Carving Pumpkins

On Saturday Ella and I stopped at the store after a birthday party and she picked out a pumpkin to carve.  She picked out the face she wanted on it and wiped it off.  Daddy cut off the top and started to take out the seeds.  I thought Ella might at least stick her hand in and feel but nope she just watched while daddy did it all.  I was busy taking pictures, of course.  She really enjoyed watching and telling him how he should carve it.  It was pretty cute.

Our finished jack-o-lantern.  I roasted pumpkin seeds and they were quite tasty. 

A lot of rain, time to bake…

We’ve had so much rain here lately.  Rain means we’re stuck inside so we decided to bake.  Everyone knows I love to bake.  Ella got a cool-bake oven for her birthday.  She wanted to make the vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  I was not really sure how this was going to work but we gave it a whirl!

Two days later it was still dreary out so it was time to bake…this time using the convection oven.  I saw on this blog a recipe for candy corn cookies so I had to make them.  When I went to Target to get the Candy Corn kisses I also saw Pumpkin Spice kisses and thought I’d make a cookie using them as well.  I made chocolate drop cookies and put the pumpkin spice kisses on top.  YUM!  Ella had new Halloween cookie cutters so we started off the baking with the sugar cookies and then iced them last.  I was exhausted by the end of the day!!

Ella had a very important job of unwrapping the kisses and she took is seriously. :)

  All the sugar gave Ella a tummy ache!  She’s pretty good at pouting. 

Tubes!

Bennett had ear infections all summer. After six the doctor finally said I needed to take him to the ENT. I was ready after four but I waited for the peditrician's advice. I knew if he had that many during the summer the fall and winter were going to be miserable for him and me. The ENT took a look and said he needed tubes. Thank you! The procedure was this past Friday morning. I took Bennett to the hospital at 6:30 am and had Chris stay home with Ella. We arrived at the hospital to find out the ENT's nurse never called to schedule his surgery. AHHH... A nurse called Dr. Bates and he said he would of course do it. Things ran a little later since he had another baby scheduled at 7:30 but we got tubes. He said Bennett's right ear had a bad infection and had ruptured (membrane I think) within the past 24 hours. Poor Bennett never cries and he cried all day Thursday. I assumed he had an infection. The doctor cleaned it up. I sure hope this does the trick. He's had a runny nose since Friday and I mean nasty runny nose. It's like all the fluid that was sitting in his little ears has been draining out his nose.

He seemed fine after we got home. He wasn't really fussy and didn't appear to be tired so we went with some friends to the Owens Farm Pumpkin Patch. He was content in his stroller which told me he wasn't 100% but when I let him out he was running around and his normal self.

Feeling loopy right before they took him back

All done! Just finished a bottle of pedilyte. Since he wasn't on the schedule a nurse never called and told me to bring an empty sippy cup!

Pumpkin Patch

Ella, Bryce & Layne

Hayride

The best I could get with all four kids.

I'll take a picture, Mommy.

They would not look at the camera at the same time.

Who'd have guessed he just had surgery?!?!?

Baby Parker Comes to Visit

So this post is a little late.  I guess that is a trend of mine lately.  Erin and Craig were in town for the Toy Fair, well Craig was here for the Toy Fair so Erin and Parker tagged along.  I finally got to meet our precious niece!  If you haven't checked out Sprig toys before you should.  Craig has awesome eco-friendly, green toys.  Erin brought the new line for the kids and they love them.  Ella has had a ball playing with this Palace.  I'm not sure who plays in the sand box more, Chris or Bennett, with this cool Loader.  This is Bennett's favorite Dino/Truck combo.  What a cool uncle to have!

Back to Parker...Erin and Parker spent the night with us one night.  She's such a sweet little baby.  Ella wanted Aunt Erin to name her Isabelle.  She had suggested that during the summer and has called her Isabelle up until their visit.  She had said Parker could be her middle name.  When she first met her she called her Isabelle but by the end o the visit she was calling her Parker.  She's so cute!  We can't wait to see them again in November and then we're going up there after Christmas.  Ella is super excited about that.

Ella loving on Parker

Sweet Parker

Laughing at her mommy

Bennett & Parker watching the fish

Bennett was giving her pat pats, nice and sweet!

State Fair

On Sunday we headed to the State Fair!  I love going to the fair.  It’s not Chris’ favorite thing to do so I only make him go every other year.  I don’t understand how he doesn’t love it.  We did go on a Sunday and Oprah was there so it was rather crowded but there’s so much good food and the only thing we got was corndogs.  Ugh, I really wanted to try some fried sweetness.  Then I found out that they have fried guacamole this year…oh my, how awesome.  My mom has already said she wants to come  up next year to check out the fair.  Yea!!!  Chris is off the hook and I get to go three years in a row.  I will get fried deliciousness next year for sure!  I mean a fried chocolate covered cherry…if it hadn’t been raining I would have gone back and found that after my friend told me about it on Sunday but oh no it started raining, hard.  That pretty much ended our afternoon at the fair. 

Ella and Bennett were not to sure about Big Tex.  He “talks” every 10 minutes or so.

Time for food!  Ella didn’t want to try a corndog.  The fair is known for Fletcher’s corndogs.  She wanted sausage on a stick so that’s what she got!  Of course she shared it with her brother.

After her sausage it was time for cotton candy!

Checking out the geese in the petting zoo.

Latest Stats

Both Ella & Bennett had well visits in September. I can hardly believe it's October. Geez, it'll be New Year's before I know it. Both are healthy and growing like they should. Well, one may be growing at a slightly faster pace than the other, but happy and healthy is all we ask for!

Bennett has been getting ear infections all summer. Weird for summer time, so he will be getting tubes put in next Friday. Hopefully this will do the trick and save us some visits to the peditrician and pharamacy.

Bennett's 15 month stats:
weight - 27.15 lbs 88%
length - 32 1/2" 85%
head - 18 7/8 75%

Ella's 4 year stats:
weight - 34.6 lbs 45%
height - 40" 50%

Bennett is really trying to catch up to his sister in more than one way!! :)

Watch out Katy Perry

This video was taken a few months ago but it's cute so I had to share!