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

Fall Pics

We had Claire's 3 year old pics taken and decided to get some of Grace too. Claire didn't necessarily enjoy herself, but we were bribing her with candy corn so we got some good shots! Here are a few of my favs, some because they are smiling, some because Claire's facial expressions make me laugh out loud! These were taken in Grandma's backyard again!

Grace at 9 Months

Here we are, another month has gone by and Miss Grace is another month closer to her first birthday. My happy happy girl continues to just love life and be a trooper through most things including a nasty cold and cough and an older sister who tells her "no" more than anything else. She scoots, crawls backwards and is starting to try to pull up. She loves playing with the Little People and school bus and doll house that Claire has moved on from. I quit nursing at the 9 month mark and am proud to have made it that long, but both Grace and Mom were ready to move on! We are headed to the doctor this week so I don't know her stats, but she continues to be a chunk and is growing like a weed. She loves the outdoors, likes to eat grass and leaves and is a master of reaching so far she is flat on her tummy and then manages to sit back up. This is proving to serve her well in reaching for all the things she knows she is not supposed to.

Johnson's Farm

For the 2nd year we headed to Johnson's farm to pick pumpkins and enjoy the festivities. We were missing Granddad this year, but had a great time. I particularly enjoyed it more not being so pregnant! We rode the hayride out to pick pumpkins, rode a barrel train, watched pig races and a pumpkin chomping dinosaur, enjoyed mini cinnamon roles, climbed the hay in the barn and had A LOT of fun!

Great Grandma's Piano

Great Grandma's house is pretty fun...pond with lillipads and fish, a huge garden to explore, pinball machine, pool table, pop a shot, but Claire's favorite thing of all is the piano. Becuase of the number of kids there are pretty strict rules about "no playing", but on rare occasions when there are only a few they are allowed to softly play. Here are Claire and Ellen enjoying one of those moments. I remember when my Grandma bought that piano, she wanted to learn to play as an adult, and she did!

Grandma's 85th

Grandma turned 85 last week, and in the words of Ellen we really "celebrated". Em and I enjoyed a kid free brunch with grandma and many cousins and aunts and uncles. Then the kids joined us for cake and icecream at Grandma's house. Grandma had a great day and how blessed we are to be able to celebrate her 85 years. I am so fortunate to be able to spend so many years as an adult with her. Here are pics of her with her 8 kids, many of her grandkids and all but 3 of her great-grandkids.

Looking up to her Big Sister

Grace loves Claire, if you want to see her light up just sit her next to Claire. She laughs, squeals, giggles and even waves at her from afar. Pretty quickly she is going to be running around after her. She is working on pulling up, I caught this moment and thought it was so sweet.

Antioch Park

I remember going to Antioch Park when I was a little girl. We fed the ducks, ran through the kid size main street of buildings and walked across the lake on the stepping stones. I have been wanting to take my girls there, but it is not necessarily convienent to where we live but I finally made it. Last weekend I was a NASCAR widow and the girls and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go for a picnic at Antioch Park. We had a great time. We fed the ducks, explored the kid size buildings and walked around the lake since the stroller wouldn't have made it across the stepping stones. We saw turtles and explored 2 playgrounds before having our picnic. Lots of fun!