Today, the kids decorated their pumpkins. Bella has been begging to carve her pumpkin for the past week, but I was putting off the dreaded mess. Well, today I came across the greatest thing ever! It was a decorating kit for you pumpkin, "Potato Head Style". The kit came with assorted face parts and you just stick them right into the pumpkin...genius. No mess!! They turned out so cute! Here are the kids posing with their pumpkins.

Please excuse Bella's hair, this was after school and sometimes it's just not worth the fight. She's been fighting me over the bows. She says she can't wait to be a teenager, because then she doesn't have to wear bows. The adorable bows she leaves the house with in the morning seem to be "lost" everyday when I pick her up from school. She's underestimating me...I'll just buy more.

Marshall was so proud and excited to be a part of a big kid activity. I think he yelled "pu-kin" about 500 times.

St. Monica Autumnfest

This weekend was Bella's Autumnfest at her school. We took the kids and Honey & P-Pa for an day of fun. Bella had a blast. She met up with a few of her friends from her class and they had a great time together. Here she is eating a corn dog and posing near our family contribution to St. Monica... St. Monica Water.

Here are Bella, Mrs. Arraj (her sweet sweet teacher), Jenna & Claire. The girls all got matching butterfly face paint.

Lauren, Jenna & Bella were so excited to see each other. They were like sorority girls, jumping up and down and squealing at the sight of one another. Their poor teachers, I can't imagine this all day at school.

Bella & Jenna

Meredith & Marshall

Fire Marshall

My parents came for a visit this weekend and the kids were so excited. Of course, they come with gifts. They brought Marshall a firetruck that has lights/sounds/movement and a fireman's hat. He was in Heaven!!! He played with the firetruck (with the hat on) for hours.

He even wore it while watching TV later in the evening, holding it with two hands for security.
Here are Marshall and P-Pa reading a book.

Cheetah Girls!!!

Last Monday night I took Bella to the Cheetah Girls concert. We had SO MUCH FUN!!! The following pictures are horrible. I apologize. I only had my camera phone (which isn't that great) and I was jumping around like a little girl, and a steady shot was out of the question.
So this was a total last minute thing. I bought the tickets the night before the concert, but they were good seats (center, floor, in front of the sound booth). Well they turned out to be spectacular seats. In the middle of the show they secretly turned the sound booth into a stage and the Cheetah Girls were within 3 feet of our seats. I was going crazy!! Bella was in shock!! Then when they finished performing there, they walked down the aisle and we were face-to-face with them. I am so scared to think of what those poor girls saw when I was screaming like a crazy teenager at them. It was so fun!!!

Here is Bella before the concert. She was so cute. They had music playing and she was shaking her shoulders in her seat. So I told her it was OK to stand up and dance at a concert. She immediately jumped at the opportunity, she was getting down. (I've got to post some dancing videos, they are hilarious!)Then she sits down and tells me "OK, so I guess everyone knows I'm a good dancer now!" I lost it, she is so funny!

Flower Girl

Bella was a flower girl in a wedding recently. I was a little nervous for her, I thought she might get a little scared in front of everyone or simply refuse to do it. I had to think hard and explain her duties so she could best understand. I told her there was another flower girl (adorable little Alex), but she was really young. So Bella was kind of the "boss" of the flower girls. Oh, and there was a big Polly Pocket toy waiting at the reception.
This was perfect. She was so calm and ready. She held the little girl's hand all the way down the aisle. We had some friends that were sitting in the back and overheard Bella talking to the little flower girl under her breath, and it went something like this..."You've got to throw the flowers! Don't be lazy!" Wow what direction! She's ALL business! I'm a little scared of my 4 year old daughter.
Here she is sporting the "Cool" flower girl look.

Fort Worth Zoo

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. We really love that zoo, but haven't been in a while. We knew Marshall would love it. He loves animals and can make most of their sounds (party tricks!). Bella always enjoys it too. Lizzie joined us and it was great to hang out with her. Since she has moved to Fort Worth we never see her. BOO HOO!

Here's our little family feeding birds.



Marshall was so cute, when he would see the animals he would clap, point, wave and say "Hi" to them.


Bella was really excited to see the giraffes.


And both kids conked out on the way home.

My Little Dancer

Bella started dance again last weekend. We have moved to a new dance studio and I'm really looking forward to it. She loves dance (whether she wants to or not ;) ) and she was really excited to start it up again.

Recently, we have been having "dance parties" at our house and they are very ENTERTAINING! One of my first posts has an example of the kind of dancing Bella exhibits. She really puts it out there, to put it mildly! I haven't caught one on film yet, but I'll have to soon. Basically, she requests her favorite "pop hits" from the music section of ON DEMAND and Bella and Marshall break it down in the living room. It's hysterical! Actually, Marshall is a pretty good break-dancer for a 1 year old.

Summer's Gone?!?!

Summer came and went way too fast. I have not done a great job keeping up with my Blogging this summer (sorry), so I thought I would post some pictures of the things we did during the summer:

We played with friends (Bella and Izzy)


Ate oranges...

Ate markers...

Rolled around on the floor...


Acted silly...


Danced...(YIKES!)


Smiled...


And played under the Dining Room table... (I'm not sure why, but the kids LOVE to play here)
P.S. It's a video, press play.

St. Monica Pre-K

Bella had her first day of school on Tuesday. She started a new school and we are so excited about it. Her teachers are SO NICE! She just loves it! After the second day I asked her what the best thing about school was and she said "Everything! I love my new school and I love my new friends!" That made me so happy to know she felt that way. I was also very proud of her, that same day one of her teachers came to me and said that Bella was so friendly and would see the kids that were a little scared and would go to them and make them feel better. WOW!


One more little story:
Yesterday after school I asked Bella to get off of the computer because I needed to check my e-mails (imagine that, an adult using their own laptop). Well she was not too happy about it. She marched upstairs and shut her door. After a few minutes and much silence, I became worried (I do this often after the hair-cutting incident). I called for her and she came to the stairs very "put-out" and said "Mom, I'm just in my room saying my prayers!". Wow, I never imagined Catholic school would have paid off that quickly!

Marshall's Baptism

Last month Marshall was Baptized at St. Monica's (Bella's new school). We had a really nice day we went to church, had lunch, went to the Baptism and then had an ice cream treat at The Purple Cow. We had our family with us and it was a very special day. Marshall did pretty good, considering his age and activity level. I now understand why he should have been baptized much earlier in his life. He was a bit fidgety and vocal, so it was a bit of work to keep him still and quiet. Here are some pictures:

Here are Bella and Marshall. Not a great picture, but I had to capture a shot of his little outfit. I just loved it!


Daddy, Mommy and Marshall. Bella was sitting a few rows behind us with the other kids. To her, that was much cooler than sitting with us.


At one point in the ceremony, they had the babies put on these handmade baptismal "bibs" (lace and all). Marshall was not pleased with this. He wanted no part of that frilly thing and was "vocal" about it. The look on his face says it all!


The priest would come over to Marshall many times through the ceremony and every time Marshall would say "Help me." Too funny!


Here is Marshall "hamming" it up for the folks in the back!

Fun Times at Mickey D's

My dad took these pictures of the kids playing a McDonald's. They just love that place! Here they are sharing a happy meal. Bella was so excited to drink Sprite, I think she drank the whole thing in less than 3 sips. Marshall is a "condiment" guy! He could probably eat ketchup as a side dish. Also, some shots of them playing around.

Sibling Love

How sweet! I think Bella misinterpreted "act like you love him." Poor Marshall.

Morning reading

Here are some pictures of the kids "reading" one morning. They are just too cute in their PJs having fun together....
*Notice how advanced our son is, he can read upside down!

4th of July

We had a really relaxing 4th of July. We spent the weekend swimming with the kids. They had so much fun! Bella is really getting good at swimming and Marshall has a blast splashing around and eating ice cubes.

Chore Chart

Bella has been working on her chore chart every week this summer. She has been doing a great job with earning stickers for completing chores having a good attitude. Here she is after filling her sticker chart for the week. She chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese for her reward. Fun times!!!