Halloween Festivities

We've been celebrating Halloween all month and I've been holding all of the pictures for one big Halloween post! We started with costume shopping and pictures towards the beginning of the month. Izabel had her two year pics and we also got a couple of her in her costume. I never posted Tanner's 6 month pics because they were all in his costume! He lit up as soon as we put his little dinosaur outfit on and it was so cute! Izabel wasn't feeling her Tinkerbell costume quite as much and she was not in the mood to take pictures but she's two so we take what we can get :)

We came home from Atlantic City a little earlier than usual last Sunday so that we could take the kids to Hallelujah Harvest at church. They do this event every year and it's always a lot of fun. They have trunk-r-treating, games, inflatables, great food, a costume contest and lots of other activities. We dressed both kids up and took them but Tanner slept pretty much the whole time. He was the cutest sleeping dinosaur ever! Izabel had a great time filling up her pumpkin but got pretty upset when we tried to dump it out for her. It got heavy very quickly! After doing tons of trunk-r-treating we headed inside for some jumping, chili and hot dogs! After a couple of toddler games we headed home to go through all the candy! We even let Izabel have a little before going to bed :)

Family pic before we left

Explaining how to trick-or-treat to Tanner

On a mission for candy!So happy...just minutes before he fell asleep!

Finding candy in the haystackWhat a face!

This week we had lots of Halloween plans. Friday we were going to take our trip to the Hunt Club for the petting zoo, pony ride, hay ride and pumpkin patch. Then yesterday morning we were going to the harvest fair at Farmer's Market and today we were supposed to go to Zoo Boo at the Norfolk Zoo. Unfortunately I did not recover as quickly from my surgery as we had hoped so we did not get to do any of those things. Friday and Saturday I had to stay home to save my energy for Saturday night and Sunday morning I had to stay home to recover from the game!! I guess it's a good thing the kids are still too young to really care! We did dress them up in the their ODU costumes for the big game! ODU played Georgetown and we won! That makes ODU 7-2 which is so exciting :) Izabel had a great time cheering and roaring and saying touchdown (which we got to say a bunch of times). Even though we didn't get to enjoy all of the fall festivities we had planned, we still had a great Halloween and we're excited to continue to celebrate the fall season!

Tanner's first Halloween

Izzy and Tanner (excuse the wet hair please!)

An ODU Family

"YAY!!!"

Touchdown

Well Checks

Tanner and Izzy both had their well checks yesterday with Dr. Scott. Tanner is 18.8 lbs (75th percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). Izzy is 25 lbs (25th percentile) and 34 inches (50th percentile). They both did amazingly well and they are both developing perfectly and very healthy! We talked about getting an assessment with a speech therapist for Izzy but Dr. Scott doesn't think there are any problems and she has added a few more words lately. We'll see how she is doing around the first of the year. We also talked about moving Izabel into a big girl bed and all agreed that the time is quickly approaching! That is giving me a little bit of anxiety but I'm sure she'll adjust fine. Before we left they both got shots. Izabel just had one vaccine and her flu shot and Tanner had a total of 6 vaccines and a flu shot. They will go back next week for the H1N1 shot as well. Izzy got hers first and she cried a lot. Just when she started calming down Tanner got his shots and she started crying "Tay Tay, Tay Tay" over and over. It was so sad watching her cry for him but really cute at the same time!

In other big news...Tanner started crawling Monday night! That's right, he gets up on his knees and everything. Our little man is growing up and soon he'll be chasing Izzy around the house! He'll be moving on to stage two foods in a couple days when the stage ones are all gone and he has been working with the sippy cup. He's sleeping almost as long as Izzy at night which is amazing and falling asleep on his own with little to no crying. He's the happiest little boy anyone could ask for! We are truly blessed with two beautiful and healthy children and we thank God for that everyday!!!

A Weekend Getaway!

So I haven't been feeling well due to present circumstances and I haven't been sleeping well due to not feeling well so a weekend away was all that kept me going last week! I always hate to leave the kids but I know that having some time away is so good for me and for them.

I took Friday off and we headed up to Atlantic City. We took Andy since he is now 21 and Humaira and Rebecca met us up there. I drove the whole way which is not fun but for me it's better than riding. We stopped twice and hit just a little traffic so we made it up there in about 5 1/2 hours. When we got there we checked in at Harrah's and then headed over to Bally's for Noah to swipe his rewards card. They were giving extra comps so we both wanted to make sure to sign in! Then we sat down and taught Andy how to play three card poker. I hit a three of a kind which pays 30 to 1. I was so excited and walked away up $400! Then we headed back to Harrah's to eat dinner and meet up with Humaira and Rebecca. We took them up to the room and then I headed down with them to play and go to the bar while the boys headed to the poker room. We stayed up nice and late drinking and enjoying each other's company. It's always great when we can get together :)

My view looking back from the driver's seat

Humaira and Rebecca playing checkers at the bar
(Yes I said at the bar!)

Humaira and Rebecca

Saturday we slept in and then headed to the outlets for some shopping! I got tons of clothes for the kids (mainly Tanner) so they can stop wearing shorts in the cold weather :) I also got myself two new pairs of jeans (in a size smaller than normal) and a few tops and Noah got a few things as well. Our shopping got cut short by rain but that was probably a good thing. We hung out in the room for a while and then headed down for Ben & Jerry's and a little more gambling. At this point Noah and I had spent my winnings but I was still up a little bit. Humaira did very well Friday night and was now addicted to the game so she kept pulling us to the table. I sat with Noah at blackjack for a while hoping he could recoup some of his losses. He did for a little while but then lost them again. Just be prepared for me to say that we did not come home with any money! We got dressed up and went to dinner at Morton's at Caesar's. It took a very long time and we ended up getting all of our drinks and desserts for free but we had an amazing dinner. I had steak and lobster and it was fantastic. Then we played until we were all exhausted and out of money before heading to bed.

All of us at dinner

Sunday we got up and headed out around 11:30. We stopped all together and had lunch and then hit the road to get home in time for Hallelujah Harvest at church with Izzy and Tanner! We made it home by 5 which was again great time. I think we all had a great weekend and we enjoyed each other's company. We can't wait to do it again!!!

Now I am trying to get everything ready for me to be out of work for most of the week. I have to leave early Tuesday and then I am having a minor surgery Wednesday morning so I will be at home recovering the rest of the week. Hopefully it will help and I will be feeling back to normal by Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week :)

More Birthday Pictures

Like I mentioned before, my camera decided not to work during Izabel's party so we didn't get very many pictures. Of course it worked fine after the party was over, but luckily Candace had her camera and was able to get some pictures for me so enjoy!

Her strawberry mousse birthday cake

Watching everyone sing "Happy Birthday"After blowing out the candles (with some help!)

and finally getting to eat!

Swinging with DrewHer dress made it hard to slide :(She had SO much fun!

Scroll Down!

I just finished a post about our weekend with Mimi, but since I started it before the last post it is still down there so scroll down a little to see it!

A Rare Sight!

The other night I left my cell phone in Izzy's room so I had to go in and get it after she was asleep. We always close her door when we put her down and she usually wakes up when we open it so we never get to see her sleeping. I figured I would wake her up when I went in there but she stayed asleep so I took the opportunity to get a couple pictures!

So sweet!

She has to sleep with all four babies every night :)

Weekend with Mimi

Thursday morning Mimi (Noah's Mom), Aunt Deb and Cindy came to visit. They came over Thursday when we all got home from work and we had a great dinner and hung out. Friday I went to work but everyone else went down to the beach and walked around. Izzy got to play in the sand and on the playground.

Friday night my Mom watched the kids so the grown-ups could go out to dinner and then to Hunt Club. Our first date was to Hunt Club so we go every year and we had a great time this year as well. The haunted hay ride wasn't all that great but we had so much fun walking behind everyone in the corn maze watching them run in circles! It was nice to go out without the kids and have a great time!

Cindy, Noah and Me at dinner

Noah, Me and Mimi on the hayride

Saturday we planned on going to the Children's festival downtown but we were worried it would rain on us. Sure enough it started raining as soon as we were heading out to the car so we ended up just hanging out at home for the day. Everyone came over for dinner and then me and Noah, Andy, Mimi and my Dad headed to the ODU game. The rain held out and we had a great time. ODU won 34-16! Go Monarchs! We came home and said goodbye to everyone. Mimi, Aunt Deb and Cindy were heading back to Vermont this morning and Gigi was heading back to Florida! We had a great time with them and we can't wait to see them again :)

They found a turtle in the backyard pond

Helping Mimi cook dinner!

Today the kids slept until almost 9:00am for me! We did some things around the house and then went out to run errands and have pictures taken. Grandma and Grandaddy went to help me. We got a couple great shots and finally got Izabel's halloween costume which she'll need for a costume party next weekend :)

We hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week!