Under the Sea

The girls dressed up as Ariel and Flounder this year for Halloween! I have been so excited to post pictures of them! Lucy decided way back in the summer that she wanted to be Ariel, so I decided to follow suit and find Laney a matching costume. After some Ebay surfing, I found Flounder and fell in love! Doesn't she make the most adorable, chubby little fish!! Lucy has 2 Ariel dresses, and decided to wear the ballgown version tonight since she wore the mermaid one to gymnastics the other night. Lucy really wanted us to dress up too....Kevin as Prince Eric and me as Ursula. Yep, the mean sea witch.

Lucy had so much fun trick or treating this year! She kept saying that we needed to keep trying the other houses to see if they had Peppermint Patties. It was really cute. And after we walked around Nana and Papa's street and checked out the loot, she was ready to share! When the doorbell rang with more trick-or-treaters she reached into her basket to give out candy! What a sweetie!

Comparison Picture

This was Lucy at 4 months. Scroll down to see Laney at the same age/same outfit. They look so much alike!!!

Isula

Isula (rhymes with Ursula) is the newest resident to our house. Do you see her in the picture?

You don't?

She is right in the middle of Lucy and Laney. See her now?

No. Well, don't worry, neither do we. Isula is Lucy's imaginary friend.

She has mentioned Isula off and on for the past month or so, and we really haven't thought much about it. The other day though, Lucy was on a roll and kept mentioning Isula so I asked her where she met Isula and I received the whole story.

I met Isula at the carnival playing the water game. She doesn't have a mom or a dad or a family. She came home with us from the carnival so she could pretend that you are her mom and dad and family.

Now Isula is part of our everyday life. She goes downstairs to play with Lucy, she sleeps over every night, eats with us, and even went to gymnastics tonight. She wore the pink outfit and Lucy wore the blue.

Thank goodness this isn't at the point where I have to set an extra plate at the dinner table!

He's the Best

I have the most incredible hubby EVER!!! Saturday was our 5 year anniversary and we were supposed to go out to lunch together, just him and I. Five years and just lunch? We had a terrible time finding a sitter....all our family was out of town or had plans, our regular sitter moved last Friday and the only other options weren't available Saturday night. That's beside the point though. We were so excited to go out for a few hours and not have to do anything basement related and just be able to hang out. Then Kevin got sick. And we cancelled the sitter. And I was bummed. Really bummed. He didn't even really feel better until Monday, and that was the only night we were free. So I thought. Kevin cancelled his plans for last night and we got a sitter and went shopping and to dinner. Olive Garden...it was SO yummy. I actually just finished my dessert...triple chocolate tuxedo cake, or something like that. On the way home we stopped to pick up a few things at Walmart and were looking at cameras. I really wanted a new digital camera that was small and easy to use. We debated and decided to come home and read some reviews. Now to the reason why he is the best.

I was at work this afternoon and he sends me an email from Amazon. It was the receipt for the camera I wanted!!! And it will be here TOMORROW! I am so excited! I love it when he does these things! And it gets better...

Lucy and him baked chocolate chip muffins this afternoon together! How cute is that? Now if only I could have been home taking pictures of them cooking together with my new camera!

Thanks baby for the present! I can't wait! You're the best!

Our Little Pumpkins

Almost Done

Here are some pictures from our work in the basement. The carpet was supposed to come in yesterday, but was stuck on a truck about 2 hours from here and won't be delivered until Wednesday. We WILL have carpet down there by the end of the week. I have to say things went much smoother than I could ever have anticipated. Besides a few minor mishaps, mostly on the painting front, it was all good. Mom flung herself in the face with stain once, and that gave us all a great laugh on the last day of work. We are so thankful to Nana and Papa for all their time and hard work they put into helping us. Our basement would still be a dust pit if not for them. They were here for 2 straight weekends, plus almost every night in between. Kevin and I appreciate all your help more than you'll ever know, and the girls will too as soon as they can get down there and PLAY!

Laney hanging out in the saucer, she was supervising.
Lucy helped Papa paint her special room. It's the area under the stairs.
Nana and Kev's buddy, Mike, staining the doorways.
Papa and Kev hanging doors.
It looked much worse than this at many points. By the time I got the camera out, most of the trim was already put up.
Kev using the nail gun. I was nervous :)

4 Months

Laney turned 4 months old last week. Can't believe that our little baby is already getting so big! She is drooling a lot, talking more and more, and is always full of smiles! Laney loves watching her big sister do anything and everything...she just stares and is mesmerized. Her playmat and exersaucer are her favorite places besides being held, but she is becoming quite fond of the bumbo seat and highchair too. I think she knows that those things mean food is coming...she loves rice cereal and oatmeal!

Laney had her check-up and shots on Monday with the doctor. She weighed in at 15lbs even, 24 inches. She loved playing with the paper on the table while waiting for the doctor, loved looking at herself in the mirror as well! Doc said she was a happy, healthy baby! We think she's pretty cute too :)

WooHoo!!!

Painting of the walls is finished!!! Thank goodness. It took my mom and I countless hours, 11 1/2 gallons of paint and a couple (well maybe more) mishaps, but it is done.

We have some trim and door frames left to stain, and then 7 doors to paint, but that is ok.

But the really good news is:

Carpet comes on MONDAY!!!

Then toys and toys and more toys can all be moved to the basement!! Woohoo!!!

Pausing for Paint

Blogging has taken a backseat this last week. Every spare minute of time has been devoted to finishing our basement. We've (by we, I mean Kev, my parents and I) have been through about 17 gallons of primer, 4 gallons of ceiling paint, and almost 5 gallons of wall paint.

Yep...that's over 25 gallons of paint.

And...WE STILL ARE NOT DONE.

I'll be back with pictures when we are done!!

Rainy Day

It rained most of the day today, so we decided to make the best of it. Lucy got on her rain boots, grabbed her umbrella and out we went! She loved splashing in the puddles!

Later this evening, we looked out the window and saw not one, but two bright, beautiful rainbows! Lucy kept saying that the rain shouted out a rainbow! She was also trying to say that they were unbelievable! The rainbows were so vivid and we could see the entire arch of one!

Bugs Bite

Lucy and bug bites DO NOT get along well. She reacts to them by the bit getting hard, festering up and just being flat out yucky. Right before she turned 1, she got a bite on her arm that got infected and was an open sore about the size of a quarter. They prescribed a topical and oral antibiotic.

I've kept the topical ointment and put that on almost every bug bite she gets. Unfortunately, she got one on the top of each foot Tuesday night and by the time I got home from work on Wednesday, her left foot looked like it belonged to Fred Flintstone. (Not quite that bad, but it makes it sound better)

She kept complaining that it hurt, but I think it just really itched. She wanted to go to gymnastics, so we went, and she was fine. We gave her some bendryll before bedtime and crossed her fingers she would be better this morning.

Crossing our fingers didn't work. I took that picture above this morning. I took her to the doctor (the 4th time this week I've been in a doctor's office, including the vet) and they pretty much said what I thought. Keep a close eye on it and put Bactroban on it. She seems to be complaining a little less now, hopefully the Bendryll and cream are working!

How times change

The price of gas here is falling...thank goodness...and I hope it keeps falling. This sudden decrease in the last few weeks got us thinking. Kevin and I were discussing the other day our excitement at gas being $3.15/gallon here.

Yes...we were excited.

We remember back in the day when we HATED paying $1.19/gallon. Thought that was SOOOOO expensive.

And now when gas costs $2 more a gallon...we're happy.

Oh, how times change.