Turtles...

Last spring we had a pet turtle for a few weeks. It was one of McLleyton's first words and he was in love with the turtle! We eventually let the turtle go (and enjoy his well earned freedom!), but McLleyton's LOVE for turtles has not faded. He talks about turtles, "reads" about turtle and probably dreams about turtles! He knows every book in our house that has a picture of a turtle in it. He will randomly talk about them all day long!

So, we thought it would be fun to take the kids to Chicago this weekend and go to the Shedd Aquarium and see some turtles!! :)

Here's a quick clip of McLleyton watching a turtle on youtube!

Tooth #2..

I promise I won't do an update when Shaelyn looses her 11th tooth, but when it's your second tooth it's still a big deal! :)

She came running upstairs from playing in her room with Monreau and had a huge, goofy smile on her face. She walked right up to me and immediately I noticed and she held up her little tooth! She then turned to show McLleyton and said "look buddy you're getting new teeth and mine are falling out." :) How quickly you go from one phase to the next!

I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures right after it fell out. She was so excited and immediately tried calling all her cousins, aunts, grandparents (non of who answered :)) that she had lost her second tooth! I just keep praying that her new ones will be MUCH stronger than her weak baby teeth!! When she's smiles I'm still amazed at how grown up she looks!!

For those of you who know Matt, you know he does a motion with his hands when he's excited... in this picture you can see that Shae has one of her own! It makes me laugh :)

Halloween Take 1 & 2

We had our fill of Halloween fun this year! We did two different nights of it! A church right by our house puts on a very impressive night! They do "trunk or treat" where each car is a different theme and passes out candy! The kids get way to much candy in a very short time :). They also have jumpers, dinner, music... it's a lot of fun! For this night Shaelyn was a USA cheerleader, McLleyton was a monkey and Monreau came up with her very own idea! She decided to be a "bath time/bed time girl". She wore her pajamas, slippers, her "Monreau" robe and curlers in her hair. I'll admit I suggest the curlers and I had the set of curlers I used to wear growing up to use :). They are VERY old school :). She was positively adorable and she got A LOT of compliments on her creativity!

On Halloween we went trick or treating in our neighborhood and stopped by a friends. It was fun because Matt's parents, his sister Emily & boyfriend and my brother John & Kelly all came over and went trick or treating with us! Shaelyn was Little Bo Peep, Monreau was Minny Mouse and McLleyton stuck with his warm Monkey costume!

All three had so much fun and I'm pretty sure this went down as one of McLleyton's favorite nights ever! He loved it! Loved walking around. Loved saying "trick or treat" (which he had down pretty well by the end of the night :)). He loved all the people and he really loved all the suckers :).

Halloween Take 1.... Trunk or Treat night

We are so blessed to have these 3 :)
Got to love his smile!
A cute family picture (a rare, fun thing :))

Showing off her fun curls after taking out the curlers...
Halloween take 2...

How much fun to have your cousin & best friends right next door!

This is a sweet picture of them!

Left to Right...McLleyton, Shaelyn, Lauren, Jacob, Monreau & Sophia

My cute Minni Mouse... I think she's thinking "really mom another picture... I'm missing out"
McLleyton LOVED it!
I love how this picture shows that there were more adults than kids :)
I love this picture! Shaelyn had ran ahead of her brother and sister, but than decided to wait for them to walk up to the door. Shaelyn has such a kind, thoughtful heart!

One last house...
Fun Picture with Aunt Emy, her boyfriend Matt, Grandpa and Grandma

Kindergarten Fun...

The jump from preschool to Kindergarten has seemed like quite a big one... probably more for me than for Shaelyn! It still seems a bit strange to have her gone for 1/2 of a day 5x a week! We have homework, book orders, magazine sales, field trips, parent teacher conferences ... is she really this old... am I really this OLD? :) I guess I'm still adjusting to the fact that I only have a few weeks left in my 20's :). It still amazes me that we're already into this next phase of life and this is our routine for MANY years to come!!

Shaelyn is loving it and doing great! I've been impressed by the academic side and all she has already been learning this fall. It seems to come pretty easily for her. She's very excited to now know how to spell and read some words! She and Sophia are doing great being together! This month they've been sitting together at the same table and their teacher said they do an awesome job :). A fun report to hear! There is definitely a lot of security in having each other!

Earlier this month we had a field trip to a local orchard. We picked apples, a pumpkin and had donuts and cider. It was fun to get to know some of the kids and parents!

Shaelyn and Sophia... (yes, Shaelyn is still the tallest in her class... Sophia is actually one of the taller kids too! :))

I adore these two...

They were good pickers




The clouds made it a picture perfect day!
This month Shaelyn also like having "Duffy the Dog" for the night and writing in the journal about their time together, "We played outside. We colored and we went to my Nanny and Poppy's house. We had fun."

Cousin Weekend...

All the cousins!

Lauren (8), Jurrien (6), Sophia (5), Shaelyn (5), Meagan (4), Monreau (3), Patrice (3), James (1), Jacob (1), Darren (1), McLleyton (1), Elena (2 months)

Monreau told me this morning that she missed her cousin Patrice! This past weekend my sisters Jenn and Belen and my brother Jared and all their kidos came into town. For the most part it was a beautiful fall weekend and the kids had a blast. We finally got to meet our sweet, new neice Elena and she is beautiful! Such a good, happy baby and it was great to finally hold her and love her! We loved getting to have Patrice sleep over and it's so great for Monreau to have a buddy her own age! Meagan was so sweet and Jurrien does great being the only "big" boy cousin! The four 1 year olds were busy and entertaining! How blessed we are to have such a big, fun family to enjoy the chaos of raising kids with! (Just look at the picture that shows one dinner time :))

A fall must...donuts at Robinettes...

Playing in the HUGE leaf pile at the Lake!

The 4 one year olds :)

McLleyton
Monreau loved it
Sweet Jacob looking so cute!

Shaelyn and Lauren having fun
This is meal time :)
Stories with Nanny...
Loving on Elena...
Shaelyn couldn't get enough of her!
Playing outside with Patrice

Fun to be with the girls!

Loved having you all here!!

16 Months...

Shaelyn mentioned the other day that it's hard to remember how many months McLleyton is because it keeps changing too quickly. I feel the same way! At 16 months McLleyton is enjoying all the same things he did at 14 and 15 months, just at a little faster speed. He can now climb onto the kitchen table in about 2 seconds and in 5 can climb the bar stools onto our island. There is no longer a "safe spot" for the girls to do crafts, McLleyton has successfully invaded all areas! He is constantly exploring the house. Going through cupboards, closets, drawers ... not necessarily to be destructive, but more because he has a genuine curiosity! He loves to find things that belong to me and bring them to me (my shoes, watch, makeup :)...it's so helpful :).

His loves for books continues to be a gift as I feel like it's a great way to focus his energy! He loves to learn and in this way reminds me so much of Shaelyn as a baby. He is picking up a lot of words and as I've been working on Monreau's letters he is learning them too :). When you ask him what letters he knows he'll say "S" and "M" ... he'll also repeat "L" and "O". When ever he sees letters written down he'll say "momma S".

After books, he's definitely into sports and learning the different types of balls. He says "golf ball" , "football," and tries to say soccer, but it's not very clear! He loves it when football's on the TV and he'll ask to wear his jersey! He'll take his golf clubs that Uncle Trey gave him and hit a ball all around the garage. He also likes to hit tennis balls with a racquet in the play room.

Monreau and McLleyton continue to be best buddies! He adores her :) I feel like when the younger child is around 18 months, the age gap begins to close a little and it's fun to see that starting with the two of them!

I love these pictures of them. Monreau had slept in and McLleyton was so excited to see her. He climbed up on her chair as she was eating breakfast and snuggled right in.

Sisters...

I grew up sharing a room with both of my sisters for my whole life. Looking back I can recall a few fights, but mainly I have very fond memories of it. My sisters are 4 and 6 years older than me. I think it's safe to say that the two of them have very different personalities. In some ways, I was a mix of both of them. I often think that if it wasn't for sharing a room I probably would not have been as close to them as I was, since there was a bit of an age difference. I am so thankful my parents had us share a room!

As Matt and I talked about having kids we always said that they would share a room. However, when God gave us two very different little girls we weren't so sure how that was going to work out :). But, since our house only has 3 bedrooms, we were basically forced to put them together when McLleyton finally graduated from our closet to his own room, and I am SO thankful we did! It seemed (and is at certain moments) like it was going to be so much more work. Shaelyn needs her sleep, some how Monreau seems to operate on the bare minimum! Shaelyn likes order, Monreau likes fun! Shaelyn follows the rules, Monreau tends to break them! We've definitely handed out a fair amount of consequences and spankings over the past year... but the conversations, giggles, snuggles and prayers have been priceless! There have been several nights when Matt was working late and I've felt so tired, but when I laid down next to them and listened to them pray together my soul is re energized. Tonight, they were tired... I was tired... but as they giggled together I couldn't help but smile. There is nothing like a sleep over with your best friend, how blessed they are that they get one every night!

Shaelyn and Monreau it is my prayer that you'll always work on loving each other and laughing together! You have both been blessed with so many gifts... celebrate in each others accomplishments, embrace being different, encourage each other, work things out, keep praying together, dream, giggle, tell stories ... be sisters ... there is nothing better!!

I love you girls!