Slumber party

With both kids waking last night, I gave up around 2 am and just let them come into my bed.  It's a king-sized bed and Jonathan is still out of town so you would have thought there would have been plenty of room for all three of us, but somehow they both seemed to have to be RIGHT on top of me.  One day I'll miss these days, I know!

Bouncing off some energy

In an effort to keep us busy this week while Daddy is away, I took Katelynn to her favorite place- Monkey Joe's!!  Today was extra special because it was Justin's first time getting to play on the bounce houses.  I figured since he is crawling and standing now that he would have fun, and the place was dead so that meant no crazy kids to plow into him.  He even bounced a little!  We had a great time and both kids even napped for me afterwards!

Here's Katelynn with "Monkey Joe".  She LOVES giving him hugs!

No laughing- I took Justin down the bounce slides for his first time, and I HAD to have a picture.  This was the best I could do.. here's our feet before we went down!  :)

And here's my little man at the bottom of the slide.  He may have been smiling before I got the camera up to his face, but I have no idea!

Already Climbing

Some of you may think we are crazy parents, but our kids are wild and crazy climbers. It makes total sense. Both Jonathan and I love extreme sports so why wouldn't our kids be daredevils too? Of course our house is still equipped with baby gates that we do and will still utilize, but we also think it's important to teach the kids how to properly climb the stairs, etc. So... Justin has got climbing up down! Here's a video of him climbing this weekend:


And just so you know he went all the way from the bottom to the top, here's the start of the video... I had to stop it because he started going backwards and falling, and so I stopped the video, but he ended up continuing to climb.

Gaining the Courage

A few months ago, our mall put in a bungee jump (I guess that's what it's called?) in the center of the mall.  The first time Katelynn saw it, she wanted to do it.  We paid for her to do it, and she went on into the fenced area, but as soon as they started trying to hook the belts around her, she started panicing.  Needless to say, we got our money back and gave up on the idea. 

Today we were at the mall wasting time, and Katelynn saw two girls on the bungee jump having a blast.  She immediately wanted to go on it.  I reminded her that they had to hook up belts to her to keep her safe, and she said she wanted to give it a try so I let her do it.  She had such a great time.  She really didn't even jump.  She just let the bungees bounce her, and she laughed and laughed.  Of course she wanted to get right back on it when her turn was up.  I have a feeling this is going to be another thing she begs to do at the mall now (as if the train and horses weren't enough!).

Pumpkin Babies!!

So, it's a tradition around here to put our kids inside a pumpkin for their first Halloween.  Justin is much bigger than Katelynn was for her first Halloween, but my husband always comes up with a plan and constructed this pumpkin with a big enough mouth to fit Justin's legs out of.

And this was why it took me so long to post these.  I had to dig up Katelynn's first pumpkin picture.  Her face was all broken out in baby acne here and she looks scared to death, but it's her pumpkin picture!  She was just two weeks old and held her head up so well for the picture... and now look at her three years later!

Pumpkin Fun!

Sadly, this was our last family day before Halloween day.  Jonathan is leaving tomorrow to travel for the week and won't be home until Halloween.  So, we made sure to get our pumpkin carving completed today.  We just did two big pumpkins and later in the week I'll let Katelynn decorate the smaller pumpkins with marker and different craft items.  Another one of the great perks of living in the south is that we were actually able to carve them outside (without jackets) and avoid the mess in the house. 

Katelynn really got into carving this year.  She tried really hard to carve the pumpkin herself.  She and Daddy drew an outline on her pumpkin to help her try to follow along with the carving.  She wasn't very happy with us when we jumped in to help her, but it was needed at times.

Justin helped too some.  He actually did understand to a certain degree how to pull the guts out with the scooper (picture at the top).  But.. carving wasn't quite his thing yet.  Instead he decided to try out the guts he pulled when no one was watching.

I'm not sure I'll get to posting it tonight, but we stuffed Justin in the other pumpkin that we don't show carved in any of these pictures!  I'll post that picture later or tomorrow! 

A Sneak Peek

Yes, today was the first day we dressed the kids up in their costumes... and they have another four times to wear them over the next week for different parties and events we are going to all before Halloween.  Whoever said you didn't get enough use out of Halloween costumes?  :)

Did I mention that Jonathan is NOT a fan of my choice of costumes for Justin.  Katelynn found this Minnie costume months ago and wanted it.  I couldn't have her be Minnie without Mickey!!  (And I love themed costumes so I had to do it.)  Justin is only a baby once- he'll forgive me and get to pick the "manly" costumes for himself soon enough!  Jonathan was pleased though that Justin wouldn't smile for any of these pictures.  He said it proved his point that Justin thought it was just as silly (okay, I'm being nice with the terminology versus what he really says it is...) as he does.

I dressed them up to attend an event at the Disney Store.  They were giving away "gifts" to those that were dressed in a Disney character costume.  The gift ended up just being a silly light pin, but Katelynn still had a blast.  They had a little parade and played some games.  This was Katelynn and her friend Jade on a scavangener hunt.

Of course Katelynn had to pose with Minnie at the store!  Justin is not in any mall pictures because he crashed and slept the entire time!

P.S.  Clearly, it's a good thing we started dressing up early this year.  I realized once we got to the Disney store that Mickey and Minnie don't have whiskers... oops!