Cutest pjs ever

Finn usually sleeps in footed pajamas, turned around backwards to prevent him from taking them off. Recently all of his normal pajamas were in the wash so we improvised with a pair of pajama pants and t-shirt and I think the results were simply smashing. I could just eat him with a spoon.

Door words

Finn has become obsessed lately with Maggie's magnetic letters. He now can correctly identify all 26 letters of the alphabet (upper AND lowercase) and numbers 0-9 and will happily play with the magnets for 15-30 minutes. It's so fun. Since we had them out one day we decided to write a message with them on our front door for Grant when he came home. Both Maggie and Finn got a kick out of it, as you can see below.

Carolina lately

This little sweetie...we just love her. (Duh!) Here's what she's up to lately.
She is loving words lately. She can say: mama, dada, no, nana (banana), hi, hey, hello, bye, thank you (seriously!), and the other day when I sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to her she said right back to me, "Row, row, row."
She is having a lot of separation anxiety right now (which is normal for her age) and wants me the most. It's sweet and frustrating at the same time.
She is standing on her own for 30-60 seconds without falling but doesn't seem too interested in taking steps yet. She cruises (walking while holding onto furniture) a tiny bit. She crawls very quickly.
She is still eating great - loving nearly everything we feed her, and we basically feed her whatever we're eating now.
She's still nursing about 4 times a day and I plan on weaning her sometime after she turns one.
Life, for me, with three kids is so much easier now than it was even six months ago. Finn is becoming more mature and will walk through a parking lot while holding my hand, instead of darting away from me, and Carolina is so much sturdier and a little more independent. We are happy and having lots of fun around here!

I heart Maggie

She is still such a smart, funny girl. Here are a few Maggie funnies:
Our one bathroom (I've told you before - our house is tiny) is in the back of the house near Carolina's room. When Maggie needs to use the restroom during rest/nap time I always ask her to be really quiet. Now that she's in school she only has rest time on the weekends but a few weeks ago she took me back into the restroom to show me her "quiet" way of flushing the toilet. She closes the door, puts down the lid to the toilet, puts one foot on the lid of the toilet and the other on the handle to the door, and then flushes the toilet. I'm not sure why she thinks that makes it any quieter but at least she's trying!
You may remember that Maggie's preschool teacher, Miss Heather, is Australian. Maggie now loves all things Australian and the other day when Carolina laughed Maggie said, "I think that was a dingo. If not a dingo, then a kookaburra." Hmmm...

At our church, part of our liturgy says, "Command, O Lord..." and Maggie leaned to me and said, "Why are they talking about not wearing underwear?!" Get it? It sounds like they said "commando," as in, "going commando."

And one more - Maggie has a stuffed dog that she's named Chocolate Olivia. Last night she told me, "Sometimes, when I look at Chocolate Olivia, I just love her so much I want to cry." Adorable!

Warrior Dash

Yesterday my sister Erin and I participated in the Warrior Dash. In case you don't know what that is, you can check the website or here's my quick explanation: It's a 5K (3.2 miles) run on an obstacle course, culminating in a mud pit that you MUST climb through (there is barbed wire over your head, forcing you to stay low). Wait. That kind of doesn't sound fun. I promise, it was so much fun.
Here I am, right after jumping the fire.I'd been wanting to get back in shape since Carolina was born but I just hadn't made the commitment to get to the gym. Erin mentioned the Warrior Dash about two months ago and I thought it sounded fun, signed up with her, and then realized, "Oh, hey...I guess I better start exercising again." So I worked my way up from exercising for 30 minute chunks, running three minutes, walking one minute, over and over, all the way up to running 3o minutes without stopping. It took me about 3 weeks to work my way up to running the whole time. BUT, I got used to running on a (flat) treadmill in air conditioning, and I'd only run outside one time in the last two months, until yesterday. Folks, it was HOT and I think I didn't hydrate well enough before the race. I had to stop and walk way more than I wanted to because I kept thinking I was going to vomit. I also got tunnel vision onetime and although it is in my nature to push, push, push, I reminded myself that I am the mother of three and wife to one who need me and it would not be good to pass out in the middle of a field. I really had pictured myself sprinting from obstacle to obstacle and then going full force over the obstacles and that is NOT what happened. Maybe next year!Going into it I also was really hesitant about climbing a wall and I thought I might have to skip that obstacle. It turns out that there were at least five walls we had to climb (some with ropes, some with slats to climb up, and one even had a fire pole we had to slide down. But, those actually turned out to be my favorite obstacles and I'm proud that Erin and I did every single obstacle. The two we liked the least were climbing up this wall of hay bales which we then had to jump off of (we were afraid we'd break our ankles jumping into the soft hay) and one where we had to crawl through a long tunnel that was pitch black, through dirt. At the very end there were two fires we had to jump through and then the infamous mud pit. When we got to the fire we saw my dad there, cheering for us! He drove all the way out, about an hour and a half, just to cheer for us and take photos. Isn't that so sweet?!
There was someone with a hose, rinsing people off, but the line would have taken us at least 30 minutes to get through and we were too impatient, so we rinsed off our hands (I also changed clothes), and put towels on the seats, and drove home. When you turned in your computer chip (used to track your time), you are handed a stein of beer, but that was pretty much the last thing I wanted after exerting myself so I gave mine to Erin. Just kidding! We both gave our chips to strangers.
It was so much fun, I'm proud of myself and Erin, and I want to do it again next year, train better, go with a bigger group, and dress up. Want to run with us?!

Cousin Lily Kate turns 2!

My niece, Lily Kate, turned two in August and had a party at Monkey's Treehouse, which is basically one of those warehouses with indoor play areas - dress up stations, ball pits, jungle gyms, building things, riding toys. It was so much fun, and I don't mean just for the kids. Here I am with my nephew, Jack, and Maggie, about to go down the slide.
And here we are at the bottom of the slide:
Yes, I am just spazzy enough to go down the slide with two kids in my lap. It was fun!
Here's the birthday girl with her mom, my sister, Erin. They are basically a bunch of blondies in their family.
Carolina played in the ball pit for at least half an hour. She L-O-V-E-D it. You can tell because of that giant dimple below her eye :) And even though the ball pit was technically for children two and younger, Maggie enjoyed it as well.Here she is, sporting a brand new dress from her Uncle Steve and Uncle James. (In case you wanted to know, it is from the children's store owned by Soleil Moon-Frye, a.k.a. Punky Brewster.) And because I begged, she let me do her hair in two "twisty buns," which is my favorite hairstyle for little girls. Of course, Mimi was there, and what do good Mimis have in their purses? Why, very pale lip gloss exclusively for their girly granddaughters, used only at very special times. (It must be the mark of a good grandmother to carry something special in their purse - Maggie's paternal grandmother carries Polly Pockets in her purse.)
Finn had tons of fun, too, especially on this little riding toy that we only put him on because it matched his shirt. (Kidding. Although I wouldn't be above doing something like that.)

He also drove this truck around for a long time.
Finally, sweet Carolina. Somebody must have switched her "on" for the party. She was so funny. Whenever someone started taking her photo she would just start smiling, bouncing, and cooing, just for the photo......even with pizza sauce all over her face.
Happy Birthday, Lily Kate! So glad you were born two years ago (IN THE CAR!!!!! - Just had to include that.)
(Thanks for the photos, Poppy.)

Finn's funny sayings

We think Finn is so hilarious. Here are a few of the funny things he says:
He mispronounces spiders as "cyborgs". So every few days I hear him say "Cyborg! There's a cyborg in the house, mama!" By the way, he thinks every black spot is a bug and he thinks most bugs are spiders, so don't worry, we don't really have that many spiders in our house. Additionally, he also calls spider webs "cyborg webs." It's awesome.
He calls pickles "polkas", says "side-peep" for "spicy," "home dedoh" is "home depot," and chocolate chips are "chop chop chips". He has also invented a new word, "pelly" which combines both "pretty" and "really." He will say, "That polka is pelly side-peep, mama." (Did you translate that?)
A few weeks ago he walked up to my sister-in-law, Jenny, and said, "Hey, lady!" What? Where did he learn that?
Around the same time he said "Hey, lady," we had some friends over to dinner. After dinner was over but our guests were still seated at the table, Finn walked over, got their attention, and said, "I awesome."
Yesterday, at the YMCA, a new childcare worker walked in his room. He walked right over, held out his hand, and said, "Nice to meet you!" She is pretty much his new girlfriend now.
He is such a ham. He'll do anything to get our attention and be silly. I love it. He keeps me entertained all day long.
He also is such a sweetie. He tells us several times a day, "I love you, mama. I love you, daddy. I love Cay-lina. I proud of you, mama." And when we drop Maggie off at school or Grant at work, he always says, "Have a great day!"
Here is proof of his sweetness - even though Maggie bugs and bosses him A LOT, he still loves to snuggle her:

Kid paintings

The other day I didn't have anything for the children to do so I grabbed some paint, some paper, and some masking tape and decided Finn and Maggie could do a little art project. I taped their first initial on the paper and then told them just to paint all over the entire page.
Maggie decided she would paint something that incorporated the "M" into the design but Finn just had a good time painting everything all over it.
Here's Maggie with her finished artwork. She wanted it the "M" to look like mountains (specifically, Maggie Valley, NC).
And here's Finn's!
It took less than five minutes to set up and kept them happily busy for half an hour! Wahoo!

Sweeties

Love that smile!