Happy Halloween!!!

Aunt Karlie made this for us! Erik, his brother Brandon, Maida, Skogen, and I are all stars in this video (click on the link below - I can't get it to post!).

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/zteiVg3oxAsxlHCL

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Meet My New Puppies!

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is having "Show Us Your Life - Halloween Costumes" today and so I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce you to my two new puppies!

We have a new Dalmatian...

And a pink Poodle...

They are the sweetest little things and I can't wait to spend Halloween with them.

Tonight we are headed to a Halloween costume party at a friends' house. Tomorrow night we'll go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. The kids are SO excited!

Maida's Last Skating Lesson

Just like any other Monday night, we went to ice skating lessons earlier this week. This particular Monday night, however, was more special than any other Monday night because it was the last night of skating and there was going to be a cookie-and-juice party afterwards. We arrived, got Maida's skates on, and then we were able to watch two of the advanced skaters perform for us. Maida really liked that they were skating to music and "dancing." As we were sitting there focusing on the skater, someone walked up and sat down by us. It was Daddy! He surprised us and showed up to watch Maida skate! She was so excited that he was there! Just before she got on the ice, he said, "Maida," and she stopped, turned around, and looked at him, and he said, "Do really good, okay? Show me how well you can skate." She looked at him and said, "Okay!!" with a big huge smile on her face!

She went out and did her best ever! It was so cute because she kept looking up into the bleachers to make sure that we were watching her! When she would see us, we'd wave and give her thumbs up, and she'd smile so super-de-duper big. We were so proud of our little two-year-old.

The only disappointing thing that happened was that our camera died two minutes into the lesson, so we had to record her on Erik's phone. Not only are the videos really poor quality, but I can't piece them together into anything that will be very interesting for others to watch. So these are mainly for the grandparents and aunts and uncles... (Oh, I also can't get the sound to come through on these videos - sorry! And if you can't figure out which one she is, she's the one in dark pants and a pink jacket. If you want to just watch one of these for a few seconds, watch the third video, and fast forward it to second 42.)

During the lesson they give the kids little bean balls to throw and retrieve to work on skating and bending over and standing up.

She has a cute little wipe out in this video, but hasn't quite mastered the art of standing up! Sometimes she can and sometimes she can't. At least she tries, though!

One of the teachers drew a maze on the ice with a marker for the kids to follow. Maida did a great job of trying to follow the lines and got so excited saying, "I did it! I did it! I did it!" while flapping her arms up and down when she thought that she had completed the maze!

Some Fall Time Activities

As my babies are getting older and we are moving into different stages of life here at our house, I've finally figured out some things that make my life as a stay-home-mom a whole lot easier (it's about time,right?!).

The latest has been getting Maida to feed Skogen!

She is great at giving him bites of food and he loves that his big sister is

paying attention to him. This allows me time to finish making dinner or to clean up the kitchen. How lovely!

Why didn't I think of this sooner?!

Another thing that I've discovered is hot tea!

A mug of hot tea can make any ache, pain, runny nose, or even sad feelings better. Lately I've been indulging in spice tea and roasted pumpkin seeds - a great fall time snack!

Speaking of fall, the kids and I raked up the leaves in our front yard last week. Skogen loved sitting in the leave piles and playing. Maida loved helping me rake! It was great to get outside and get some fresh air.

While we were outside raking, Maida accidentally knocked the pumpkin off of our front step (pictured behind the kids in the

picture to the left) and it rolled all the way down our driveway,

across the neighbor's yard, bounced off of the curb, and landed on

the street. Somehow in the process, the stem and top of the pumpkin fell off! Maida chased the pumpkin all the way down, but wasn't fast enough or big enough to stop it! As she tried to pick it up off of the street she kept saying, "Oh no! I broke the pumpkin!"

Maida wanted to carve a " 'pooky 'pider, " so here is our finished product:

Goodbye Scott

"Dear God,

I love you so much and Scott died. We are sad, but we are happy, but we are sad. Please let Ayla's daddy come back..."

Praying with Maida every night is one of my favorite times of the day. The way she squeezes her eyes so tight and folds her little hands, just add to the cuteness of her prayers. She is a very deep prayer and really focuses and thinks about what she wants to pray about. It amazes me that a child so young can pray like she does. I am happy and proud that she has the beginning of, what will hopefully be, a life-long relationship with God.

Last night Maida was specifically thinking about Ayla and her daddy, Scott, because we had been talking some of his death. And today we attended his funeral. It was a beautiful ceremony and the weather couldn't have been better. I was so thankful to be able to be there and to show support and love to such a great family, and also to say my goodbyes to such a great, Godly man. Scott will truly be missed.

Thank you to all of you who joined us in praying for him, even if you didn't even know him! God heard our prayers and answered them - Scott is somewhere better now, without pain or suffering. Today wasn't only a day of saddness and mourning, but today was a day of celebration.

(I attached some pictures of Scott that I took from his Facebook account.)

Psalm 100:5

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Pump It Up

Two weeks ago I took the kids to Pump It Up with my friends, Wendy and Carly, and Maida's friends, Jake, Amelia, and Eli, and Skogen's friend, Trey. We had never been there before and Maida loved it! There were two big rooms full of blow-up jumpy-things that the kids could climb and slide on. After we played, they served us pizza in a party room. It was a great activity for a rainy day. I'm so thankful for friends with kids that I can hang out with.

Credit to Raffi for the background music, "Tsetang Gangla," which means "on the playground."

Missing Maida

Last night I was able to go out with some friends while Erik kept the kids. I had a great time alone away from the kids (for the first time since before Skogen was born), and I wish that I could say that I also had a great shopping trip yesterday, to purchase an outfit for last night, but if I did, I would be wrong...

I needed a black dress for the party that I was going to attend, but I only had one and it wasn't the most flattering dress, so I headed to Target with the kids to find one. Shopping with the kids isn't very easy in the first place - add on trying to manage two kids running around the dressing room (and looking or crawling under the door and into the next stall) while trying to try on dresses... that was only the beginning.

After (painfully) finding a dress that actually fit and would work for the party, I took a detour over through the kids' sales racks. Within minutes of arriving there, Maida was saying, "Oh mom, look! This would be soooo cute on Skogen," and the next thing I knew, she was gone. Usually when this happens (yes, it's happened before), she's usually just standing behind me. So, I turned around, but no Maida. I circled that particular rack. No Maida. I looked in the rack and around and in surrounding racks. No Maida. I had been saying her name while looking, but not too loud because I didn't want anyone to think that I was a bad mom and had misplaced my child! But soon I found myself saying her name a little louder, while my hands started to shake. I quickly headed over to the shoe department (which was nearby) to see if she decided to go try on shoes (one of her favorite things to do at Target), but she wasn't there. As I headed back to the racks where I lost her, I quickly glanced through the shelves where she scurried up and hid last time we were there. No Maida. I made a few more circles around the racks, now yelling her name as loud as I could - I was starting to panic a little. No Maida.

I glanced down at my cell phone and realized that it had been about 10 minutes since Maida had went missing and it hit me that that was enough time for someone to take Maida and get out of the store. I started feeling light-headed and sick to my stomach. I leaned on the cart for support while I looked for someone in a red shirt. Finally I ran into a really nice Asian girl in a red shirt. I was so scared at this point, but embarrassed at the same time, so I remember grabbing this lady's arm and saying in a really soft voice (so no one else could hear!), "I think I've lost my two-year-old daughter." She immediately grabbed her radio off of her belt and screamed, "CODE TWO, INFANT! CODE TWO, INFANT!" Within seconds another lady came across the loud speakers screaming, "LOCK DOWN! LOCK DOWN!"

Swarms of employees filled the hallways of Target. They locked the doors of Target so that no one could go out or come in. The really nice Asian lady asked me for a description and luckily I decided to dress Maida in her light purple sweatsuit, even though it was a little too small for her, so it was easy to describe what she was wearing. I remember also telling them that she had curly hair.

In what seemed like hours (which was actually about 15 minutes), everyone was on the lookout. Everyone was scrambling. I started thinking more about kidnapping and remember praying, "Oh dear Lord. Not me. Now now. Pleeeeease, no. Please not me - not now." As they were asking for her description a second time, someone came across the radio that said, "I think I've got her over in sportswear!" I started breathing again.

An employee escorted me over to active wear, where I spotted my silly little mischievous Maida standing with a Target employee and a BIG smile on her face. I immediately said, "There you are! I was so scared," while I bent down to give her a hug and kiss.

She said back, "Yeah, mom! I was playing hide-and-seek and I was in the clothes and I even shut the door so that you couldn't see me."

I was so embarrassed that I wasn't able to just find her on my own, but thankful for the help all the Target employees were. It was a very awful experience, even worse than my Target experience back in February, and when we got home I had a good long talk with Maida about how we don't play hide-and-go-seek in the store and if Mommy is calling your name, you answer!

Shocked.

Speechless.

Overwhelmed.

Heavyhearted.

Leaning on the Father today.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/scottmcendree

Please continue to pray for the McEndree family.

We've got teeth!

Not one, but TWO TEETH!

Skogen got his first tooth last week. He got his front bottom right tooth.

Then last night at church Maida said, "Mommy, I can't figure out what this is in my mouth." I looked where she was pointing and sure enough one of her molars was poking through!

Both of the kids went to bed with Tylenol last night! Skogen's other bottom middle tooth is coming in and Maida's other molar is, too!

It's funny, but I never envisioned having two kids teething at the same time!

Luckily for me, neither one of them get cranky or sick while they teeth!

Maida and I were playing around with the Halloween tools at Picnik! We gave her some vampire teeth just for this post! When she saw the finished picture, she was afraid that her teeth really looked like that. She said, "Mommy, I don't want to wear these teeth anymore," while she was trying to pull on her front teeth! Ha! Funny.

Seeing her with these teeth reminded me of Dennis the Menace with Walter Mattheu when Dennis replaced his dentures with chicklet gum! HA!

It also reminded me of a little joke that Erik told me last night. The conversation went a little like this...

Kara: Erik, I have a dentist appointment on the same day as your final. How long is it going to take you because maybe you could watch the kids when you are done? I just don't remember what time the apointment is.

Erik: I do. It's at two-thirty.

Kara: What? Really? Two-thirty?

Erik: Yeah, at TOOTH-HURTY!

Someone's been sewing up a storm!

An old family friend gave me her sewing machine.

I picked out some material for Skogen's room,

made up a pattern for curtains,

and went to town on them.

Besides making the curtains, a pillow for my rocker, and a baby blanket to hang on the side of the crib, I also made a sling for Maida's baby with the leftover material!

My mother-in-law and Mema will be very proud of my new sewing abilities! :)

Maida and Skogen's First Circus

So sorry if you can't read the titles on this video. YouTube is getting to be such sticklers about the contents of the videos. They wouldn't let me upload this video because I used songs that I didn't have copyrights to. So, I tried the blogger video uploader and it made the video really small.

Skogen's First Homerun

Nine Months Old

Dear Skogen,

Nine months seems not so long ago, but when I think about life without you, I really can't remember what it was like. I almost feel like you've been with us forever. Maida loves to talk about the day that you arrived, and how thankful and happy she is that you are apart of our family - your Daddy and I feel the same way as she does. You have brought so much to our lives.

Some of my favorite things about you at 9 months old:

- The way you stick out your tongue and open your eyes really wide when you are taking a bite of something.

- The way you give us hugs - how you put your arms around our necks and hold on so tight!

- Your sloppy open mouth kisses.

- How you like to go to sleep by putting your face on my neck and snuggling in.

- You wear the same size sock as your sister.

- You are a mama's boy.

- The way you aren't afraid to take on your sister.

- How you already look up to your Daddy and get so excited when he gets home from work.

- You are all about action.

- You love being outside.

- You rarely cry (but when you do, everyone knows because you scream LOUD!).

- You've never been sick.

- You're tough.

- You love to explore and you are interested in the world around you.

Some of your favorite things to do at 9 months old:

- You love to push the dining room chairs across the dining room and kitchen.

- You love to help me load the dishwasher.

- You love the bath, dog water, or any type of water you can play and splash in.

- You love to stand up and look out the bay window.

- You love to try to climb, but haven't mastered that yet.

- You love to pound your hands on things and hit anything that will make noise.

- You love balls... you love throwing balls, you love rolling balls, you love saying, "ball."

- You love to suck on your pacifier.

- You love to sleep with your little blue puppy. You usually hold it all night.

- You love to eat, but mostly only if you can feed yourself (finger foods).

- You love Bible school.

- You love to touch and play on Barkley!.

- You love to put your fingers in people's mouths.

- You love to happy scream. Loud.

Things you are doing at 9 months old:

- You can say "mama," "bumpa," "ball," and "hi."

- You can wave bye-bye (only when you want to).

- You can crawl (you've been crawling since 6 months).

- You can pull up on things (you've been pulling up on things since 7 months).

- You can walk across the room pushing anything that will move.

- You can stand up on your own, unassisted in the middle of the room, and can stay standing for up to 20 seconds at a time before giving up and sitting back down.

- You sleep about 7-8 hours at night before you want to eat and get your diaper changed, and then you go right back to sleep.

- You finally eat real food (instead of just breastmilk!) and your favorite things to eat are rice rusks and yogurt melts. You also will only eat something if I mix it with sweet potato or squash baby food.

- You can drink out of a sippy cup by yourself and usually just drink water (unless your sister slips you some of her juice).

- You nurse about every 5-6 hours during the day.

- You take one nap a day, usually for about 2-3 hours.

- You just got your own room and you are still unsure about not sleeping in the same room as your sister.

- When you wake up in the morning, you usually play in your crib until I come in there to get you.

- Your skin has been doing better. You still have flare ups of eczema on your face, but we just don't let anyone with perfume or fabric softener on their clothes to hold you.

- You are wearing size 18 months clothes and sometimes size 24 months.

- You are starting to get curls at the ends of your hair.

- You have NO teeth!!!

You are the best baby we could have ever asked for, Skogen. I appreciate how easy-going you are and how eager you are to learn and see new things. I love being your mommy.

Quotes by Maida at 29 Months

I couldn't help it.

I just have to post some more quotes from Maida.

I guarantee that others reading them won't think they are as funny as I do when when she actually says them to me, but I want to document them so that when she's older, I will remember what kinds of things she came up with at this age.

"Mommy, I have a hypothesis." (I have NO idea where she heard this word!)

"'Kogen farted in the bath and it was on purfose [purpose]."

Maida: It is 'bout time for me to get some litto earings.

Mommy: Earings?

Maida: Yeah, and some litto sissors to cut with.

Did I tell you that we were expecting again?

Snow, that is!

After all of our snow from Saturday melted, this morning I woke up at 7:30 to this:

By 10:00 it was coming down even harder!

So I put Skogen in the Moby Wrap, put my jacket around us both, bundled Maida up, and went outside to build a snowman.

It was harder than I thought to build a snowman with a baby strapped to my tummy, so we just built a little one.

Maida named him "Babysitter."

Besides enjoying the snow this weekend, we also had some company! We picked up our friends, Tony and Crystal and baby Siena, from the airport on Saturday night, who were traveling home from Texas. They were able to spend the night with us on Saturday night and then we enjoyed a nice lunch out at The Fieldhouse to watch the Vikings game (SKOL VIKINGS!). Before our company got here on Saturday, Maida helped me make up a bed for them. I had just finished making the bed and went into the other room to find them some pillows. When I came back, Maida had tucked a few of her stuffed friends into Tony and Crystal's bed. It was so cute!

I also took a super cute video of the kids on Saturday night while we waited for our company. Maida and Skogen were playing so cute on the floor in the living room, so I stood on the couch and took a video of them. I love watching them interact.

Tonight Maida has ice skating lessons - that's if we make it across town in this snow storm. By the time we leave, it's supposed to be turned to rain, however it's already almost noon and it's snowing harder than ever!

It's here!!!!!

I could hardly sleep last night because I kept thinking about the snow that was supposed to come. I imagined that it would be a light dusting and be gone before we woke up, but I had dreams that it'd be at least and inch and stick around for a while (at least long enough for me to introduce Skogen to it). I woke up at 8:00, looked out the window, and when I saw that everything was white, I just had to wake the kids up. We bundled them up and I took them out. It was wonderful.

The best part about it is we're expecting more in the next couple days!

I couldn't find Maida's snow boots (because all of our winter stuff is still packed) so she had to wear her cowgirl boots outside.

Don't worry, Erik really does have shorts on! He looks naked sitting behind Skogen!

They were both unsure of the snow at first. Maida was a big talker ("I'm gonna go in the snow!!!") when we were inside, but when we got out there she wouldn't go in it at all ("It looks too slippery. I not go in the snow now.")

We didn't stay out long because it was only 25 degrees! A bit chilly for us! However, Barkley! couldn't get enough of the snow or the cold!

I was a little surprised that Erik actually found a window scraper, but then I remembered that we keep them in our cars year round up here.

You just never know when it's going to snow - which is why we LOVE Minnesota!

Fall Block Party

Maida made cookies today for the block party that we went to tonight.

She was the biggest helper ever! I showed her one time how to roll out the dough, cut out the cookie, and put it on the cookie sheet. After that she was on her own. Here's her version of how to make cookies...

First you roll out the dough with the rolling pin that you've covered in flour (along with your pajama front and the floor under you).

Then you pat it a little and make sure to leave a few finger indentions in the dough for added decoration.

Then you grab the cookie cutter and make a silly face while wiggling your booty and almost falling off of your stool in the process.

And you put it on your face to make mommy laugh.

After that, you push it down hard onto the dough that you rolled out.

Then take off the cookie cutter and pick up the cookie.

Make sure to hold up your cookie so that mom can take a picture to show everyone how good of a job you did cutting out cookies.

Then put it on the cookie sheet.

Here is the finished product! Can you tell what they are? Erik told me that if he saw these somewhere, he'd have no idea what they were. So, everyone comment over the weekend and make your best guess at what they are. I want to prove to him that it's (somewhat) obvious. :)

Right before the block party, Maida fell asleep next to Daddy. Making cookies is hard work! She woke up pretty quickly when she heard that it was time to go to the party!

Mommy and Maida all bundled up! It was a chilly evening.

We only had to walk down a little way to the party, but the kids still enjoyed the stroller ride.

Daddy and Skogen at the party

Skogen sitting on Mommy's lap and getting warm by the campfire

Mommy and Skogen checking out for the night!

We're off to sleep now, anxiously waiting for the snow that is supposed to fall tonight.

We are SO excited about it!