Some me time....

Ah..how important it is to get some "ME" time every now and then. Jeremy and I have both been fortunate to do just that these past two weekends. Two weekends ago, Jeremy and his friends Chris, Tom and Josh headed to Minneapolis for their annual "guy weekend". They got to enjoy two football games that weekend, Michigan vs Minnesota on Saturday and Vikings vs Packers on Sunday. You can tell they are getting old though, as the weekend has slowly turned from drinking 24/7 to hitting the hay at 10:00.

This past weekend, it was my turn! My friend Amy and I met up with some friends from my hometown and spent the weekend at PJ's-n-Pigtails, a bed and breakfast located in Stuart, IA. This B&B caters to crafters and this weekend was a scrapbooking weekend. This place was totally awesome! They served the best homemade food and desserts and pampered us to no end. It was fun to catch up with old friends and get some work done on the kids' books. The only rule there was you had to wear your pajamas! It was like a big slumber party! I will definitely make this an annual event and look forward to going back next year..anyone want to join me?

Carter got to enjoy some special treats both weekends, like staying up late, movie night and sleeping on the floor in mom and dad's room. Both weekends were a nice reminder on how much each of us does do to help out with things around the house and with the kids. We were both exhausted after being the single parent for the weekend and realized what a really good team we make.

The kids have been good. For the first time, Carter engaged in playing with Claire this past week. He got out his doctor kit and wanted to give me a check-up. As I was in the middle of something, he decided Claire was fair game. He played the part of the Dr. perfectly, even saying things like, " Since you were a good girl, you can pick a sticker" and, " It's your lucky day, no shots!"

checking her ears

checking her blood pressure

Carter has really gotten into the hang of preschool and has gone from crying every morning he has to go, to asking me on the weekends and Monday's if he can go to preschool! This past week, the theme was "clothes" so they had to dress up a couple of times. Here is "Dress as silly as you can day".

We also got our first snowfall last week. Although it didn't last long, Carter had fun playing on the deck. We filled squirt bottles with water and green food coloring and colored the snow green.

Claire has mastered rolling from her back to her tummy and although we haven't seen her do it, from her tummy to her back. This morning she was lying on the floor in her room on her back near the changing table. I ran downstairs to grab something and when I came back up, she had rolled herself clear under her crib! I know the only way she got over there was to roll several times, but when we put her on her belly and coax her to roll to her back she just smiles at us.

I didn't make my goal of getting video downloaded this week. I did figure out how to take video on my camera and get it onto the computer, but after 3 hours of the 30 second clip attempting to download I cancelled it, so I must be doing something wrong..stay tuned, I'll attempt again!

Trick or Treat...smell my feet

Okay, so much for the weekly updates. I have come to the realization that I can't keep up, so those of you who faithfully check the blog weekly, sorry, but it isn't happening! I have also realized sometimes our weeks only consist of going to work, coming home, getting dinner, baths and going to bed. Pretty boring but that's reality I guess.

We spent the majority of the week preparing for Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays and I was so excited that Carter really got into it this year too. Although, he still has a problem with getting his hands dirty when carving pumpkins and prefers to use a spoon to dig out the seeds. This Halloween really made me realize how old he is getting. We went trick or treating on Thursday night (does anyone know why we don't trick or treat on Halloween?) and I helped him at the first stop to make sure he said trick or treat and thank you. At then next stop, I tried to help him again and he said, "Mom, I'm old enough to do it by myself" Okay then... He had fun trick or treating with his friend Lilly and they came home with a ton of loot. On Friday he got to wear his costume to preschool and trick or treat at some Waukee businesses. I was pretty impressed his favorite things in his bucket were some playdoh and a glow in the dark stick.









Claire didn't dress up this year, but wore an outfit Carter had as a baby. We took some pictures of her in the candy bowl. We did the same with Carter as a baby...here's the comparison.




Claire had a big week. She is officially laughing and she rolled from her back to her belly last night! Jeremy and I were just talking how we don't think she is as developmentally as far along as Carter was at this age. Carter rolled over at 15 weeks, Claire is 14 weeks today. She totally surprised us. She has such a laid back personality that it shocked us that she went after a toy placed out of her reach, as she usually just smiles at things. She didn't even make a peep when she had her arm pinned under her and was "stuck" she just kept smiling! She also turned 3 months old on the 27th. Here is her 3 month picture with bear.



Jeremy and I had our first official date since Claire was born. We went to the Metallica concert last Sunday night. I felt really old watching the "kids" in the "mosh pit" and I kept thinking to myself, " I hope nobody ends up with a head injury after all that banging around" We ended up with great seats as the section we were to sit in was closed ( they apparently didn't sell enough tickets). My ears are still ringing. It was so loud our seats vibrated the whole time...maybe it jiggled some fat off.

My goal this week is to figure out how to download some video so I can share Claire laughing with everyone! It will make you smile! :)