Two Little Lady Bugs

**WARNING:**

TOTAL PICTURE OVERLOAD!!!

Choosing a Halloween costume was interesting this year... Last year, Maddie was Tinkerbell and absolutely loved it! She even asked to be Tinkerbell again, but me being the weird mom I am, told her she couldn't be the same thing twice in a row. Not that it really mattered anyway, Maddie changed her mind on what she wanted to be a couple times a day. For those of you who know Maddie, know that she is WAY into princesses and Disney characters. So I was hoping she would want to be Minnie Mouse this year. Nope, she wanted to be Goofy, Pluto, or Donald Duck. Are you kidding me?! All male characters! For Chloe, I just wanted to find her a warm sleeper that could be pulled off as a costume since she is still so young and I found a lady bug sleeper. So, after Maddie's indecisiveness lasted for way too long and we were getting down to the wire, I found a way cute lady bug costume for her too from Babystyle. I do love that store, although it can be pretty pricey! But lucky for us, the costume was on sale! It was funny because when people would ask Maddie what she was going to be for Halloween, she changed her answer each time... a witch, a pirate, Cinderella, Minnie Mouse... Yep, she started telling people she was going to be Minnie Mouse! All I could do was laugh! I was so ready to go out and buy her a Minnie Mouse costume because I had tried so long to talk her into that one. But I wasn't going to buy two costumes for her, ok, I probably would have, but I decided not to because I didn't have time to make it out to the Disney Store, and didn't want to buy it online and HOPE it fit! Plus, with my luck she'd change her mind the next day anyway.So, after my long, weird, dumb story, I ended up with the two cutest little lady bugs ever! (Sorry to those of you who have kids who were lady bugs too... but I am entitled to my own opinion and am TOTALLY biased of my girls!)I didn't get any good pictures of Chloe. By the time we put her costume on she was fussy and ready to sleep. Once I finished taking her picture, she went to bed for the night... yes, a little early, but hey, she still slept until 6am!!

As for Maddie, the usual, she just wiggled and wiggled. That girl can not sit still if her life depended on it! But, they looked cute anyway!

Maddie had a blast out trick-or-treating! She walked the whole way and was so good at the whole 'routine'; knocking on the door, saying "Trick-or-Treat", and even showed off her good manners and was sure to tell them "Thank You!" I guess if I have to have a very active two-year old, who doesn't have the best listening skills or sharing skills, at least she has good manners, right?!

Carving Pumpkins

It was so fun carving pumpkins with Maddie this year. A big thanks to Chloe for sleeping through the whole thing, as it would have been difficult trying to pick her up without getting goopy hands on her! :)I was very impressed with Maddie. I just scraped the sides of the pumpkin and she pretty much cleaned that thing out herself!! She just put her hands and scooper straight in there and got to work!!

She was so good at separating the goop from the seeds!

I explained to her that we would separate the seeds, clean them off, cook them, and then we could eat them. She just jumped to the last thing and took a little taste straight off her scooper! Yuck! I told her to hurry and spit them out, but I don't think it really even phased her! Silly girl!

When daddy got home, he did the actual 'carving' for us! Not my favorite part at all!! Maddie chose a bat... so a bat is what she got! You can see a picture of the final result on my next post(hopefully) because silly me forgot to take a picture with Maddie and her finished pumpkin! But I think I got the pumpkin in a few of the pictures with the girls and their Halloween costumes!

Circleville

Me and the girls took a 2.5 hour drive down South to Circleville, Utah to visit Mike's sister for a few days. Daddy stayed home to work and spray for spiders and bugs (one of my biggest fears... the spiders, not spraying!) The girls both did great in the car, and Maddie had a blast playing with her cousins!Maddie got to ride McKenzie's horse with her right when we got there because Brody was out riding it when we pulled up! She loved it and asked to ride it everyday after that. This was Maddie's first time riding a full-grown horse. She has done pony rides before, but never a 'big' horse!

We brought down yummy sugar cookies we had made and the kids had fun decorating them!

We got a few too many pumpkins when we went to the pumpkin patch so we brought a few extras down with us and let the kids paint them. Maddie did a pretty good job getting just about every little spot of the pumpkin!

The weather was perfect fall weather. Not too hot, not too cold (during the day anyway) so Maddie thoroughly enjoyed just playing outside. She got to ride a little 4-wheeler, play with the puppy and kitties, rode bikes, but mostly just loved 'exploring' around. She built princess castles out of rocks and played drums on some wood stumps. This girl has quite the imagination!

She and Brody also loved running around 'riding' their little stick horses! They did this inside and out, pretty much all day long! They loved to do it right after bath time when they were naked, having us chase them down to try to get them dressed! Crazy kids!!!

While we were there, Chloe learned to 'bat' at the toys hanging above her. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was so fun and exciting watching her learn this new trick! She loves to lay under her hanging toys and bat at them and hear the music change each time she does!

Oh ya, and Maddie wore big girl panties for almost a whole day we were there. She went potty twice in the potty, once right in front of the potty (didn't quite make it!), and once smack dab in the middle of the kitchen floor! We think this is a good sign. She wore panties one day since we've been back for just a couple hours before her nap time. She didn't have any accidents, but she didn't go in the potty either. I think we're making progress. I don't really want to push her though, just let her do it when she's ready, because last time I tried to push the whole potty training thing it back-fired on me and she wouldn't sit on the potty for months. She would cry and beg for me to put a 'baby diaper' back on her.... until now! One step forward....

Another Sunday Photo shoot

Yep, we did have yet ANOTHER photo shoot with the girls on Sunday. I thought the girls looked so cute in their polka dot dresses so I had to do it!Of course, the ones of the girls together aren't the greatest... it's not easy getting them to both cooperate.I know I've said this before, but Chloe is just all smiles all the time (except for in the evening). She just loves to smile and be talked to, sung to, basically given any attention at all! You may notice from the pictures, but her poor eye has gotten worse. It turned all red so I was worried she got pink eye. I can't tell from the goopiness (is that a word?) because they are always goopy from her clogged tear ducts she has. So I took her to the doctor yesterday and she doesn't have pink eye, but it is an eye infection, basically a 'cold' in her eye. Both her ears are also 'cloudy', which means she's starting to get a couple ear infections. Poor girl! Explains her fussiness lately though! So my poor baby is not only on medicine for her reflux, but also for her ears too, and back to her eye drops as well!! My doctor said they normally wouldn't prescribe antibiotics right away for her ears and see if she could 'ride out the storm', but because of how fussy she's been, clearly she has been in a lot of pain! She only has to take it for 10 days though, and her eye is already looking better from her drops too! Now we're just hoping she outgrows this reflux really soon!!!
Maddie had pink eye when she was about Chloe's age, but still to this day, she has never had an ear infection (knock on wood!) I know we have gotten very lucky with how healthy Maddie has been. We are going through a whole new thing with Chloe already, definitely feel like we're learning to parent all over again! We just feel so bad for her when she is in so much pain!! But when she's not in pain (which is more often then when she has the pain), she is seriously the happiest baby, which is why we can't wait for this all to end!! So keep Chloe in your prayers!! :)

Happy Halloween....

...to Maddie!!!Maddie was so excited to hear the doorbell ring this afternoon, only to find a package there for none other than: MADDIE DUDLEYThank you, thank you, thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Maddie was so excited about all her Halloween goodies! She had to tell Daddy all about it as soon as he walked in the door. It was funny watching Maddie play with her little fairies. She told them they were beautiful. Then she told them (yes, she was talking to the little fairies), that they needed to line up to play football. That lasted about 2 minutes, then she taught them how to dance around like a ballerina.