Halloween 2010

I think Halloween is always more fun when you have kids. They get so excited to dress up and candy is so much more exciting to a 2yr old than a 25yr old =) We had so much fun this year for Halloween. Jace was wolverine, Nellie was a hula girl, Steven was an Army guy and I was a circus ring leader.

We went to 2 trunk-r-treats this year and the kids had a blast at both. I think we will do the whole trick-r-treating around the neighborhood thing next year when Nellie is a little older. Jace totaly had the hang of it this year. At our trunk-r-treat he kept saying "tricky-treat mommy" and held out his bucket. He kept comming back again and again expecting me to give all the candy we brought to him. So cute.

Nellie didn't really make the rounds with Jace and daddy but she did dance for anyone that asked. It almost looked like she was actually doing the Hula. So here's a few pictures from our Halloween adventures this year.

My wolverine enjoying a quick sip before he returns to kicking butt Hula Nellie.
Nellie actually had a huge blow out in her costume. It was absolutely aweful and we ended up having to throw away her grass skirt. It got all over her white onesie so I took it off, put her coconut bikini back on and we went home naked.

Brother Halterman was making baloon hats for the kids at the party and Nellie got a heart hat. Its about as big as she is.
Spiderman JonesMaine the cookie monster

The wonder that is Nellie

I was thinking back today about how big my kids are now. I get the idea of how big they are sometimes when they purposefully and willfully do the exact opposite of what I tell them to do. But then I have to remind myself that even though they have minds of their own and have grown so much they are still just babies.

We went to a halloween party on Saturday and a woman had a 6 week old baby in the most adorable little bear costume and it made me think about how Nellie was about that age last halloween (8 weeks) I can't believe how fast the time goes by.

She was so little last halloween but now she is so big I just wanted to take the time and write down a few things about Nellie

1. She is walking all over creation now. She started walking about 2 weeks before she turned one and no one has been able to stop her since.
2. Nellie is my little scavenger she will throw food from her highchair just so she can get to it later in the day. She actually gets mad at me when I clean up under her chair. She even scavenged for food at the halloween party under the serving table. So cute.
3. Nellie loves drinks. If you have something to drink she wants it. She doesn't even really like her own sippy cups she prefers anything else.
4. She is so sneaky. If there is something she wants but knows she shouldn 't have (like your drink) she will carefully get close enough to it then grab and run. Jace is often a victim of this tactic
5. Nellie is the happiest baby you've ever seen everything makes her smile especially Jace. They play so well together now and Jace tickles her all the time which makes everyone laugh.
6.Nellie's favorite game is peek-a-boo which she will play with anyone that gives her any sort of attention.
7. Nellie loves Katy Perry. Any time a katy perry song comes on she gets so excited and dances her little heart out. We've made it a point to have family dance time now.

Nellie's Halloween Costume what an adorable hula girl

Pretty little girl

She fell asleep like this in the car I just had to take a picture

So dang happy all the time

Nellie I love you so much my sweet little angle. Just don't grow up too fast I love you just the way you are.

Nellie's one year pictures

Since I bought my camera I've been trying to get better at taking pictures but it seems that the better I get the more mobile and uncooperative my kids get. Taking pictures of someone that just learned to walk and therefore just realizing all the freedom they have is hard work. My goal was to get some one year old pictures of Nellie but that didn't really happen. She was so not having it. I tried and tried to get her to sit still for 2 seconds and even looking at me was too much to ask. By the end of it I was so frustrated I was about to cry. But I got home and was happy that I got a couple of useable cute pictures of her but still sad that it took so much work just to get those. Nellie when you look back and wonder why you don't have very many cute pictures of yourself don't blame me. I tried my best.

Jace on the other hand was slightly more cooperative and I ended up getting in a few good shots of him too. I have got to say that he is one good looking boy =)

My favorite picture so dang cute. This is the face he makes when I tell him to smile for me.

Happy Birthday Nellie!

I can't believe my baby is 1 already! It seems like this past year has flown by much faster than I would have liked. I feel like she was just born and now here we are celebrating her first birthday. Nellie is walking all over the place now and is so amazingly adorable it is a joy to watch her grow. We celebrated her birthday with a mini party with 2 other friends from our neighborhood that are the same age as her. We did a party just for the 3 girls. I did a butterfly theme and made pick cupcakes with white chocolate butterfly wings on top. I was kinda proud of myself.

The Birthday Girls

Eden, Gwennie, and Nellie

Yumm cake!!

3 friends with 3 babies that are friends too.

Callie, Me and Kate (and Gwen too)
To clean off the cupcake mess from the babies we played in the backyard with the water on. I guess Nellie was thirsty after all that cake. And of course Jace had fun too.

Natalie's Baby Shower

I'm always excited about babies especially when its new additions to my family. Natalie and Dallas are having a new baby girl in October so it's baby shower time! Hurray

Our own water park

After all of our hard work on the backyard we figured it was time to enjoy it. We finally have grass growing and where there is grass and kids there is a waterpark. I remember tons of times growing up where we would all get our swimsuits on and run through the sprinkelers or jump on the trampolene with the sprinkeler underneath. AAAhhh such happy memories. Well now the best part about being a mom is getting to pass down those traditions to my kids. We bought Jace a slip and slide for his 1st birthday party and miraculously it survived our move without getting any holes. It is a really fun finding nemo one where you screw the hose in one end and as it fills up with water it sprays out of holes that run all the way down the whole legnth of the slide. Simple yet efective design and the kids love it. Even Nellie (who has a hard time getting wet sometimes *such a girly girl*) throughly enjoyed herself in our backyard waterpark.

Here's some pictures from our fun

You are not making me get my hair wet Mom!!

Jace jumped right in

Ok i guess i like it

Happy kids

Daddy and Nellie

It seems like I never make it onto this blog it's all pictures of the kids and an occasional Steven. So this is me making it onto the blog =)

Child labor

Yes its true I'm putting my kids to work!!! But don't worry its totally legal and they love it! Jace is my sweet helper boy. He loves to be involved in anything and everything I am doing especially when there is water involved and especially when there are bubbles to play with. I decided it would be a fun and much needed activity to wash the car with the kids. Nellie wasn't too thrilled as I had to pen her up in the play yard (she kept trying to eat all of Steven's tools in the garage) But Jace and I had a blast. And of course i got some free child labor =)

What a good helper and so much fun too

Oh a little side note. I got to go to the zoo this past week with my wonderful lovely Heather and her boys. Sooo fun I love you heather

Uncle Sam!!

No not the government uncle sam (although it is fun to say it that way) Jace and Nellie have an actual Uncle named Sam and they got to meet him this last weekend. Steven has 3 half brothers from his dad's first marriage and Sam is the youngest of the brothers. He was in town for training for a new job and I guess he heard our air mattress calling his name so he had to come stay. We had a lot of fun getting to know him. Jace especially, since Sam has a little boy himself he and Jace were best buds.

We all went swimming at Callie's condo

Hi Uncle Sam =)

Jace of course loves to be in the water he played long after we were all ready to get out. I swear that kid would be made of water if he could

This was nellie's first time actually getting in the water while swimming. We tried once before but it was too cold. I think she likes swimming...she looks pretty happy

Nellie also got to hang out with her buddy Eden. Such cute swimsuit models

Nellie's first time in the pool. I think my kids were supposed to be fish. They love the water.

Finally a Garden!

Saturday was Gardening time (kinda like hammer time but with more dirt and less gold pants) We have been working on our back yard ever since we moved in 6 months ago. Steven has been working so hard on it we moved a ton of rock, rototilled the whole thing (destroying our sprinkeler system in the process) Then fixing the sprinkelers, we planted trees and grass and now it was finally time to plant the garden. Steven got me some railroad ties to be a super cool border around my garden and we filled it up with dirt from my Mom's. We did about half plants and half seeds. We did Tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley, corn, beans, pumpkin, cantaloupe and Im hoping to do sweet potatoes here soon too. I love having a garden it makes me feel so frugal and organic and the fresh veggies are awesome too.

Jace of course was the perfect little digger helper. I think we are going to get him a dirt box of his own so he won't dig up the plants. He LOVES to dig. He's a boy =) and I think we've already established that Boys love dirt
Nellie was helping too. She was trying to eat the dirt though so she spent most of the time in the stroller silly girl
I don't know why he thought that would be a good idea.

At least she doesn't have any teeth yet

I have the sweetest husband in the world. I mentioned to him that I wanted a flower garden so he made me one. And he bought me my favorite flowers to go in it. Lillies I even have 2 different kinds now. Thanks baby

I went out to check on my flower garden this morning and my lillies had opened up for the sun. They are so pretty I love my garden!

My big little helper

Lately Jace has been wanting to help me with everything. It is almost like he feels left out if I am doing something and not including him. I guess I should be happy about him helping me so much. It just is hard to be happy when everything takes 5 times longer when he is helping. He helps me sweep, unload the dishwasher and now even feeding his baby sister. He is such a big helper especially when it comes to Nellie. He just loves her so much and it is so cute to see him taking such good care of her.

Happy Birthday Jace

My sweet little boy turned 2 yesterday sigh... I can'tbelieve he is so big so fast. I feel like he is still my baby but he's not. He is a little man now. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday. We had a little party for him at the park by our house. I was trying to plan this elaborate party and go way over the top (you know me) but I didn't even get to do any of the things I planned and I think the party turned out better because of it. Two year olds do not have a very long attention span and me trying to wrangle them all in for a game would have been frustrating and lets face it futile. So instead we just played at the playground, ate hotdogs and my glorious cupcake pops then cake and presents. It was perfect. All the kids loved it and I think Jace did too.

This is the amazing awesome cake that Steven's Mom made (looks like something I would do=) she is so talented I was seriously impressed

Jace and daddy enjoying the cake. This was one of our days we could eat sugar (one of only 10 we get this year) I think I went a little overboard with the sugar. I felt seriously sick afterward. But it was just so good I couldn't resist

Jace's favorite part of the party was blowing out the candles. It was so windy that I think he only got to blow out one but he still had fun.

Jones got in trouble and was sent to timeout. I guess his brother and cousin wanted to make him feel better so they did a group timeout it was so cute

Nellie didn't need cake to have a good time. I can't believe she kept those sunglasses on. I think it was all the attention she was getting. Either that or she really is a girly girl that loves her accessories. I think its BOTH!

I love that tongue she always has it out. Me and my super cute little baby girl

Oh and Happy Birthday to Penny her Birthday is today

We Love you Penny!!!