Where did November go?

Tomorrow is December 1st. The movers come December 11th and we close and start our drive to Texas December 12th! November seemed to have come and gone incredibly fast. I found these pictures on my phone of some of our November adventures. Although Emalyn can still be found wearing a swimsuit or leotard most days, she is starting to wear pjs now and then. She was so proud to put these new Dora pjs on that she got from Omie for her birthday. She ran around the house saying "1,2,3 Boo!" as she showed Maddi, Cade and Daddy that she was wearing her Dora pjs. Of course we were all shocked to see her going to bed in real pjs. She looked so stinking cute. Love a little kid in their pjs.

Well, it turned out when it was time for bed, she wanted to take the pjs off and wear a leotard :( It's getting pretty dang cold here, especially at night. How she sleeps in only a leotard, I'll never know.

Our realtor gives free tickets to the Bulls or Cubs games when you use her. Cade has always wanted to go to a Bulls game, so it was a great that we got tickets. The kids enjoyed making some signs before the game.

Cade even made a sign. He's not really into artistic things but he came up with a clever saying "Deng, the Bulls are good." (they have a player with last name Deng) and something else that I don't remember.

We all really enjoyed the game and even stayed until the very end. They were playing the Celtics which is Brett and Cade's 3rd favorite team (Mavs are first fav, then Bulls). Celtics won so they were somewhat happy. Emma loved to watch the dancing girls "the Luvabulls", Maddi loved the game and the Luvabulls, and Cade loved the game. It was a nice way to have some family time. It's so expensive by the time we parked two cars and got everyone some food but at least we didn't have to pay for tickets too. How do people even afford to do stuff like that very often? It's just ridiculous to me to charge $4.00 for a bottle of water. I can buy a whole thing at Costco for $3.65. I'm too cheap, I guess.

Emma had a Thanksgiving feast at school and I went as her guest. We sat with her friend, Sam, and her Daddy. It was fun to see Em with her favorite little friend from school. They will miss each other when we move. We had our own feast with just our family on Thanksgiving. Brett had to work until noon (it was his last day) and I taught a step class in the morning. I made a turkey breast in the crock pot and it was really good! We ate lunch at 12:30 after Brett got home from work and it was wonderful. We have so much to be thankful for. Brett spent the day packing because he left for Texas the next morning. We went to our friends that evening for dessert and drinks. It was a great day and I'm thankful for our last time together as a family before Brett returns.

I don't even remember if I mentioned that Brett had his gall bladder removed. He went to the ER on a Monday morning with severe chest pain and found his heart is picture perfect (thankfully) but he had gall stones. 4 days later, on Friday, he had his gall bladder removed. He ended up having a hernia as well, so they fixed that too. His recovery was a little longer than expected, but he is now fully recovered. He wasn't able to lift over 10 pounds until the day before he was released to full activity the day before Thanksgiving. Brett will have a lot of packing (garage, trampoline, etc) when he gets back to help us move! His drive to Texas went well. We were especially nervous about him driving since my friend Katy Nevil was killed and her daughter, Lauren, is in critical condition, from a car accident on their way to Texas from Tennessee.

I tried to get some pictures of the kids in boxes for our Christmas/moving card. The littlest one wasn't so cooperative.

We have been busy trying to get together with friends before we move. We met Maddi's friend, Jarid, at a bounce house place and had a great time. Maddi and Jarid are in a calendar made by the group "Celebrating Differences". They gave us two copies of the calendar when we got together with them. Jarid has cerebal palsy and can't use his muscles very well, which means he can't really talk. He signs. I forget that he is just like other kids and has the same feelings. He was so sad that it was his last time to see Maddi and was pouting at times. I am honored that Maddi is my child and has such a huge heart and makes a difference in so many lives that she meets. She's a special girl for sure.

Em has become very interested in helping me cook. She woke up wanting to make snowflake cookies. Not sure where that came from, but since I'd already packed the cookie cutters, she made chocolate dipped pretzels dipped in sprinkles. The smile says it all, she was a happy girl!

My "Baby" Turns Three!!!

Not only was Tuesday Election Day (boo Obama won again!), it was also a very special little girls Birthday! It worked out great that the kids were out of school, the schools were polling places, so we celebrated Miss Emma all day. After everyone was awake, we gave Emma her presents.

That morning when she woke up, I brought her in bed with me and I told her "Happy Birthday Emalyn. You're three now." She said "Right now? I'm three right now?" It was so cute. She was so excited all day.

It really seems like yesterday that I found out I was pregnant with little Miss. What a fun three years it has been with Emalyn in our world. She brings our family so many laughs. I never knew our family wasn't complete without her, and now I can't imagine our family without her. It feels like we were meant to be a family of 5 all along.

Sissy read Emma her birthday cards.

I love their faces here. Pure joy! Maddi put a mirror on Emma's card and this was the look of delight on their faces looking at themselves. Maddi and Emma have a very special bond and I hope they have it forever. I always wanted a sister and it makes my heart happy to see them so close as sisters. Cade is awesome with Emma too and Emma adores Cade, but it's just different.

Oh, look at that nail polish! Emma loves to have her nails painted. She'd have me paint them every day if she could.

A diary with the letter E on it and a sparkly pen! Em loves to write and color and do stamps and stickers. She has been using the book for all of her artistic creations.

More presents...from Omie!

Pjs! Emalyn is still a weirdo and wears leotards and swimsuits to sleep. She has put on pjs a few times too, so Omie got her some Dora and cupcake pjs. Em was so excited to put the Dora pjs on that night but a few minutes after I put her to bed, she was calling me in to come change her into a leotard. Maybe one day...

Poor Em is the third child and can be a bit neglected at times. I had great plans of having a birthday party for her but things are a little hectic in our lives right now with moving to Texas and Brett having his gall bladder removed. We ended up not having a party for the birthday girl and I figured she wouldn't know the difference. I was wrong! That morning when she saw me go up to get dressed, she told Cade "I need to go up with Mommy and get dressed for my birthday party." Apparently she wanted her preschool friends to come over to her house and eat cupcakes with her. I reminded her she had taken cupcakes to school the day before to celebrate her birthday. We went to Buona Beef for lunch (her favorite, she gets pizza and fruit and eats like a little piggy) and then took Emma to the store to pick out cupcakes. She chose these yellow Dora cupcakes. After her nap, we had a "party" for Emma with her cupcakes.

The birhday girl is all smiles. Notice she slept in her swimsuit and now looks like a crazy girl with her bed head she refused to let me brush.

Making a wish...

...good thing Bubba and Sissy were there to blow out the candles for her. She refused to blow out the candles. What a stubborn goofball! I hope all your wishes come true Emalyn Faith! I hope three is a really fun year for you.

A few things about Emaly at 3: *Her favorite foods are: bbq chips, ham, chicken, corn dogs, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pizza, fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, blueberries, canteloupe, honeydew), ketchup, green beans dipped in ketchup, pretzels, cereal, and cinnamon sticks.
*Some days she is so independent and wants to do EVERYTHING herself and other days, she acts like a baby and wants everything done for her.
*She is stubborn as can be. Let's just say the apple didn't fall far from the tree here ;)
*Emma loves a schedule and likes to know what we are doing each day. She goes to preschool M, W, and F from 9:15-11:45 and LOVES it. She takes ballet on Tuesdays and loves that as well. She gets drug around from place to place to watch Bubba and Sissy and for the most part she just goes with it.
*She weighs about 35 pounds and I'm not sure of her height. She's tall, I know that. She is wearing size 3 but mostly size 4 clothes. Size 9 shoe.
*Favorite things to do are: paint; color, cut and glue; play games on ipad/iphone; watch Dora on tv; play baby dolls; read books; and jump on the trampoline.

Princess, Super fan and Miss Texas

Happy Halloween! This Halloween was super fun and busy. It started with a party at Emalyn's preschool. I snapped this of her as she was leaving circle time, putting away her spot she sits on. It was so cute to see her at school.

Look at the pretty little princess. She wore her crown at home for awhile but then it hurt her head so she wouldn't wear it the rest of the day. Oh well.

Emalyn's class. Her best friend, Sam, is the blond in the back row with the blue dress on not smiling. She is super quiet, like Emalyn. Her teachers tell me that they get along so well. It makes me sad that she will move away from her friends, but I know she will make new ones :)

Emma's teachers with the class. Emma thought it was so funny that her teachers were wearing costumes too.

They decorated cookies, played the pumpkin buckets I brought and went trick or treating.

Little kids are so cute at their little table. Emma always tells me they have orange juice with their snack and she really likes it. It turns out it's apple juice. lol

Emma was very clingy to me during games, craft and snack but when they went trick or treating in the hall, she was off!

Checking out her goods.

Class picture after trick or treating. They played freeze dance after trick or treating, but Emma just wanted to go home...so we did. She took a nap right away and I had to wake her up an hour later to go to child care at Rush Copley so I could go to Cade's party.

I made it in time to see the parade. I can't believe it's Cade's last year in Elementary School! Cade was a Dallas Cowboy "super fan". He looked a little creepy to me.

I took the pumpkin bozo buckets to Cade's party too. The kids seemed like they had a fun party.

Trick or Treat times are announced by the village and it was 3:30-8:00 this year. The kids get out at 3:00 and 3:20, so they basically came home and went trick or treating. Emma was not cooperating for a family picture. Thanks Emma. Ugh!

Cade with some of his friends before they went out on their own to trick or treat.

Another attempt at getting Emma to be part of the pictures. Fail.

Maddi with Maddie and Jane before they took off trick or treating by themselves.

The princess with the big girls.

Little princess got left behind to hang out with her mommy and daddy while the big kids took off.

It was very cold, so not the greatest pictures of the princess. She was very excited to go get candy!

She wasn't even scared of all the scary things she saw that night.

She liked the candy but she REALLY liked handing out the candy when people came to our house.

We took a break from trick or treating to eat some dinner. She was sorting out her candy and found pixie sticks. Brett showed her what they were and convinced her to try it.

A little lick and...

...yucky face! The only candy Emma wanted to keep was her skittles, some m&ms, starbursts and lollipops. Everything else she wanted to give away. That works for me!

It was a fun Halloween and I think everyone went to bed worn out and with tummies full of candy!