Don't Eat Pete!

My brother, Mike, and his wife, Wendy, introduced us to this really fun game called Don't Eat Pete. They played it for our Family Home Evening game so that is what we like to do if we don't have anything else fun planned for Family Home Evening. It involves someone going out of the room the rest decides which M&M or any other edible thing out of the nine is Pete. The person comes back and starts picking and if they go to eat Pete everyone yells, "Don't Eat Pete!" The kids love it even though Allison sometimes gets scared because we yell it so loud. It is definitely an suspenseful game.

There is so much smiling and laughing when we play this game.

She is eating the m&ms, she hasn't found Pete yet:)

They are definitely attentive when we play this game.

Dress-ups

Lately Matthew has been having a lot of fun playing dress-up so I figured after Halloween costumes would be cheaper. We found this cute police officer uniform and he has loved wearing it. Though it is about 3 sizes too big, he will get to use it for a long time.

He is taking this job seriously. As soon as daddy came home, he put him in hand-cuffs and had fun doing it obviously.

He is a stinkin cute cop:)

A police officer has to have a gun so he made himself a lego gun, which he was very proud of.

My adorable police officer:)

Big Girl Bed

Allison has loved laying on Matthew's toddler bed, but when I would tell her she had to get off and go in her crib she just cried. I figured she was ready for a big girl bed though she isn't climbing out of her crib yet.
I wanted one just like Matthew's which is plastic and very light except I wanted hers a little more girly. Allison and I set out one day to find a bed for her. We found a Dora the Explorer which she doesn't have any idea who that is and I just don't really care of Dora and the only other plastic one we saw was the pink princess bed but it had a canopy with it. I didn't want hers to have a canopy. After feeling defeated we finally went home and I ordered a plain pink princess bed which was plastic.

She really loved her bed the first couple days and I was so excited she was doing so well. Then she thought it was more fun to get out of bed all the time. Shucks, I had my hopes up. We have tried different punishments and none worked and finally I realized the thing that she hates the worse is being confined. We put her crib back up and she then learned the learn about going to bed (or taking a nap)
No Talking
No Crying
Stay in Bed
Get out of bed...
Crib
That punishment worked really well...for awhile but lately she has had a big smile on her face when she gets out of bed and we go in and she looks at us happily and says "Crib?" Hopefully she doesn't get out of bed too much because I don't have any other punishments for her. She is definitely a stubborn girl. It is a good thing she is so stinkin' cute:)

Buds

I love watching when these two are so sweet to each other. It doesn't always happen so I have to take the picture when it does.

My sweethearts:)

Just Say NO!

Matthew had Red Ribbon Week at his school and then on Friday of that week they had a parade. It was very cute. They made little signs and streamers and walked out and around the school all chanting "JUST SAY NO!!!" It is cute watching him interact with his classmates.

Matthew excited to see Allison come see him in the parade.

Matthew's preschool class with Mrs. Dockery on the left.

Matthew and his JUST SAY NO sign.

I was glad that I was able to go and see him in his parade.

Halloween

Matthew really enjoyed making a jack-o-lantern this year, as you can see by his very cute smile in this picture. He told me what shapes he wanted for this face and then he helped me cut it out.

On the way to our ward trunk-or-treat

The kids enjoyed eating the cupcakes at the cake walk in the "carnival" that was in the gym.

They had a good time and even a better time once it was trunk-or-treat time and they got their pumpkins filled up.

October

Sometimes I don't get my camera out much and other times it doesn't get put away much. October was a month that it didn't get put away much, especially this one particular day. I made collages so hopefully if you just click on the collage it will be bigger to see all the pictures. It would have been too long of a post to add all these pictures individually.
Grandma sent some Halloween shirts and they were cute.
I got Allison dressed and had a couple different photo shoots with just her and then when Matthew came home from school, he joined in on our fun.

Allison: 26 Months
I took pictures by the tree in our front yard and then we also went to story time at the library and they have this train out in front that I put her on.


When we picked Matthew up from the bus we went to the local Pumpkin Patch. I had never been there before but Matthew actually went there that day with his preschool so he showed me around. It was a really fun little place and when we went there weren't any other people there.
There was a tent (hence the orange look) that had a hay maze and then some chickens and a turkey in a cage. The kids had fun looking at the animals and playing in the maze.

After we played in the maze we went to the area where all the pumpkins were. I didn't know that they had a corn box. That was really fun. I even enjoyed myself in that corn. It is a really cool idea that I have never seen before. We buried and found lots of pumpkins.
Then I made them sit with all the pumpkins to take a picture. I think they were just about done with pictures by that point but I still got a couple ok ones.
We saw their huge pumpkin also. It was over 1,000 pounds. If you enlarge the collage you can see the one picture of Matthew standing by the enormous pumpkin.

The Pumpkin Patch Kids

I had a costume that Allison never used last year because she was sick so I figured I would just have her wear it this year. I didn't realize that it was too small until a couple hours before we needed to go to a Halloween party. Thankfully my friend lent me a couple different costumes and dress-ups. Allison picked the purple fairy dress and we put the witches hat and tights on. So I guess she was a fairy witch.
Matthew was obviously spiderman.

Love

What mom doesn't like to see their children getting along? It just makes me so happy to see them love each other. The other one doesn't always what the hugs or kisses which makes me and the giver sad but I believe they do care about each other most of the time.

I try to teach them to be best friends but it doesn't always sink in because "she is my sister, she can't be my best friend." Hopefully one day he will realize that he can have his sister as his best friend.

precious

Matthew always has to put his hands on her head and turn it before he gives her a kiss.

Pockets

I think it is funny when kids discover their pockets. It is so fun to watch how kids act with such simple pleasures.

August Fun

One morning I got the kids dressed not realizing that they were both wearing red. Those outfits just happen to be what was next for each of them. Then after I got dressed Chris realized that I also had on red. Once we realized that, Chris already had black pants and a white shirt on but I had him wear a red tie. We had to take a picture when we got home from church.

I am a little prejudice and just think my kids are adorable. Here is a picture to prove it:)

One day I decided that Matthew and I were going to make fun little treats. We cut up bananas and dipped them in chocolate. I didn't have baking chocolate to melt so I melted chocolate chips. They didn't turn out very pretty but Matthew enjoyed putting the sprinkles and coconut and other fun decorations on them.
Of course we had to try them out and make sure they were ok. Then we put them in the refrigerator to harden. We brought them out for family home evening treats and Matthew and Allison had lot of fun eating them in case you couldn't tell.

While we were making them, I stepped away and came back with one missing. I came back and asked where that one was that was missing. Matthew told me that he ate it but I didn't believe him...ha ha ha:) Guilty:)

I was surprised how messy Allison got, though I shouldn't have been.

Chocolate and all I still think she is cute:)

I think he was more messy before when he ate one without it hardening. I can't imagine what Allison would have looked like had she eaten one when it was still warm.
They definitely enjoyed their treats.

Too cute!

He is such a good kid and I just love him so much.


We were eating grapes and the kids thought it was funny to stick them in their cheeks.

I guess we are trying to teach them about food storage at a young age.

They could not stop laughing, and either could we for that matter. They thought it was so funny.