Happy Halloween!

This is the first year that we didn't dress Dakota up. I'll blame it on the kids. We ate dinner, fed the baby and raced around to get costumes on before our doorbell started ringing.  Somewhere in there we forgot to dress the dog. I hope he wasn't too upset.

Adalyn trick or treated up and down our street and then to one of our friend's houses at the end of our street. It was fun to see all the neighbors and other kids walking up and down the street. At first Adalyn wouldn't say trick or treat and she wouldn't choose a candy out of the bowl being held out to her. But she would say "thank you" every single time. Made me proud! But she quickly got the hang of it and started saying "t-teet". She was all about choosing her piece of candy out of the bowl being offered. Then she'd say "thank you" and sometimes even a "happy heen". It was so much fun to watch her!

It was cool outside and when we were almost done it started sprinkling rain so we went back home. Adalyn wasn't happy about being all done with trick or treating. Then she saw our bowl of candy we had out on our porch and wanted to choose candy out of our bowl. ha! I think the rain scared away the trick or treaters, but Adalyn did wait at the door with us to hand out candy to the few kids that came past.

Of course I had to over document this momentous occasion:)

Cute pumpkin outfits for daycare.

 Adalyn's first house. Our next door neighbor.

 Such a sweet sight.

 I love these kids!

 Our other next door neighbor. By this time Adalyn knew what she was doing and wasn't afraid to walk up to Ms. Shawna by herself. She even said bye to her by name. So cute!

 Picking out her candy (or pieces of candy since she kept telling Adalyn to take more). We have awesome neighbors!

 Look at that pouty face. She was not ready to be done. BTW, how handsome is my husband. Seriously. I think he was the only man in our neighborhood out with his kids in GQ attire.

 Sweet boy was full of smiles even after braving the cold and rain. He was snug as a pea in a pod:)

My sweet owl.

 Watching for kids. Not many came. Poor Coda. I think he wanted one of his (four) costumes on.

 Adalyn was giving Coda love. 

 So Coda gave her some love back. Melt.

 Precious little greeter.

 Happy Halloween!

Sunday Pictures

I found this cute -over the top- Halloween dress for Adalyn at a consignment sale and couldn't resist. I laid it out last night and this morning when she woke up she saw it and was so excited. She kept pointing to it and saying "punkin". When she put it on she did some twirling. The little ghost is on a ribbon and it can be tucked inside the pumpkin pocket. The girls working in her room at church said that she had to show everyone her little ghost. Of course I had to get a few pictures :)

I absolutely love this picture. (Too bad little man was fussy without the paci.)

 I love fall clothes! 

I tried to bribe Adalyn to stand still so I could get a picture of her dress. Can you tell how thrilled she was? She wanted to be...

 JUMPING!!!

 Jump! Jump! Jump!

 My two boys in their snuggies tonight. Love them!

Boo at the Zoo

This past weekend we packed up the family and drove to visit my parents (5 hours away). This was our first trip as a family of 4 and we were a bit worried about how it would go. It ended up that both kids slept the entire way there! It was amazing! And the way home wasn't too bad either. So I will call that a success! We were headed up there to attend the Love and Respect marriage conference at my parents' church. We had Friday morning open so we decided to take the kids to Boo at the Zoo. I grew up going to the Toledo Zoo and totally took it for granted. After being at other zoos I totally believe that the Toledo Zoo is by far nicer than others.

Boo at the Zoo was a day dedicated to preschoolers. We dressed the kids all up and spent the morning thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It was nice that it was a school day, so there weren't big kids around. Everything was geared toward the young kids! They had 10 trick-or-treat stations, a Fisher Place play area with brand new toys, a bounce house that Adalyn wanted to bounce in until she started to crawl in, and some great animals to look at!

My little owl and pea pod. It was a bit cool and misting rain so it was good that they had nice warm costumes.

 This is how Cayden spent the day.

 The trick or treat stations were decorated so cute and the people handing out toys were great with the kids! My mom got Adalyn the adorable pumpkin bag and it was perfect for her to carry around that day. She doesn't eat candy so she didn't know what she was getting other than that people were putting special treasures in her bag. We gave her her first bite of a Snickers and she was a fan! She also got pretzels, animal crackers and fruit snacks. Great things for young kids!

 Wendy was handing out coupons for frosty's! Yum!

 They had cute toss games to play and then choose a prize. Adalyn got a ghost ducky. Yet another treasure for her bag:)

 Adalyn stood and waived at this dog for so long. When he looked at her and waived back, she acted shy. She's so funny like that.

 "Moo!!" Another treat station.

 The zoo has a bunch of these masks hanging for kids to try out. Adalyn was quite interested in them. Here's her daddy trying one out.

Little man even woke up for a little bit. He was nice and cozy.

 A picture with nana and papa on the elephant. I have had many a picture sitting on this elephant.

We had such a fun time! I can't wait to do it again next year! 

Sibling Love

I'm still here! Today marks Cayden's 12 weeks! Where did that time go? I have no clue when he went from looking like a newborn to looking like an infant!! Life is hectic and the last thing that I've thought about is blogging. I have multiple weeks worth of pictures to write about but no time to do it. Such is life now that I'm working full time during the day and mothering 2 kids under 2! I'm absolutely blessed to work in an amazing environment with awesome coworkers who have really helped my transition back to work. Cayden has been a wonderful baby for our sitter.  She's said he's a perfect baby and that warms my heart.  I love that Adalyn and Cayden are together during the day. Our sitter tells me what a sweet sister she is to him. Love it.

Here are some brother/sister pictures from the past couple weeks.

When Cayden's under his jungle gym Adalyn likes to name all the animals hanging above him, bring him toys, lay one of her babies next to him, or lay with him herself. I love hearing her talk to him. so sweet.

Decked out in UK gear one Saturday. She is so loving and caring towards him.

When I take Cayden's weekly/monthly pictures Adalyn always walks in and lays next to him and wants to be in the picture. You'd never know because she will never smile for the picture. (Coda likes to photobomb too.)

(10 Weeks)

(11 Weeks)

Poor Adalyn had 2 scratches and a bruise on her face. She's a girly girl and likes her bows and babydolls, but she's a tough girl. :)

She wanted to hold brother which is a bit difficult without a big chair/couch to lay him on so this is the best we could do. She's so gentle and loving.

Looking at these pictures reminds me just how blessed I am. I love these two babies so so much!

Back to Work

My maternity leave has come to an end. Today is my first day back to work. I was able to stay home for 10 weeks with Cayden (which is two weeks longer than I was able to take with Adalyn) so I am thankful for that time. But I hate to hand him over for someone else to care for him. I know he is in good hands and his big sister will love on him all day, but I will miss having special moments with him each day. As I sat yesterday morning nursing him, I thought to myself that tomorrow at this time I will be pumping and someone else will be holding him and feeding him a bottle and looking down at that sweet face. That is a special bond that up until today my boy has only shared with me.  Jonathan has given him a bottle twice, but other than those two bottles I have nursed him for every single feeding. So this will be a whole new thing for us to start washing bottles and for me to pump all day long. Adalyn had to have bottle supplements from day one so it wasn't so weird to think about someone else feeding her a bottle.

I really am doing much better leaving him than I did with Adalyn. Or so I thought. But now that the day is here, I am much more emotional about it than I was expecting. I've done this before. I've left my precious newborn with someone else for 40 hours a week. This time I actually know our sitter instead of dropping my baby off with a stranger. I know it gets better. I know he's in good hands. I know it's good for him and that he'll be well adjusted and will learn to take turns and share and play well with other kids. I know this. But my mama's heart still breaks when I think about not spending my days with this precious boy.

I went back and read the post I wrote about going back to work after Adalyn. And every single one of those words still rings true. Actually I could just copy and paste that post today and it would work. Going back to work is never easy. At least at this age, he doesn't know any different and in no time he'll be excited to go to the sitter just like his big sister is each morning.

I'm excited to hang out with adults and see my coworkers...I just wish it didn't have to be 5 days a week. I honestly don't know how I'll get everything around the house done around a full time working schedule. There are so many little things that I do during the day around the house that I don't know how I'll fit all the little things in our evenings and weekends on top of our normal evening and weekend routines. I know it will all work out and we'll get into a routine. I still say that I'd love to stay home (even if it was part time) but that's not a possibility so I'm glad that I have a wonderful sitter, a wonderful boss and a job I love.

And because I can't not do it...I've got to post a couple pictures of my sweet baby boy.

I love his little piece of hair that sticks up on the top of his head like a mini faux hawk.

 I could kiss those cheeks all day long.

 I love this face. So sweet. Getting ready for a good scream.

 Talking to mommy.

I miss you today, sweet boy. I'm counting down the minutes until I can pick you up from daycare.