Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween we went to 2 trunk or treats.  One at our church and another at a local community college.  We got a lot of candy, but the girls don't eat candy yet so that means more for Thomas and I!  This Halloween was Kayla's 1st Halloween.  She has one more "first" Holiday (Thanksgiving) and that is it!  I can't believe how time has gone by.  So for their costumes this Halloween we did Winnie the Pooh.  Rachel was Pooh, Haley was Piglet, Kayla was the Hunny pot and I dressed up as a Bee.  My girls were so cute in their costumes!

Haley, Kayla and Rachel

Haley as Piglet

Rachel as Pooh

 

Kayla as the Hunny pot

 A couple of pictures at our church trunk or treat on October 27:

My girls and I

Rachel, Kayla and Haley

A couple of pictures from the trunk or treat on Halloween night.  These pictures make me smile.  Kayla looked like she was stuffed into her stroller with her puffy Hunny pot costume.  Haley was chillin' with her foot up on the side of the wagon and Rachel was chewing on a wrapped piece of chocolate.  My girls!

  

Flashback Friday: The Cauldron

We have this big plastic cauldron that we use for the Halloween candy we pass out.  When I got it out this year I remembered when I took pictures of Haley and Rachel sitting in it back on October 30, 2010.  I took these pictures of Rachel and Haley almost 2 years ago.  Haley and Rachel were almost 15 months old then.  I can't believe what a difference 2 years make!   They have grown so much.

Haley

Rachel not so happy in the cauldron

So since I had gotten pictures of Haley and Rachel in the cauldron, I wanted to do the same with Kayla.  Here she is on October 20, 2012 in the cauldron. 

Kayla - 10 1/2 months old

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a local pumpkin patch Saturday to pick out a pumpkin for Halloween.  The small field was full of pumpkins. The rich orange color of all the pumpkins was beautiful and it made it feel just a little more like Autumn here in Houston even though it was sunny and in the high 80's.
This was the girls first trip to a pumpkin patch.  They enjoyed it.  Rachel definitely checked out the pumpkins.  She looks at everything in detail.  Haley used her hands to get a better feel for them and Kayla just enjoyed watching her sisters go wild.

Here are the pictures of our adventure at the pumpkin patch:   

Haley, Kayla, Rachel

This one makes me laugh!  My Girls!

They didn't want to cooperate for this picture.  At least I got one with my girls.

Little Kayla

Haley unsure about sitting on the pumpkins

Rachel wearing daddy's sunglasses.  Only thing we could do to get her to sit still for the picture.

Rachel checking out the pumpkins

Haley posing with the scarecrows

Kayla

Mom Stays in the Picture

I heard about this STORY from my mom.  Its a story about a mom who found herself avoiding having her picture taken due to her lack of make-up, not perfect momma weight status, not put together hair and just not feeling pretty.  She would rather take pictures of her children than to be in them,  but determines that as a mom, she needs to be in the pictures with her kids so that her kids can remember her and the good times together.  It's a great story and I totally agree!  I take hundreds, perhaps thousands of pictures of my little girls.  I have some pictures of us together, but not as many as I would like.  It is important that I have pictures of my girls and I together so that my girls and I can look back at these pictures to remember the good times we had together.  I want my girls to also have these pictures to remember me as young and beautiful despite the  minimal make up, not so perfect weight or not as pretty as I would have liked to look.  These pictures of my girls and I together will be memories to last forever.  So here are recent pictures of my girls and I.  I usually don't really like how I look in pictures, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that these pictures are special and will be lasting memories.

 

 

Kayla is 10 months old!

Ten months?!  Already?!  Kayla is another month older and in two more months she will be ONE!  Can't believe it!  She is such a delight to our family.  We love and cherish her so very much. 

Lots of pictures from this month's photo shoot.  It went well and there were too many cute ones that I couldn't narrow it down to a couple.

At 10 months old, Kayla weighs 16 pounds, 9 oz.  She is petite!  She currently wears 6-9 month clothing.  She continues to sleep through the night (11-12 hours a night).  I'm so happy about that!  She eats 3 meals a day with formula in between as well as snacks.  She loves her snacks, especially the Gerber Graduates lil' crunchies.  She eats a variety of baby foods well.  Kayla still only has 2 bottom teeth.   At this time it doesn't appear anymore are close to coming out.

On September 19, I found Kayla standing up in her crib after she woke up from her nap!  It scared me since she had not done this before and her mattress was still at the highest height.  We dropped her mattress right away to the very lowest height.  She has been pulling up to stand ever since!  She pulls up to stand using  everything and anything she can.

Kayla continues to combat crawl though she is getting up on her hands and knees more and more.  She started going from crawling to sitting at 9 1/2 months.

Kayla has such a fun, feisty and sweet loving personality.  She is very curious and loves to get into anything to explore it.  She doesn't seem afraid of things and is so active.  She does have temper tantrums when she can't get or have what she wants.  She is a character!  She is definitely a mommy's girl and smiles so big when she sees me.  She loves to be in my arms.  Though she might turn into a daddy's girl because he sure can make her laugh and giggle when he plays with her.

 

Kayla just loves her sisters!  She is always so happy to see them when they come home from preschool.  Kayla will crawl to them to see what they are doing or to grab a toy from them.  Rachel is interacting more with Kayla.  She will sometimes pat her and one time I put Kayla in her lap and Rachel gave her a light hug.  Haley doesn't usually interact with her much and usually tries to stay out of her way.  Kayla is getting tough and usually doesn't cry anymore whenever Rachel or Haley lightly fall on her. 

THE END

Special Dresses photo shoot

This weekend I did yet another photo shoot of my beautiful girls.  I know I take a lot of pictures of them, but this photo shoot was done for 3 reasons.  The first one being the most important.

1. The girls were given these beautiful Brazilian dresses by a very special lady that has been following us and our story since the beginning.  She has become our friend and a 2nd grandmother to the girls.  Claudia we love you and appreciate you!  Thank you so much for these beautiful dresses!  These pictures are for you. 

2. I have learned some new techniques and settings on my camera.  It's not new stuff to professional photographers, but I have been trying to figure out how to blur the background in my pictures and I finally figured it out.  So I just had to try it out.  I'm still no way near professional, but I do enjoy the practice.  Plus I have pictures of my girls that will last forever.  My girls are such good sports about doing these photo shoots.  Though it's hard to get pictures of Rachel.  She doesn't stay still much at all.

3. I have been wanting to get pictures at this particular location for a while now.  It's a great location for pictures.   

Rachel, Kayla, Haley

Rachel

Rachel

Haley

Haley

Kayla

Kayla

Last but not least.  This picture appears at first glance to be a blooper, but its really an interesting picture.  It was pure luck.  Read the caption.

Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil

Mirror, Mirror...

A couple of weeks ago, while at our good friends house, Rachel found a mirror that had not been hung up yet.  Rachel had a lot of fun looking at herself in this mirror.  I was able to get pictures of her playing.  She was so cute with the faces and gestures she made. 

Ta Dah!

Umm, Mom I see you looking at me

 

Kiss!

Kayla joined in on the fun!

This is so cool!

Let's see how big I can open my mouth.  Lots of teeth!

Checking out my tongue.  Kayla's face in this one makes me smile.

Sweet kisses!