Little sweetie

This weekend we put up our Christmas decorations, I know it is early but we will be gone for thanksgiving and I wanted it to be finished when we get home. Anyway, Molly loves the tree and all of the decorations and it has been fun to watch her reactions. Today she was being really quiet while I was cleaning up from lunch (which can sometimes be dangerous). After investigating and being sneaky with the camera I captured this.

We have some work to do...

Mike's Mom bought Molly the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set when they were in town visiting last week. She really loves playing with it and we have told her who each of the characters are. However, I think the general meaning of the story might not have fully sunken in yet because last night while she was playing she held the baby "Cheezus" (as she calls him) and walked him up to the manger and said "Get out of my barn!". Hmm...

This picture is totally unrelated to this story, but cute.

Fancy Party Saturday

Molly decided that she needed to get dressed up for a fancy party today and was disappointed that mommy couldn't wear one of the fancy princess dresses so we improvised. She and get friend had a lovely time at the party.

Trick or Treat

Tonight was Trick or Treat in Des Moines and our little fairy had a pretty great time. I'll let her tell you about it.

"Here's my happy face Mom, now how about some of this candy..."

"Say what, that candy isn't for me?"


"Okay, well if I'm gonna need to go gather my own candy let's get this show on the road. Enough pictures."

"I'm ready to conquer this street. Bring it on."

"WHAT!?! It's not time to go yet, that's a mean trick Mom and Dad."

"At the first sight of other kids out there I am so out of here!"

"Whew, that was a lot of work but wait until you see my loot."

"Told you, it's pretty sweet huh?"

"Mom says I can have one thing and after MUCH deliberation it's decided: M&M's!"

"Chocolate on my face, sugar in my blood, climbing on Dad and greeting all our trick or treaters. Life is good."

"Brr, it's getting cold out here. Let's snuggle under this blanket Mom."

Well, you heard it. She had a great time and we had fun watching. It only took her one house of some nerves to get into the groove of saying Trick or Treat and holding out her pumpkin. After that she strolled up and down the street with confidence. That is until the kid in a Shrek mask came to our house and she started yelling "No, no, go away!"

Big Girl Room

We worked all day today to get Molly's new big girl room ready. We have been talking about this move for months to prepare her to go from the "baby" room to the big girl room. She was so excited all day and helped to move her clothes and books and toys over. While Mike gave her a bath tonight I put the finishing decorative touches on and placed her big girl present in the bottom drawer of her dresser. We had been telling her all day that at some point today a new big girl toy would be in her room. She was so excited to find a box of princess dress up clothes and kept saying as she put the outfits on that babies don't wear dress up clothes. Bedtime was a breeze and so far she has been up there for about an hour without a peep. Fingers crossed that she stays that way all night. What a fun day, it was kind of sad to see my little baby in what looked like such a huge bed, but I am so proud of the big girl she is becoming. I still need a few more decorative pieces for the walls and the top of the dresser, but I am really happy with the way the room turned out.

All tucked in and ready for sleep!

Happy, happy guy

I'm trying to see if I can learn to post from my phone. We'll see if it works...

Pun-tin Patch

On Friday we took our second annual trip to Howell's Pumpkin Patch. I fell into the trap of having these super high expectations about the idyllic family day with wonderful family pictures based on our experiences last year so initially I was a little disappointed. What I didn't plan on was that we went at 4:30 so the sun was in our eyes, Molly is now a very enthusiastic two year old who is no longer interested in sitting among a field of pumpkins and would rather be running and doing all of the activities and finally an unfortunate incident with an (almost) six month pregnant lady and the giant slide (thank goodness there is no photographic proof of that one). But, in retrospect we really did have a good time. Molly thought it was heaven on earth with all the pun-tins, pony rides, swings and corn-bins. I got some good pictures to remember the day and most importantly it was an afternoon spent with my two favorite people.