Virginia & Baltimore Visit

We headed East the week after Halloween for a much overdue visit to see our Family. Flying with 2 young girls was interesting ( I will leave it at that), but we had a great visit. We got to see Dave & Kathy's new place in the Baltimore Harbor area, and also were honored to watch our Godchildren Mikaela and Graeme get baptised, how special! Once again I didn't do a great job with pictures, but did get a few....

Hochberg Halloween

Despite Grace not feeling well, we did have a GREAT Halloween. The great weather and great neighborhood that we live it helped make it one to remember. Claire really enjoyed trick or treating, and we went to many more houses than previous years. Then we came home and had just as much fun handing out candy with Cali! I can't forget to mention that our Snow White wasn't the planned costume. She wanted to be Rapunzel, when we went to the store to buy the dress it had long sleeves made out of crunchy netting and she hates "itcy" dresses and freaked out. Snow White won because there was no sign of itchiness associated with it!

Grace's 1st Halloween

It was Grace's first Halloween and kind of a bummer for her. She had a pretty good cold, wasn't feeling well and was in bed by 6pm. She didn't even make it to the neighbors to say "hi" and go on a quick trick or treat run! Here is my little sweetie dressed as a Black Cat ready to head to daycare in the morning (still happy at this point).

Pumpkins

This year we carved and painted pumpkins in the garage. It was a bit cold out so Grace camped out in the stroller and watched the fun. Mike carved and Claire painted, and we had some masterpieces!

New Pose

Claire is caught looking like this multiple times a day. Watching TV, reading books, watching Grace or just being bored.

Claire and Ellen's Slumber Party

Em and Brett had a wedding here in Kansas City, so Ellen spent the evening and night with us. She was a great house guest and the girls had so much fun playing, getting ice cream, taking a bath, reading books and just being together. I had a moment in which I saw the future flash before me. I was giving them both a bath and they were "talking" to eachother, having a conversation about which toys they each had. At one point I chimed and and they both looked at me like "who are you and why are you talking to us". HA, I know in 10 years I will get that everyday and will hate it, but it was funny to me now!

Playtime

Here are some shots of my girls "just playing" this month. I love watching them play together. As I write this, I remind myself these pictures are before Grace was crawling and "getting" all of Claire's stuff, which has made it harder for them to play together. Funny how in a few short weeks life has changed so much.

Halloween Dance Party

Claire took another dance class this fall, and they went all out the week before Halloween. They had set up a maze, danced to Halloween songs and had treats! Here is our little Snow White with her teacher, Miss Mandy and all her dance friends.

Jake and Mere's Wedding

A month has come and gone since Jake and Meredith got married on Oct 22nd, lots of happened since then, but still want to capture my memories from that special day. The weekend couldn't have been better, including the gorgeous weather! Memorial Hall was a great location for both the wedding and the reception and lots of fun was had by all, espcially Claire. She is just in awe of weddings, white dresses, flowers and her Aunt Meredith. Grace didn't it make it 5 minutes into the wedding before she and her cousin Maggie were removed by their dads for being loud (but happy). Loud just doesn't work very well in the 2nd row of a small wedding! The wedding was especially special for me, my baby brother was as happy as I have seen him, and it was a celebration (and answered prayers) to watch my mom walk down that aisle healthy and looking stunning after what she has been through in the last year. The girls were picked up by a babysitter after dinner and Mike and I stayed to celebrate with the bride and groom. I managed to only take two pictures of my sweet Grace waiting for the wedding after family pictures

, but will add more when I get the CD's from Meredith onto my computer