Preparing for Halloween

Ty finally picked the big pumpkins from our garden and carved them with Zoie. Vance was not interested.

Halloween party at Tiny Tot skating. Snow white with white dracula teeth. Really attractive for Prince Charming. Oh well, I have a few years to worry about that.

Let's Hit the Slopes!

I almost had to blow off the dust from my helmet and googles since it has been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long since I have been to the mountain pass. (I guess that is because I will have had 3 kids in 4 years). Anyways . . . Vance was all about the helmet. It did make the little boy wobblely, but that did not cause him to drop the special and sacred binkie.

The sandbox

Nearly 3 years ago, I bought this sandbox at a yard sale. The crane is broken, but Vance has started to take a liking to it. He sits on the edge and scoops the dirt into buckets and the tractor. It just happens to be that the neighbor's gravel company had a new dump of sand near our big dirt pile. . . So I took their small buckets back and forth about 20 times and filled up the sandbox (on top of the dirt and gravel that was in there). Vance played for nearly 2 hours in the sand and dirt. Then went to bed at 6:30pm and slept 12 1/2 hours. Of course, Zoie also wanted to play. We learned the hard way that sand doesn't go in the mouth -- but a big kid cup of water to swish around and spit out was the fun part of the game.

I can do whatever you can do

Now Vance likes to make funny faces. Thanks big sister Zoie! :)

Our pumpkins & fall pictures

Zoie stands behind our biggest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch.
All the pumpkins came from our yard, as well as the corn that didn't produce too well. Proud siblings.
Nana put sponge rollers in her hair the night before.
This is the "new" Vance look. What's up with it?
Princess Zoie.

My baby boy

Both kids got new pajamas for Vances' birthday. Vance loves the monkeys that smile at him on his feet. Zoie's have ballerina frogs.

The birthday party with Uncle Paul. Paul shows Vance that Percy the train lights up and makes sounds. Notice Vance's dirt party shirt. He needed to eat a chocolate frosted cupcake before the guests arrived.

Preparing for Vance's Birthday

Zoie found these "Cars" slippers at a yard sale and wanted to get them for Vance. She had to wrap them up the night before his actual birthday.


And she had to make a card. The envelope had lots of Cars stickers. He loves a variety of things -- Curious George, Cars, & Thomas & the Incredibles.
Ty got him this tunnel. Vance is rolling Zoie in the tunnel across the living room.

Kitchen Fun

Lawn mower

Zoie enjoys driving the lawn mower with Ty. Notice Vance chasing them, then he crashes and plugs his ears. That is his new thing.

A playfort under the dining room table.
Ty and Vance get ready for the Silvertips hockey game in their Steelers gear. They were even featured on the big screen between the 2nd and 3rd periods. Ty was dancing with Vance on his shoulders. Vance was laughing and enjoying himself and holding on for dear life to Ty's hair and eyes.
They didn't mow the yard, just a chance to drive the mower with dad. Vance already had a turn when I got inside for the camera.
Learning to drive.

Fun with the laundry basket

Vance is still small enough to hide in the laundry basket. Here he is playing on our bed this past weekend.

Old pictures from the camera

Vance and Ty on the new couch.
Zoie enjoying local corn.
After finding out we were having a girl, I began cleaning out the downstairs closet. I now have only 9 garbage bags of clothes -- one for each size from 0 to 4T. Then there is a bag of shoes, blankets, crib stuff, and Vance even has a bag of 4T clothes. I found the season's best yard sale last week. For $19 (over 2 days of visiting the house), I got everything needed for Vance when we gets to 4T, which could be soon -- snow pants & coat, about 40 tops (t-shirts,dress shirts), shorts, pants, shoes, swim shorts, etc. I also got a few things for me, Ty, and kids at my school (most have a need for basic necessities).
The growing boy who is kinda starting to talk. I swear he grew about 2 inches over night this week. I took off his pj's & diaper, he stretched, and I noticed a thinned out boy who was longer than last night :)

Where is Vance?

I have been trying to close the door to the kid's room at night to keep it warmer in there. Their room is the coolest in the house. Last night about 3:30am, I heard Vance stirring. To me, that means he can't find his binkie and will wander to my side of the bed with his arms out mumbling & jestering just that. But this morning I went in there and I found this . . .

Three rolling toyboxes that slide under his bed pulled out and he was crawling out from under the bed with the binkie in this mouth.

Hmm. . . . . .

So I scooped him up, put him in bed, and back to sleep he went, if he was ever awake.


About a month ago, the kids slept at my mom's house. She got up in the middle of the night and couldn't find Vance. She looked in the bed, Zoie's bed, the chair, the couch. No Vance. So she went back to the play room and spotted the bottoms of his pajama feet sticking out from under the toddler bed. She just pulled him out and put him back in bed.

A wandering night time zombie? Hmmmm . . . . .

Baby Girl

Our ultrasound on Tuesday showed us wonderful images of the baby and that it is a girl. It was cool to see the heart beating 152 beats per minute, which is good, and moving around. I saw (Ty was very late, traffic and slow cars coming from the westside) her little feet, arms, bones, etc. Now my task is to clean the closet downstairs to see what I have from baby Zoie. Many of the girl clothes were given to those in need -- a pregnant teen at Mount Vernon High School when I was teaching there, a friend, and a co-worker at Bellingham High School. Now I have another student that is also due in late January and if she has a boy, then I will pass on baby Vance clothes. Her face lit up when I told her this today. And no, I don't have a name yet. According to Ty, I get to choose the first name "since that worked so well last time" and he gets the middle name. I do think, though, that he wants the same initals for both girls Z.A.Y. I have 20 more weeks to brainstorm.

Backyard fun

Vance loves the Henry train he got from Uncle Paul.
Vance catches Zoie at the bottom of the slide.
The slide is not ready big enough for 2 wide, but they figured it out. Notice how she is trying to make her way to the front.

This is my swing. They love to wind up the swing and untwist very fast. I can't say it enough, these kids love to play with each other. As I sit here, they are downstairs playing doing I don't know what and don't really care unless someone come up crying.

Zoie & Vance mix up a snack

As I was trying to prepare the kids lunch, they pulled out all of the mixing supplies -- measuring cups and bowls, shortening, brown sugar, mixing spoon, and a pretend rolling pin. Quick thinking mom gave them some ingredients to mix up -- small marshmellows, cereal, animal crackers, and mini m&m's. They enjoyed stirring and eating! Kept them entertained & fed!

Vance never wears clothes.

The Zoo with Plaz

This week the kids, my mom and I met my friend "Plaz" (Rebecca) and her 2 girls, Elsa and Heidi, at the Woodland Park Zoo. Plaz and I met in 1995 at Camp Kirby, we were both new staff members and easily became friends. We spent 2 more summers at camp together, one in which she was the director and I was the assistant director & counselor-in-training director. These were wonderful summers. Plaz was one of my bridesmaids in my wedding, only months having her first daughter. They now live on Anderson Island and run a family farm. We don't see each that often so this day was fun to visit.