Winter has arrived

We had our first little snowfall of the winter and both Parker and Otis were very happy about it.  I took them for a walk on Sunday.  In preparation, I got out Parker's new snow bibs, boots, & mittens.  She was excited to put the bibs on at first but freaked out when she tried to walk around in them.  After a lot of attempted convincing, I finally just layered on the "regular" pants and took her out anyway.  I just made sure to pick her up off the ground quickly when she fell.  

Here is the first video of us in the backyard, she wasn't so sure:

Then we started wandering around in the trees at the back of the yard and Parker was excited to explore a little bit, so we took off for the trails right behind our house.  She looks like such an older kid in this video, totally comfortable hiking right along!

I finally got her back inside so we could have lunch, but it was not easy.  I am so happy our girl loves the great outdoors as much as we do!

Pittsburgh

We traveled to Pittsburgh for a visit with the Johnsons last weekend.  The visit had multiple purposes:  1) go to the Bills/Steelers game on Sunday with Gennie & Eric  2) pick up bathroom fixtures (tub, toilet, all plumping stuff) from our personal shopper, Gennie  3) visit Ikea for some much needed bedroom furniture  4) most importantly, visit with our sweet nieces, Clare & Cate!!

We arrived Friday in time for dinner.  Gennie is a wonderful cook, so it is always nice to arrive to a yummy home-cooked meal.  On Saturday we took the girls to a park (even though pretty breezy and chilly) and then had lunch afterwards.

Saturday night we were invited to the neighbors for a very nice dinner party. The neighbor girls are about 13 and 9 and watched our little girls so we could enjoy some grown-up time.  Gennie made a salted-caramel cheesecake for dessert and let Clare and Parker help make the whipped cream.

Sunday was the 1:00 football game, so the girls hung out with a babysitter while we braved the cold to cheer on two different teams.  Two teams that are both having horrible seasons, so the first part of the game was very unimpressive.

You may notice a strange addition to Greg's face.  In honor of Movember, he is growing a temporary mustache.  This is one week in.  We are assuming Greg will shave at the end of the month, but he has pointed out that he could pull a Tom Lang and decide to keep the mustache for the next 40 years.

On Monday it was time to head back to Rochester, so we picked up our u-haul and headed to Ikea.  This was my first time inside an Ikea and while tainted slightly by a slightly crazed two-year-old running around, I was still impressed.  Some pictures of Parker climbing all around, using up her energy before the 4.5 hour drive.

Parker slept for three hours on the way home; a testament to how much fun she had with her cousins.  We can't wait to see the Johnson crew again just after Christmas!!

Class Pictures

Turned out pretty good this year!

Class picture is pretty funny, all of the kids look terrified

Teachers from left to right:  Miss Jean, Miss Renee, Miss Lindsay.  Parker's two best buddies are Mia (sitting directly in front of Miss Jean) and Aaron (sitting to left of Miss Lindsay).

Funny Girl

Just some funny things Parker says or does:

• says "Otay" rather than "Okay", ala Buckwheat from Little Rascals
• very diligent about making sure we all have the same food on our plates at dinner, she will point out that Mommy needs green beans or Daddy needs chicken
• loves ketchup, she will eat it by itself with a fork
• most nights after we put her to bed she will sing or talk to herself for a few minutes before she falls asleep
• says "I like it!" all the time, about everything...food, clothing, people; sometimes we hear "I don't like it" but not often
• says "blue" with a very dramatic rolling of the "l" (I need to get this one on video)
• I read at least two books to her every night and lately she will take the first in her hands after I read it to her and pretend to read herself.  Some of the books she knows some of the words, but usually it's gibberish. Then she needs to take the book to bed with her as well

Halloween 2013

First of all, pictures of our aforementioned pumpkins:

The top one is Greg's pirate, the middle is my geometric design, and the bottom is "Parker's" also done by me.  The pirate won as best pumpkin.

We went over the Nudds house for dinner and trick-or-treating.  This was a wonderful idea because all Parker needed to do was follow her cousins Colin & Ben and she got the hang of trick-or-treating very quickly.  Parker was originally going to be a dinosaur and I bought this tail and hoodie from Etsy.  I purchased it weeks ago and Parker has been wearing the tail all over the house.  She even slept with it the first night!  I also made dino feet for her to wear over her shoes.  But when the plan with the Nudds came up and we found out Colin was going to be Anakin Skywalker, Ben to be Darth Vader, and the third buddy, Liam, to be Yoda, we decided that Parker must be Princess Leia.  I found a cheap costume online that included the dress and wig.  

At home yesterday evening, I could not get Parker to wear the dress.  So I packed everything up (with dinosaur costume as back-up) and hoped she would wear it once she saw the other kids in costume.  And follow the leader, she did.  Although she would not wear the wig, so I improvised on a hair style.  

It rained much of the evening, but the kids had so much fun anyway.  Liam was especially excited and we heard lots of squeals and yells from him, so cute.  

Not very many good pictures at all, but you get the idea:

We also had a costume for Otis this year.  We can't take credit for the idea, as it was sent to me by my friend Jenny.  We also didn't leave it on for a very long time, the "toothpick" was too long and we ran out of time to cut it before the big event.

Otis, the Martini or Liquid Otis (an ode to his Grandpa, Liquid Larry)