Thanksgiving Crafts!

Logan and Kate play so well together that we've been trying to be purposeful with some of our playdates and we've gotten into a lot of crafting. Last week we made our Turkey cupcakes and then began to plan for activities that we could do for today. We came up with three fun ideas and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the girls did with the crafts and how involved they wanted to be! We're working on Christmas craft ideas, now.

Project 1: Turkey Puppets

Logan was very into the glue sticks. She wanted to put glue on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and I had to literally pry the stick out of her hands when we were finished. I think she was ready to keep going until we had the entire apartment glued together. Don't think we'll be getting glue sticks for ourselves anytime soon! ;)

Mommy helped a lot, but she put most of the glue on herself and she stuck all of the pieces down (with positioning help, of course).

She didn't quite understand what I wanted her to do when I told her to put it on her hand and then got really frustrated with it there after a minute so I couldn't get a picture with it right side up. It's hanging on the refrigerator now so that Mike can check it out before Logan destroys it.

Project 2: Fruit Turkeys!

We found this idea on Disney's website and thought it was a fun way to get a healthy snack in for the girls.

And they certainly saw it more as a snack and less as a craft! It was hard to get the turkey's assembled before they got eaten.

We had a fun lunch together and for our last project, we made dessert!

Project 3: Pilgrim Hats

While the girls played, we dipped the cookies and marshmallows in chocolate and then let the girls put together the little hats. We ambitiously made them each enough to make 4 hats but barely got them to make two each before they scarfed down crazy amounts of chocolate.

I finally got Logan to pose with one of her projects.

And the aftermath:

So excited about celebrating a holiday together as a family tomorrow. Logan and I already have begun our preparations for the big meal!

Traces of a Little Girl

Sometimes I wish I had the power to freeze time and keep this little one a baby. She's looking more and more like a little girl every day.

Afternoon in the Park

Mike's been holed up studying for a big paper he's got to write pretty much all this week and will continue to be most of this coming week (thank goodness there's only about 4 weeks left of this semester) so this afternoon when Logan woke up from her nap a little early he suggested we get out of the house and go to the park. It was a beautiful day and Logan loves to run around there, hopefully she wore herself out and will sleep well tonight.

I know I get a lot of pictures like this one but I couldn't help but take it because it was unprompted--in fact, Mike told Logan she didn't have to hold a hand because we were on a sidewalk and she looked at him for a second and then reached up and grabbed his hand anyway.

Proof that Logan has developed a crazy love for climbing lately.

Just like Pooh:

And my camera ran out of batteries after this shot so we went with the iphone for the remainder.

We probably won't have too many more days where we can do this since it's getting cooler and cooler but we really love this fall weather and will be sad to see it go.

I hope this helped hit the spot that you needed for your Logan fix! I know it's been a while since we've gotten a bunch of pictures of her and that's why a lot of you check the blog. ;)

Potty Trained!

It's official, at 22 months, we are a potty trained household right now! Just in time to take a quick diaper break before back to full time diapering another baby, right? Logan has gone three consecutive days without an accident, and the true test was that on Wednesday she wore a diaper all day and told me to take it off every time she had to go. Wooohoooo! We also ventured on an hour long outing today and forgot to change her into a diaper and she didn't have an accident, though, she did run right to the bathroom the second we got home.

This is how Logan sits on the potty right now if someone else is in the bathroom so she can have her "priacy."

25 Weeks!

Week 25 officially brought the heartburn! UGH! I guess I should be thankful it held off longer this time than last time, but man, it's really hard to have everything burn after drinking a glass of water. It seems like it hits later on in the day, so I can at least enjoy the mornings. ;)

(I definitely made Mike take like 10 pictures today before just deciding that I've been sick all week and my look was not going to change!)

A lot of people have asked if I've noticed any differences between my pregnancies, especially now that I know it's a boy. These are just a few that I've picked up on:

- I haven't gained weight all over the place like I did with Logan. If I really want to, I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans while wearing a bella band. It's not the most comfortable but I can do it and with Logan I couldn't even do that a month after giving birth.

- I'm not quite as emotional as I was with her. When I was pregnant with Logan I felt like at any given second I could (and many times would) break into fits of tears for absolutely no reason. It's nice to have a more level head this time around!

- I sleep a lot better this go around. It could be because I'm just so exhausted running after a toddler that I don't notice the little things at night like I did with her, but whatever the reason, I hope it keeps up!

- I'm not hungry 24/7. I eat my fill at my meals and snack in between but don't feel the necessity to carry around snacks with me in my purse.

- He sits a LOT lower than Logan sat. Logan was in my ribs from about week 24 on and he sits right on my bladder. He likes to lay there, jump there, kick there, knee there...it's very uncomfortable and I feel like I run to the bathroom every 10 minutes. I try not to drink anything before we leave the house unless I know I'll have a bathroom available.

- With Logan all I ever wanted was Chilis. I never craved anything in particular from there but could have eaten there lunch/dinner every day until I gave birth. I have really wanted Moes a lot this go around, it's like he knows we can't afford to eat at Chilis 3x a week so while I want the same type of food, it's cheaper this time! :)

Anyway, this week we pulled the crib out of the closet. Not because I have any desire to set it up, but because Logan learned how to climb up to the top of her changing table and took a tumble during one of her naptimes this week. So, we needed the space in the closet for the changing table. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to just look at the crib pieces sitting against the wall so it'll probably get set up before Christmas so it's not quite as much of an eyesore. But I started really looking into crib bedding. I had wanted to just buy the fabric and make his bedding but with the holidays around the corner, then Logan's birthday, I'm just not sure I'll have enough uninterrupted time to get it done...so I went ahead and picked some out to throw on the registry. We really love it:

15 weeks to go!

We LOVE Shutterfly!!

And how can you not with all kinds of adorable ideas for everyday life?

We got Logan a photobook for her first birthday that included all of my monthly updates on her development and her comparison pictures. We LOVE it and will definitely order an extra for us to keep and the one we have for her I'm sure will be something she'll hold onto so that her own children can enjoy it. The best part? It was SO affordable! (http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books)

We've also ordered custom calendars from them, photo mugs for holiday gifts and brag books for family members so that they can show our little L off to everyone else! We really LOVE Shutterfly. (http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs, http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars)

The last couple of years we've ordered our Christmas cards through them.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

This year, Shutterfly has graciously given some bloggers the opportunity to receive some FREE Christmas cards for blogging about their wonderful services. We can't wait to receive ours! We were going to use Shutterfly for our cards this year, anyway, so this is an added bonus. It'll be our last Christmas card as a family of three as next year we'll be adding a new little guy to our pictures (though, we have thought of some creative ways to keep him involved this year). It's going to be so hard to choose from their selection:

Which one will we choose?! I guess you'll have to wait until you get yours in the mail to find out!

Fresh Air

We've been sick this week and whatever it is is nasty! I guess we've been really spoiled because it's been a while since any of us have been sick, but this little bug hit Logan last week and then I started to develop it early on this week. So, naturally, we've been stuck inside. (at least all of our friends have it right now, too, so we can get better and get back to life without having to take the normal month off of playdates, right?)

When I started to pick up the cold, my creative side wore down and I was having a hard time finding activities to keep Logan busy, while still allowing her little body to rest and heal. Naturally, this meant we needed to make a quick Target run and we picked up some huge coloring pages and crayons and we've spent a good deal of time coloring and learning the colors.

I also picked up a big batch of Christmas ornaments and L and I made a Christmas wreath with them. I have a few more items to add to it and then we'll post a picture of it once it's up with all of our decorations (which are NOT up yet). Let me tell you, I've had a really hard time this year holding off on putting them up but I'm determined to make it until Thanksgiving!

Today Logan woke up and while she's still sounding a bit rough, she's looking a lot better and the weather was really pleasant so we played outside for a little bit this morning. The fresh air did wonders for her attitude and she was really sweet the rest of the morning. We're really looking forward to totally kicking this cold in the butt so we can get on with life! Though, I'm sure we'll all get better and then Mike will get hit with it. Sigh.

At this point she was ready to head back in and snuggle up on the couch, which is the one and only perk of having a sicky.