Where did November go?

Looks like November is almost over! Some events of this month included:

*Caroline's birthday - she's TWO!
*Our first snowfall of the year! We don't get much snow here, so anything we see is exciting!
*Thanksgiving with lots of yummy food and good company! I'm grateful for wonderful family that hosted this year! Thank you, Rob & Kim!
*A visit from Alan's brother, JT. I sure love that guy - he's awesome! It was nice of him to be willing to just hang out and relax. I still am hoping we weren't too boring for him!
*Our first family sickness - it started with Caroline, then me, and now Soren seems to be under the weather. We are all hoping Alan stays strong and avoids it.
*Caroline has moved into a toddler bed! So far she is doing pretty well, but she definitely is enjoying the freedom of moving around her room once the door is shut. We are reminding her that bed time means to stay in bed. I'm sure this is something we'll be discussing for years to come with her - especially if she is anything like her brother.
*Halloween decorations came down, Autumn decorations went up! Then autumn decorations came down and Christmas decorations are in the process of being put up. I didn't realize how busy November is in the decorating department!
*Baby boy continues to grow and make momma rather uncomfortable. His most recent hangout has him applying some insane pressure to my lower back & tailbone. So if you ever hear me say that he is being a pain in the butt, I literally mean it. Ha!
*I've been knitting like crazy - a giant scarf for Alan's Christmas present. And I'm not joking about giant. It's about a foot wide and will eventually be 6 feet long, not including the tassels. Alan has a very long torso - that is where a lot of his 6'7" height comes from - so a "normal" scarf doesn't fit him. I am so excited to finally be able to make this for him and he is, too! My next post will contain pictures of all the knitting I've been up to since I started learning.

I think that about covers it for us. No pictures in this post. I'm too sick and tired to do anything that advanced right now haha! Now I shall go turn something mindless on the TV and get back to knitting. Or napping.

Birthday Girl!

The past Thursday we celebrated Caroline's 2nd birthday! And as the old cliche' goes - I can't believe she is already 2!



Here she is at about a week old. So tiny! It's still strange to think about how small she was. I'm glad that she is bigger now - even if she is a petite little princess!



Caroline is about 6 months old here, give or take a few weeks. I loved this purple dress on her! Part of me was a little sad that she had so many dresses to choose from because it meant that she didn't get to wear most of them more than once or twice. However, it was (and still is) fun to dress her up each Sunday in something new/different!



And here she is at one whole year old. I loved this shirt her Aunt Sarah made for her with a giant one on it! She wore that a lot during the first few months of her being one.



And here she is around 18 months old - already full of spice and sass! This is her "Mom, put the camera down already, okay?" look. Oh, and she finally started getting some hair at this point.

And now, she's TWO! And already very good at it!



She's showing off the ponies she received, as well as her blocks (which are, of course, all over the family room floor now). She had a great birthday, surrounded by family. We had homemade mac and cheese, applesauce, and juice! A perfect Caroline meal. Then we had cake:



Don't worry, at least SHE knew it was supposed to be Cookie Monster . . . and that's the point, right? I've never decorated a cake with tips and fancy junk before, so this was a whole new territory for me. However, it was fun! Who knows what I will attempt next year! Probably a sheet cake from the store. HAHA!

All in all, it was a good day. After we sang to her, she melted down into a puddle of tired screams and took a good nap. Then she opened presents which included 2 ponies, a book (If You Give A Pig A Pancake), 3 balloons, and Duplo blocks, from mom and dad as well as a coloring book, crayons, 2 toy bottles for her baby doll, a book (Sesame Street counting book), and 2 more balloons from her brother. What a lucky girl!



We are sure grateful for our Sweet Caroline. She has added so much to our family! I love watching her learn and grow and I also love seeing Soren get to be the awesome big brother I always knew he would be! Even if our little princess is full of spice and spunk, she is a sweetheart and we love her so much!!! Happy Birthday, big girl!

Halloween (Finally!)

There were a lot of Halloween celebrations this year for our family! First came our ward (congregation) Halloween party at church! Caroline and Soren won an award for Most Original Costume(s). I am going to miss it when Soren won't dress up anymore.



Soren wanted to dress up as Calvin, so we dressed Caroline up as Hobbes! They were so cute! This was the only time I bothered with the makeup. I still don't know how I managed to get Soren made up as a clown when he was 2! It was nearly impossible to get Caroline to sit (sort of) still enough to put that nose and whisker mess on her face. All in all, it was a good time - even if Caroline lost it shortly after 7:30pm. She loves her bed time and, quite frankly, I am ok with that.



(Caroline in one of her Halloween outfits. She enjoys emptying out the shoe basket and sitting in it. Also, she loves playing with all of the shoes. Lately she has mastered the art of slipping my shoes on and walking from the hall into the kitchen to show me. What a silly girl!)

Our next party was at Alan's work! OH how I LOVE his new company! They had a fun little haunted house (or haunted cubicles) set up for kids to wander through and explore. Soren and Caroline stuck together for a while, but then things became a little scary at certain parts, so Soren went up to the front to get a better view of it all and Caroline hung back with mom and dad. It was fun and boy did we end up with a lot of candy!



For this party we sprayed Soren's hair with color. That was fun! I also dressed up, but failed to get a photo. I had a t-shirt on with a "1-Up Mushroom" (from the Mario Bros. games) over my baby bump as well as a Mario hat.



Our last party was on Halloween itself. We had some friends over and ate a yummy meal! Here are pics of our feast:



Bean dip and chips! Yum!



Deviled Eyeballs! Soren had a blast putting all the red lines on these.



Jello Jigglers in fun Halloween shapes. The kids had fun cutting these things out.



DELICIOUS Rootbeer! We discovered this when we lived in DC and were so happy to finally find it here! Yay!

And the tables were decorated:





I forgot to get photos of a few things, including our Candy Corn Chowder (no Candy Corn was used in the making of that!). Silly me! But here's our pumpkin cheesecake dessert:



I couldn't get the picture to rotate, so this is what you get it!

Overall we had a great time! I wish that I'd had more energy to do a few more things, but maybe next year!

So that's my update on Halloween... finally!

Before I forget . . .

We always are having funny moments with our kids . . . . here's two from Caroline:

Yesterday we were all getting ready for church. Caroline was dressed and pretty much ready to go. She found her purse, put some things in it, put it over her shoulder, and yelled, "Boys! Go church!" Cracked us all up! She is such a momma hen sometimes!

Today I was looking at a few things online, including a milk pitcher with an ad for Pillsbury cookies. Caroline saw the ad and her eyes got all big and she yelled, "COOKIES!" So silly!

One of things I love about having kids is that they always keep me laughing. Sometimes I have to remind myself of something funny they said or did because at that moment maybe they aren't making me laugh, but overall it's lots of silliness.

In other news, my blood pressure took a spike over the weekend and I went to the doctor today because I was kinda freaked out - I hadn't seen numbers like that for quite a while. Luckily we've just done some medication adjustments and hoping that will resolve the issue for the time being. Just give me 4 more weeks to get the house in order and the holidays settled. And a dinner with my hubby at The Melting Pot. Then I will feel much better about being stuck on bedrest or in the hospital! Not that I want that, but if it's going to happen - just give me 4 more weeks!

Ok, my little climber is trying to wreak havoc. Time to go!

Halloween Traditions!

For some reason, I just love Halloween. It could be the theatre geek in me that loves the idea of dressing up in costume (or dressing others up in costume!). It could be that hidden side of me that enjoys some of the more gruesome aspects of the holiday (I love creepy looking food, the idea of haunts and ghosts, and getting to channel into that for a short few weeks of the year). Or it could just be that I'm a little crazy. Either way, it's a holiday we celebrate with gusto at our house.



Last night we went beyond the decorations in the house and the cute little outfits - we completed phase two of the Tullis Halloween Tradition: Halloween Sugar Cookies! Some people are into Christmas Sugar Cookies, but not us! I think I have one cookie cutter for Christmas. For Halloween I have an entire pumpkin full! Yay! I tried out my grandmother's sugar cookie recipe for the first time and was very impressed. It was super easy and very tasty - not too sweet, so just right for a bit of decorations on top to give it that extra kick of sugar. Yum!





It was great fun - we all were involved in the process. This was the first year in ages that I made the dough and not Alan. And this was also the first year that Caroline was really able to participate. We had so much fun - especially when she commandeered the pumpkin cookie cutter and wouldn't let it go. She LOVES pumpkins and points them out wherever we go (especially all over the house, which gets old after a while).



Alan tried out an orange glaze for the topping instead of a frosting this year. It needs some tweaking, but it turned out pretty good! And I got to toss sprinkles on after he glazed them. Yay! Most years we only get to frosting a few, so I have a build up of sprinkles sitting around. It was fun to get to use them! Here's the finished product:



Next phase? Pumpkins!!!

Oh, and we finally decided on Halloween costumes for this year. But that, my friends, is for another post. :)

Haircuts!

After fighting with the mullet look for far too long on my sweet Caroline, I finally broke down while at a play date on Tuesday and asked my friend to cut her hair. (Thank you, Addi!) It was the first haircut for the princess and while I do miss her gorgeous curls that were nearly past her shoulders, she looks more like a little girl now and less like a hillbilly. I've also noticed that her hair still has plenty of curl post tubby-time, so I'm hoping to see those ringlets again soon. Here are some pics of the occasion:





She did really well - not a scream or a tear. I just told her we were going to play with her hair. Between that, her mouse, and the adorable zebra print apron thing, she was good to go!

The result:





Clean and tidy and cute! Maybe, if I get a chance, I will take a pic of the rest of her outfit. It's another Halloween number - the pants are adorable!

In Soren news, he tried out to play piano for the 7th grade jazz band (aka "Stage Band") and is now being challenged with some tough music! It's good for him, though. He's going to grow a lot this year - musically I mean. He'll probably grow a lot physically this year, too. We are around the corner from him passing me up in height. I've been very impressed with his adjustment to school this year - much better than last year! He's a great kid and we are lucky to have him around - even when he continually forgets what "take the garbage out" means. Haha!

Alan was offered a full time position at Nautilus, Inc. this week. That's right, folks - he's working for the makers of Bowflex and the Treadclimber! The biggest bonus in all of this is that it is a 6 mile round trip to and from work - no bridges to cross, no traffic to deal with, and - best of all - he's home early at night! He also is able to come home for lunch a few times a week which is awesome. They are working him hard, but he is glad to be there - learning and growing. We are loving the added time we have with him at home. Yay, Alan!

As for me, things are plugging along. I keep trying to get that final room of the house sorted. Maybe this weekend. Haha! We are nearing the end of the second trimester of this pregnancy and moving into what was the worst trimester for me last time around. I keep hoping and praying that things will go a bit more smoothly this time, but I'm planning for the worst. We'll see how it all goes! I'm trying to scale back my activities and take it easy as much as possible! That's not easy with a tweenager and a toddler, but we're doing our best around these parts.

Speaking of toddlers, someone wants attention! Be on the lookout for upcoming Halloween posts. I'm currently in the planning phases of our feast!

A View from the Top

Yup - that's my boobs and my belly. And my table with this weeks tablecloth.

Now quit looking at my boobs.

Instead, look at this cutie pie:



Yes - we are all decked out for the month of OCTOBER! It's a family favorite around here! Or at least it's one of my favorites and therefore I push it on the house and the only person in it that I can dress up (besides myself, of course!).

HAPPY OCTOBER!!