The pumpkin patch

Today we headed out to the pumpkin patch and corn maze with some friends. It was so much fun and we had a beautiful day!! It was quite cold this morning, but the sun came out and it really warmed up. I dropped Gabby off at my mom's house for about an hour and Meggie and I went to the pumpkin patch. I forget how much easier things are with only one child!! Meggie loved the pumpkin patch and tried very hard to pick the pumpkins up. The corn maze was fun too! My friend picked a couple of old husks of corn and gave them to the kids. Meggie just liked carrying the corn around:) We also bought a pumpkin to take home so that Meggie and daddy can carve it together!

Believe it or not, we had a hail/snow storm at our house yesterday!! It was like a blizzard outside for about 10 minutes. It was beautiful. After the storm was over the sun came out and the snow disappeared. Weather is so crazy sometimes!!

I decided to try Megan's monkey costume on from last year, as she will be wearing it for halloween. It fits her perfectly!! Last year it was a little big. Meggie is so excited to wear her monkey suit. She has now learned to say "trick or treat". We are looking forward to taking her around the cul-de-sac for halloween. Jeff and I quite enjoy the candy!! Gabby is going to be piglet this year. I'm getting good use of these costumes.

For the past week or so, Jeff has been working hard on building me a scrapbook desk!! He has set it up in the storage room downstairs. It will be so nice to have a place to do scrapbooking and not have to always put it away afterwards! He even put up a new track light over the desk and a little lower section of desk for the girls to play at!! Now I just need to organize all my scrapbook stuff and then get working on it...I'm so excited!!We have no really exciting plans for the weekend, but I'm sure it will fill up and we will be busy! Last weekend we tried to get a little bit of Christmas shopping done. Christmas is going to be here before we know it!! I think I will go organize some more things in my scrapbook room now. Bye for now!

Our visit with Aunty Kirsten

My cousin Kirsten was here visiting this week and we had a great time with her!! We picked her up from the airport on Monday afternoon and she left this morning to go back home. We didn't do anything really exciting, but we just had fun being together. It is always so great having Kirsten come visit...she helps out with the girls so much and they adore her! Kirsten and I love to just talk, so we talked about lots of things this week. It was just so good to reconnect with her again.

We took Megan to her swimming lesson on Tuesday morning and since Kirsten was with us, I figured we should take Gabby in the water also. Gabby wasn't quite sure of the experience at first, but once she was moving around a bit she liked it! After swimming lessons we made our traditional run to Walmart. Please note we don't look great in this picture because we just came from swimming:)

On Wednesday, Kirsten treated us to Tim Horton's and then we went shopping with my mom. Megan really enjoys shopping too. Gabby took a little nap in her stroller. When we came home Kirsten, the girls and I took some fun fall pictures and in the evening we went to my parents house for some take-out Chinese food!! Very yummy. The one evening Kirsten decided to braid Megan's hair. We didn't know if it was long enough, but it worked quite well! She looked so grown up with her braided hair!! Megan was very fascinated by Kirsten's guitar and she loved to hear her play and sing! Megan found aunty's egg shaken in her guitar case and loved to use it and dance to the music.On Tuesday night after the girls had gone to bed, Kirsten and I went over to my best friend, Jassie's house. We just hung out and chatted and had some yummy hot chocolate! It was nice to get out for a little while without the kids!

We took Kirsten to the airport this morning and Megan and I were sad to see her go:( She is such a great friend(and cousin) and a fantastic aunty to our girls!! We look forward to next time we get to see her!!

On Sunday, we fed Gabby rice cereal for the first time and she LOVED it!! I was so impressed. She didn't spit any of the food out. Now I am feeding her the cereal 2 times a day and it's working out great. She turned 6 months old yesterday and I can hardly believe my baby is half a year old. She is growing so fast!!

Megan is enjoying pushing Gabby around in her doll stroller!! Gabby was having fun too, but she's a little big for it!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Thankful

I have so many things to be thankful for. I have been so blessed in my life and this past year has been no different. I am so thankful for an awesome husband who loves me and our girls so very much, and who works so hard, so that I am able to stay home with our kids! I am so thankful for our beautiful little daughters, who bring us so much joy and love. I am so thankful for our families who always love, support and encourage us...and who help us raise our little angels! I am so thankful for our friends who love us and our kids. I am so thankful for our health, which we so often take for granted. And most of all, I am so thankful for a loving God who never gives up on me and who has given me all of these blessings, and for that I will always be grateful!!

The girls watching Dora on a Saturday morning!!

We have had a very busy and full weekend. Jeff and I managed to sneak in a little date on Friday night. Jeff's parents watched the girls for about an hour and a half and we went out for dessert. It is good for us to spend time away from the kids sometimes, even for a short while. Jeff's brother, Eric, came up for the weekend and we spent lots of time with him. He loves the girls so much and they adore him!! We spent Saturday morning with my parents, since they were not doing a Thanksgiving meal this year. We went to IHOP for breakfast and then headed to the park. We finally were able to take some family pictures with the beautiful fall colors! Here are a few of my favorites...

Meggie with her little friend, and her new Dora doll!!

We had dinner with Jeff's parents on Saturday evening and we went to their church on Sunday morning and then had the big family Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night. The meal was delicious of course! I tried not to overeat, but then it was dessert time and I can't resist pumpkin pie!! On Monday morning we had waffles and custard...the best. Then on Monday evening Jeff's brother and his parents came over for dinner and the boys played hours of Carcassone. It was a great weekend!!

So, this past Wednesday I had an appointment to get the girls pictures done in the studio at Walmart. I had talked to Megan about it for a few days before, to get her ready for it. I had bought the girls matching tights and they were all dressed up and ready to go. We got to the studio and Megan started to freak out. She did this last time I tried to get her pictures done when she was about 18 months old. I thought this time would be better because Gabby would be with her. No such luck:( She freaked out so much and then she got Gabby worked up and they were both crying. The one picture the lady was able to get of them together was with them both having bloodshot eyes from crying and tears running down their cheeks. Needless to say we did not buy the pictures and we will not rebook for another appointment. I will have to just be happy with the pictures we take at home!!

Megan has been sleeping better for the last 5 nights!! She has not been waking up at all in the night. I am so proud of her and I am very glad to be sleeping all night again. Gabby continues to be such a joyful baby!! She has found her voice in the last couple of weeks and she loves to SING!!! She is extremely loud and we love it!! My cousin, Kirsten called me last night and while we were talking she booked a flight to come visit us next week!! She is so great. I can't wait to spend time with her and just hang out. She has such a special place in my heart:) I told Megan she is coming for a visit next week and she got really excited...and we get to pick her up from the airport and Meggie loves the airport!! So fun.

Sorry this is so long, but I had so many pictures I wanted to share!! Hope you all have a great week.

Sisterly love

We are so thrilled because Megan stayed in "class" (Sunday school) all my herself yesterday for the whole time!!!! It was amazing! Jeff and I have not sat through an entire church service for...I can't remember the last time. Although I did have to go out to feed Gabby for about 10 minutes. But soon we will be able to put Gabby in nursery and Meggie in class and then we can hear a sermon again!! Jeff took Meggie to her classroom and stayed for a couple of minutes and then moved further and further away and when he finally left she was fine, no crying for whining!! I did come into the classroom part way through to take her to the bathroom and she didn't even want to come with me. And she was happy to back in after going to the bathroom. They were learning about bugs and she was very interested!!

We have a very relaxing weekend! On Saturday we just ran errands and went to the park to see the Kokanee spawn...but we only saw about 10 fish:( It was a really nice day, a little cool, but nice to be outside in the sunshine. I have been getting lots of use out of my double stroller these days. We met our friend and his 2 kids at the park and so we hung out with them for a little while and had a nice visit! We had my parents over on Saturday night for a little visit and on Sunday evening we had Jeff's parents over. The girls just love to play with their "amas" and "papas". It is such a blessing to have our parents so close by, so we can see them often!!

































Yesterday, Jeff worked on the car for about 3 hours!!! He was so tired of it after a while. The lock on the drivers side door was jammed and he managed for fix it!! He wasn't sure how to do it, but he figured it out. He is just so handy!!

Our smiley little girl!! I can't believe it is October already! I want to get some pictures of the girls outside with trees and all the beautiful fall colors!! The only thing is it has been so rainy and wet that we haven't had the chance to do it yet! Although, as I am writing this the sun is shining and so maybe when the girls wake up, I will take them out. We really need to take a new family picture, so maybe I will wait until Jeff gets home.

Today I took Megan's bed rail off of her bed. I don't think she really needs it anymore, but it makes her feel secure. I took it off when she wasn't looking and when she went down for her nap she didn't say anything about it. But then she woke up part way through her nap and was crying very loud and I went in to see her and she said "I need that" and pointed to where the rail was!! She notices everything!! I told her she was a big girl and she could sleep without it and she went back to bed!! We will see what happens tonight at bedtime...