The great pumpkins

The girls got their arms inside some pumpkins tonight and though they said, "Icky!" it was with big smiles on their faces. Here's a peek; we just went with VERY traditional faces this year. The girls helped me draw the faces and Papa carved the squash.

Hall-a-palooza

If it's orange, black, sweet or says "Boo!", you can find it hanging out with us, as we're deep into Halloween around here. I keep laughing at what the girls must be thinking. Though their English is definitely growing by leaps and bounds, it's hard to imagine that it makes much sense...but it sure is fun!

Yesterday found two incredibly fun packages on our front porch, one from my aunt and uncle (package three, by the way!) and one from their daughter, my cousin, and her family. We had a fun evening out with friends last night (at a restaurant where the food is delivered to your table via a train on a raised track; I thought Leah was going to explode with excitement) so I saved the packages for this morning. The packages had a fair share of Halloween items and something else horribly scary...Missouri Tiger items for the girls! There has NEVER been a Mizzou item here, but now we have two stuffed tigers and two blankets featuring the gold and black. Brian's love for the girls is extreme, as he hasn't made the tiger or blankets vanish, though he did tell Hope that Jayhawks like to eat Tigers. She laughed, but maybe it was because she was being tickled at the time.

Oh, and there were stickers. Lots and lots of stickers. The girls are.in.heaven.

Today I was able to go to Leah's pre-K fall party; she got to decorate a cookie with orange icing and add candy to the top. The girl likes her some candy corn!

Musical cards, light-up necklaces, stickers, candy...this is the life!

Leah's musical card...and Tootsie Pop. Yes, she's in her PJ's.

Hope spreading her Mizzou blanket; you'll notice the tiger behind her.

Leah, a tiger and a BIG sticker book. Of princesses!

Who needs paper? Stickers work GREAT on a leg.

Leah and her cookie at school.

On our way home, after being surprised by Mama at school, and with the promise of Grammy awaiting at home with Hope!

Decorating pumpkins at our church's fall festival on Sunday evening.

The cheerleader says, "Rah, rah, rah," and the witch, "Hah, hah, hah." But sometimes they switch. Hey, a witch can be perky, right?

Halloween stockings, kind of

Brian came home from a friend's house the other night with Halloween gift bags for the girls - which I used to do for their girls, so it especially warmed my heart. I hadn't had a chance to give them to the girls until this a.m. They are still in their PJs and plopped down on the kitchen floor (where I took them to hide away the chocolate in the bags, quickly so the dog wouldn't get to it!) where they had a great time looking at what was inside!

It made me laugh because in their PJs it looked like they were into Christmas stockings, with bats and spiders and pumpkins. And, the bags had little granola bars in them, which were perfect since I was out of bananas, which they usually get first thing!

Thanks, Bran, Paige, Jade and Dan! We love you!

Stickers. All is well with the world.

 I had to hold Leah's eye closed to help her see into the small kaleidescope and now she's doing it, too!

Finally

A Papa and his girls

When you're trying to build a family, the year carries with it lots of painful reminders of what you don't have.

Don't get me wrong, every day is generally marked with some twinge when you're trying - either through infertility treatments or through adoption. But certain days, certain holidays and certain seasons, for me, for us, were particularly tough.

Take fall. I adore fall. ADORE it. I love the changing dapple of sunlight, the trees, the crisp morning air that warms up during the day and then cools off again at night, the pumpkins and the apples. October is my all-time favorite month.

So each year Brian and I would make the trip to gather our pumpkins and gourds. While we always knew we were so, so, so lucky to be together, to have found each other, we couldn't help but be sad. These kinds of days, the extra-special ones, the pumpkin-patch days or the Christmas days or the Mother's and Father's Day, when you're struggling to build a family, are particularly painful and made me particularly melancholy.

But today? Today my love and I tramped through a pumpkin field with a little blonde girl wearing a shiny pumpkin on her shirt and a curly haired one determined to help Papa with the wheelbarrow. This time, this day, when I cried it was because of what we HAD, not what was missing.

Finally.

Hello, chickens

"Milking" a "cow" (i.e. water and wood)

On the tractor to the pumpkin field



Picking the right one...wheelbarrow, that is

A good place to put back on a shoe

I can do it. Wait. Mama!

Rock Chalk Girls

This post is for my girlfriend, Tiffany, especially, today, who while she bleeds purple for the KSU Wildcats loves us enough to send us KU Jayhawk-colored hairbows, which they will be sporting (at least occasionally) today in support of the crimson and the blue in the Sunflower State Showdown tonight.

Leah's nose has a boo-boo from a header she took off the swing last weekend. She was great; a few wimpers even as the blood was gushing! She's looked like Rudolph all week but it's getting there! Her head, nose and chin were scabbed up but the nose took the worst!

Halloween and Christmas, all in one day

We became parents in July and came home in August. Looking ahead, I knew that fall was coming. Fall includes Halloween, which includes costumes. But I wasn't concerned. Look how many little ghosts and goblins run around on Halloween (and at parties and events on the days and weeks before); each said ghost and goblin was obviously dressed by some parental unit or kind adult. Kid + costume = Halloween fun.

I started to see costumes and decorations weeks and weeks ago (you know how it is - you can't buy an actual bathing suit when it's hot because they already have jackets on the shelves; when you want to buy back to school clothes the holiday stuff is out already, etc.). Hope and I made a trip to a craft store and got more decorations (already at 40 and 50% off!) but I figured I could just pick up costumes whenever. I mean, really, they were everywhere. The girls don't know what Halloween is or anything, and until recently weren't really into "anything" specific.

But, last weekend we attended their first wedding and I called the bride in her dress a princess. Now they are obsessed with princesses, so I thought I'd just throw together princess costumes for them (which, actually, wasn't my idea. After a brief and public freak out on Facebook a girlfriend wisely said, "Princesses, girlfriend." And she has three boys at that). But, that was easier said than done. Everything was more expensive than I wanted with lesser quality than I wanted, and included one little dress and no accessories. I easily found accessories that would work but no dresses.

Oh, the Halloween horror. Seriously. You moms do this every year?

So,this new mom started stressing. I'm not on top of ANYTHING and now I was spending my time surfing the internet for the perfect princess costumes, running around to different stores with one or two kids in tow. I realize this is ludicrous, but this is me, often times despite my best efforts.

Thankfully, Halloween Costume Challenge 2010 was put to bed yesterday when my parents came to spend some time with the girls. While they played and Bri rotated tires and changed the oil in the vehicles, I ran to Costco and grabbed, from the practically empty costume shelves, a cheerleader and witch outfit. They had accessories - you know, pom poms for the cheerleader and a hat for the witch. So, we're all set. We are now talking up cheerleaders and witches whenever we see them. We had "Grease" on yesterday afternoon and every time Sandy came out in her wholesome 50's getup, we'd practically cheer along with her.

Needless to say, I thought Halloween was as far ahead as I was prepared to look on the calendar. Oh, how wrong I was.

Later in the day I discovered that the site I use to do photo cards and "stuff" had holiday cards for 50% off. Strangely, on the same day I finally got Halloween costumes I ordered our holiday cards. I'm not sure if this indicates progress in getting on top of things and planning well or more general confusion and just doing things willy nilly! I choose to hope it's progress but more than slightly doubt it was just the willy nilly winning out.

On a side note, go CHIEFS!

Fall

We're in my absolute favorite season and my absolute favorite month. I wish the 80s would go away completely and it could be in the 70s all the time, but we'll get there. We had a great weeked with Bri here the whole time - it started out with doughnuts and then we went to a family fall festival. The girls went to their first wedding Saturday night and then Sunday held church and an entire afternoon and evening in the yard enjoying fresh air, the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and smores.

This week finds us in our now routine routine. Leah has school every day and on Tuesdays she has a kiddo gymnastics class; Hope's is on Wednesdays. Thursdays we try to hit a storytime.

I also know I'm a new mom but I feel like I'm not on top of anything - bills, the house, the girls' needs, the groceries, etc., let alone figuring out the big picture stuff we need to figure out. Everything's technically getting done evenutally but really half-as*ed. Does the fact that I'm sitting here having a few potato chips and some onion dip for breakfast because there's no bread, eggs or milk in the house tell you anything? I'm not even going to tell you what I resorted to for the girls! The guilt is just too great! :) One morning surely can't hurt them, right?

Leah's first Krispy Kreme

And Hope's

I TOUCHED a PIG!

Hope's first dance. A kind wedding guest made her night! Later our wonderful friend Roger danced with her and continued to keep the grin on her face!