Grace's 3rd Birthday

Grace is 3 years old as of December 14th! We had her party yesterday at Pump It Up in Hartville. I love Pump It Up, we had her party there last year, too. It is a giant building full of inflatable jumpy toys (or jumpy houses, as Grace calls them). The kids can just be unleashed and they can just run around for a few hours. A lot of kids came this year and they all had a great time together.

Grace was really excited to get so many great gifts, but her favorite was her Swimming Baby. She has been asking for Swimming Baby for months and she was so happy when she got her; the look on her face just melted my heart. She yelled, "A Swimming Baby!" as soon as she tore off the paper. She also got some Barbies, a few really cool board games, savings bonds, Color Wonders stuff, a teddy bear, a drum set, Moon Sand, and lots more.

Grace was so excited! She wore a brand-new outfit for her party, too. We also noticed that Grace was pulling on her ear in a lot of her pictures. She said her ear didn't hurt, so maybe it is a new nervous habit or something...

Ella's hair had so much static cling from all of the vinyl bouncy toys.


Grace and Me climbing through an obstacle course.


All of the kids at the end of the giant slide. Notice Ella over in the right corner, unable to sit still for a minute to get in the picture :)


Chaela and Steve dressed Lilly in the same exact outfit that Grace had on! No, we didn't plan it, either.


I love this picture of Grace. She looks grumpy for some reason, but it is so cute!


Jesse and Ella, making the same face for the camera.

Uh-oh.

So, I've been looking for my Knifty Knitter. It is a set of looms that you use to knit hats, scarves, etc. I finally found it in the basement the other day and I was so happy that I made Ella a little winter hat. Grace kept playing with the Knifty Knitter and I kept telling her to not put the little circles over her head or they would get stuck. Well, Grace didn't put the little one over her head...she put it over Ella's head. Needless to say, it got stuck.

So, here is little Ella with her new permanent Knifty Knitter necklace on. She does look good in red, but this is a little extreme... At this point, Jesse was getting a little worried because the loom was not going back over Ella's head. Jesse then informed me that Grace forcefully pushed it over Ella's head and that it was just not budging. I suggested rubbing butter on her forehead...

Ella wasn't scared at all, though. Here she is trying to take it off.



Sadly, this is what is left of my red loom. Jesse had to use a cutter from his tools to cut through it. Every time he took a squeeze at it Ella's eyes opened as big as saucers. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to cut through and Ella was safely freed from the Knifty Knitter's clutches!

Trick or Treat!

Wow! Halloween came and went so fast this year. It seems like all the yearly milestones go so fast anymore since the girls have arrived. Our trick or treat was last Sunday from 3 to 5, and, of course, we hit the streets right at 3! Unlike last year, Grace had no problem putting on her costume and getting ready for the big day. Ella was easily coaxed into her costume, too. They looked so cute!

Ella was a butterfly and Grace was a ladybug. The costumes kept them nice and warm, although the weather was pretty nice. We got home around 4 and shortly after, it started to rain. So, we timed the event perfectly!

Grace insisted on carrying both her and Ella's treat bags since Ella couldn't carry her own. She didn't want Jesse or me to carry it because she wanted to be the one to help Ella get her candy. Grace told the people at almost every house that she had to make sure she got a piece of candy for herself and for her sister. After a while, we could tell she was having a hard time carrying both bags because they were getting heavy! We finally convinced her to ride in the wagon with Ella and take a break.

Jesse and I took turns pulling the wagon up all of the driveways in our neighborhood. There are no sidewalks since we live in a development and most of the driveways are pretty steep. We got a pretty good workout hauling the old Radio Flyer up the hills!

It turned out to be a great day with the family. Plus, we have a giant bag of candy to show for it!

Delicious Pumpkin Cookies

Aunt Pat, Ella, and Grace baked some pumpkin cookies a couple weeks ago. I woke up from my daily sleep to the scent of freshly-baked sugar cookies! The girls decorated them all by themselves (with a little help from Aunt Pat). Grace was so excited to show me the creations. Ella was just excited to eat the frosting off the top of the cookie.









Grace licking her frosting-covered fingers.











The family of pumpkin cookies.

What a busy week!

This last week feels like it has been so busy! Jesse and I cleaned out our back room in the basement and came away with tons of totes of toys, baby clothes, and just plain junk. That was what my weekend consisted of. It does feel good to have that out of the way, though. Grace and Ella went to Nena and PapPap's for the weekend so we could concentrate on the clean-out process. So, Sunday we drove down to Leetonia to pick up the girls then came back home and just played for a while. No matter how many times they go stay with Nena and PapPap I still miss them when they are away!

A funny litte 'Graceism': Jesse likes to pretent to be a "Big Ogre" when he plays with the kids. The minute he yells "I'm a big, scary Ogre!", Grace and Ella go nuts and start climbing all over him. Well, Grace insists that Daddy is a "Big Yogurt", not a "Big Ogre". So, last night she was running around the house saying "I'm real, real scared of the Big Yogurt!" I laugh every time I think about it.

Yet another pumpkin festival...

Today, Uncle Justin and I took Grace and Ella to yet another pumpkin festival. It was in Northfield at an elementary school that one of Justin's friends teaches at. It took like 45 minutes to get there, but the girls were really good the whole way there and back in the car, so it wasn't bad at all. Plus, I got to spend some quality time with my bro. It was really fun, (and most of the stuff there was free!). Grace got another pumpkin painted on her cheek and they both picked out pumpkins (my house is going to be a pumpkin patch pretty soon.) They both got balloon animals that they popped after 30 seconds. Grace and Ella ate donuts and cookies, painted their pumpkins, and played with some other kids. It was perfect weather, too!

Ella with Uncle Jay. A lot of people tell us they look alike. He loves to hear that.

All of the pumpkins were out in the front lawn of the school. It was nice because the kids could just walk around in the open and look at all the pumpkins. Ella tries to pick up pumpkins that even I couldn't pick up.

Ella got a dog balloon animal and Grace got an alligator (which she calls agillator) balloon animal. Ella had hers for about 30 seconds before it popped and Grace had hers for about 60 seconds. Even after they were in pieces and partially popped, they both still played with them!


Painting pumpkins...again.

Annual Pumpkin Painting Night

Last year, we tried to carve some pumpkins with Grace. She really didn't like the slimy pumpkin innards. So, we decided to paint pumpkins so she could participate in the fun. This year, we picked out some nice little, kid-sized pumpkins at Figaro Farms to paint. I got out the washable paint markers, and let the kids go at it! I even painted one while Jesse took pictures of the big event. Grace was very careful and particular about which colors she wanted to use, and Ella painted just about everything except the pumpkin! It was fun, and now I have some really cool "punkins" (as Grace calls them) to sit on the porch.

Our kitchen table was a nice little set-up for our crafting. The Halloween tablecloth provided a nice drop-cloth when Ella decided to start painting the table, too.

Grace was very proud of her creation.

Ella was very colorful when she was through painting.


Our pumpkins were all done and ready to be put out on our porch!

The Pumpkin Farm

Last Sunday we went to the pumpkin farm in Hartville. Steve, Chaela, and Lilly met up with us there. The farm had a little petting zoo, a giant blow-up slide, a corn kernel play area, and face painting. Grace and Ella wore their matching Halloween shirts, although I thought maybe it was a little too early in the season for them. They were just too cute, though, and I just had to put them on for the photo opportunities! (a scrapbooker always keeps photo ops and layout coordinations in mind!) After the farm, we went to Cleats to have dinner. The girls were really good at dinner. It has become somewhat of a challenge lately to take them anywhere, let alone dinner!

Grace and Ella got to pick out a giant pumpkin to put on our front porch. What a decision it turned out to be!

Jesse put Grace and Ella on top of this giant buffalo statue. The were really excited to sit up there, but they were wiggling around so much we couldn't get a pic where they were looking at me.




Grace loves to go down giant blow-up slides. She was a little apprehensive about this one at first, though. I think it was because the slide was really dark and looked a little scary for Halloween. Jesse ended up taking her up to the top and going down with her.



Ella didn't quite know what to think of the giant corn kernel play area. I had never seen anything like it before! It was like a giant sand box filled with corn kernels.



This was Grace's first time getting her face painted. Last year she wanted nothing to do with it, but she was really excited to get a "punkin" painted on her cheek.



I was so happy that we got all three kids, Lilly, Grace, and Ella, to sit still long enough for me to take a picture of them together. They all had a lot of fun and it was really nice to get out of the house on such a nice fall day!

Wow! I really did it!

I am really happy to finally be starting our blog. I have wanted to do this for a while, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure out how to get started. Finally, during this sleepless night, I did it. I really should be sleeping, but working nights has got me and my internal clock all messed up. It is was to late, or too early, for me to up doing this, but I just can't fall asleep. I work three night shifts a week and the nights that I have off I find myself still wanting to be on that schedule. So, while Jesse, Grace, and Ella sleep, I am starting my blog!