Happy Halloween 2010! :)

Happy Halloween everyone!! Hope your weekend was just as wonderful as ours :)

Our Halloween festivities started yesterday. We went to Bass Pro to get a free Halloween picture taken, as you can see above. Then we went home, dropped the dog off and went to downtown Overland Park to trick-or-treat. Brodie had a lot of fun! He got a lot of candy too, but loved the Dum-Dum lollipops the best. While we were walking around we saw only one other little boy dressed as Wolverine. It was a bit different though. He had the claws. When Ben & Brodie were walking in one of the shops downtown, the other Wolverine and his mom were walking out and he goes "another Wolverine!" Then his mom was telling him to come on and he goes "but that's my cousin!" haha About Brodie being another Wolverine. It was so cute! :)

Today we went out to the Legends shopping area, like we did last year, for their Halloween festivities. We trick-or-treated and walked in the costume parade. Neither kid won the costume contest, but that's ok! There's always next year :) Out at the Legends we saw quite a few more Wolverines, but we didn't see any other mermaids. We did meet up with two of my co-workers and their kids. Grace's daughter Ariana-who's 19 days older than Brodie-was a little prisoner. Keiko's two girls, Aya (who's 3) was a mouse and Jun-ko (who's 10 or 11) was cheese. The kids had a good time! Brodie had fun with the girls. When he first met Grace's daughter, he tried giving her a kiss!! Little ladies man he is :)We did take the dog with us again this year, but I don't think we will next year. haha, She was just a little too much ;) But she did get quite a bit of attention!

We got home and Brodie and Naomi were out! We wore them out! It was a really great Halloween. It's become our family tradition to go out to the Legends for their Halloween events. :) As long as they do it, we'll be out there. Well, until the kids say they're "too old" to do that stuff. :)

Oh, and at last minute we decided to go get some candy just in case we got a couple trick-or-treaters. Ben went out and got 3 bags of candy, but now at 9:31pm, no one has came. No one! We have this big bowl of candy-trust me, I'm not complaining! :)

Hope everyone had a safe Halloween!! :D

Brodie & Vida's Halloween costumes

Well, if you're on my Facebook you may have read about the trouble we've been having with Brodie's Halloween costume. We had originally ordered a 2T Wolverine costume from Toys R US online, when we got it it was the wrong size. We called, they sent us a new one claiming it'd be the right size. Wrong! A size bigger, again. Ben called them again, that way I wouldn't be ripping someone a new one. They said they'd send us a new one again. That didn't happen.

So, last Tuesday I went to Target to find Brodie something for Halloween. Unfortunately, it was pretty much slim-pickin's there. The choices I found were a dinosaur (which he would step into and appear to be riding it), garden gnome, firefighter, or superman. I sent Ben pictures of all the costumes and we decided on the dinosaur.

Get home that night, show Brodie and immediately he screams. Doesn't like, doesn't want to have anything to do with it. We try to hug the dino to show him that its not scary and its nice. He kinda laughs when we do it. Then we tried, probably about 5 different times, to put him in it-note that he'd just have to step in it and pull the straps around his shoulders kinda like a dinosaur overalls. Every time he would kick and scream. So, the dinosaur costume is out-gotta take it back.

So yesterday, Ben and I talk and we decided to have him try on one of the Wolverine costumes. It's a size 3-4T and he wears 2T. When I first show him he has a little more interest in it than with the dinosaur, but still not too much.

So we go upstairs and play, I take the costume with me. I pull him to my lap and kind of have to force him into it. He's kicking his legs, but I finally get his legs in it and then get his arms in it. Got it on, woo hoo! He kinda stands there and just like "ok, now what?!" :) He walks around and plays in it. He did tug at the collar of the costume because of the tag in the back-I'll be cutting it off. But for the most part, he was ok with it on. The headpiece of it, not so much. Brodie's not really into wearing hats anyway, so when we'd try to put it on his head it'd come off as fast as we got it on. So that's ok. As long as the costume portion stays on! :)

So he'll be Wolverine this year, like the original plan. But next year, we're going to order the kids' costumes in September so we don't have to deal with this kind of craziness. :)

Last week a co-worker of mine gave me some red felt. I had told her I wanted to make a costume for Vida, a crab costume, to go along with Naomi's mermaid costume. Sunday I made that costume for the dog. And, it turned out awesome! As Ben said "better than I had imagined!" :) She's not too impressed with it, but she tolerates it. She's such a good dog!

Anyway, so here are a couple pictures of Bro being Wolverine and a couple of Vida as a crab :)

Brodie is officially 18 months and Naomi is 10 weeks!

Only 6 more months and my baby boy is 2!!! I cannot believe it! It seems that since we've had Naomi, time is just going faster and faster!

Brodie's thing he really likes to do now is climb up on our kitchen table chairs. He likes to sit up there like we sit for dinner. Soon we'll have to attach the booster seat to one of the chairs for him instead of putting him in his high chair! Such a big boy!! He's also mastered feeding himself with a fork.

I'm not sure if he's sprouted any more teeth since my last post about his teeth, I don't think he has. He does really well at brushing his teeth! I start for him and he likes to finish :)

OH! Brodie also LOVES to sing into the microphone! We have one of those echoing microphones we got from Target that he'll use, an Xbox or PS3 microphone, and we had another microphone that he got from Aunt Rita & Uncle Dave but he has since destroyed that one. :( But, he'll go around and just singing "do do do doooo" in them. It's so funny!

On his LeapFrog toy we got him a couple weeks ago-where you put the letter in it and it says the letter and sounds they make-he just loves it. And he's starting to really understand the letters. After he'll play with it he'll try to say the letters. He pretty much has "O" and "A" down, and maybe "E". :)

Last night he was trying to help me feed Naomi! He was holding the bottle himself and trying to put it in her mouth. She just didn't want to be fed at that moment, otherwise he could have done it on his own!! :) Such a GREAT big brother!! And he was talking to her when she was getting a little fussy and it sounded like he was saying her name, Naomi!! :)

Brodie is doing fantastic! His imagination is outstanding and his vocabulary is growing! Sometimes you really can't figure out what he's saying because it's mostly jibberish, but other times you can make out: "I don't know," "Sissy," definitely "no," "please" which kind of sounds like cheese, "whoa," "um," "bye-bye," "hi," "huh," of course "mama" & "dada," "Nana," "see" but not if he's really saying see or if its something else that sounds like see, "kee" or "keekee" for kitty, he's mocked Vida at barking a few times, "stinky," "yea," and he likes to shake his head no when he doesn't want something-like anymore food :)

Naomi is doing fantastic as well! Growing and learning! She's starting to become more vocal, not necessarily with cries, but with just letting us know that she wants something. :) She's starting to smile more and really show her facial expressions. She's so cute!

She's still a really good baby (knock on wood) and really likes to study your face and what you're doing. She's a little thinker, that's for sure. She is still waking up about one to two times at night, usually just the one time. We're going to wait until she really starts sleeping through the night to put her in the room with Bro.

She is growing so fast! We're starting to put her in her 3-6 month outfits, as most of the 0-3 months are too small!! :( Some she can still fit but some are just so tiny.

Naomi LOVES tummy time! Loves loves loves it. We don't let her go to bed while on her tummy, but if we're doing tummy time and she takes a little cat nap, we'll just let her sleep. We're always right there so nothing can happen.

She is ROLLING!!! She rolls from her back to her side, to her tummy. Sometimes she'll get so mad if she can't roll over, but she is so bound and determined to do so! She's rolled from her back to her tummy once at home and she's rolled either from tummy to back or back to tummy at daycare. She is holding her head up really well for a baby her age! We're trying her out in Brodie's bumbo-those little cushiony seats for babies. She does pretty well but she's still too little for it.

The other morning we were waking up and Nomi was laying in-between Ben and I in bed, and our cat-Zoey, came up and gave her kisses right on her nose! It was SO cute!! Zoey is always trying to come around Naomi too. You know, Ben really doesn't care for that cat but she really cares for the babies :)

It's still so mind blowing that we have two kids. Everyday I'm amazed by them. They're so wonderful, and sweet. Yea we have our moments, but so do all kids-no one is perfect. They're great babies, who are growing too fast! They're always learning and doing something new. :) Amazing they are (in my best Yoda impersonation,haha).

Maple Leaf Festival & Great-Grandma K's birthday

This past Saturday, 10/16/10, we went to Baldwin City for the Maple Leaf Festival. Tuesday is Great-Grandma K's birthday so she and Nana came up to celebrate.

Brodie, Naomi, Tuyen (Brodie's God-Mother), and I went to Baldwin. Ben had to work so he couldn't make it.

We first went to Great-Uncle Bradley's house, Nana's brother. After hanging there for a minute, Brodie, Naomi, Tuyen, Nana, Ridley (Nana's Great-Niece), and I went to the festival. It was really fun. There were rides and little tents of things you could buy, and food stands.

Nana tried to take Brodie on the carousel, but he did not enjoy it one bit. So Tuyen and I took him to get a smoked turkey leg. It was SO good and Brodie loved it! We walked all around that festival. It was pretty big.

After the festival we went back to Great-Uncle Bradley's and had cake and ice cream for Great-Grandma K. There Brodie met three more of his cousins-Max, Reese, and I forgot the other boy's name (whoops!). Max, who is a little older than Brodie, LOVED Naomi! I was laying her down changing her and he came up to sit by her and kept trying to give her one of his trucks to play with. He even kissed her when we were leaving. It was super cute.

Brodie on the other hand kept trying to play with the big kids. He tried to get up on the big chair to sit next to Reese. He was also just running around being so curious!

We all sang happy birthday to Great-Grandma K and she got pictures with her Great-Grandkids.

Then Nana and Great-Grandma K went back to Ellsworth and we went back home too. Brodie and Naomi were SACKED when we got home! They fell asleep on the drive home. You could tell they had a good time by that :)

It was a really fun Saturday! And tomorrow, we hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday Great-Grandma K!! :D We love you!

Here are some pictures of Great-Grandma K and her Great-Grandkids :)




Cousin Max holding Naomi with Great-Grandma K's help



Brodie with the big kids (Reese & Ridley)




Naomi with Tuyen

Naomi's 2 month & Bro's 18 month appointments

Today we took the kids to their first check up together! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily we didn't have to wait in the waiting room too long and they have books in the individual rooms. Also, Ben and I went together. There's no way that we'd let each other take the kids to the doctors by themselves lol

Naomi has really grown since her last appointment! She's in the 90th percentile in both height and weight-which really means nothing but it sounds good :) She's 23 1/2" long and weighs 12lbs 2oz! Her head has grown too, 15" and is in the 50th percentile. I have been thinking she has a big head! :)

Brodie's grown quite a bit too. He's in the 75 percentile in height, 60th percentile in weight and 25 percentile in head circumference. He weighed in at 27lbs 2oz (the oz is a guesstimate because he kept trying to mess with the scale!), he stands 33 1/2" tall-only grew 1/4" since his last appointment, and his head is 18 1/2" round.

The doctor checked both babies out and said they were looking good and healthy! Naomi got her round of 2 month shots and surprisingly she only cried for maybe 2 minutes and then was fine again. Brodie just got a flu shot and cried for a little bit but then was also ok. Bro went first since he just had the one.

Naomi goes back to the doctor for her 4 month check up and I don't think they said when Brodie will go back. I'll have to check when we make Nomi's appointment.

It was a good visit, Brodie kind of got a little fussy but it was because he was tired and it was getting close to his morning nap. When I got to their daycare, Brodie was asleep :) But, took them inside and he was ready to play with one of the little girls there. Wish I had his energy. :)

But, both kids are doing GREAT! Growing fast and staying healthy! :)

Naomi's Halloween costume

Like I said in the other post, Noms' Halloween costume came in the mail while we were gone. Well, I had to open it and have her try it on to make sure it fit her :) I ordered it off Etsy, so it's handmade. SO CUTE!! I love it and she appears to too! :)

Pictures of Brodie with family :)

Pictures of Naomi with family :)

10/7-10/10

This past weekend we went to Ellsworth to visit family. We left Thursday night and came back today, Sunday.

It was really great. The kids got to see & meet some family members they haven't met/seen in awhile. They had a really good time, they slept practically all the way back home today except maybe the last hour! :)

We got to Nana & Grandpa's house late Thursday night. Well, I went to bed at midnight and the kids went to bed way later! Brodie didn't go to sleep until 3am!! Then we had to be up early the next morning to go to a funeral.

Brodie did good at the funeral, but then he tried to add his two cents to the sermon. So, Ben took Brodie outside to play around. Naomi did really good! No blowouts and no crying fits! :)

After the funeral we took the kids back to Nana & Grandpa's for naps and then met with the rest of the family at the church for lunch. Brodie had fun running around there after he ate and Naomi slept most of the time :)

After lunch at the church we went to Aunt Marnie & Uncle Don's house. It was a really good time! Their house is beautiful and Brodie liked looking at all the decorations. Luckily they did have some toys that Brodie liked playing with! After awhile, cousin Ashlyn came so he had a little buddy to play with. Naomi was having fun being held by everyone :) It was really great seeing everyone and we can't wait for next month-Thanksgiving & the family reunion! :)

The next day, Auntie Eden came back home and we just hung out at Nana & Grandpa's. Brodie loved playing around with his Auntie Eden :) She got both the kids little Halloween treats-two little goody bags and there were little toys in each of them. Brodie had a pirate hat, bowl, and a ball with an eyeball inside! Naomi's had a Frankenstein shirt, a pair of socks, and a witch hat! :) So cute!!

Sunday, we hung out for a little bit at Nana & Grandpa's and then we went to Salina to visit my family. I hadn't called and told them we were in town because I wanted to surprise them. When we got close to my Grandpa's house, I called my mom and asked her to go outside and then just kept asking her about how the weather was. She was looking the other way when we pulled up to the house. On the phone,I told her to look the other way and she saw us and it scared her! haha :) She was like "oh my gosh, you guys!!" And ran inside and told my Uncle and Grandpa we were there. It was really good. We stayed and watched the Chiefs/Colts game. Then around 3ish, we left to try to see if we could find a 2T Wolverine costume for Brodie. We couldn't so we just left town.

Like I said above, the kids slept almost all the way home! They woke up outside of Topeka. They were so wore out! :) We got home, bathed the kids and Brodie went to bed early. Nomi is just laying in her lamb sleeping.

Oh, and when we got home Nomi's Halloween costume was in the mail! Tried it on her and it fits perfectly!! Can't wait for Halloween!! Just have to find her some hair accessories-or make them myself, and order Brodie's Halloween costume online. :)

It was great seeing everyone!! Can't wait for next month! :)

Sunday dinner at Johnny's BBQ

American Royal BBQ

The petting zoo






In the BBQ Expo



Getting scared by the sauce guy



At night

Naomi being all cute and stuffs :)

In her pink outfit :)





In her pumpkin outfit :)