Happy Halloween!

This was our Halloween. Here's Skylar, Annelise and our good friend and neighbor Heidi. Annelise wasn't too keen on the idea of costumes, candy or trick-or-treating. She stayed home with Dad, while I took Skylar out. It was too close to bedtime for her anyways. I had a costume on her shortly before this picture was taken. About 15 seconds after having it on however, she was adamant about taking it off. She was an Angel, complete with wings and halo. This is a better picture of Skylar in her "Butterfly-Fairy" costume. There's wings on the back. See. We had a great time walking around the neighborhood taking in the sights and ringing door bells. There were kids in great costumes and a few nicely decorated houses. Skylar made her standard comment when we're out at night, "There's a lot of dark out here." She's rarely out past dark. I also took an opportunity to show her the stars. Something else I realized she's rarely has seen, but is finally old enough now to notice. Kind of cool.

Pumpkin Parade

Skylar's school had a Halloween celebration today. It started off with a parade around their 'wing' of the school called a "Pumpkin Parade". They walked through the halls and into other classes all decked out in costume. It was very cute. Skylar is up front on the right, you can only see the top of her ponytail. She was a "Butterfly-Fairy". After the parade was over everyone went in the classroom and the kids sang us 3 or 4 songs that they've been working on since school started. They also sang one Halloween song. It was fun to listen, because Skylar has been singing these songs for weeks at home but doesn't know all the words. So usually you get half a song which is still really cute, but it was fun to get the full show.Skylar is in the back row on the right. (Where she's destined to be for the rest of her school days. Tall kids in the back row. I know too well.) That's her teacher in the very back, taking a picture of everyone taking pictures. The fireman in the front in one of her good friends Joe. They have lots of fun together. However she was in love with the Ariel costume of the little girl in the front row. Upon seeing it she requested to be Ariel for Halloween, instead of the "Butterfly-Fairy". I told her maybe next year.

Tis the Season

Today was a day for indoor play. We're having some cold, rainy weather and the whole family has the same nasty cold. I would typically take the kids to the indoor mall play area on days like these, but with the colds being what they are, decided against it. So I tried to use some creativity and we made a big fort in the living room out of blankets, the couch and the kid's play kitchen. It looks a little something like this. The kids are in there somewhere. Using the kitchen worked fairly well because it gave them something to do once they were in there. (Annelise says, "Hi!")

Fall

Last weekend was gorgeous and thanks to the weather we have some fun fall pictures of the kids. Made the mandatory leaf pile for jumping. Annelise didn't care for that so much.Here Skylar is trying to convince her it's a good idea. Ani says, "I don't think so, let me out of here!" You have to love the absolute look of annoyance on Annelise's face and Skylar's pure joy!She would much rather RUN in the backyard or go down the slides. Finally some cute pictures of Annelise as promised. Just try to ignore the 'leaf-remnants' all over her.

Annelise 15 months old

It's that time again for another 'Well-Child Check-up'. 15 months old and quite a big girl. At the doctor today Annelise weighed 28 1/2 lbs and was 35" tall. She even was weighed on the 'big-girl' scale, not the baby scale. (Everybody.....oooohhh!) All in all the appt. went well, only 2 vaccinations and a flu-shot. Not happy about any of it but recovered quickly and received her sticker. The highlight of any doctors appt. Skylar was not with today, she was in pre-school. Should've had Annelise pick a sticker for Skylar since Sky always picks one for Ani.

Other highlights for Annelise include she now has 12 teeth and I think more are on the way. We've had the tell-tale drool and crabbiness for a few weeks now. She can say, 'mama' 'dadda' 'all-done' 'bu-bye' and knows what a cat, sheep and duck say. She can sort of say Skylar, but is sounds more 'i-ler'. It's a two-syllable sound that she says when she's looking at her. So it counts. :-) Also likes to play outside and will run to the door if you ask her if she'd like to go out and gets very upset if you don't get out there in short order.

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Without comparing the kids too much, Annelise is very active and no non-sense. She knows what she wants and gets very frustrated if you don't let her do it. We've had numerous tantrums, which is new territory for me since Skylar never really has thrown any. (We've been blessed in that aspect.)

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So that's the scoop on Annelise. I will have some new pictures posted soon. Just have to download them from the camera. Until then I'll post one of her from our vacation since I still haven't gotten around to posting about that. Sorry. I think it's appropriate that it's a picture of her eating, since most of my other pictures of her are in a highchair. The girl does love to eat.

Say What?

Skylar has been saying some funny stuff lately. Stuff that usually has me rolling at the time, but I can never recall it later. I really need to get more organized and write this stuff down. Until then, here's a small example of her humor.....

We had just pulled in the garage from a shopping trip. I went around to her side of the van to open her door and undo her seat belt. I told her to grab her blanket (which now accompanies us everywhere, but must stay in the car while were out) and head into the house. As she's 'sliding' out of the car she says, "Thanks for the ride home Mom!" As if I had any other choice. At least she's polite and made my day. Oh, she says the darn-dest stuff.

Family Photo

I know it's been forever since I've blogged. I think I just need to get back on the horse, so to speak. There's a few blogs in the making that I felt like I needed to finish before I publish 'new' stuff. However if I wait for that to happen I'll be so behind, I'll never catch up. So here we go with new stuff......

Skylar has really come a long way in her artwork lately. It's been fun to watch her learn to draw 'people' with faces, arms and legs. No bodies yet, but that's the typical developmental pattern. So no worries. This is drawing of our family. I'm not quite sure what all the 'blobs' are, but if I remember correctly, one was even Walter, the cat.She's so proud. So cute.