Pumpkin Carvin' Time

Tonight was pumpkin carving night and Hallie Kate was very excited. Daddy cut the top off the pumpkin and Hallie Kate stuck her hand in to pull the seeds out. She did a couple handfuls before deciding she wasn't too crazy about using her hand.

So she went and got her own spoon out of the drawer to use.

Then she decided she wanted to use Daddy's scoop to get the seeds out.

HK decided that she wanted her pumpkin to have a silly face with circle eyes. So Daddy carved on one side and HK carved on the other with her "toddler" knife.

Daddy and HK both worked very intently on their project!

Once they were finished they stretched out on the floor in front of the pumpkin to admire their work and watch the candle flicker. We turned the lights out (even though you can't tell in the picture).
Then Mommy and HK stretched out to pose for a picture...had to have help out of that position!
We all three tried posing in front of the pumpkin...obviously we covered it up.
Daddy's arms are long but we needed them to be just a little bit longer for our snapshot!

HK actually took this picture. She wanted her turn with the camera. We tried to get her to take Mommy and Daddy's picture with the pumpkin but she either shot the mantle of the fireplace or the floor. However she did finally manage to get the pumpkin in a shot.

Here is the final result of tonight's fun! Once this one was finished she wanted to carve the little pumpkins on the floor next to the big one. All in all it was a fun evening and not even a mess!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Somehow everyone finds out you are having a baby and you get all kinds of stuff in the mail. Sometimes it is actually free stuff you can use or some good coupons. This week a newborn diaper came in the mail from Huggies. It was just the perfect size for Bear. Hallie Kate insisted that she could put the diaper on "myself"...no help was wanted. It was an interesting process to say the least....good thing Bear has good head control!














We had to discuss which way the diaper went several times before she finally put it under Bear's bottom going in the right direction! What a little Mother Hen. Poor little Nolan does not stand a chance! I guess she gets that honestly!















Tuesday morning HK and I went down to visit Nate for a few minutes at the clinic. We took him his birthday cards. I also made a chocolate cake and some chocolate chip cookies for everyone to share at the clinic. I believe there was a basket of Twix bars too that made it downtown. HK did not want to leave the clinic when we had to go, but Nate had patients to see. Tuesday evening, Nate's B'day, he had home call. We decided to go ahead and invite the Slaters and Riveras over for pizza anyway...hoping that he wouldn't get a page until we had a chance to eat. We had pizza and then chocolate cake and brownies. We had a good time just eating and visitng. Of course HK and Kellen had fun as they always do. Kellen played us a nice song on the piano. When Nolan is born the piano is definitely going away in the closet for awhile!!















Daddy and HK posing for a "Happy Dirthday" picture before going to bed!















On Monday night Papa and Kathy came over and took us out to eat for Nate's birthday. We went to Longhorn and it was great! I can't believe that I actually ate my whole meal...I'm not really sure where it went but I paid for it later. I was miserable the rest of the night. Hallie Kate only wanted Papa to do things for her. She even wanted Papa to take her to the bathroom at the restaraunt. I told her that Papa couldn't go in the girls bathroom and if he did that he would get in trouble and have to go home. We had a nice evening and Hallie Kate insisted that Papa give her a bath before he went home....and of course you know he did!

28 on the 28th

Nate's 28th birthday is this Tuesday. He will be 28 on the 28th...his golden birthday. We had a little dinner today. I made lasagna and chocolate cake.















HK & Daddy















Daddy and his requested chocolate cake!




















Grampy and HK building a castle for her princess figures.
The princesses are down in the bottom.















Grampy and HK dancing in her Sleeping Beauty dress.















This picture was taken at Daddy's request. Bedtime routine is special HK & Daddy time. Daddy has begun a new trick that HK has figured out. He puts cold water in a cup or bucket and dumps it on her. She screams, shakes, etc...then he pours warm water on her to warm her up again. Daddy thinks her facial and body expressions are hilarious. So he wanted me to catch her in action of freaking out because of the cold water. It's their most recent little game they play during bathtime. It is pretty funny to watch!

Saturday at Home

This was one of the rare Saturdays spent at home with both Mommy and Daddy...with no work for Daddy! HK and Daddy went to the Donut Bank early Saturday morning and then picked up a few things from the grocery store. Mommy stayed home and did some cleaning. Then later in the morning HK and Daddy went to the playground for awhile. For lunch HK and Mommy fixed Pigs N' Blankets, as you can see above.















HK saw Daddy using the headphones and watching a show on the computer. So she thought she'd try on the headphones and see if she could get "Elmo Goes Potty" to come up on the computer..."by myself". As you can see by her face she knows she should not be doing that by "myself"!















HK has some wild hair after her nap! She actually went right to sleep in her big girl bed today. Then she helped Mommy fix fried potatoes to go with our baked chicken.....mmmmm fried potatoes. It's the 2nd time this week I have fixed them!!!
Then we watched a movie (Ariel's New Beginning...for the hundredth time) and Daddy went and got us ice cream at Sonic. It was a fun and relaxing Saturday! If only we had more of these!

HK & Bear...Teddy Bear

Not only does HK put "Bear" in time-out for biting her finger or not taking a nap in her big girl bed, but she takes Bear potty and rocks her/him...not sure which Bear is. We seem to say him but if you ask HK she says Bear is a girl.

Mini-golf Outing

Friday night the 24th Nate's residency had a family miniature golf outing at Walthers.
We went and took HK. Nate was on home-call so he went in his scrubs and thankfully did not get any pages while we were there.
There was money for the first 3 places.
This was Hallie Kate's first golf experience. Needless to say the place was overstimulating, but she loved it...not to mention the play area (kind of like a McDonald's playplace).











Betsy & Brooke in their infamous side shot.
We are only 6 weeks apart this time around.











Taking a break after 18 holes of miniature golf.
It might not have been so bad without two 2 yr olds trying to play as well!











Hallie Kate wanted to hold the "baby". This is Marla, one of Nate's fellow residents, and John's little girl, Addie. She is 6 months old and as precious as can be. You can see HK is very serious in holding her. She held her hand and kissed her cheek.










You can probably imagine what HK is doing.
You can see both Nate and I pointing the same direction at the same time.
Poor little thing...she wanted to golf so bad but she had not clue.
Then being in the lovely stage of life she is, she had to do it "myself" and did not want anyone showing her how to hit the club.
So she looked like a very uncoordinated little girl hitting the ball in random directions (yes, at times opposite of the hole).
However, she was determined to attempt every hole...and she did.
Sometimes she just placed the ball right by the hole and then attempted.










You can see one of her wonderful attempts! As you can tell she does not even have her ball on the green! Oh well...everyone had fun and Nate won 2nd place...$30!!!
All in all it was a fun night!

HK @ UK's

Hallie Kate (HK) went to Uncle Kent's (UK) for the weekend with Nana & Grampy. They went up to help UK fix his front door. They ended up replacing the storm door and the front door. It ended up being a job that took both Saturday & Sunday. Now whether or not that had anything to do with the great help from Hallie Kate...who knows!!! In looking at the pictures you can see why we didn't necessarily want her help as we were painting Nolan's room. It looks like she was a "BIG" help to her Uncle Kent. She wore one of UK's shirts as a smock while "helping paint".









































Supposedly she wouldn't let anyone but Uncle Kent do anything for her. Duh...she knows that she has him wrapped around her finger. They enjoyed cleaning corn, lifting weights, pulling each
other in the empty door box, and posing by the pumpkins. HK definitely enjoyed her time at UK's house. You can tell Mommy isn't there because she has no hairbow in her hair in some of the pics! Thank you Uncle Kent for a fun weekend!!!

Nolan's Room After the Weekend

These are some pictures after our weekend of work in Nolan's room. HK went with Nana & Grampy to Uncle Kent's house in Indianapolis. Otherwise...she would've been more help than we could've used! We painted two walls a neutral color and the other two a shade of blue. The bedding has a cow, pig, bunny, dog, and bear. The furniture is sort of a hodge-podge...trying to spend as little money as possible! The bed, dresser, and changing table were Hallie Kate's. The rocking chair came out of our living room and the dirty clothes hamper is an old potatoe bin that was Nate's. We were very pleased with the end result. We are going to hang the quilt on the wall, but have to find some quilt clips. So there are just a few things left to do...but the majority is complete...what a relief!

Working in Nolan's Room

This weekend is dedicated to painting and getting Nolan's room ready. So Thursday night we taped off the room and primed the edges so we'll be ready to roll on Friday evening. Hallie Kate, of course, had to be right in the middle of it "helping". So a new piece of tape every 5 minutes kept her happy! Daddy snapped a couple of pictures of Mommy and HK at work. The bottom picture looks like something is stabbing me through the back of the neck....but it's really just the curtain rod hanging out of the crib! Hopefully by Monday we'll have some pictures of Nolan's room!

Snuggle Time or Time Out

I had to show the entire sequence of these pictures. I couldn't choose just one. After supper Nate and Hallie Kate were snuggling on the couch. I think Daddy really was about to go to sleep. I captured the first picture unnoticed. Then in the 2nd one you can see her sly grin because she heard me. Then in the last one you see the drama queen face she was making for me. Believe it or not she does sit still every once in awhile. Of course Daddy loves these quiet times too!














You may be wondering why a picture of the bear in the chair. Well, that is Hallie Kate's bear. It is her lovey...her attachment object...whatever you want to call it. She sleeps with it and it goes many places with us. The past week HK has been spending quite a bit of time in the time out chair. She has started to cry and throw fits when you tell her no, not right now, anything that means she doesn't get her way instantly. So when she begins to do that she has until "3" to quit or she goes to the time out chair. So that's why she's been spending a lot of time there. This evening she made a trip to the time out chair again because at 7:40 she wanted more milk. I told her no more drinks tonight....we have to start backing off the evening drinks if we are ever going to even begin to think about staying dry through the night. So after her turn in the time out chair she decided that bear needed to sit in time out. She even started the timer for him (it was laying on the ottoman). I asked her what he did and she told me that he was angry and mean. The timer would beep and she would tell him it was time to get up and hug him. Then she would repeat the whole scene again. He had to sit about 5 or 6 times in a row for being angry and mean. By the way...if you ask her the bear's name...it is "Teddy Bear". It was a pretty funny scene...getting a peek into how much she truly understands about her time in the chair!










Mommy and Hallie Kate were rubbing Daddy's feet tonight with lotion. We were filling his love tank...his love language is physical touch. HK loves to rub lotion on others and have it rubbed on her too!

More Caramel Apples

After making caramel apples with Brooke and Kellen we slowly ate them at home.
We would cut one up and all share it together in the evening. So when we ate them all, needless to say, Hallie Kate wanted to make more caramel apples. Over the weekend that was a Daddy Daughter activity while Mommy enjoyed looking on! We sprinkled some crushed up Heath bar on a few of them. Luckily one bag of caramels will only make 5 apples. Then we dipped apples in the leftovers. It was quite tasty once again. It's Tuesday night and there are actually two caramel apples still left in the frig.