Trick or Treating

Gracie, our little princess, was timid about ringing doorbells and saying "Trick or Treat." I had her practice at our house before we headed out for the neighbor's houses. She only needed a little coaxing and then she had a lot of fun.

Gracie was a beautiful princess. We didn't have to spend a penny on costumes this year since we already owned all of the necessary items to be a princess. Ella's elephant costume was given to us by my cousin, so whoever says the average person spends $60.00 on costumes didn't poll us.

The princess enjoyed the warm weather, but her wicked not-step-mother made her wear warm leggings under her dress anyway. :-)

One of our neighbors down the street was decked out as a witch and sat outside to greet kids. She looked very authentic. I should have taken a couple shots since Gracie's eyes are closing. There's always next year!

No Fair!

Ella and Gracie usually take a bath together, but Ella has had a few "accidents" in the bathtub recently, so Gracie refuses to take a bath with her. (I honestly can't say that I blame her!) Ella stands on the outside and looks so confused about why she's not sharing a bath with Gracie.

"Um, Gracie...I promise I'll try not to go potty in the tub if you let me in!" That's my translation of all of the babbling that was going on in this picture.

Ella finally decided her pleading wasn't going to work, so she just sat down and watched Gracie playing with her mermaids...all alone!

Not For Ella

Gracie is a very good big sister, but recently has become a little "too helpful" when it comes to telling Ella what to do and not do. I just stood back and watched as Ella was trying to get into the DVDs under the TV. Gracie knows that when Ella gets into the DVDs we tell her, "No, No. Not for Ella." Today she decided to take matters into her own hands and...

she kind of tackled her and pulled her backwards. Ella wasn't too happy, but then she looked up and saw me and appeared to realize that she had been caught by a higher authority than Gracie, so she quickly abandoned her plan of raiding the DVDs.

Ella in Action

Ella is an on-the-go kind of gal these days. She doesn't sit still for very long. Our basement that Brent finished (with the exception of the trim) doesn't have any furniture yet, so for now I have made it a playroom. It is perfect for Ella to do some exploring. She climbed up into Gracie's Dora chair and posed for a cute picture. Mike and Angie, if Gracie had seen Ella in her Dora chair she would have claimed ownership in a hurry!

I was trying to get a shot of Ella crawling, but she decided to stop and smile instead!

Since she was so good at climbing into the chair, she decided to do it again and kick back and relax!

What a big girl, our Ella is getting to be. She's still the best little baby!

"All right, Mommy. I'll pose one more time but then I want to do some playing!"

Round 3

Today I took Gracie back to the dermatologist for her third appointment. She started with 4 warts on her fingers (I think, but I'm losing track). Her first treatment went well, but we had to go back for a second application of the medicine. Today was her third application of the medicine and she had two new minuscule warts. Ick! We were disappointed to find two new ones, but there was also success as the biggest warts were either gone all together or much smaller. Gracie is just as pleased as can be with her dermatology appointments. She loves the doctor, the rewards for being so brave (thank you Grandpa and Nana), and the suckers she gets from the receptionist at the clinic. She doesn't care that she has warts; in fact she calls them bumps. Her doctor said she can look at Gracie's skin and she that she is predisposed to viral infections, but she thinks that as Gracie ages and "gets tougher" she should outgrow this. We hope so! Her doctor also said there is research that proves you should yell at your warts and they will go away quicker, so we have been doing lots of yelling in our house!

The Confession

Yesterday, since Brent was home, he had a little extra time with the girls. He was sitting on the couch watching Gracie play, so I put Ella beside him on the couch so I could get a few things done. A couple minutes later I heard Ella crying and I went to see what was wrong. She was on the floor by the couch crying, and Gracie said, "Mommy, she fell off the couch." Well, Brent was nowhere in sight, so I went to find him. He was in the other room and heard what Gracie said, and he immediately protested, "I didn't leave Ella on the couch. I put her on the floor." I said, "Well I didn't think you would leave her on the couch, but it looked funny when I went in there and you weren't around and Ella was on the ground." I reentered the living room supposing that Ella had just gotten fussy and that was why she had started crying. However, when I looked up at Gracie she had tears in her eyes and said, "I put Ella on the couch, Mommy." Instantly I realized what had happened. I just explained that Ella could only be on the couch if someone was with her. Gracie felt so badly for hurting her sissy, so that was punishment enough this time. I know the day will come when Gracie doesn't willingly offer the truth, but it's really sweet to see her tell the truth, even when she knows it will get her in trouble.

The Library and Fun With Daddy

We go to the library at least once every two weeks, but usually it's a weekly trip. Today Brent had a day off from school, so he went to the library with us. It was kind of nice, because I usually have to chase Ella around the floor while Gracie wants to be read to. Challenging...yes. Impossible...no!

Ella enjoyed spending some time reading with her daddy. Yes, I know I shouldn't put her in blue. She was mistaken for a boy, despite the flowers on the outfit and the pink pacifier. The library also has movies, so we let Gracie get Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz. She was very excited since she had never seen either one. So far, The Wizard of Oz is her favorite. Mary Poppins is just a little too long for a 4 year old.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I'm not sure why, but the raft we take to the lake is just as much fun in the house as it is in water. Gracie spends a lot of time sitting in it and I pull Ella and Gracie around once in a while. It's a new game for Ella, so she makes some funny faces during her turn being pulled.

Ella likes to ride in style. She kicks back and relaxes before she takes her turn.

Whenever Gracie and Ella are in it together, Ella usually decides to bail out the side. I think she feels squished. It's not really a two-seater!

Two Peas in a Pod

I thought the girls looked quite a bit alike in this photo. I have no other reason for posting it, other than to see if anyone else agrees.

What is it about leaves?

Kalyn came over and spent some time while Aunt B took Brent's mom to the hospital/doctor for a foot issue. We had a good time playing outdoors since it was a nice day. However, the same two little girls who were happily playing on the swing set quickly abandoned it as soon as I constructed a pile of leaves to bag. As I mentioned previously...a pile of leaves is all you need to have an hour of fun!
P.S. - We hope your foot feels a little better today, Mama!

The First Raking

This beautiful Saturday I decided it was time to start raking the leaves that are already accumulating in our yard. The funny thing is, as soon as I got the rake out, all the kids next door decided they needed to come out and play in my piles! This is Gracie and Ty having a leaf fight.
Ella liked the feeling of the leaves in her hands. She even liked the feeling of the leaves in her mouth if I wasn't watching her closely!
McKenzie is our next door neighbor who can't keep her hands off Ella. She loves her to pieces and always wants to hold her. I think she probably gets tired of me saying, "Not today." This was her lucky day though, because I let her hold Ella while I picked up some piles of leaves.

Ella, Gracie, McKenzie and Lexie all had fun in the leaves. They mostly scattered the leaves, but it was hard to get onto them because they were having such a good time.

One of Life's Greatest Mysteries

This photo is pretty dark, but it is a shot of Ella getting into the DVD player and all of the DVD's surrounding it. Why is it that as soon as every baby learns to crawl, they all head for the TV components? I need to get a shot of the sweet little devilish grin Ella gives me every time I say, "Ella! No, no!"

Parents As Teachers Program

Tonight our Parents as Teachers coordinator had a group meeting to celebrate Fall. It was really fun, but I wish Brent could have come to help me with the girls activities. Actually it wasn't really geared towards babies, but Gracie had a good time. Ella enjoyed trying to eat the construction paper leaves they had scattered around the floor. Every time I turned around Ella had one in her mouth.
Here is Gracie with her turkey she made by spreading paint on her hand. Messy? Yes!
Gracie really loved decorating her tiny pumpkin with markers. She would have decorated 10 more if they would have let her!
We thought Ella needed a pumpkin too, so I made Ella one while Gracie made hers.
Meanwhile, Ella is still trying to figure out how she can eat these leaves without Mommy noticing!

Fall Fun

I can't believe how cute Ella looks in her elephant outfit my cousin found for her. It's a perfect fit for Ella the Elephant. I guess we know what Ella will be for Halloween this year!
Only my little elephant could look this sweet with her big toothy grin!
Gracie wanted in on some Fall photos as well. At 4 and 1/2 (that half is important to her) she is still a good poser.

Good Times at the Park

After church today we were trying to decide where to go eat lunch since we had a pretty large group. We finally settled on everyone going to any fast food place they wanted and meeting up at the park to eat our food. It was a beautiful day, and the kids loved being free to play. Vian spent some time swinging with Ella.
Gracie loves to swing these days. She used to be timid about going too high, but now she wants to go high and jump off the swing.
This is my friend Tara. She is a wonderfully kind person who is a lot of fun to be around. We stay in touch through our blogs and Facebook. We had a lot in common when we lived in Kahoka because we were both wives to football coaches, so we had compassion for each other. One widow can comfort another! :-) Gracie is watching me type this and she wants to know why I'm not mentioning her in this paragraph. (She didn't see her name listed. Isn't that funny?) I reminded her that she didn't want her picture taken that day, and she said I needed to share that with you all.

Kathy's Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we were able to get back to Keokuk and spend some time with friends. Brent went golfing on Saturday afternoon, so the girls and I went to Kathy's Pumpkin Patch near Donnellson, IA. We went with Joel and Vian and two of their grandsons, Gavin and Gunner. This was by far the nicest pumpkin patch I have ever been too. There were so many fun activities for kids, including these huge areas of corn you could scoop, lay in, jump in etc. Gracie and Gavin would have stayed here all day!
The pumpkins out front were huge! We saw a lot still out in the patch, but these were great for climbing on!
This picture is a little hard to see, but I wanted to show how large the area was that was filled with corn. This is all corn piled up and kids playing in the corn.
We took a nice horse driven wagon ride which the kids enjoyed. It took us all around the pumpkin patches.
Hard to believe there can still be so many pumpkins in the patch when there were a ton up at Kathy's store to buy.

Kathy's had several small buildings kids could play in. This one was set up to be a home, and you could pretend to cook and play house. This picture shows Gracie and Gavin (orange shirt) playing in the house.
This building was set up to be a store, and you could put food in your basket and take it to a register to pretend to buy it. Again, Gavin and Gracie got a kick out of "shopping."
This picture shows Gunner getting in on the action in the pretend store.
I just couldn't end this post without another picture of Gracie playing in the corn! It was sure fun to watch. Thanks for inviting us to go with you guys, Joel and V! Thanks also for taking pictures for me, Vian. I can't believe I couldn't find my camera. There were so many great photo opportunities, and there I was without my camera.

What does believe mean?

There is a commercial before one of Gracie's movies where little kids say, "I believe in ______." They each say something different they believe in. Well, one day this week Brent and Gracie were picking up Ella from the baby sitter's house and that movie was playing in the van. Gracie asked Brent what believe meant. He said, "It means that you think something is true even if sometimes you can't see it or prove it." He went on to say, "I believe in God and Jesus, and I believe Jesus died for my sins." Gracie replied with a generic, "Oh." Brent continued by saying, "I also believe you are a pretty sweet little girl." Gracie smiled and said, "Well, I believe that I love you."

Has it been 8 months already?

This is kind of a strange set of pictures to post for Ella's 8 month picture, but it kind of showcases how much she has changed recently. She is crawling, but usually not forward. She crawls backward most of the time, and this was one of those times. We have a bookcase laying on it's side and we use the sections kind of like cubbies for toys. Well, Ella crawled backwards until she was sitting in the cubby with the toys. She couldn't figure out how to get out for quite a while.

Sweet little Ella is such a joy. She has a much more laid back attitude than Gracie ever had at this age. I am thankful for that most days. She is a very curious baby who sometimes has a look of orneriness that makes me wonder if she will be giving me a run for my money in future years. Gracie continues to love her sister and still thinks she is the "cutest baby she has ever seen." We assure her that she was equally as cute as Ella and share funny stories of Gracie's baby days with her. Happy 8 month birthday, Ella!