Christmas 2010

The traditional in our pajamas and in front of the tree Mazingo family Christmas picture.

We had a great Christmas around the Mazingo house. Grammy and Pop Pop stayed the night with us so they didn't have to make the drive down to our house early for Christmas presents. We told Cloey she could get up at 7am for presents because that is the time that we told Nana and Paw Paw to get to the house. She was up and ready to go. Nana and Paw Paw hadn't quite gotten to the house yet, so we took some time to take some Christmas morning pictures. Lets just say she wasn't exactly thrilled to take pictures and wait to open presents. Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Hillary came down to watch the girls open presents as well.
Both girls made out with more presents than they needed between all the relatives and Santa himself. The highlight for Cloey was the DSi that she got from Daddy and I. She has been wanting one and with the amount of time she spends in the car going back and forth it seemed like a nice present from us. She also ended up with some movies, Barbies,and craft supplies to name a few of the things. Emma was excited for the......paper. She would rip a strip of paper off and put it in her mouth. She didn't seem overly excited about the presents Christmas morning, but has since had fun with her play tables, peek a boo people, and refrigerator just to name a few of the items.
All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. While we celebrated Christmas it is always our goal to reminded Cloey and Emma (as she gets older) that Jesus is the reason for the season. We find it exciting and fun to celebrate Christmas and all the hustle and bustle, but find the real story of Christmas to be a very important aspect of the holiday season.
We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas like we had and that each and every one of you have a very BLESSED New Year!!! We know we end 2010 with a lot to be thankful for and look forward to what 2011 will bring us.
Cloey opening her presents.

Emma liked to chew on her sorting blocks more than play with them.

Present time - here you can see that Emma was very excited to get new Puffs for Christmas. Like we have said before the kid would go crazy if she didn't get her daily fix of Puffs in.

Playing with The Chipmunks that came from Gran Gran's house. It was a sad Christmas without her this year.

This was Emma's expression when we woke up and saw all of the presents Christmas morning.

Christmas Break 2010

Cloey arrived on Friday Dec 17th for her Christmas Break and left on Saturday Dec 25th. We had a busy and fun filled week with her.
Friday - Once Cloey arrived we headed to bed because we had a busy day ahead of us on Saturday. Thankfully I had a snow day today and was able to get a lot of stuff done.
Saturday - Up and at it early for the Mazingo clan. We had an appointment for surprise pictures for the grandparents. The picture place was backed up which led to 2 cranky girls and stressed out parents. In the end the pictures turned out AMAZING! We bought more than we had intended, but couldn't pass some of them up because they were so precious. Had lunch at Panera and then ran around to pick up a few last minute gifts. Once we got home it was our "Christmas Eve" so that Cloey could have some time to play with her gifts instead of opening them and then leaving shortly after. Both sets of grandparents came down and we had a yummy lasagna dinner. As a special treat the girls got to open some gifts early. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Kurt's gifts were under the tree and waiting to be opened.
Emma with the box her gift came in - she was pretty impressed with the box.

Cloey with her new Zhu Zhu pet Airport. Emma decided to attack the plane numerous times and it was quite funny.

Cloey and I worked on a gingerbread house and boy was it a mess. While it was messy and stressful at some points it was a lot of fun to have some one on one time with Cloey to build the house.
Our Gingerbread House

Jason and I gathered the girls up and read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then headed to bed.
Goodies for Santa and the reindeer

-Sunday - Our "Christmas Day" will have its own post tomorrow with LOTS of pictures.
- Monday - Daddy hung out with the girls while I worked. Once I got home we headed to Grammy and Pop Pop's house because Adam and Angela had arrived. We had dinner and hung out before heading back home for the night.
-Tuesday - After I got home from work with exchanged presents with my parents, Adam and Angela. The girls made out very well, as well as Jason and I. After presents we headed to the hotel in our area for Cloey to swim and stay the night. We were suppose to go to the indoor waterpark, but that has been moved to January. We had a lot of fun swimming, hanging out, playing games, pizza and making 'Smores with my new microwaveable 'Smores maker.
The girls with Peppy aka Uncle Adam

Cloey and Angela having fun in the pool.

Emma's 1st Swim. She seemed to enjoy herself and stayed in for quite awhile.

- Wednesday - We got up and came back to the house so Cloey could play Wii with Peppy. After a little Wii time we headed to lunch. Adam and Angela left from Macado's and the rest of us headed Mom and Dad's way to see Santa. Emma was not fond of Santa, but we still bought the pictures because it was a memory. After Santa we headed to the Christmas light show. Then it was back for a quick dinner and we headed home.
- Thursday - Mom and Dad came down and we hung out at home. We had lots of fun making smoothies and playing Uno Attack and Go Fish.
- Friday - We spent the day at Jason's parents for a Christmas Eve lunch. After spending the day with them we headed to the candle light service at church.
- Saturday - Grammy and Pop Pop came down for a big breakfast. We hung out and played for a bit. Then it was time for Jason to drop Cloey off.
So as you can see it was a very busy, but fun filled weekend. Stay tuned tomorrow for the Christmas post.

Snow Day

Well we finally got a snow day so I have been enjoying being home with Jason and Emma. Yesterday Emma became such a grown up baby. She has been crawling the last couple weeks but it would be one little crawl and the rest would be an Army low crawl. Last night she was on the moving, but this also meant she was in everything. The dvds were strewn about from the tv stand, she was pulling herself up on the tv stand, and the ornaments on the tree became a goal of hers. It made me cry to see her crawling first she is growing up way too fast and second we have been told that she would take a lot longer to hit milestones along the way with everything she has been through. Last night Jason and I learned we have a very determined little girl who will prove everyone wrong.
Here is a video clip of her crawling this morning.

8 years old

This past week Emma turned 8 months old, and Cloey had a big milestone as well. We now have an 8 year old on our hands. It is so hard to believe that she is 8 years old. For some reason 8 sounds so grown up to us. A lot of things have changed in this last year. Cloey now reads chapter books - on her own, has that independence in picking out her outfits and getting herself ready, takes on responsibilities. While we have seen lots of growth she continues to be our beautiful, loving, creative, amazing, precious, thoughtful, writer, reader, and there are so many more words to describe her. She loves her little sister and cares so much for her. There is a special bond they have as Cloey is the only person who can always get a smile out of Emma when she walks into a room. They are almost 8 years apart but love each other dearly. I hope that Emma gains a lot of the wonderful qualities that Cloey has to offer. We know she will do big things one day may it be one of her many dreams that range from a writer, to a dog rescue owner, to a singer, to a hairstylist. What every she becomes she will always be our very special Birdie who makes us proud each day.

Another Weekend Bites the Dust

Well it was yet again another busy weekend with the Mazingo family. Here is how we spent our weekend.
*Friday - Jason headed to NC to pick Cloey up for the weekend. I had my work Christmas party so Mom came down and kept Emma until Jason got home. By the time Jason got home it was time to lay the girls down for the evening and I got home about an hour later.
*Saturday - We got up and around and headed to Roanoke. Our first stop was for Cloey to get her 8 year pictures taken. We were in and out and I only spent $10. There were pleanty that I wanted to buy, but we went in knowing we were only going to get the $10 package. Our next stop was to head into the mall for a few things. Oh boy was that a crazy place. There were lots of people hustling and bustling buying gifts. We wanted to get the girls picture with Santa but Cloey quickly vetoed that we are going to try again in a couple of weeks. After leaving the mall it was a quick trip into Target. At this point it was snowing and that makes everybody around here panic and go crazy. We ran to Red Robin to celebrate Cloey's birthday dinner and then headed home. It took awhile to get home, but in time we made it. Once we got home we pulled out all the Christmas tubs and decorated the tree. I will have to take a picture of the tree and post it this week. After that was done and the day we had there were two tired girls and two tired parents ready for bed.
Decorating the tree

New matching pjs

*Sunday - We got up and the first thing Cloey wanted to do was play in the inch of snow we had. Jason got dressed and they headed out for about 45 minutes. We then had our usually Sunday morning breakfast of cinamon rolls and bacon. The rest of the morning was spent lounging around and playing Wii. We then showered and got ready for Daddy to take Cloey back to NC and Emma and I headed to the Glasgow Parade. The student leadership group I work with at the elementary school walked this year and boy was it cold. Emma was all bundled up and did very well. We were thankful to get home to the warm house.
We hope everyone had a great weekend. We can tell that the holiday bustle is here and Christmas is fast approaching. We are looking forward to lots of excitement this Christmas season as well as teaching the girls(well mainly Cloey about the real meaning of Christmas.

8 months

WOW!!! Emma is now 8 months old and it is hard to believe how fast our baby girl is growing up. These days things change with Emma from day to day and sometimes even hour to hour. We just love watching her change with these bear pictures and can't wait to see all 12 of them when all is said and done. This month she seemed scared of the bear and kept her arm bent so she wouldn't have to touch it. In the world of Emma the bottle is still a battle(she is fighting Daddy with all her guts as I type), she is still on stage 2 baby food and prefers the ones that are more of a watery cosistency, she did try big people food over Thanksgiving. Her speech therapist had suggested starting to give her little things her and there she had mashed potatoes - gagged, sweet potatoes- loved, corn casserole - liked, biscuit/roll - loved, and pumpkin pie - ABSOLUTELY LOVED. Now these were all VERY small amounts, but she enjoyed feeling like a big girl. She is still getting up on her knees and rocking, but still no crawling other than her mastered Army Low Crawl. She is becoming more "talkative" these days. We will be putting up the Christmas tree with Cloey this weekend so we will see what type of trouble she gets into with it up. While I am sure there are a ton of other things I could write about I am headed to check and how she is eating for her Daddy. She continues to be our miracle and blessing(along with her wonderful big sister) and we thank God every day that we have such wonderful girls to call our daughters.
1 month

8 months - if you look close you can see her bottom teeth

A couple of the not so good ones for a good laugh
This thing again?

Not touching it

At this point she had had it with the pictures

Thankful

This year it was hard to put into words how thankful I am. I look at Emma and realize every single day that I am thankful that she is alive. The night she was born I filled the birth certificate information out before we could leave the hospital to head to UVA. While I filled that out I couldn't quit playing over in over in my mind the simple fact that the doctors had said the situation was grim and that she might not live long at all. My baby was in such a fragile state, but after lots of ups and downs she fought through and lived!!!! If I had to say one thing I was thankful for this year it would be my baby girl our little fighter.
I am also very thankful for my family and friends who have offered a tremendous amount of support this year as we went through everything with Emma.

Thanksgiving Break in a Nutshell

First I would like to say that Thanksgiving Break went by entirely to fast, and second it was no fun being sick all break. I did make sure that even though I was sick I enjoyed my time off with family and friends.
*Tuesday - Had a great inservice at work. That night throat started feeling scratchy.
*Wednesday - We had to take Emma for a newborn blood screening today. To make a long story short it should have been done 8 weeks after her blood transfusion(so in June), but there was some miscommunication somewhere in Emma's fill and it didn't get done. Daddy and I were not pleased with the people taking the blood, but hopefully everything turns out just fine. After the screening we met up with Dad for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. We had a yummy lunch and enjoyed visiting with Dad. We made a quick stop at the cheap grocery store and then headed home. That evening we went and had dinner with Jason's parents. My throat got worse!!!
*Thursday - Got up and still wasn't feeling 100%. Jason, Emma, and I watched the Thanksgiving Day parade and then headed over to have dinner with some great friends. After dinner we headed up to Mom and Dad's house to spend the night. Once I got there I went through the Black Friday ads to check out what was on sale. Mom and I took a quick nap. Emma came down with her first cold and was miserable. Poor thing didn't know what to do with herself and scared Mommy since she was sick. I continued to feel worse.
*Friday - Mom and I headed out to Black Friday shop at midnight and returned home at 7am. I scored a lot of great deals and Mom and I had fun being out and about shopping. Slept for a bit when we got home, Dad made some pancakes and bacon, and then we headed home. The rest of the day was spent resting and trying to feel better. Emma started feeling better by the evening - Mommy was still down for the count.
*Saturday - We got up and around to have Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad's with Jason's parents and our good friends. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and great time with family and friends. Emma was to nosy to fall asleep and was so miserable. We decided to head home knowing she would sleep in the car. She now felt better just tired, but Mommy felt the worse she has all week.
*Sunday - Nobody slept well between sore throats and runny noses. Jason came down with the nasty crud in the middle of the night. After the restless night we all woke up around 10am. We did some house work and then relaxed a bit. Mom and Dad came down to pick Emma up to stay the night with them and brought dinner. Jason and I still feel miserable, but are hoping at 10pm when we take our second round of NyQuil that it knocks us out.
While I felt miserable the whole break it was so wonderful to have extra time with both Emma and Jason. We also spent a lot of time with our family and good friends.

Finally Field Hockey Pictures

I finally was able to upload the pictures from Angela's field hockey game when MSU played UVA. Enjoy!!!
Cloey and Angela in their MSU field hockey jerseys. On the way home Cloey asked if she could get this picture framed and keep it by her bed. She just adores Angela and we are thankful for how special Angela makes her feel when she is around Cloey.

The Mazingo Family in our MSU gear

Angela is number 17

My Dollie and Me

One of Cloey's birthday presents was a matching outfit for her and Kit. She just loves to dress up like Kit. She was very excited that she got a leggings set for her and kit since she is obsessed with leggings right now.
She actually has been saving money up and ordered another American Girl Doll last night. This time she picked out the You American Girl Doll. She is excited to have a friend for Kit in which she has named Cloey. This American Girl Doll can also be brought to life on the computer. She has now decided that she will be saving up again for our trip to the American Girl Store this summer.
Cloey and Kit

Cloey wanted to take a picture of Emma and Kit together. She was afraid Emma would feel left out.

Sisterly Love

These pictures just capture what love and affection Cloey and Emma have for each other. Although they are nearly 8 years apart their love for each other is present all the time. Cloey just loves being a big sister and frequently acts as a "little mommy". Today she picked Emma up and consoled her when she was upset about playing on the floor. These two girls are our pride and joy and they know that we love them to the moon and back - forever and ever!
We just love how happy they are together.

Too Cute!!!

Emma finding Cloey funny

Emma's favorite thing to do - pulling Sissy's hair.

Turning 8

I continue to be behind in posts, but Emma is headed to stay the night with my parents and Jason is on his way back from dropping Cloey of in NC so I am going to catch up now.
Last Saturday afternoon we had Cloey's 8th birthday party. Her actually birthday is the beginning of December, but with all the Christmas hustle and bustle it made it easier to celebrate earlier. This year Cloey decided on a Sponge Bob Theme for her party. We had family and some close friends attend the party and tried to keep it pretty low key. Cloey got some great gifts and some money to add to her American Girl Doll Fund(which she actually ordered last night). It was nice to spend time with family and friends to celebrate such a wonderful little girl. On a side note you can see how much Cloey loves and adores Angela the jersey she is wearing in all the pictures is Angela's field hockey jersey. Cloey had worn it to the game and did not want to take it off.
The birthday girl and her cake

Opening Gifts

Make a Wish!!!

Busy Weekend

I know I am way behind in blogging when I brother starts asking when I am going to update the blog. We have been very busy people and I will give you a brief run down of our lives lately followed by a couple of separate posts. Best of all there will be lots of PICTURES!
*Friday - Jason headed to NC to pick up Cloey for the weekend, I had a cake walk at school, Grammy, Pop Pop, and Grandma Swersky watched Emma till I got home. We were so excited that Grandma Swersky was in for the weekend. It was great to see her and catch up with her.
*Saturday(the day that we were on the go, go, go) - We woke up early and headed to Angela's(my brothers girlfriend) field hockey game. It happened to be that Michigan State was playing the University of Virginia and with it being so close we were able to go. Cloey thinks the world of Angela and was excited to watch her play(we have only been able to watch her on tv up until this point). She wore her number 17 MSU jersey proud and was cheering her on the whole time. Sadly MSU lost, but it was still great to watch her last game. My mom got a great picture of them together and I will have to upload it and post it.
Next stop for the Mazingo family was rushing back home to get ready for Cloey's 8th birthday party. We decided to have her party early this year to avoid all the Christmas commitments people have in December which cause party problems. More on the party in a separate post.
Post party we headed to bed early because by this time we were beat.
*Sunday - It has become a tradition on Cloey weekends to have cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast on Sundays. We had a yummy breakfast, Cloey played with some of her new presents, Grammy and Grandma Swersky came down for a bit and then it was time for Jason to head back to drop Cloey off in NC. Emma and I headed back to Grammy and Pop Pop's house to spend more time with Grandma Swersky and be closer for the appointment at UVA on Monday morning.
*Monday - Emma had her follow up Neonatal appointment at Kluge. The appointment was short and we are thinking it is because Emma is already receiving speech and physical therapy right now. The doctor said she had some low tone in her legs and he wants to see her back in March to check her low tone and feeding issues out. Hopefully after that we will no longer be going back there and that will be one less follow up visit.
*This week has flown by I have been busy at work and Jason has been busy working on finishing his 30 page paper. Cloey is coming again this weekend and we are planning on laying low. It seems like a great weekend to hang out at home watch a movie and pop some popcorn.

Weekly Updates

I am starting to see that blogging during the school year usually amounts to just a weekly update on Sundays. With that in mind here is the update for this week.
*We have been busy worrying and visiting with Jason's dad this past week. He was admitted to UVA with bloodclots that were in a very large amount in both his legs. The doctors commented that he was lucky to even be alive with as many clots as he had in his legs. He undwent 3 procedure which were all very long and has another one in the morning. We are hoping after tomorrow he will be able to head home shortly thereafter. Please keep him in your prayers!
*Emma is OBSESSED with puffs(which are like a small piece of cereal that easily disolve). If she runs out of them on her tray she will bang on it till she gets more. We also have to make sure the container is put away when she eats her solids or she just bangs and tries to reach for the container. We are trying to explain to her that puffs can't be a staple part of her diet.
*We are gearing up for Cloey's birthday party. We have decided to have it early this year to allow for different people to be able to attend. She has gone with a Spongebob theme and I decided to keep it very laid back and low key this year. It already feels 100 times less stressful already.
*I continue to be busy at work with meetings and teaching. Some days I get overwelmed with my job, but then the kids will make me realize how important I am in their lives. The field of special education is a challenge, but I can't imagine doing anything else.

Belly Laughs

Emma absolutely LOVES our dogs and these belly laughs are what we get from her everytime they are in her sight. You can't help but laugh when she finds the littlest thing as the dogs run by her so funny.

7 months

Some 7 month updates:
- Emma has no interest in crawling or getting in the begining phase of crawling. She would rather just roll from place to place.
- We still have physical therapy twice a month and speech therapy once a month.
- Her Peds Cardiology appointment went very well. The holes and inital pulmonary hypertension that she displayed in her inital echo in the NICU before surgery are long gone. The Peds Cardio team that we met with were an amazing group of people, but thankfully that will be our one and only appointment with them.
- Eating is going a bit better these days. We are back to eating solids, but only about half the amount that she should be eating at this age. Her favorite for breakfast is the Banana Raspberry Oatmeal(yes I cheat and by the premade oatmeal). As for dinner she enjoys vegetables - especially sweet potatoes, but isn't really in to the "meal" type foods yet. The seem a little thick and different in texture and that starts her gagging thing up. As for fruits it appears that pears are a favorite of hers. We have given her some yogurt and she seems to like that as well. A favorite of mine as a baby was Hawian Delight and Emma enjoys it as well.
- The dogs are her favorite things right now. Maddie and Tucker just have to walk by and you get a huge belly laugh from her.
- Peek A Boo is a favorite game.
- She still sleeps on her own schedule, but has started sleeping all night and sometimes has to have Daddy wake her up at 8:30 to eat.
- She slept in her crib about 50% last week.
- She still loves her sister and her face lights up anytime Cloey walks in the room.
We are now only 5 months to a year and can't believe how fast our baby girl is growing up.
Emma at 1 month

Emma at 7 months

Halloween 2010

We spent two days with Halloween festivities this year.
*Friday- We went to the downtown event. For the last few years the main road is shut down and the businesses hand out candy for the kids. Cloey had fun walking the streets and used wonderful manners that made us so proud. The wind was bitterly cold and we were glad to get the event done in a short amount of time. Emma had fun sitting in her stroller and people watching.
*Saturday - We headed to our church to attend the yearly fall festival that they have each year. Cloey played the games and got her candy and had a funnel cake before we headed back. We made a quick stop by Na Na and Paw Paw's house before heading home. We took a quick break at home before heading to go door to door trick or treating. We left Emma at home with Grammy because it was way too cold for her. Cloey made out well again and again used wonderful manners. To reward her for her manners and behavior we went and picked up Taco Bell for dinner that she had been begging us for all day long.
It was a wonderful Halloween weekend filled with a lot of hustle and bustle.
Our beautiful angel.

Our little pumpkin on her 1st Halloween.

The girls - Cloey wasn't exactly thrilled to be getting her picture taken.

A cute family picture - Emma is very into looking down in pictures right now.

Paying it Forward

Many people know that the night Emma was born we prayed and prayed and asked others to pray that our baby girl would make it. I prayed that if she made it I would make it my mission to pay it foward to other families affected by CDH. Well we all know that our prayers worked and Emma was such a fighter to get home. We have a couple of things going on right now as our "Pay it Forward" deals.
*We purchased a set of pots and pans for the Ronald McDonald House. This place was an absolute blessing while Emma was in the NICU. I can't even begin to imagine running back and forth each day to be able to see Emma. We also plan on having pizza delivered on Emma's birthday as a thank you. So often churches and organizations would donate their time to bring/fix lunch or dinner for all of us "residents" and it was nice to not have to worry about fixing meals. If you would like to help a local Ronald McDonald House collect the can tabs and turn them in or take time to organize with your group/church to donate a meal.
*We have decided to take part in a reseach study involving CDH. This is a study out of Columbia University and it is looking into the gentic aspect of CDH. We want to be able to help others out by helping the study learn more about CDH.
*Emma's Walk/Run is in the planning stages. Once we know the date we will be spreading the word for everyone. If you don't live in this area we would love to talk with you and figure out other ways you could participate from afar in this big day. Our plans are to donate the money to Breath of Hope a CDH group.
*We are throwing the idea around of creating Socks from Emma Sidney. The very first piece of clothing Emma could wear was a sock. It was just one sock, but that one sock let us overlook the wires and tubes and let us feel "normal". I will never forget the little white and pink ballerina slipper sock that said I Love Mommy on the bottom that covered her foot. We want to give a pair of socks to every child that comes through the NICU at UVA.
So as you can see we are very busy planning ideas to "Pay it Forward". We can't do it alone and are thankful for all the people who are already involved or anyone who would like to be come involved. Emma has had such a fan club from the start and we would love for her fan club to help other babies who are affected by CDH.

Mazingo Happenings

Well we have been very busy in the Mazingo Household here lately!!!
*Friday Jason and I celebrate 5 years of marriage. It is very hard to believe that 5 years ago we got married. We have been through a lot in these 5 years. Many of the things we have been through have been trials and tribulations and other things have been complete joys. After this spring with Emma's birth we learned how much we love each other and that we can get through anything together. We went to Target, The Cheap Grocery Store, and Red Lobster to celebrate our anniversary. I know we are really exciting people.
*The weekend was spent cleaning and doing some more cleaning. While we just cleaned over the weekend I feel as if the clutter is once again creeping up. It is just so hectic throughout the week between me working, Jason working on his 30 page paper, taking care of Emma, and wanting to spend quality time with Cloey on the weekends she is here.
*We were able to introduce Emma to family that were in from Gerogia for the weekend. It is always nice to show our baby girl off.
*We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Cloey comes on Thursday. Friday Emma has a follow up appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist to get a better picture of her heart. Saturday it is Halloween festiviites at our church and then downtown. Which then leads to Sunday with Jason taking Cloey back to NC. Looks like a busy, but fun weekend with the girls. We can't wait to see our Angel and Pumpkin all dressed up for Halloween. Pictures to come this weekend!!!!

Sorry

Well I had all intentions on blogging this Sunday, but we spent time with family that was in from Georgia. My next intentions were to blog tonight, but my head has been pounding since lunch time. I have decided to head to bed and call it a night with hopes this headache will disappear. My new intentions are to blog tomorrow. Sorry no posts!

Some October Pictures!!!

I know I said my plans were to try and blog every other day during the school year, but I have been very busy. When I get home I just want to spend time with Emma and we have started getting back into our walks in the last week. I am going to work on being better about blogging, but for now here are 3 new posts about our weekend with pictures.
The best little girls in the world!

Look who is starting to sit up all by herself.

Cloey in her neon Halloween pjs. Halloween is her favorite holiday which meant her and Emma both needed Halloween pjs.

Emma enjoying the book she got from the Bookfair at my school.

Pumpkins 2010

This year we decided to sort of cheat with our pumpkins. It is hard for us to carve a pumpkin and have it stay nice without it molding quickly because we have to carve it so early. We also ended up having a big debate over who is going to be the one to get all the guts out and what the pumpkin should look like. I had seen the little kits you could buy at Target where you just pushed the pieced in, but they were close to $10 and only did one pumpkin. Cloey had picked out a pumpkin for all 4 of us and I really didn't want to pay $40 to decorate them. We considered paint at one point, but that just seemed like it could get real messy. So I got to thinking about what we could do and decided to put our MANY Mr. Potato Head pieces to good use. Instead of buying the kits at Target we used the Mr. Potato Head pieces and they served the same purpose. Cloey had a blast decorating the pumpkins and Emma stay and went through the bucket and found pieces to chew on. When all was said and done we ended up with some great looking pumpkins. I was proud that I had solved the pumpkin dilemma without having to spend any extra money. This might be our new family tradition with our pumpkins each year.
Cloey and Emma with the final masterpieces.


Our Beautiful Pumpkins

Disney Princess Wishes On Ice

Our big girl!

Daddy with one of his girls

Kristyn, Daddy, and Cloey waiting for the show to begin.

$125 for tickets
$12 for a Snow Cone
$15 Ariel Necklace - thanks to Grammy and Pop Pop
1 Minor Meltdown over not getting popcorn
A little bit of whining and worry about not making it in time
All worth seeing the look on Cloey's face when the show began.

Cloey had a blast attending Disney Princess Wishes on Ice. We made a special Cloey evening of it and left Emma at home with Nana and Paw Paw while Grammy and Pop Pop came with us to the show. Cloey was absolutely in awe of the show. At one point Jason and I both got a big hug with, "Thank you for bringing me Daddy and Kristyn, this show is awesome!" It was priceless to see and hear the joy she had over the show. After the show we all headed to Red Robin for a yummy dinner before heading home. We missed Emma while we were gone and know before too long we will have two girls with us at the show.