Happy Halloween!

Hope you all enjoyed a warm and safe Halloween! We took our little ladybug fairy and "Lightning McQueen" for a little trick-or-treating in the neighborhood before it got dark. Isaac really enjoyed it this year and had to be reminded to say "trick or treat" instead of "do you have something for me?".

Isaac trick-or-treating at Oma's new house!

Tessa getting a ride in the wagon. It was pretty warm out today, but check out our piles of snow that are still hanging around!

Stir crazy

After being stuck inside for two days, we decided to bundle the kids up for a short walk outside in the snow. Here is Tessa in her warm clothes. She couldn't crawl with the mittens on her hands - she kept sliding down on the wood floor.

Isaac and Oma having fun in the snow and trying not to slip on the ice!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

It's a winter wonderland outside our house! Over the past 2 days this early winter storm has dropped about 10-12 inches of snow in our neighborhood. (and we're the lucky ones, some areas have more than double that!) It feels a little more like Christmas than Halloween, and Isaac is getting anxious to go out and make snowballs. We haven't even got his snowboots for this year yet, so we had to venture out to the mailbox yesterday in his tennis shoes! We kept him distracted though by popping in the "Frosty the Snowman" movie. Oma is here this week taking care of the kids while I work, and we are so thankful to have her here. Isaac and Tessa are having so much fun with her! It's supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow and through the weekend so we're hoping to get out for some fresh air - we're all getting a little stir crazy!

Lights out

Last night we had a neighborhood-wide power outage. Tessa was already in bed, but Isaac was in the middle of his bath when all the power went out. He kept insisting that we turn the lights back on - he didn't understand until he got out of the bath and tried the light switch for himself. We got to read him books and tuck him in bed by candles and flashlights. John and I played a game of Scrabble by candle light and the power came back on halfway through the game. Other than being glad that the heat was also back on, I was a little sad to blow out the candles, it was kind of nice!

6 adults...

...that's how many of us it took to get a photo of all four of these cousins together! Here are Isaac and Tessa with their cousins Finley and Parker. We have so much fun when we get together with my brother Grant, his wife Amber, and their kids. It's busy with so many little ones underfoot, but we wouldn't like it any other way!

Go K-State!

I know, I know - I'm behind in posting again. The past few days have been busy ones around our house. Our nanny, Angelica, gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Izabel, on Sunday, so John and I been taking turns taking care of the kids and trying to get our work done this week. We are excited that Oma is going to be here next week to see us and help out with the kids!

Last weekend we drove to Kansas for the K-State vs. A&M football game. John and I took Isaac to the game and he really enjoyed it (and had SO many questions!). K-State won big and we were all excited about that except John - who wore his maroon for the day. Here's Isaac at the top of the stadium. Daddy was nice enough to take him all the way to the top for a nice view!

Bathtime!

Everybody loves bathtime! And - there's nothing cuter than naked babies! Trust me, there were some even cuter photos, but this one is the only one where all the important parts are covered up. There was an adorable one involving two naked bums...but I don't want to get flagged as some obscene blogger....

K.C. weekend

This past weekend Tessa and I flew to Kansas City to help my cousin Nicole with her wedding dress shopping. It was successful and she picked out a beautiful dress....I can't post any photos though, you'll have to wait for the wedding! We got to spend time with family and Tessa got to play with some of her cousins.

Here is Tessa picking out a dress for Nicole.

My mom with my niece Finley and my aunt Diane with Tessa at the dress shop.

Diaper pose! Tessa with her cousins Finley and Parker.

Saturday night we did a little craft project....not too successful, but lots of fun! :-)

Tessa and I with my step-sister Allison and her adorable little boy, Ryan.

Swimming lessons

This week the kids started swimming lessons at our rec center. Isaac is in the "preschool" class and Tessa is with me in the "mommy & me" class. Both kids love it! We showed up a little too early for the first lesson on Monday and it was all I could do to keep Tessa out of the water. They have a zero-entry portion at one end of the pool and Tessa kept wriggling in my arms until I put her down and then crawled as fast as she could to the water. Isaac is in a class full of energetic little boys, but so far has been pretty good at listening to the teachers. They both sleep great after our evening lessons, so that has been a nice benefit!

Out for a ride

Isaac recently mastered riding his bike! (although he gets off to walk it across the street because he doesn't like going down the "ramps"...but that is a whole other story). Lately the weather has been great for taking a walk/bike ride around the neighborhood. Tessa has grown into her little car and loves following her big brother around. We'll have to get outside and enjoy this weather today because they're predicting some snow for tomorrow...brrrr!

It's that time of year again...pumpkins!!

This weekend we enjoyed the perfect fall weather by going to the nearby Berry Patch Farms to pick out our pumpkins. Here are the kids goofing around on the pumpkins!

Tessa and Mommy picking out a good one!

Isaac had lots of fun in the hay bale maze!

Tessa loved the hay ride!

Isaac petting the farm's pig.

Isaac's first pinata!

Tessa REALLY loved the pumpkins!

Daddy & the kids right before we headed home.

Busy little girl!

For the past month our so Tessa has really been on the move. She is walking herself around the furniture and crawling up the stairs. She's also been really busy getting herself into things that she's not supposed to (such as splashing in the dog's water bowl and pulling dishes out of the dishwasher!). The other day I left her in the living room for a couple minutes and she figured out how to climb into her brother's chair. Needless to say that chair has been relocated to the storage closet for a while (until she figures out how to get OUT of the chair too!) We're having so much fun watching her explore - she's really keeping us on our toes!