Happy Thanksgiving

Wow, this year is FLYING by! Happy Thanksgiving!

It's nice to once again not be traveling for Thanksgiving. We can stay home and enjoy some time with family without being on the road for hours and hours. We had Dan's parents, my mom, and Dan's brother's family over for an early dinner of deep fried turkey, ham, and tons of sides, not to mention yummy desserts. Thankfully the weather was beautiful and we were able to spend some time outdoors.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, we have a beautiful and healthy family and two perfectly adorable, loving, smart kids. Piper cat is still hanging in there and becoming more tolerant of the little ones every day. Dan has a great new career and is able to spend more time at home because he isn't traveling. My photography business is doing better than I could have ever hoped for, especially since this is my first "official" year, and I'm able to stay home with Luke and Olivia. We are thankful we get to spend more time with our family, which was the catalyst for us moving back to NC. Our marriage is stronger than ever and we look forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary next year. We have made some wonderful friendships that will last a lifetime, and Luke and Olivia have made great friends as well. We have found a wonderful preschool for them and they are thriving. Luke and Olivia continue to amaze and astound us each day and I can't believe Dan and I created these two little beings that we waited so long for. Our blessings are numerous and I'm humbled by how lucky we are. Each day truly holds a new adventure but we wouldn't trade our life for anything in the world!

Potty training...1 down, 1 to go!

Yay!!! We finally have 1 toddler potty trained! So proud of you, Olive!

We have been working on potty training since the summer, but took a little bit of time off because it just wasn't going well. Then one Sunday (November 25th), we asked Olivia is she wanted to wear panties and she said ok. It was literally that easy!

She has an amazing bladder capacity and can go for hours without having to pee. She takes after her daddy for sure! She wouldn't pee in the potty on Sunday, instead waiting until we put a pull up on her for naptime. However, she didn't have any accidents, either. The next day, (Nov 26th), Olive put panties on again and eventually she peed in her little potty. We made a HUGE to-do about it, complete with marshmallows and stickers. This continued for days with no accidents, and we were so happy and proud.

Now pooping was another story. Miss Olive can be about as stubborn as her mommy :), and for some reason she got it in her head that she wasn't going to poop in the potty. No way, no how. She went for 3 days (her poor belly) and ended up having an accident at school. She then went a few more days before she would FINALLY poop in the potty. We made an even bigger deal, complete with more stickers and more marshmallows and it's been smooth sailing ever since. She's only had one pee accident, which happened right after she woke up from a nap, and no more poop accidents.

We started with pull ups at naps and night time, progressed to pull ups only at night, and now she is 100% in panties-no more diapers or pull ups! She is also pretty much using the "big potty", which means even less for mommy to clean up. Such a big girl! Way to go, Olivia!!!!

Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Halloween! We had a busy couple of weeks leading up to the "big night."

We asked Luke and Olivia a few months ago what they wanted to be and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse was the resounding answer! I usually try to make their costumes, but this year it was going to be easier to buy them. I found a Minnie Mouse dress through the CMOM's club and a Mickey costume online. Done!

A few weekends before Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch with the CMOM's group. We got 2 little pumpkins for Luke and Olivia to decorate and a larger pumpkin for Dan to carve. They had a great time painting and putting stickers on their creations, while Dan got really creative and made the big pumpkin into a Mickey and Minnie. Here are the results:

Then we went with some friends to a local pumpkin patch for even more fun. We went on a hayride and got to pick out 2 more pumpkins. They had tons of fun playing with their friends and running around.

Their class had a little party at school and I got to go to it. It's so cute to see them sitting around the small tables with their friends. They look so grown up and just another reminder of how quickly it's all going by.

It was finally time to go trick or treating! Now that they are older, we talked to them about the evening so they wouldn't be scared. They learned to say "trick or treat" and "thank you for the treat." We explained to them that we were going to a costume parade at the clubhouse, going to see a fire truck, have a pizza party dinner and then trick or treat with our friends. We loaded them into the wagon and started our adventure. We thought we would only make it to a few houses, but they were troopers and kept going and going. Must have been the sugar rush as we were out until almost 8pm! After we were all done trick or treating, we briefly got to go to Aunt B, Uncle Marc's and Milo's house so we could say hello.

Here are a few pics from the evening. Happy Halloween!

Can you handle all of this cuteness???