of awe and talked to him for a good 5 minutes.  He suggested I put Charlie on his lap to warm him up a little for when we do come back for pictures, so I brushed off as many crumbs as I could and put Charlie in Santa's lap.  He loved Santa!  I was surprised he wasn't afraid, and he was snuggling into his lap with the biggest smile. We will see if they are both so happy when we go back for another visit and get a picture.


We've had a few really good weeks. Kenley and Charlie are starting to actually play together a little bit, and it so cool to watch them having fun together. Charlie just turned 15 months, and he is talking a lot, but not walking so much. He says so many words, he says, mama, mommy, dads, "ne-ne" for Kenley, all his grandparents names, "Go-go, Mimi, and Papa", bye-bye, funny, and repeats Lots of other words.  This week, as we were listening to, "Let it Go," in the car and Kenley and I were singing, he joined in singing, "go! Go!" It was so cute.  He's really getting into music and dancing. He is still working on walking, but he is making progress. He's a pro walking around and holding onto something, but he has only ventured out to about 3-4 steps on his own.  He finds a way to get into everything though, and he is quite he climber!  Kenley is doing great in school, and she has made some new friends this year.  She is also is having a great time in ballet class.  She has her first little Christmas musical coming up in early December, and I can't wait to see her perform.  She's also very excited about her birthday party, and has been talking about it for months already!  It's going to be a fun couple of weeks coming up!

Trick or Sleeting and Snowing

It was really snowing on Halloween here in Chicago!  Crazy!  We still took the kids out even though it really was snowing during the time we were out there.  I remember some chilly Halloween's, but never snow before. You can see the snow on Charlie's stroller! Kenley could have cared less what the weather was like, and there was nothing stopping her from trick-or-treating.  I'm pretty sure Charlie was happy with the amount of candy we got too, and he has definitely had his fair share of it!  It was pretty hard to see their costumes under winter coats and layers, so I'm glad that I had taken a bunch of pictures of them and my niece in their costumes a few weeks ago. We celebrated Halloween pretty much the whole week of Halloween.  Kenley had a party at school and at ballet, and I took the kids to a party at Ray's work. The morning of Halloween we went to the gym, and all the kids in the childcare center wore their costumes and trick-or-treated around the building.  Then, we spent the rest of the day staying warm at home until Ray got home and we went trick-or-treating.  Kenley was just as excited about passing out treats as she was to get them.  She was so disappointed that we didn't have any visitors during the first two hours that she kept going out our front door and yelling, "It's Halloween everybody!  Come to our house to get candy!" And, she was very happy when we finally did get several groups of trick-or-treaters throughout the day/evening including our friend Jackson, and our neighbor, Sophia. 

Now, that we are into November, in my eyes the holidays have begun!  I am already preparing for our soon-to-be 4 year olds birthday party, and I have been ordering invites and already going a little pintresty crazy with decoration ideas.  Unfortunately, I'm not that crafty, but I try. I really have fun doing these things, and Kenley is having a great time helping with a few little crafty things for her party.  Of course, I already have Christmas on the mind too.  Not to overshadow Thanksgiving, but since I don't have to do much to prepare for this holiday besides show up and bring a dish, I am already Christmas shopping.  When you are busy and have little kids, it takes a lot of time to prepare for the big holiday. I have taken down my Halloween decorations, only left up "fall" and "Thanksgiving" decorations, and I am already thinking about when I can start putting up Christmas decorations. I usually put them up the week of Thanksgiving so that we can enjoy them as long as possible, and so we can have them up for Kenley's party. It might sound weird, but these things make me happy! From here on out, we will be very busy through the holidays.


2 more days till I get to meet my new niece!  Wishing my sister a healthy delivery and recovery!  We can't wait to meet our newest family member. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our family photo session a few weeks ago!