Oh November.

Where did it go? I'm not ready for Christmas?!? Shopping....I don't have time for that! Will someone do my Christmas shopping and plan the girls' birthday party pretty please?

Seriously can you believe the girls are going to celebrate their first birthday in 29 days? I'm so excited to reach this milestone because we kept saying it will get easier after they are one...no more formula..no more bottles....they can eat pretty much anything...they can face forward in the car...etc. But something tells me it isn't going to get too much easier! At least not until they are about three. Liam is easy and I keep thinking ok, when the girls can go potty all on their own and get their shoes on and get in the car by themselves and they can go up and down the stairs with out me worrying and I don't have to carry a diaper bag and no one needs a snack when we are just going out to run errands...then it will truly be easier!!


But, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to no more bottles and formula! I HATE our bottles. Thought I loved them at first, but that didn't last long. They leak all the time when they are standing up and when we are feeding! So you set a bottle down that has a little left in it and ten minutes later there is a ring of formula puddled up on your end table. Or the girls get drips of milk on their chest while they are drinking.....arhhgg. So for all you new moms out there. BORN FREE bottles are not all they are cracked up to be. Ours started leaking after only a couple months of use and there are FIVE pieces to clean per bottle. We have stuck it out b/c we didn't want to pay for a new set, so I think after the girls are fully transitioned to sippies I am going to take those bottles out back and line them up and borrow a shot gun:)


Ok moving on! I'm off my soapbox. Here are some highlights from this month!

(Kallie is the closest to the camera) The girls interactions have been just priceless the last month. They LOVE each other. They laugh at each other, make squishy faces at each other, follow each other, it is delightful. They take toys from each other and knock each other over occationally still, but they are over it in about 2 seconds.We got to watch Avery Kate one day and Kallie was enthralled to say the least. (Klaire was sleeping:)Kevin's parents came down for a long weekend and helped us with the kids and many projects around the house. Kevin and Dennis made these great planter boxes for the deck and Marnie and I made curtians and pillow covers for my room....(or should I say the master bedroom...nahhh it's pretty much mine:) I will post pictured when everything is complete! Oh and you are probably wondering why Kallie is just standing in this picture?!?!? Well, little miss thang 1 is standing all the time now and has taken some steps!!! Not long now! Klaire is standing some too, but is more interested in talking! Klaire says, "Momma, Dadda, and Nanna very clearly and tries to say night night, banana, bye bye, minnie, and a few others. She also turns pages in books when you ask her to and points and shakes her head. She does some signs as well. Kallie says, "Momma and Dadda" and she will sign for more and wave bye.We took advantage of Landon being home from school and we all loaded up to meet daddy for lunch and see his new office. His company switched to a new location and Kevin got an office with windows this time and a fantastic view of downtown!!!This was a very important and private meeting going on here. The real decision makers were very concerned about how much they could twirl in their chairs. Daddy and his sweethearts.(Klaire in front) I caught them sitting like this. Klaire smiles with her mouth open and Kallie grins from ear to ear. Their laughs are also different. Kallie squeals and Klaire cackles.


This is the jail. The have come to like it pretty well in there. And I let them out to explore every day, it's just nice to have them contained when I am cooking or doing something with the boys.

Sorry this picture is blurry, Kevin didn't know I had the camera on manual control. Those are elves hanging from the fan. Their names are Hollis and Hampden and they come to life at night and get into all kinds of mischeif. The boys wrote letters to Santa asking for some elves to come and help us get ready for Christmas and these two came and rang our doorbell the day after Thanksgiving. They will stay with us until after Christmas and then they will go back to the North Pole until next year. Kevin and I sure are having fun 'helping' the elves and we are getting a kick of the boy's enjoyment. Landon has asked a few thousand questions and it took a little convincing, but now he is jumping out of bed to see what Hollis has done. You can find out more at http://www.elf-magic.com/. (Side-note: Kevin and I are thinking about telling Landon about Santa next year way before Christmas season, so that he doesn't hear it from someone else. Anyone been in this boat before? It will be interesting to see if any of his kindergarten buddies tell him anything this year, so far so good. He is just the type kid that isn't going to believe for long and we aren't going to force the Santa thing after he questions it. Any advise on this one?!?!)

You can't turn your back for a second with these two. If one doesn't find it, the other one will.

My surprise visit to see miss Lindy Carr and her precious family! I told Kevin back in August (before my birthday) that the thing I wanted most for my birthday was a weekend to spend with Lindy. So he promised me that he would let me fly up there and he would keep the kids. Yes all four of them! So I flew up on her birthday and she was in shock! We talk all the time, but we hadn't seen each other since April of '07. Anyway, it was awesome. So glad I went and I'm so thankful to Kevin for being SUPERDAD and successfully keeping all four and Liam was even sick. At one point that weekend, he called to tell me he was in Wallie World with all four of them and they were all as happy as could be...he says, "This isn't so hard, I don't know why you don't want to take all four of them grocery shopping:)" Very funny hunny.

Well, if anyone has any birthday party ideas....send them my way. And feel free to do some Christmas shopping for me, otherwise all of you that normally recieve gifts from me are getting coal......or maybe giftcards:)