Halloween 2010

Here we are...Halloween 2010.

Lily's Third Halloween, Emma's First,

and another Family First.

Daddy helping Lily put the finishing touches on becoming Gabriela.

We spent Halloween this year at the Bonfiglio house. We had to try one more photo shoot with the kids and got a couple that were very cute.

Cute girls before our adventure trick-or-treating.

We weren't real sure how trick-or-treating was going to go this year. We began practicing at home full with pretend knocking on the wall and having pretend conversations with Lily with her saying Trick-or-Treat, that she's dressed as Gabriela and Thank You for the candy. At home with us she did great and she became, of course, very animated in her conversations but, the real thing is very different. Very different. We were holding our breath and crossing our fingers.

The first house was tricky since some kids with masks and scary stuff were there and totally freaked her out. Pretty much made the whole gang go the opposite way on the street than that kid went. With that said we were definitely dreading what was coming..tears, refusing to go to doors, you name it. But, Lily came through. She did GREAT. She went hand in hand with Daddy (or Miss Elizabeth or Mr Brian or Mommy) to the door but then carried out her conversation that we practiced. She said trick-or-treat and thank you at pretty much every single house!!! It came to the point where she was the one running up, ringing the door bell and looking in the window to see who was coming with the candy bowl. :) We even had to empty out her pumpkin bucket so that it wasn't too heavy for her to carry. Lucky for Lily that she got enough candy to supply the Daddy Candy Tax :).

Now for Emma's First Halloween.

She did Awesome! She made it almost the entire way awake and watching absolutely everything. We did have to trade holding her and using the stroller but all in all she's a natural trick-or-treater as well. Plus, she's the cutest pumpkin I've ever seen.

(Mommy bias aside of course)

Emma was o.u.t by the time we got back to the car and Lily was happy, happy, happy that she could munch on some whoppers while we drove home. Oh, to discover the world of chocolate and candy for the first time :).

And, what did Miss Lily (Daddy and Mommy too) want to do as soon as we got home?

Look through her candy and ask what each piece was.... :)

Oh..and a Huge Thank You to the Bonfiglios for the use of their travel potty when we were a few blocks from their house and five minutes into our candy adventure :)

Emma and Her Daddy

Daddy's Little Princess

They played and snuggled all through movie night. Too cute.

Too adorable.

Too lovely to watch Daddy with his girls.

A Preschool Halloween

Our first Preschool Halloween

Thursday Lily took in some small treat bags with cookies and Oreo cookie pops. Friday we returned for the big party day.

All the kids wore their costumes and at around 9am all came outside into a grassy area near the front door. I was amazed to see all the parents lining the sidewalk with cameras and camcorders in hand. Once all of the kids were outside we were welcomed and they did some songs with the Spanish teacher and the music teacher. Lily finally got into the action by shaking her bum to "Monster Mash".

After the show was over the kids went Trunk or Treating. I signed up to be a trunk and again was very surprised to see how much the other trunks were decorated. I definitely will have to step up my game next year. But, luckily I had the cutest pumpkin decoration there! It was quite something to have one hand on her to make sure she didn't throw herself out of the trunk and hold a basket full of candy.

The kids going Trunk or Treating with their decorated bags they did in school. Since I had to be with the trunk Lily went around with her class and teacher. She of course seemed timid when she came by but went with the flow best she could. I'm sure all of this new stuff was confusing and intimidating to say the least.

But by the end she was all smiles. Once she figured out she got candy and was able to come home she had a great time.

She had a lot of fun going through her candy bag once we got home. I'm pretty sure she went through it, put it back in the bag only to go through it again at least a dozen times. This would all be fine and dandy if she didn't do this all the while asking me what each piece of candy was called. I think by the time I had to explain what Nerds, Sweettarts and Fruit by the Foot were for the fifth time I was ready to just throw it all out.

Gotta love Halloween!

It's Official

This past week Emma has been making huge progress on crawling. She's already been mobile for a few weeks meaning she has been lunging, rolling, and inchworming it all in trying to get somewhere or to get something she wants.

Earlier in the week Emma started picking her hands up and moving them one at a time to crawl forward. Each day she has gotten brave enough to crawl a few extra steps. Now I put her in one spot on the floor sitting and playing to only find her across the room playing with something else when I return. So, I am now confident in announcing...

It's Official, We Have a Crawler!

Four to Seven

In a year's time our group of little friends went from four to seven members :). Today was the trunk or treat for the Mom's Club and since we all couldn't attend we met at Elizabeth, Lorelei and Makin's house to take a few pictures. As you can see, coordinating seven kids to smile and sit still is a little difficult but love the pictures anyway. Maybe Halloween pictures will go a little smoother. Here's a look to last year's Trunk or Treat, what a difference a year makes!

Good Morning

We have already had to drop Emma's crib mattress a level because she was showing interest in pulling herself up. We knew it wouldn't be long until she was and the last thing we wanted was to find her on the floor after falling over the side. This morning this is how I found our sweet baby girl. Sitting up. She's been able to sit up from a crawling position for a week or so but has just figured out that she can do it in her crib and play with her music. She's in such a hurry to grow up and I'm not sure I am...wait, I know I'm definitely not ready for her to be in this stage yet.

Tea Party

After a morning of shopping and getting out of the house the girls wanted to play all afternoon together. Lily pulled out her Princess/Tea Party bin and off they went playing. Lily has been trying to get Emma involved in pretend play. She tries to teach her how to hold the tea cup and how to take dainty little sips. She gives her plates of food and cupcakes to enjoy and all Emma does is try to fit everything into her little mouth. Lily doesn't seem to mind or get frustrated at all she just gives a little laugh, says silly Emma and keeps on going and keeps trying to get Emma to participate.

Lily also shares very well with Emma. They switch toys and she has learned that if Emma has one of her toys all she has to do is give her something else to distract her and Lily gets her toy back. Sometimes her two yr old self gets the better of her but not very often, Lily is very patient and loves to play with her baby sister.

Family Portraits

The main reason for this portrait session is for Emma's 6 month pictures.

Here are two of my absolute favorites...

And a few more that I love and wanted to share.

Profile Pictures

Sister Pictures

Indiviual Pictures

Let the framing begin!

Fun at Home

It was just one of those days that you stay home and do things around the house.

The kind of days that we love.

The girls love playing with each other and are now getting more into it now that Emma is a little more sturdy.

A little shot of how craaazy our girl is...are you kidding me Emma?!?

Lily is loving art these days so I finally attached our aquadoodle wall mat. But instead of just giving her the water pen I gave her paintbrushes and a dish of water. It kept her busy on and off all day long.

And, the girls received Halloween cards from Nana and Pa.

They love getting mail!

Thank you Nana and Pa!

Quality Emma Time

One of the best things that comes out of taking Lily to school is that I get quality one-on-one time with Miss Emma. And, I love it! These few hours that I get to give her my complete undivided attention definitely let us get to know each other better and bond even more.

I do have to admit that the house is extremely quiet, I itch to get things done around the house and now realize how much easier it is to have only one child. But, I have refused to do anything other than playing with my baby girl. I had two years of one-on-one time with Lily and I am going to cherish the 7 hours a week I get with Emma.

Finally, the picture that I've wanted!

The one that shows the cheeks that I wish I could bottle up and keep forever.

A little peek of our time together and a look at how she wants to be into everything.

First Tooth

I've felt bumps under her gums for a few weeks and the bottom right tooth finally popped out!

Her bottom left tooth is ready to come too :)

At least the number of nighttime wake-ups and runny nose are now explained.

Teacher In Training

Enough Said.

Messy Hair

Messy hair is a good sign that somebody had a fun time at school.

Plus, as we were walking to the car Lily looked at me and said,

"I had fun Mommy. No tears today Mommy. I like school Mommy"

as she gave me a huge hug around my legs.

If only she felt this way while we were walking to her classroom on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It would make being a Mommy so much easier.

I Heart You Lily Check.

Double Well Visit

This morning was the first of many double well visits we can have. Meaning, since Emma and Lily are almost exactly 2 years apart they share the same months of their half-year and yearly check-ups. It's nice that we can do this and it saves us a trip to the doctor. The nurses and Dr Wick really made it nice and measured them, weighed them and checked them out at the very same time which made our visit only about 45 minutes.

Miss Emma's stats:

16 pounds 10 1/2 ounces-60th %

27 1/4 inches-93rd %

17 1/2" head- 90 something %

Miss Lily's stats:

33 pounds 12 ounces-90th%

38 3/4 inches- 97th%

19 3/4" head-90 something%

So pretty much we have two girls that are basically in the 90th% in all areas except for Emma's weight and I'm sure it'll catch up with the rest of her once she learns to like food other than formula and cereal. Our Dr said that Emma is going to probably grow just like Lily but at this point at 6 months Emma is hands down heavier, longer and much stronger than Lily was. Yikes.

Church Cuties

We haven't attended church very much in the past few months due to various reasons but since we're going to be home through the holidays we are making every effort to be regulars once again. We have had to switch to being 11 o'clockers instead of going at our time at 830 due to having two kids that like to sleep late. It's a minor price to pay for getting some sleep. The one thing that we dislike about the late service is that it runs forever. Today we didn't get out until a little before 1230 and to us that means that we pretty much get to go home, eat lunch and then it's nap time and we don't get much else done. But, we'll manage.

Some things that Lily now does at church:

-She recognizes that it's the same place she has chapel during school and shows us where she sits

-She flips through the hymnal to find the song we're singing and pretends to read and sing along

-Says pays attention, sorta. When everyone says Amen, she says it directly afterwards

-She takes communion, holds her hands out for the bread and says Amen. Also crosses her arms to refuse the wine and says Amen.

-Snacks through the entire service so we must have a large variety of snacks on hand

-Reads her books, colors and entertains Emma with toys from our huge toy bag we bring

-Shakes hands during the Peace

-Participates in Prayers of the People

-Attempts to kneel

-Likes to put our envelope into the collection plate

Pumpkin Patch

I Loove the Fall.

I will especially looove this Fall since we will experience so many "firsts" as a new family of four. And today was just the beginning of those firsts. We traveled to Brookdale Farm in Chespeake to visit their pumpkin patch and had a wonderful time despite the very cool breeze.

If I was only able to choose one picture (which you will see I'm not able to do) to show what kind of day we had, it would have to be our family of pumpkins that now live on our front walk. It makes me happy.

Unlike the farms in Virginia Beach this one you are able to actually cut the pumpkin right off of the vine once you've hunted around for the most perfect pumpkin. I'm not sure they existed at this farm but we came to like our four just as well. Lily had a great time trying to lift some very big pumpkins, trying to convince us to take them all home and of course falling since she wasn't used to picking up her feet to step over the many vines that covered the field. Emma was in the carrier and loved every second of walking around finding pumpkins, smiling the entire time.

After we purchased our pumpkins we made our way into the "kiddie area" complete with soybean maze. Lily attempted to do this by herself but needed me to explain what to do along the way. Too bad that I even got us lost :). We did eventually get ourselves out in a timely manner.

Sisters forced to hang out for a picture. Lily was not thrilled but Emma on the other hand was.

Another forced picture.

The next event, yes an event, was the horse drawn hayride. We waited in line and the girls were wonderful! As soon as we sat down on the ride Lily hid her face until she realized we were in the back and the huge horses couldn't see or get to us and Emma had a serious baby meltdown! She screamed the entire ride which lasted at least 15 minutes. Felt like an hour and it probably wasn't even 15 minutes but more like 8. But man oh man...we were getting pity looks from moms, kind but not so warranted comments from grandmas and Mike and I were sweating but also thankful that these horses that weighed a ton each didn't spook easy. Notice the picture on the bottom right; us in the car right after we jumped off of the hayride and practically ran to the car. Oh, Emma is all we can say.

Next stop was right next door at Bergey's Breadbasket, a local deli/bakery. The sandwiches were delicious and so were the little treats we picked up, the yogurt and chocolate covered pretzels..yum, yum.

But of course, the Check family can't really go anywhere without a little something happening and I'm pretty sure that these pictures speak for themselves.

What a wonderful way to end the day of our first family of four pumpkin patch trip.