Christmas, here we come!

Dave, braving it on the roof.

Last year was our first year for putting up lights on the house. This year it was a lot easier to get everything up than last. It's not the Griswold's, but it's a start. And I'm really OK with keeping it simple. Now we're ready for some snow!

The girls getting decorations out of the storage tub. Maddi is standing up holding onto the tub.

Dave putting the tree together.
Kimee is mad that I wouldn't let her start decorating the big tree.
I have to put on the garland first!

Kimee decorating the little tree in the girls' room. . .

Thank goodness for pre-lit trees. Getting the tree up has been so much easier since we got this one a couple years ago. I put on the garland and Kimee did most of the ornaments. Audrey saw me getting out the camera and ran to stand by the tree. Then she brought Maddi over too. What cute girls! Let the Christmas season begin!

Maddi's First Tooth

Maddi's first tooth finally came through on Nov. 7, after what seems like months of teething.
Can you see the tiny white thing in her mouth?

Maddilyn: 7 months (in Midway)

Maddilyn turned 7 months old on the day we went up to Midway for a little weekend get-away. Maddi is so much fun! Here are some pictures I took of her while we were up there.




While I am on the subject, let me tell you about what we did up in Midway. I didn't take any pictures at the pool, because I actually took Maddi in the pool this time. She loved the water so much! The highlight of the trip, as usual, was going swimming.

A few other events worth noting:

• Dave and Kimee saw a deer jump over the fence walking back from the pool.
• It snowed while we were there. So pretty!
  
• We watched a bunch of new movies we got. It was Kimee's first time seeing Tarzan and she loved it. We have since watched it several more times. I think Tarzan rates up there with Spirit.
• We went to the Homestead Gift shop, and bought fudge with a coupon we had. It was DELICIOUS! That will now be a necessity every time we go up there. Kimee talked about it for days afterward.
  
• We went out to dinner at the Homestead. It was pretty fancy and the girls were pretty well behaved. The only bad thing was the fireplace. We were sitting fairly close to it, which Dave and I loved. But Kimee kept freaking out because she was scared of the fire. Dave was in heaven eating prime rib. Too bad we had the kids with us, so we couldn't entirely enjoy our meal. Especially when Audrey stuck her finger into the straw hole on her cup lid and it got stuck. Everyone got to hear her scream for a minute or two.
  

Santa Arrives!

We went and saw SANTA arrive at the mall on the HELICOPTER this morning.
This tradition started 3 years ago as we thought it would be cool to go see the helicopter up close as it delivers Santa to the mall. It is pretty exciting, and usually really cold. Last year, Grandma and Grandpa K came with us too. After seeing the helicopter and Santa, we go into the mall and buy our Hallmark ornament. This year it wasn't hard to decide because we had it already narrowed down to a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.

another tooth x2

Maddi's 2nd tooth popped through the skin yesterday and today Kimee lost another tooth! Kimee was biting open plastic packaging (for our new Christmas Little People) when her loose tooth just popped right out. Kimee has now lost all four teeth on the bottom front, but none on the top yet.

Grandparents Day and Thanksgiving

Kimee's school held Grandparents' Day the last day before Thanksgiving break. My parents were able to be there to see her do a few poems and make a grandparents book together. I am so glad they were able to come.


We had Thanksgiving at Janna's house with my family this year. It was great food and fun to visit with everyone. Especially Lora and Sage who came up from AZ for the occasion. It was fun to have Sage over a couple of times this week to play with the girls. Audrey loves Sage so much. She will now talk about her and want her to come and play every day.


We got to visit with everyone who lives in the area in Dave's family at the pie party at the church Wednesday night. The kids had fun coloring Thanksgiving pictures and playing with their cousins. Kimee made a cute turkey craft with Aunt Debbie. Audrey had fun playing volleyball but then fell and bonked her head in the gym. They both ran around with cousins being silly. Maddi made everyone smile because she's so cute! Especially Emma, who was happy to hold and carry Maddi around for a while. Thanks to Thanksgiving, we get to spend time with our families.

Halloween!

Visiting Grandma P the day before Halloween.
We had a witch, a ladybug, and a princess.

Kimee, the witch, and mom, the scarecrow, at school.

Kimee walking through Mrs. Puckett's classroom on the parade.
The witch trying to be scary.

Catching up with Mariah and Emma on Halloween night.

Two witches!

Buddy the Elf holding our cute little bunny.
(I finally found the costume!)

We had such a fun Halloween night! We started up at our house with G & G Kruck, Jill and Jeremy for an early dinner (chili and breadsticks and hot dog mummies). Then up to our church for the trunk or treat. After that, we went down to Jill's and did some trick-or-treating in our old neighborhood. We got to see lots of family and friends along the way. Of course, the kids loved the candy. Audrey wouldn't take from anyone who looked scary. They all got tired just in time to go back to Jill's for cupcakes and ice cream. Happy Birthday, Jill!

cookies and pumpkins

We spent the Saturday before Halloween making our jack-o-lanterns and decorating sugar cookies. What fun!

Maddi stayed happy watching mommy in the kitchen.

On Monday, Jeremy got to decorate cookies too!
Kid Trivia: How many candy corns and pumpkins can fit on one cookie?

Kimee thought the slimy part was disgusting.

But she thought the seeds were cool.

After seeing the disgusting inside of Kimee's pumpkin, Audrey chose to have us draw on hers.
One pumpkin for each girl. Audrey was the only one willing to come outside on such a cold day to get in the picture. What a good sport!

Pancakes!

Daddy's pancakes are the best!

Milestones

Maddilyn is now officially scooting. She can pull herself across a room. And she's fast!
Maddi also can sit up on her own for long periods of time before tipping over, usually when she reaches for something.


Kimee lost another tooth on the bottom on Oct. 20. It is the fourth tooth she has lost and she has several more loose ones. This time she was mad that the tooth fairy only brought a dollar.
"I don't want this! I'm sick of one dollars," she said.
I just asked her, while I was typing this (one handed, mind you) "What do you want?"
"I want 20 dollars."

I guess we need a new tooth fairy!