Sneak Preview

Introducing Sophie Brown as Taylor Swift!

This Halloween, Sophie had her heart set on being Taylor Swift. I spent some time watching Taylor vieos and googling "Taylor Swift Fashion" for my ideas. I feel pretty good about this costume. I'm thinking that Sophie and Daddy will need to make a more sparkly guitar before Halloween. Just 10 minutes carrying this guitar around and she has banged it on more things than you could imagine! (It's our guitar for guitar hero.) I found the wig at a local Halloween shop. The bracelets and earings (not shown) are from the dollar rack at target. Her boots are part of her winter wardrobe. I actually found this dress on clearance at Macy's. Aiden and I shopped all afternoon for a "Taylor Swift Dress"!!! It's a size too big, but maybe by next summer she'll be able to wear it to church! Sophie gets to wear some big girl makeup this year for Halloween. She's super excited. We went ahead and tried on the makeup too and I caught a small glimpse of the future. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet!

Pumpkin Patch

I took the kids for a quick trip to Wichita to see Gramma and Papa. Gramma and Papa were supposed to come and see us, but Gramma's back isn't doing so well and she didn't think she could make the trip, so I decided to take the kids up there. While we were there, Papa and I took the kids to Walter's Pumpkin Patch. It was a beautiful day and not pumpkin patch weather at all! We have been able to take the kids to Walter's Pumpkin Patch every year for the last 6 years expect for one. I'll have to post pics from every year so we can see how much they changed every year! The kids also got to go see Grammy. She took them to the Renaissance Fair where they got their faces painted and got plenty of goodies! It was a long drive alone with the kids, but I'd have to say it was worth it! We didn't get to see everyone we really would have liked to see, and for those of you we didn't get to see (especially Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Dana), we'll be back in town in December!

It's been a while since I have posted and there have even been some things before my last post that I wanted to share with you all.

Travis and Aiden put a model car together. Aiden had a fun time helping Daddy build the car and an even better time painting it. He doesn't really understand that model cars are not really to play with, so he has been playing with it, and of course, it's fallen apart a little!

Sophie used some of her allowance money to buy a miniature tea set that she got to paint. She's our artist and absolutely loved painting this tea set!

We took the kids bowling in August. They've been once before but they were too young to remember it. They had a lot of fun. We had the bumpers up and you wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) that Sophie, Aiden and I all got about the same score. Daddy did a little better than the rest of us. These are a couple pics of the kids bowling.

Aiden needed a little help to get the ball rolling!

Sophie bowled without any help.

A group effort!

Aiden had a little accident at daycare a few weeks ago, where some little kid threw a block at him and gave him a nice little gash under his eye and a pretty nice shiner. It also got him a trip to the ER to see if he needed stitches. We were both relieved to find out that he didn't need stitches. It has healed up pretty nicely, but there is still a small scar there. No he and Sissy have matching scars on their left cheeks!

School Pictures

This is Sophie's kindergarten picture. It's the first of many school pictures for us. She got to pick the purple background to go with her purple dress. School pictures... it makes her seem like such a big girl. I guess that's because she is!

A conversation...

I'm sitting in the office when I hear little footsteps in the hallway heading for the bathroom. Click. He turned on the light. Step, step. He's on the stool. Pshhhhhhhhhhh. I think to myself- Did I leave the hairspray out? Pshhhhhhhhhh...

"Aiden, what are you doing in there?" I holler from my desk chair.

"Nothing, " he sweetly answers back.

I stand up. He hears the wheels of my chair rolling on the wood floors. Clank. He sets the hairspray can down. Step, step. He's off the stool. Click. The light is off.

I walk out of the office and find him in the hallway.

"Aiden, what were you doing in the bathroom," I ask, knowing the answer.

"Nothing." He knows the hairspray is off limits... from experience.

"Aiden, you need to tell Mommy what you were doing." My patience is wearing down.

"I was in my room playing blocks."

How do they learn to lie like that? If he knows that I'm getting out of my chair in the other room simply from the sound, why doesn't he know that I can tell what he's doing from the sound?

I guess he's not going to say, "I was curious about the hairspray can, so I decided to spray it a couple of times." That would be too easy!

Fun at the Park

Ok, this really isn't a picture of the fun time we had at the park today, but it is definitely the result of our fun time! I was making dinner and thought that I hadn't seen Aiden in a while. (Most of the time, that's not a good thing!). When I found him, he was passed out on the couch. Too cute to get after him for having his shoes on the furniture!

Aiden did have a hard time getting going at the park all alone, but eventually made friends with a little girl who was bossy enough to be a "surrogate sister." He had a great time playing with her and doing whatever she told him to do.

What we've been up to...

It's been a while since I have posted anything and even though I haven't included any pictures with this post, I hope you will like to hear what we're up to anyway!

I have been working quite a lot on the weekends, so Travis has been taking time to go and do fun things with the kids. This works well as I sleep during the day and that doesn't go very well with noisy kids! Last weekend, Travis decided to take the kids up to Shelbyville to see Aunt Connie. The kids LOVE Aunt Connie! They had a great time. The stopped in Columbia on the way home and went to the Mizzou Fan Fest. It was a hot day out on the field and they didn't stay very long, but Sophie loved seeing the cheerleaders and Truman!!! I really missed the kids being gone. It was hard not to see them before I went to work!

It has been an adjustment for Aiden and I not having Sophie home during the day. He tolerates shopping with me and usually goes hoping that he'll get a new toy while we're out. So far I have given in to a Transformer and a Nerf Dart Gun. I took him to the Magic House last week and we had lots of fun, but I know that he would have rather had Sissy there to boss him around. He's such a man.... complains about the bossing and nagging while it's happening, but knows deep down he loves it and just can't live without it!!!

I finished up my summer semester and now have just 3 more semesters to go. By this time next year I'll feel like a free woman!!!

We took the kids to Grant's Farm yesterday. It was hot but we had lots of fun. The kids got to see and pet the animals. Sophie liked feeding the goats and Aiden liked the guinea pigs. We also watched the animal show while we were there and got snow cones.

Sophie LOVES kindergarten. She has made some new friends. It has been really exciting for her to go to different classes like art, PE and music class. Mondays are library days and she gets a new book every week. She is being super responisble and making sure that I sign her behavior sheet every day so she won't miss any recess. Every week they choose Lady and Gentleman of the week. They are students who work hard and have good behavior all week. I bet you can't guess who the very first lady of the week was!!! Ok, maybe you can! Sophie was so excited. She got a bracelet making kit from her teacher and we were able to make 3 bracelets that she wears all the time.

What's coming up--

Tuesday is picture day. I'll be posting those pictures as soon as I get them. She already has her dress picked out and has been practicing her pose and smile. (Like she needs to...)
Awanas starts in a couple of weeks and Travis is going to take both the kids this year. Aiden gets to start Awanas this year and is excited.
School starts back up for me in a week. I plan on being busy!
Tile samples come in the mail tomorrow...I'm confident we've found a backsplash. I'll keep you updated.
We're planning a road trip over labor day weekend... not sure where yet, but if you have any thoughts, let me know. We'd like to go somewhere we've never been, but it has to be close. Sophie thought Africa sounded like fun and Aiden wants to "go on 'cation' tomorrow!"

Until next time...

p.s. Happy birthday Grammy!!! ("Wow. That's old!")