Big 5

Mason is 5 today!!!!! We have had some fun.Last night we braved ChuckECheese. The last time we braved one of these was in Virginia when Sarah was two (ok, we went to Leo's in Rochester, but it was kind of wimpy).

We went at 5pm & almost had the place to ourselves for the first little while. When we left at 7 Todd thought we'd been there for about 4 hours, it sure felt like it!
Mason & Emma enjoyed some of the rides. Mason tried a few of the games.
Sarah was all about the games & getting lots of tickets. She ended up with 345.

Our kids had such a great time at ChuckECheese. When we got home Mason said "ChuckECheese is so amazing!" Now they want to go again. Oh dear.
Mason's presents this morning. The kids all expect to open presents before school & preschool. Luckily Todd was home so he got to see the action.
Mason's big ticket items were a Buzz Lightyear, Bolt, & and Smart Cycle. He wanted one of these last Christmas, but I resisted. We got a Fisher Price catalog a while back & he saw the cycle again & just had to have it! He's been riding it whenever he can today.
Trying out a Spongebob game on the cycle.
Mason had a friend birthday party this afternoon. Eight 3-5 year old boys for one hour was quite an adventure! He had birthday cookies instead of a cake, fine with me! The dug for dinosaurs in shredded paper in the basement, quite a mess but lots of fun.

Two check ups

I took Mitchell in today for his 4 month check up. I also had Emma there for her 2 year check up. Mason was with us & seemed to enjoy seeing the others get shots (his turn is coming though!).

Emma is a feather weight at 23 pounds 2 ounces.

Mitchell is a tank at 16 pounds 4 ounces.

No wonder I always park by any abandoned shopping cart just so I can plop the car seat in & push Mitchell into the store instead of carry him!

Emma's birthday party

We did a family birthday for Emma this past Sunday with my side of the family. We'd celebrated a few weeks ago with Todd's side.

Emma had a Dora birthday cake.
Emma got two new dolly strollers & a few new dolls. She & Liam & Ava had fun running around the house with the strollers. Emma got stuck with the old stroller while the twins used her new ones (kind of reminded us of when Lynda, the twins' mom, & I were little, she somehow always got to use my new stuff first too!). As Liam pushed his stroller he made the vrmm sound, just to let us know he's a boy.
Emma has decided that putting a bunch of stuff in a bag & carrying it around is not nearly as fun as putting a bunch of stuff in a stroller & pushing it around (I think her bag is somewhere in this pile). She's got dolls, cars, a book or two & lots of other things in that stroller. Right now, her stroller is parked behind me & had a toy chain saw on top along with a doll.

The big 2!

Emma turned 2 yesterday!

We let her open a few presents first thing in the morning. She'll have to wait until Sunday to open the rest during a family party.

Emma got a doll that cries & says mama. I bought this with Emma a few days ago. She loved it! I put the doll in the back of the car & all the way home the doll cried. I then put the doll in my closet. Everytime I turned on the light to my closet the doll would cry & about scare me to death. Finally, I put the doll in a gift bag & put it downstairs on top of a shelf. Everytime I went down & turned on a light the doll cried. Now that the doll is out of the box, we have found it's off switch. Good thing! Emma does enjoy taking care of her new dolly though.

Emma & Mitchell, my two babies plus one more.
Emma has been funny about her birthday. She keeps trying to sing Happy Birthday. All day yesterday I tried to get her to hold up two fingers but she would not.

Emma has been practicing to be two for a while now. She's got temper tantrums down really well, the fall-back-onto-the-floor-carefully-so-I-don't-hurt-myself-while-screaming-at-the-top-of-my-lungs. It's great.

She also likes to carry plastic purses around with all sorts of things in them. Usually the bag gets too full & she gets upset because it's too heavy or things are falling out. Whenever we load up to take Mason to preschool & I tell him to get his backpack she is sure to get her bag too.

4 month old little dude

Mitchell is four months old today. He's quite the little dude (though not that terribly little).

I will take him for his well baby check up next week, I'm curious how much he weighs!

He's a good baby. Last week he woke up too early, but I blamed it on him having a cold & the time change. This week he's back to going to bed by 9:30 or 10 & not waking up until after 6. So nice! He's usually pretty happy during the day, but not today. I hope he's not getting sick again.

Monday night Todd & I broke out the rice cereal. Mitchell did great with it! Mitchell snoozing this morning. Look at those cheeks!
He's not sure if he likes the Bumbo yet.

Having another round of rice cereal. He LOVES it!

Halloween

We carved our pumpkins on Monday evening, after Emma was in bed.
Sarah thought the pumpkin guts were pretty fun to scoop out. Mason was grossed out by them. I cooked the pumpkin seeds, but Emma & I seem to be the only ones who like them.
Mitchell was a cute white tiger. This was from a Halloween party a few weeks ago. I don't think I actually got his costume on him on Halloween!
Mitchell with Uncle Frankinbill. My brother in law likes to scare the trick or treaters.
My kids went trick or treating with their cousins. Becca was nice enough to take Emma & Mason around with Isaac. Mason & Emma made it to about 10 houses & decided they were done. Mason just wanted to get back to play with Isaac's Buzz Lightyear (& they had trunk or treated the night before). Sarah stayed out for a long time with Allie then Becca. She counted her treats, 99. My favorite was the unopened hotel size lotion, hmmm.
Our pumpkins along with Lori's family of pumpkins.
Emma enjoying her lollipops (all three of them since she was not out long).
Emma's spoils.

Sarah's baptism

Sarah got her baptism dress for her birthday from her grandma L. She had bought it last January & saved it for Sarah.

We went up to Mueller Park Canyon during fall break & took a bunch of pictures of Sarah in her new dress.

Sarah was baptized by her dad, Todd, on Halloween! She was nervous, but excited too.

After the baptism we had a big lunch at our house for both sides of our family. It was quite the gathering. When I asked Sarah what she wanted to eat for the lunch she said "steak!". So, Todd put his grill to good use & cooked up a bunch of yummy steak!

Sarah's aunt Rosario made a pinata for the kids to break. We filled it up & the kids whacked it to pieces. They all got so much candy from the pinata there was no need to trick or treat!