School Halloween Party...

Shaelyn had her first school party! It was fun to see her in school and get to know a few of the kids/parents a little bit. I actually got the pleasure of planning it :) and it all went well. Her teacher seems great and Shaelyn definitely loves school! Here's a few pictures from a fun afternoon...

Lining up to go to the gym for games...
(they do what they call the "lip and hip" one finger to the lip...one hand on the hip...Shaelyn has it down :). I love preschool!

Craft time decorating pumpkins...

Trunk or Treat...

Jill and I took the kids to a church right by our house for their annual "Trunk or Treat." It was a beautiful night and the kids had a great time! The event was so well done and LOTS of people came out to enjoy the beautiful weather ...and maybe because the forecast for Halloween here is 40, rainy and windy!

Shaelyn was Tinkerbell and Monreau was a penguin. My favorite part of the night was watching her waddle along to get her candy! She had people smiling! McLleyton was happy to hang out and watch all the people. It was a fun night...at least until we realized I had locked my keys in the car and Monreau fell and got a black eye...but you know you have to take the bad with the good and all ended up well :).

Bubbles and rolling...

McLleyton is learning lots of new things and suddenly seems much older! He's rolling all over. It has been a few months since the first time he rolled over, but now he seems to be using it to get places. He rolls all around his bed and in his gymini. In his gymini he gets a little frustrated because he'll get stuck up against one of the bars and can't roll the way he wants to. He is definitely better at rolling from his back to his tummy than his tummy to his back. His other new discovery is blowing bubbles. He has a great fascination with it :). He's been doing it all the time...which leads to a little more drool them normal! He loves his exasaucer and pretty much spends most of his day hanging out in there. I usually put it over near where the girls are playing and between watching them and his toys he is pretty content for a long time!

We've been very blessed to be healthy despite all the crummy illnesses going around. I've been praying will stay protected and I've been pumping us all up with vitamins and purrell!!!

Monreau continues to do very well with Potty training! It was a very smooth transition and it's so nice to only have one in diapers!!! I can tell she likes feel grown up too :). This past weekend Monreau took her nap at Matt's parents house and Matt and I took Shaelyn and McLleyton out for the afternoon. On our way home we were both saying how different it is to be out without her...how EASY it is :). She is SO much fun, but she is definitely the busy one in our family! To just have a 4 and 4 month old seemed like a vacation! Part of it is definitely her age and part of it is just her fun personality! We both agreed our family would not be as much fun if we didn't have her in it! She is fully of joy and she gets so excited about the smallest things in life!

Such a good bubble blower :)

I love his smiles...

Life...

Our days seem to consist of pretty much the same routines each day with maybe one or two different activities...but some how they seem so busy and I can never get done all I "should!" I guess it is just the season of life. I tell myself daily to just let go of the "things" and enjoy my kids...some how I still feel at moments like I can't keep on top of ANYTHING :). But, my kids are SO enjoyable and I love all 3 of the ages I have right now. They each add such a different element to my day.

A few quick updates from this week...

Shae...is LOVING school. She looks forward to it all weekend long. Her favorite thing so far- GYM! Yay, I love that! She loves the learning and does an amazing job reporting back to me about her days. She listens so well to her "homework" instructions and tells me each night what she needs for the next day. Very helpful :). She and Sophia definitely stick together and do most things together, but she has been talking about a few new girls, which is fun to hear. Check out the picture of her going to school as a "farmer"...ok, I know she looks a lot more like a cowgirl :). But, she thought it was great!

Monreau...is growing up! Her word of the week "weird." Sophia says it and all of a sudden Monreau picked it up and she uses it in all different situations- "that so weird, mommy." She keeps me laughing! Overall she has done awesome with potty training. Her accidents have mainly been my fault as I have forgotten to remind her. We're still working on the pooping...hopefully that will come sooner rather than later :). She has really surprised me ... and made me reexamine some of my expectations for her- I think they've been too low. Her favorite part of our week has been Bible Study. We call it "Bible School" and I let her pack a backpack, so she loves it! Amazing how quickly the 2nd wants to grow up!

McLleyton...is a sweet baby! He loves to snuggle! My girls never like to snuggle or fall asleep in my arms. Being on a schedule it was almost like they couldn't do it- which is great because they go right down in their bed, but sometimes I always wished they'd just want to snuggle in and be loved on when they were sleepy. McLleyton loves it! He is awesome about going in his bed, but if we're out or at someones house and he's tired he'll just snuggle right in and sleep in my arms. The other morning he woke up early, but was so tired so Matt laid down with him and he slept for a hour in his arms. I had to take a picture :). He continues to make life easy on me with his sweet, patient spirit. I love having a little boy!!!!

A few pictures from the past week...

McLleyton has such blue eyes and his daddy's great eye lashes...really he looks A LOT like Shaelyn did as a baby. Kind of fun to see!

I know Shaelyn is really tall :)

Everyone was happy to have daddy home after a trip to Las Vegas and LA :)

Art Prize...

We took the kids downtown to check out the amazing ArtPrize competition that just finished in downtown Grand Rapids. For those of you from out of town...it was an art competition that gave away $500,000 in prize money. $250,00 to the winner, $100,000 to 2nd, $50,000 to 3rd and $7000-4th-10th. The winner was selected from the publics votes. It was a cold day, but it was fun! We probably only saw about 2% of the art, but it was pretty amazing. There were SO many people out, it's was such a great thing for the city! The wining piece was amazing and I definitely think deserved to win! I'm not sure how much "art" the kids took in, but it was a fun outing!

Such an easy dinner...even a 2 year old can make it!

Matt is out of town all this week spending time with friends in Las Vegas and LA. It has been a little crazy...for some reason even a little more than our normal craziness. :) It definitely confirms to me the fact that God did not intend for us to do this job alone. It would be long and lonely!!!

When Matt is gone or works late the girls love having breakfast for dinner. So, last night they were so excited when I told them that was the plan. Monreau immediately went and got the pancake mix out of the cupboard and asked me if she could help me mix. To which I said "absolutely, mommy needs some help!" I then had her look at the box and "read" the pictures of the ingredients we needed. We got out an egg, the milk and the bowl.... I set them up on the counter. A moment later, McLleyton started crying just a few minutes into his nap, so I told the girls I had to check on him. He had spit up and was not so happy about it, so it took me a couple of minutes to clean him up and get him back down. When I walked back to the kitchen Shaelyn was coloring and Monreau was up on the counter by the ingredients we had set out. When I got a little closer I realized she was "mixing" something. She looked at me at with the biggest smile and said, "Mommy, me helping you, me made dinner all by myself." I looked in the bowl and sure enough there was an egg (cracked!!!), milk, and pancake mix. At first I wasn't exactly "happy" she had taken on this job by herself and I told her she had to have mommy there when she "cooked." But, then I took the bowl and began inspecting her work. Some how the batter contained no pieces of shell and she had just the right mix/ milk ratio...we finished mixing it and ate it :). Such an easy dinner...even a two year old can make it!!

Potty Diary...

Today, I began the dreaded potty training!! I've been putting it off for months and I knew I just needed to do it! I told Monreau earlier this week that we were just about done with diapers and I tried getting her excited about the potty and princess underwear. I have a potty training "method"...completely made up and I'm not sure if "experts" would approve or not, but my way is to completely take diapers/pullups away (except for sleeping) and put the undies right on- no going back. Then I offer her as many drinks as she'll take to try and get her to pee as often as possible. I figure the more she has the sensation maybe the faster we'll learn. Overall, she did awesome today! She surprised me :). I've been dreading doing this with her, because of her awesome, carefree spirit. I still think this is going to be a long road, but today was a good first step :).

Day 1...

Successfully went on the potty 5x...once when I wasn't even in the room and she managed to get her pants and undies off all by herself!! Yay :).

Had 3 1/2 accidents...the half being when she managed to stop it and then finished on the potty :).

Went 1x in her diaper at nap.

1x in the bath (at least she knew she was going, right :))

For motivation I told Monreau she could pick a candy as her treat...totally random, but she picked the banana candy in the "Runts" package. I think she had only had this 1 or 2x before, but she's been screaming with joy over earning a "banana." :)

Day 2...

Went well!!! She is not telling me yet when she needs to go, but I just keep giving her drinks and then having her try every half hour or so. I couldn't get the timing right this morning and she had three accidents right in a row. But, then the rest of the day she did well!

Very similar to yesterday!

Went 7x in the potty!

3x in her pants!

Pooped...in her pants! :(

Good progress :).

Day 3...

SHE KNOWS :)

She began telling me BEFORE she went that she had to go potty!! Big progress!!

No accidents today!!

Going to bed was a bit of a battle, because she kept coming out and telling me she had to go potty. 2x she did...22 she didn't. A little frustrating. But, I'm proud of her effort!!

Day 4...

Doing great! Still no accidents! And we ventured out to the store ...where she went potty 2x!! :) On the way home she said she had to go potty...to which I begged her not to go in her car seat (do you know how long it takes to wash those :))..and she managed to make it home! Very impressive for my care free spirited one!!!

Still no pooping in the potty...we'll see...