Halloween

Halloween just keeps getting more fun. We got out to a pumpkin fun, carved said pumpkins, made holiday cookies and stocked up trick or treating. I'm sorry to report most of those activities were squeezed into Halloween day, but here's all the proof.





David and Ella with Mady (2 of the many kids on our street).


Halloween night...






We headed to Christina's for a special trick or treating adventure with her kids Ethan and Melina along with cousins Paul, Charlie and Ady Grace. Happy Halloween everyone - hope you all had as fun of a holiday weekend as we did!

Growing up

Madeline has a lot of changes coming up in the next few months. Moving into a new, bigger room, moving to a big girl bed, and becoming a big sister of course. So in preparation we took the front off her crib to see if we could start the process of her sleeping in a real bed. I really don't want to be dealing with a 2 year old not staying in her bed while up in the middle of the night with a newborn. The last two weekends we've taken it off and made a few failed attempts at her sleeping in it.

Last night however, she slept in her bed until about 4:30 am! Before that she actually fell out of the bed at one point...went out and bought the gaurdrail today...don't want that happening again poor girl. Today we had a "bed party" with balloons and Dora stickers to celebrate the ocassion.



Naptime was a little more difficult today. I thought she was sleeping and peeked in to check on her and she had taken her diaper off, and was fully dressed in about three layers of clothing apparently having her own fashion show. After peeling off the layers and getting her back in bed, she is now finally asleep. Looks like we are heading in the right direction!

We also went to the pumpkin farm last weekend and I hadn't uploaded these yet. I just realized a didn't get a single photo with a pumpkin ;) Madeline was running around so excited in the pumpking patch that every picture was blurry! My hopes of a Rockefeller-style picture in a sea of pumpkins may not happen this year, boo.

Ultimate Joy

This morning we went to Eden Park to feed the ducks/geese. This is one of Madeline's favorite things to do. I used to take her every week but with the new job we haven't been in weeks. She...loves...it. I say that just in case you couldn't tell by this picture.

Our neighbor was there with his two girls, Sophie and Eliza so we had some company.

Bengals Tailgate

I'm a little late getting these pictures up from the tailgate this weekend. In case you hadn't heard we've been overtaken by illness in our house. Flu, ear infections, croup, yuck. Hopefully by this weekend we'll be back to close to 100%. So the AJ Cohen Bengal's Tailgate went really great. Jon and the rest of the board pulled off a great event and AJ would have been very proud.











To top off the day the Bengals beat the Steelers in yet another heart-wrenching end of the game win...WHO DEY! Season is looking promising!

Glee Single Lady

Madeline loves three things recently.

1. The show Glee
2. Football
3. Beyonce

The three of them coming together in one form is like the holy trinity of happiness for my dear daughter. I'm not joking around here. She loves all the singing and dancing in the TV show and she has a fondness for Beyonce like her mom. Now the love of football has been a recent thing but she will actually watch the games and cheers the players on. So when I saw this week of Glee I was so excited to watch it with her.

This is not nearly as good as the first 3-4 times she did it when she was mimicing the dance moves and I was crying with laughter, but it was the best I could get on film. We've watched this scene about 10 times in the last two days now.

First Day of School

I can't believe we are here already. Ok so this is just the first day of preschool and by preschool I mean PRE-school, two mornings a week for 2.5 hours each day. Not that big of a deal, but Madeline has been very excited about this for weeks as have both her parents. "Mommy see my teachers...Mommy meet other kids...Mommy wear my backpack..." you get the point.

A good breakfast is essential.


Backpack on...


...and ready to go.


I don't know why but she thought she was going to take a bus to school this morning because when we walked out the front door she went to the street said, "Mommy yellow school bus coming?" I never told her this so at some point she got it in her head that school equals taking a yellow bus like in all the books she has. It was too cute. I had to actually pick her up and take her to the car because she just stood there waiting for it!

Busy weekend

Saturday morning we headed down to the reserve in Indian Hill with Madeline and Cooper. It's so pretty and one of my favorite new places. One of these weekends we'll get out on the canoes, although I'm sure Madeline will want to get into the lake so that may end up being a problem!



When we got home both the kiddies were so exhausted they laid down and barely moved for an hour.


We also headed to Beth and Lou's to visit week old baby Hadley. She is so tiny and beautiful and has lots of hair. Madeline got in some big sister practice and was very serious about sitting still while holding Hadley. I think she is going to be the best big sister ever!


Congratulations again you two - she is so cute!

Niece Ady Grace also turned 1 years old this week and I just can't believe she's that old already.

Note Harris's adorable chest pounding to top off song! I have the cutest nieces and nephews.

Happy Labor Day

We had a great Labor Day weekend just taking it easy and getting in some good family time. After my first week back at work I just wanted to hang out with Jon and my girl, it was perfect.



There was a celebrity guest in attendance who requested his face be blurred out. For those of you who want to see the hysterical original with nothing blurred out (or who know who it really is...haha!) just tell me.


Back to another workweek, oh man.

Baby #2

My last pregnancy we took belly shots every week documenting my ever expanding waistline. Well, I guess first kids are always a little spoiled, because it's 16 weeks in and this is the first time it even dawned on me this time. Still feeling really good too, pregnancy seems to really agree with me. My due date has been moved back a week to February 19th so my C-section will most likely be February 16th or so. I'm not sure if the President's Day holiday affects the scheduling.

And let me say...I know I was not showing this much at 16 weeks last time. Hopefully it's not a sign of what's to come!

Catching up

Sorry again for the lapse in time and my lack of posting it's been a little hectic here. Here are a few random pictures including a trip to the Toledo Zoo when home visiting my parents (or as Madeline refers to it now "Gama's Zoo"). Here we are riding the Safari train to see the giraffes, zebras etc.


And they have a great Children's Area that is really big so Madeline got to play with the goats, get her face painted, hold a hamster, play in the sand and tons of other things. It was a great trip and both of us can't wait to go back.



We are also attempting to teach her how to ride a bike which has not been going so well. Ever since she saw all her cousins riding their bikes around she HAD TO HAVE ONE just like them. So now she has one and she just wants to stand next to it or be pushed around on it like it's a ride. So we'll see if she can get the pedaling thing down sometime soon.