Thanksgiving in Tulsa!

This year, we headed out to Tulsa for our annual family reunion with Erika's family and it marked Caroline's first experience on the plane and luckily, she was great - no aisle pacing was necessary! But best of all, it was wonderful to see everyone and we had a chance to meet the newest addition to the family; little Marin is the sweet little girl to Kristin and Dirac! The long weekend was spent with family combined with lots of good shopping, delicious meals, and good laughs!

On the plane with the girls..just about to take off!

All the cousins with their GIRLS!

Little Caroline with her mommmy

Cousin Cory with his niece Marin.

Ella is all smiles when she's with her cousin Anne-Perry.

The whole gang....as good as it's gonna get!

Thanksgiving Day...Ella does not look amused one bit!

Ella Goes to the Dentist!

We started prepping Ella for the trip to the dentist several weeks before her visit and even had her accompany Erika for her last visit, too. Given her resistance and apparent lack of enthusiasm, we decided to drop the whole dentist thing until we were one day away from her first teeth cleaning. Despite her obstinate attitude however, she was absolutely perfect during the entire visit. Of course the dentist and dental hygienist were absolutely wonderful and did a great job with Ella!

Looking a little glum and not at all excited about this dental visit...

Doing great!

Teeth are clean and look good!

Just a typical day...

After looking through some of the random pictures that were taken, they seemed worthy of a blog post as they sure do sum up some of the typical days Erika experience's at the house!

Having fun with a toy basket!

Look at me, Mommy!

Hmmm, turn around for a minute and she's into something! Apparently, something caught Caroline's eye on the console but a failed attempt to reach it left her stuck! Erika had ran upstairs to grab something only to come downstairs to find Caroline in quite an unhappy predicament!

Someone is sleepy! On the way home from a birthday party.

Halloween with the Black Halloween Cat and the Duck, take IV

Now that Ella is in school, there's been even more opportunities to celebrate Halloween and get into the spooky spirit! Her preschool, LANK, hosted an amazing Halloween party for all the families and not only were the decoration completely impressive, but the games, crafts, and activities were all to be applauded. Erika volunteered some time at the face painting/tatoo table and later in the party, Tim was in charge of hooking the fishing line with treats for the children who threw their line into the water (ie: behind a big painted wave board that Tim sat behind and hooked their line with candy and other treats). For the adults, it was nice to meet some of the parents and see Ella interact with some of her classmates.

On Halloween, the neighborhood organized a Costume Parade with three other adjoining neighborhoods for a combined get together of over 50 children, all dressed and ready to celebrate the candy day! Afterwards, we all met at the local playground for a post-parade party complete with candy (of course!), food, drinks, and pinetas. After an hour break to eat some dinner, the neighborhood was back out again for trick-or-treating. We were really proud of Ella this year; she was very assertive and not her typical shy self. In fact, she felt totally comfortable approaching the doors with us from the sidewalk and pronouncing "trick-or-treat" and "thank-you!" Caroline also did great, wearing the duck costume that we never would have thought would have gotten so much use! For it's fourth year in a row, the duck made it's appearance and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Caroline wore the hat teh entire time. Looking ever so adorable, she got her first tastes of Halloween candy and even though didn't quite make the entire neighborhood rounds, she found it quite rewarding to sit with Tim on our porch to hand out candy to the children!

Outside LANK at the Halloween party; our two girls

Helping Daddy hook the lines with goodies!

Little Miss Showoff!

Erika with her girls although one isn't so happy to be sitting still!

Could they look more alike?

Ah, so cute! Getting ready for the parade!

Taking a pose during the parade, Erika and Lee with all the kids!

C & E getting pulled in the wagon

E & C at the party; Caroline is thinking "give me back that candy!"

Tim the Clown with Caroline

Little sad duck, but so sweet looking!

Erika's parents came by the party for a visit!

With our cat and duck


Getting ready to go out and trick-or-treat; both are pretty excited!


Trick-or-treating!



Taking a candy pit-stop in between houses. Phew, trick-or-treating is alot of work!

The Fall Festivities Have Begun

We've had some great fall weather recently which has really made it enjoyable to enjoy so many of the fall activities that are offered in the area. We recently took our annual trip to Cox Farms with some friends and family to enjoy a day of spooky wagon rides, fast pumpkin slides, and varying animal exhibits. This is the third year we've gone and it's made for a nice yearly tradition!

Ella starting out in the hay tunnel/maze...

...and what big sister does, little sister (tries) does to. We didn't let her get too far since neither of us were small enough to fit in the tunnel to chase after her!

Going for the annual group photo shoot; unfortunately, at this age, it's a bit hard to get them all to sit still in one place!

Hmm, this was the best we could do. Pathetic yes, but we were lucky enough to get this one! Maybe next year!

Daddy with his girls.

The Brown Worm Saga

For weeks preluding Halloween, Ella was consistant with one thing: being a worm for Halloween. And not just ANY worm, but a BROWN worm. Not green. Not a worm/caterpillar-that-turns-into-a-butterfly (read between the lines: easy to make costume) or a whimsical type worm with lots of colors. Plain and simple, she wanted to be a brown worm. Well, fully wanting to support her daughter's persistant wishes, Erika googled ideas for brown worm Halloween costumes. Let's just put it this way: not much came up, except this:

Earth Worm
•Follow the directions in section 1 for creating a worm costume by wrapping brown cloth around your body, starting at your feet and ending at your chest or neck. Hold fabric in place by attaching safety pins to brown clothing that you wear underneath. Then, attach real or fake leaves and flowers, which can be found at a craft store, all over the cloth using safety pins, glue or tape. Get creative. For a finishing touch, rub brown or black paint on your arms, legs and face to resemble dirt---or use real dirt, if you prefer. Make your hair messy, and attach twigs and leaves to your hair with bobby pins.


Really? Does this really yield a child dressed as an earthworm and not some pile of dirt and twigs? After reading this, it was quickly ascertained that 1. there was no viable brown worm costume out there (real dirt?) and 2. Ella was not going to be a brown worm for Halloween. Forget the support of toddler indepedence and creativity!

So, a couple of weeks later, we were sitting around the dinner table with one and only one agenda: to convince Ella to be something (anything!) else other than a brown worm. We started off listing some basic ideas: Witch! Ghost! Princess! Dora! And no response. Finally, we got stuck on the Black Cat idea. And what sealed the deal? Not just ANY black cat, but a Black HALLOWEEN Cat!

Our Black HALLOWEEN Cat. This COULD have been Ella dressed in brown, hair tangled with leaves, and body smeared with fresh dirt. Phew.

We've Got a Walker!

Finally after all her teetering and cruising along couches and furniture, little Caroline took her first couple of unassisted steps. And boy, it sure didn't take her long to get the whole walk thing down pat. Within days, she had added extra steps and confidence to her strides and after one week, prefered to walk versus crawl. It's all very exciting but nonetheless a little emotional, too because with those steps, Caroline also enjoys a little more indepedence from her mommy!

One of her last crawling adventures caught on tape...
...using a push toy to still get around...
...but not anymore! Crawling was so yesterday!