Just a fun Sunday Dress

I love the Christmas season, the lights, the music, the dresses. Just some fun pictures before church today.

The girls posing together...

Tori, 4 going on 20!

Abby sweet as a button!

I just wish every Sunday morning went this well!

Abby losses her first tooth

Today was another big milestone in the passage to being a kid! Abby lost her first tooth tonight.

Dad took her to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and the dentist told her it was loose, so she has been working on it since. Tonight, the girls and I were all sitting watching a movie and folding socks when out it came! Dad was out of town, so we had to quick take a picture so he wouldn't miss it.

She was really excited to put it under her pillow and the tooth fairy brought her a "gold quarter" as she referred to it.

Victoria's Big birthday bash

The big day has finally come. Tori could hardly wait for all her friends to come to her party. I made the lovely cake below, because she wanted to have a barbie cake. I didn't think it was too bad for my first one!
Another shot, because, yes, I am so proud...

Here is the birthday girl with her cake

and of course her sister had to get in on the action too!

At her party I got these cute little cups from the Oriental Trading Company and made pictures they could color and slip inside. They had a great time decorating them and then they got to use them with the cake and ice cream!

A lovely picture by the birthday girl!

Marley, one of Tori's friends.

Next we did bobbing for apples, at Tori's request, Abby got us started, although she didn't get an apple she did get nice and wet.

Next was Kyle from Tori's class. He did great, he got an apple and like it so much he did it about 3 more times!

Brighton also got into the action...

and was rewarded with her own apple!

I was surprised, but this was one of the big hits of the day, most of the kids wanted to try and several even pulled an apple out of it.

Next were the gifts. Rapunzel has to be one of Tori's favorite things now, so she was more than excited to get a barbie!

She got lots of fun presents...

which included jewelery,

makeup,

and a lot of fun with friends.

Here she is with another friend, Addie.

She is sporting some of her goods...

Happy Birthday...

She had a great time and so did friends, who would have thought a 4 year old would want to bob for apples?

Happy birthday sweetie!

Halloween and the great costume event

The day has finally arrived for the kids to show off their costumes. I made the crazy decision to make their costumes this year. It took me 2 months and most of that was Abby's dress. I liked how Tori's turned out a little better, and I free lanced that one. Tori was a mermaid and Abby a butterfly.


One Wednesday of this week I put both of them in their costumes and headed out to drop Abby off. But when we got to school NO ONE had a custom on, so we quickly did a change in the car and off she went.


Tori had her party today at school and was happy to wear her costume all day.


Tori had her party first and then I met her to take her trick or treating at the building. Here she is with her sash over her head with her friend Addi.

A picture of Tori and Liza starting out trick or treating.

It took over 1 1/2 to get this far, the kids were ready to be done! They did great and listened so well. There were 19 kids in total and we didn't lose one :)

After this I took Tori back with me to work for a few minutes before heading home tonight.

Friday night we had our trick or treating at the church. This is the only time they stopped moving all night. Chris was going with them and at one point they ran by me as I was handing out candy and said, "that old man, can't even keep up with us." By the way, Abby does have black hair, nice, hu?
The kids had fun and all the work paid off, they loved their outfits! Did I mention that Abby had to have colored hair, hence the black hair below!

Our little girl is 4!!

It was Tori's birthday this week, and she is 4, she can't even beleive it! Since she has a love for the cheerleaders, I thought the perfect gift would be a cheerleading outfit. When she opened it, she wasn't sure what it was. However she wore it around the whole next day, so I think it was a hit! I just can't wait for her party next week, lots of crazyness here, there will be...

The opening of the present in true Tori style!






She did like it, and wore it for the next 2 days, I had to talk her into not wearing it to bed, she looks so cute in it!

Slash

This was the first year that we did pumpkin carving with the kids, well really Chris and Abby did it. Below is Slash, Abby's creation.


I think it looked good for her first one!


Can you guess why she called him slash?

A day with the cheerleaders!

We were at the Hockey game last week and we saw some cheerleaders, which have become Tori's new favorite thing. One of them came up to Tori and asked if she would like to come to a cheerleaders camp the next weekend, which was like a dread come true for her! So here she is with the cheerleaders for UNO. She got to spend all morning playing and learning some cheers then she got to do a half time program.

Here are all the girls that participated, she is the farthest on the left in a purple skirt and her hair in a high pony tail.





Prior to the start of the game all of the kids were hanging out on the tarmac.

Now she is looking a bit more tired, it was really hot for October here, about 80 this day!

Here she is practicing a move for the half time show.

Here is the half time show, she disappears for a bit in the middle, but comes back with flare. Her day was a blast and she loved every minute of it!

Sleep in a bed, what??

Oh to be able to find a place to sleep in so many places...



Your sisters bed, kind of...

Or maybe the stairs...

You would never guess that she has a nice bed waiting in her room, would you?

The story of the swallows

Chris was fascinated by the baby birds that hatched on our security light over the garage. He would go out and talk with them and took many pictures as they grew. I thought he would like to keep forever his birds and the story of their growth...

Week one after they are born:

Week 2, a little bigger...

Week 3...

Week 5, they have gotten much bigger!

Right before they flew away for the winter...

Iowa State Fair

How could we live so close to the "famous Iowa State Fair" and not go? So off we went for a fun filled day. It was just about 2 hours away so we didn't get a hotel room, much to Tori's dismay she kept asking in the afternoon if we could go to the hotel room for a nap, poor thing.
Here they are first thing, bright and bushy tailed...
Of course you can't go without feeding some deer...

Then we stopped for a pony ride. You gotta love the hat!

Abby, she is very good with balance on horses and doesn't need help these days. I could see her ridding as she got older.

After riding we were so hot we looked for the nearest indoor exhibit to cool down. So off we went into the hall with all the cakes. Here are some of my favorites:

The Farm

I loved the box cake and the wedding cake behind Tori.

How can you not love a purse that is also a cake?

The dinner plate and the ferret on the blanket...

Next we rode the sky ride. If you look really close you can see the terror in Chris' eyes, this was not his favorite and I don't know if I will ever get him on one of these again, just look at the grip on the handle bar!

We stopped and let the girls do this really cool jumping on trampolines. You have the trampoline, but them also have a harness that has a bunch of bungee cords attached that help you go really, really high! Abby went first.

She loved this thing...

Here is some video of her jumping, she got really high!



Next it was Tori's turn, she was much smaller so it was harder for her to jump as high.

Someday I will learn you can't turn the camera...maybe...

We saw lots of the animals we sat and watched sheep shearing for a while, it was very interesting, needless to say, these have all seen the sheers, just look at how many of them there are!

Tori was very fascinated by all the sheep.

I wish I had counted how many sheep they got in this truck. It was so full they couldn't even move, and it had a top and a bottom layer, wow!

This is for my Dad, since he goes hunting each year and no catches I thought he might like to see what an elk actually looks like (LOL).

This huge pig was so big he didn't even move while we were there and what do you think his name was....

You guessed it.

We had to take a picture of the Pamomino, Abby kept talking about how she decorates the Pamomino in her Disney game.

We were trying to occupy Abby until we got into the restroom because there was a huge line, not sure what she is doing, but she is happy and occupied, goal accomplished!

When Tori came out, she also got into the act. Lastly, we stopped to see Lamb Chop. That brings me back a few years. She was very good and the girls both liked it. Abby was all about the stage, Tori wouldn't even get close.

After this we were on the opposite side of the grounds, unfortunately, we did not bring the stroller, so we got to carry them both all the way back to the entrance and to the car. That was awful, and a long long walk, especially once Tori fell asleep on me! We stopped on the way out of town for some dinner and headed back home.

Over all it was a long, but very fun day for all of us. I think my favorite part was watching all the animals, and we saw hundreds of them and seeing how the girls enjoyed it. We will have to do this again, but maybe wait until 2012!