Carving Pumpkins

The kids finally got to carve their pumpkins! We've been waiting until closer to Halloween because the squirrels like to eat our pumpkins. It was too cold outside (it snowed in October!) so we ended up in the garage. Notice the KY sweatshirt...Maggie and Emily are both referred to as KY at school because they love wearing their KY paraphenalia. Davis' little pumpkin was devoured by the squirrels so he adopted this big one, which you would think he would be thrilled about but he is still devestated about the squirrels...I think he's scarred for life! I don't remember having this squirrel problem in KY, is it an IL thing? We were told to put oil on our pumpkins and that seems to help a little bit but Davis has taken it upon himself to stand watch and scare any squirrels away. We just have to keep the pumpkins in the garage at night.

Conner got to carve his own pumpkin this year which was very exciting for him. We always have the kids draw what they want their pumpkins to look like and then Cory does all of the cutting. Conner convinced us he was ready to do everything this year.

Maggie and her pumpkin have matching smiles!

Kate drew a princess pumpkin of course, complete with hair, eyelashes, lips and earrings. That was fun for Cory to attempt carving this one! When he was done, Kate said it's her puppy pumpkin because the hair ended up looking like ears.

Maggie Got Glasses!

Maggie is so excited about her new glasses, she has been testing her vision with and without her glasses everywhere we go. The doctor said she really only needs them at school but for now she wears them all the time.

Pickle

Davis' favorite breakfast is cinnamon sugar toast which he has always referred to as a pickle. I don't know where he got that or how we figured out what he was talking about but we all started calling it a pickle. This morning he woke up and said, "Mom, can I have some toast?" Why does that make me so sad? I should be happy that my little boy is growing up and he's using the correct words for things but a part of me wants him to call toast a pickle forever!

Cosley Zoo

There's a cute little zoo in Wheaton that just has a few animals but the kids love it and it's free so we went to walk around and pick out some pumpkins. It's supposed to rain this weekend and I've been dying to get some pumpkins on my front porch so I thought we better go ahead and grab some.

Emily says she found the PERFECT pumpkin!

Conner was very proud of his 40 lb pumpkin, the cashier told us that was the biggest one she's seen so far which made Conner's day.

Davis was happy with a tiny one he could carry by himself.

They have a little area for the kids to play so we couldn't resist this photo op

Conner is always so helpful when I take the kids out by myself. He is showing Davis the deer. After Cosley Zoo, we went to Culver's for dinner.

Conner and Clare

Don't you love when babies fall asleep while you're holding them? Conner was thrilled he got Clare to sleep, of course it's even more fun to pretend being asleep too for the picture.

Just the Girls

Cory went to Kentucky for the weekend (UK football game) and brought Conner, Kate and Davis with him. I stayed home because it's kind of a long drive with a new baby for a one day visit and Emily and Maggie had soccer games Sat they didn't want to miss. So Friday night we went to Qdoba for dinner, rented movies and stayed up late. We had so much fun and the girls were so excited that it was "just the girls" although we were missing Kate. We even got to sleep in Saturday morning because Clare slept for 10 hours!!! I felt like a new woman getting a full night sleep! Saturday we cleaned the house, went to soccer, out to lunch, shopping and stayed up late watching movies again. What a fun weekend! We were excited for the rest of the family to come home Sunday but it was nice to spend time with three of my girls for a couple of days.

White Look-alike Meter

Cory is always teasing me about the kids all looking like him so I ran across this website and thought it might be kind of fun just to see what the results were. Sorry Cory... it's official.... they all look like me! :-)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Historical photos - Research family history

White Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

White Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Roots

White Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history software - Blank family tree

White Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

White Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Geneology

Where does time go?

As we were watching conference today, I looked down and noticed how much bigger Conner's foot is than mine, it's amazing how fast our kids grow up! I loved President Monson's talk about enjoying the moment and making memories today. It is so easy to get caught up in our busy schedules that we forget to enjoy the little things in life. Like our prophet said, before we know it our kids will be grown and out of the house and we will miss the toys all over the floor...we need to find joy in every moment.

Maggie Mommy Day

Maggie and I were able to spend some time together on Saturday. We went to her soccer game, the grocery store and then to get her hair cut. She has such a fun personality, she makes me laugh and always has a story to tell. The hairstylist had fun with Maggie's hair curling it and pinning it up. Of course Maggie wanted me to take it down as soon as we got home. She doesn't like her hair too poofy.

Tagged

I was tagged by Marci so I am supposed to post the fourth picture from the fourth folder in my pictures. This was Easter 2004 at the scrapbook store. Wow! Those were crazy days, I look back and wonder how on earth we survived running that store and keeping up with all our kids! There are things I miss about the store (trips Marci and I took together, the friends we made, teaching classes, and scrapbooking) but I do not miss the craziness of it all. The funny thing about these pictures is who is in the bunny suit...KATRINA!!! Was that in your job description? I tag Katrina, Lindsey, Krisann, Niki, and Brooke. Kate was about 9 months old.
After we took the pictures, Emily said, "Mom, the Easter Bunny's voice sounds like Katrina!" We couldn't pull one over on her. She was 5 years old.
I love this picture of Maggie, she was at that age when she did not like any character whether it was Santa, Chuck E Cheese, or the Easter Bunny! I finally convinced her to sit on the bench which she agreed to as long as the Easter Bunny did not touch her! She was 3.
Conner was 7, he was always such a trooper when it came to picture taking.

Happy Birthday Cassie!

Today is Cassie's birthday! She started babysitting for us years ago and became part of our family. We have had so many fun experiences and unfortunately I am really bad at taking pictures but I did find some old pictures of our vacation to Park City. Look how young Davis and Maggie are, was it really that long ago!? I have a picture of Cassie and I on the Bobsled but I can't find it, that was an adventure! We stayed in an amazing town house and had fun shopping, swimming, hot tubing, hiking, and lots of driving (we had to go see the dinosaur museum!)
Tara and Cassie Babysitting
Making Christmas cookies, no wonder the kids loved to have Cassie babysit!
Cassie came to visit us in Chicago shortly after we moved here. Sorry about the picture Cassie, I know you hated that coat! It was spring break and who would think it would be freezing so Cassie borrowed Cory's coat. We had fun hanging out on Navy Pier and we had the place to ourselves because it was so cold.
We have enjoyed hours of Guitar Hero and I think I may have even beat Cassie a couple of times (ok, maybe not, she's really good!) We have so many fun memories together shopping, pedicures, hair cuts, eating at yummy restaurants (I've had to force Cassie to try new things on a few occasions! :D), running the 4th of July race, working out at the gym and just hanging out, we miss you Cassie! Happy Birthday, we love you!

Clare at 7 weeks

Clare is starting to wake up a little more now although she usually doesn't stay awake for more than an hour at a time. She is sleeping more at night which is a relief. The kids are still crazy about her and beg to hold her all the time. She is starting to smile more and trying to coo a little bit. She is so much fun, I am loving every minute.