Halloween

If this doesn't help the Horns win tomorrow night, I don't know what will! (Sorry Ed and Carrie ... and Carlton too!).
Hook 'Em and Happy Halloween!

Hangin' out with Julia

It's been so fun to be able to spend some one-on-one time with Julia now that Sarah is in school. Here are a few pictures from this week.

(Oh, if I could only have that kind of happy attitude while cleaning the potty!)

"Dink muk!"

I admit it ... I let my child drink the milk from her cereal bowl! And it's part of our little morning ritual now. Since school has started, and I'm the only one getting us out the door in the mornings, cereal is the breakfast of choice at our house (my kids will actually turn down other yummy breakfast foods because they're so addicted to cereal!). For a couple of months now, Julia will eat most of the cereal from her bowl, then say, "dink muk?" and proceed to drink the milk from her bowl.

Some other amusing things she does/says right now:
- she refers to lips as "ips" and loves to put lipstick/chapstick on herself or me; she also notices anyone wearing lipstick and will point and say "ips!"
- in the last week or so she's started saying, "miss ya mommy" when I'm not around or when she knows I'm leaving.
- sometimes when we're outside on the swingset I'll sit on a swing and she'll push me; she stands in front of me and puts one hand on her hip and pushes me with the other hand ... every time!
- this girl is still obsessed with brushing and fixing my hair! I think beauty school might be in her future. :) It's actually pretty relaxing for me though and she always comes around to look at me from the front to check out her masterpiece and will say, "Pretty? Okay."

Daisy Sarah

Sarah has joined the first level of Girl Scouts, so she's officially a Daisy. There are about a dozen 5-6 year olds in her troop and they're so darn cute when they sit in a circle and say their little Daisy pledge. It's kind of like being in a club. And I'm pretty sure that most of Sarah's preconceived notions about what Girl Scouts would be like came from watching an episode of Max and Ruby (one of her and Julia's favorite shows) where Ruby is a "bunny scout." So far, she loves it!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to the Bracken United Methodist pumpkin patch today, and it was the perfect day to be outside! Bracken is a small community on the north side of San Antonio, but you feel like you're out in the country. I always love this time of year and a trip out to Bracken has become a "must" to help it truly feel like fall.

Of course it wasn't the same without Carlton, but the girls had fun looking at all the pumpkins, taking a hay ride, and enjoying some bribery candy for all their sweet smiles for the camera.

Unfortunately the trip ended with Julia throwing a temper tantrum because we didn't get one of the 3-4 wagons they had to haul pumpkins. Nevermind the fact that we didn't need it and would have had to wait a long time to use one. Luckily, a man sitting close-by with his baby boy saw what was going on and offered to help. At first I was embarrassed to accept help from a complete stranger when it was obvious I couldn't control my own child ... or carry the heavy pumpkin I'd just bought. But it didn't take me long to realize that that man's willingness to "help another parent in need" (as he said) was God's little gift to me. This man did just what Carlton would have done if he'd been there - he helped carry my load. He even tried to make Julia laugh by chasing her shadow, and I think the scowl on her face finally melted.

All in all the trip was a success; memorable to say the least!

Meeting baby Kensie

Last week my good friend Jenny and I headed north on I35 to visit another friend of ours (we all went to high school together) Monica, who just had a precious baby girl. It was so much fun meeting baby Kensie, and of course seeing the other kids together too. This baby girl was all smiles!

Splish Splash!

These sisters had so much fun at bath time last night!

Pajama Day!

Sarah had pajama day at school today and they could also bring a teddy-bear. She was very excited that she got to wear the same thing to bed and to school!

Julia-isms

This post will be most interesting to Carlton, but others of you will appreciate it too!
Julia's vocabulary has really blossomed over the past several weeks (maybe Sarah being in school has something to do with this????) and some of the things she says are so funny. It's much cuter in person, but I wanted to capture some of them in writing.

-- "Sawah do dat" (Sarah do that) or "Mommy do dat" (she usually says this when she's doing something herself that she's seen me or Sarah do
-- "Mo again" (More again) - means she wants me to do something again
-- "Tank ooo Sawah!" (her cute little way of saying thank you, which she frequently says; she also says "no tank ooo" a lot)
-- "Cool!" (no explanation needed, other than it sounds so funny for a 2 year old to observe things in life and respond, "cool")
-- "Deal?" - it's so funny how being around a 2 year old all day will reveal what words/phrases you use as a mom, and evidently I will present a plan/situation to Julia and then ask her, "deal?" so now she sometimes does it to me
-- "Good morning to you!" - Sometimes she sings this to the tune of "Happy Birthday", which I can only guess she's learned at school
-- "My car?" - when we walk through a parking lot now, she usually tries to guess which car is ours, and she usually narrows it down to all of the silver vehicles in the lot
-- "Hoooome! Daddy truck!" - this is what she says as soon as we're in view of our house, and Daddy's truck sitting out front