Claire's 9-month pictures

Here's the link for some pictures we had taken this morning.

https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0179110289JCP

These were for Claire's 9-month pictures as well a family picture and a shot of the girls in their monogrammed shirts. We'll probably be going back next week to get Melanie's 2 1/2 year pictures taken and maybe a few shots of the girls in their Christmas outfits. I just couldn't get all that stuff together for this morning. Plus, if we had tried to take all those pictures in one sitting I'm sure we would have been pushing our luck with having happy, smiling faces in the pictures. And since there's no sitting fee it's not a big deal to go back another time to be sure we have happy kiddos. Hopefully they'll be as smiley next week as they were today!

I hope this put a smile on your face :)

I Hide in Box!

This video isn't new, but it still makes me smile, so I'm sharing it anyway. I would guess based on the boxes in the background that we were still unpacking.

This took place before Matt introduced Melanie to the joys of hide and seek. It was actually events such as this one that made him decide she would enjoy that game.

Breakfast is Served!

Birthday Dancing

Be sure to pause the blog playlist before playing the video so you can hear what's going on.

For Matt's birthday he wanted to have his family over for pizza and make-your-own milkshakes. I really appreciate it when he specifically asks for something easy, because otherwise I can tend to make things a bit more involved than they need to be.

The evening also included some dancing entertainment courtesy of Melanie. This is the best video I was able to get of her mad skillz. About 55 seconds in she does her "signature move". It's pretty funny, in a spastic sort of way. Enjoy!

Oh, and I apologize to all the adults whose heads I cut off in the video. I was focused on getting Melanie, and well, she's short. Sorry if your head was a casualty of my poor camerawoman abilities.

Trick Or Treat!

As has become our tradition, and will likely remain so until the girls are old enough to go door-to-door begging candy off of strangers, we dressed the girls up and carted them around west Wichita, visiting relatives and showing off how cute our kids can be when subjected so silly (and hot!) costumes.

Claire the Sunflower

Melanie the Farmer
(although she did look a bit more cowgirl than a farmer. I forgot to put freckles on her cheeks. There goes my "Mom of the Year" award)

I think giving Melanie pig tails instantly made her look older. But the overalls and red shirt are 12-month sized clothes she still fits into, so she obviously isn't growing much!

Melanie's hat trick
Oooooo.... Ahhhhh...

Poor Claire had a very warm costume this year (much like Melanie's bunny costume last year )
She was very proud of herself when she figured out how to take the hood off.
For our family tour we would take her out of the costume every time we got into the car and put her back in it when we had reached out destination.

Melanie decided she was done posing for pictures

Claire just stayed where we put her and ate leaves

Claire raiding the candy bucket at Aunt Mary's.
We had already been to Wal-Mart to see Uncle John at the bank and Friends to see Aunt Katie at a volleyball game by this point, so Melanie was a bit tuckered out (probably from all the dancing she did for her dad's birthday the day before) and was sleeping.

Snagging candy from sister's candy bucket

The angel music box is a favorite with our girls

Discussing important things with Great Grandpa Greenlee

Grinning with Great Grandma Greenlee

So sad to go :*(

Rearranging G.G. Palmer's pretties

Claire getting in on the action

Claire and G.G.

Busted!

Melanie and G.G.

Gramps and Claire

Grams and Claire

Great Grandma Stockemer and the girls at Grasslands

Granny Em has a friend that came up with her fortune teller costume for her. Isn't it great?

Granny's walker decorated like a fortune teller's wagon.

Come to Zelda for all your fortune telling needs!

My parent's house was the last stop on our trick-or-treat trek, but by the time we got there I had dropped Matt off at home to hand out candy and my dad had left to go to a WSU volleyball game with his parents, and to be honest I was tired and wanted to go home. As a result I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the girls with Great Grandma (Nana) McHugh or my parents. Now I have two marks against me in the "Mom of the Year" contest... I'll never win now! Oh well, there's always next year, right?