Henry Leaves for the Air Force

Uncle Henry left on Tuesday to join the Air Force. We are all really excited for him. He has worked really hard to get into the program he is in. Below are a few pictures of the kids with Uncle Henry. We can't wait to see Uncle Henry in January after he is done with Boot Camp.

Halloween 2012

The kids had several opportunities to wear there costumes this year. My office party, Greyson's birthday and Halloween. Below are some pictures from many of the Halloween events the kids attended over the last few days.  Piper was a strawberry and Pennington was a dragon. Enjoy!

Baby Cousin

Pennington and Piper will be welcoming their first baby cousin into this world in the next few months. Uncle Rocky and his long-time girlfriend are expecting a baby boy this winter. A few weeks ago our family took all sorts of baby things over to Uncle Rocky and Shannon's house for baby cousin.This has been a really good experience for the kids. Anytime they find something a baby would like they give it to me and say we should save it for baby cousin. Pictures to come as soon as the baby is born.

2 and 3 Year Old Checkups

Last week I took the kids to their 2 and 3 year old checkups with Dr. Booth. Nothing really exciting. Both kids are doing great and appear to be right on track. There were a few take aways I got from the appointment. (1) I need to have the kids take a vitamin with iron in it. Right now the one they take doesn't have iron in it. (2) I need to try to give them more water. Right now I pretty much only give them soy milk or juice. Basically I need to just give them water when it is not meal time. I have heard this a thousand times but it was a good reminder.

Below are the stats. I have to say I am not 100% sure if they are comparing my kids to other children that just turned 2 or 3 or if they are actually comparing them to children that are 26 months and 38 months. Regardless I would say my kids aren't the smallest but on average are smaller.

Piper

Weight: 26 pounds - 48 percentile
Height: 33 1/2 inches - 26 percentile
Head Circumference: 18 1/2 - 39 percentile

Pennington

Weight: 31 pounds - 37 percentile
Height: 38 1/2 inches - 52 percentile
Blood Pressure: 70/60

I guess at 3 they stop doing head circumference and move to blood pressure. :)

Family Photos

I decided it was about time we got some family photos taken. Below is a preview of some of the photos that my dear friend Nora took for us tonight. I have hundreds more to go through and edit/crop so expect to see more soon. Thanks Nora!!!

Piper - The Fashion Queen

Piper loves to dress herself. This was one of my favorite outfits she came up. She has on Cars pajama pants, a pink vest with hearts, lots of necklaces, black Mary Jane's, a teal and white polka dotted shirt, and a headband. Johnny and I joke around about how she got her fashion advice from Grandma because Grandma is always wearing things that just don't go together. However, lately Piper has been talking a lot about matching so hopefully her fashion expertise will be better. Below are some pictures of my fashion queen.

Harrison Classic

Today Pennington and Piper ran the Harrison Classic which is a one mile race down Harrison Blvd. Grandma came along to help run with the kids since Dad had to work. Both kids did great. Pennington walk/ran the whole thing and Piper walk/ran or was carried. While they didn't time it I think Pennington did one mile in about 15 minutes and Piper did it in about 20 minutes. It was really fun to run the race since there were tons of our friends from Montessori Home there. Below are some pictures from the race.

Piper is Potty Trained

We did it!!! Piper is potty trained. What is so interesting about potty training Piper is that she basically did it herself. Johnny and I hardly had to push her to do it. With Pennington we had to work with him a lot but not with Piper. Piper was just very insistent that she no longer wears diapers and only wears underwear. I will say that she isn't potty trained at night and if her nap is longer than say 2 hours she will have an accident. I actually have to beg her to wear a pull-up or diaper at night. I tried just letting her wear underwear to bed at night but after about the 3rd night of having to wash sheets I said screw it and made Piper wear a pull-up. I wouldn't be surprised if Piper has to wear a diaper or pull-up at night for another 6 months or so. She just doesn't seem to be ready to wear underwear at night. This is 180 degree difference from Pennington. When we finally got Pennington potty trained we realized we just had to take the diapers away all together even at night.

I have to say it is so awesome not to have to buy diapers or bring diapers with me everywhere. I feel like I have a whole new freedom. I will say that you never know when they will have accidents even though they are potty trained. You never want to get to comfortable and decide you don't need backup clothes in case they have an accident. Pennington has been having at least one accident everyday lately. Boy I hope this phase goes away soon.

Overall I am really proud of my little girl. She basically potty trained herself. Love you little Miss Piper.

Piper gets a hair cut

Last weekend Johnny and I were at our dear friend Tessa's wedding. On Sunday morning after the wedding I woke up to find that Piper had bangs. Turns up Grandma decided it was okay to cut Piper's hair without asking Mom. While I do agree that the bangs look good, I really didn't want Piper to EVER have bangs.  I even told my mother-in-law this a few months ago when I told her I planned on taking Piper to get her haircut soon. Being a girl I totally understand how it can take months, even years, to grow out bangs. At this point I guess Piper is probably going to have bangs until see decides she no longer wants them. Which will probably be in like 10 years. Honestly it has been over a week and I am still a bit worked up about this. I made sure to let my mother-in-law know that Piper's hair is very special to me and that I do not want her to cut her hair again without asking me first. It is really interesting how I didn't get very worked up about Pennington getting his haircut but I am definitely getting worked up about Piper getting her haircut. I think it is because I don't have any pictures or hair to put into a keepsake box. At the end of the day I really need to get over this since we are talking about hair which I know will grow back.

Harvest Festival - 2012

.On Saturday Johnny and I took the kids to the Harvest Festival at the Botanical Gardens. The kids had a great time. They picked pumpkins, painted pumpkins, did the ring toss, corn maze, etc. Below are some pictures of the kids and some of their friends that we ran into along the way.

Piper picking out a pumpkin

Piper and Pennington paining pumpkins

Piper in the Corn Maze. Did you notice the bangs? See my next posting about the bangs.

Pennington, Avery (Becca Allen's Oldest), Piper, and Harkin (Chetan Baxter's Oldest)

Piper, Pennington and Avery

Pennington and Piper on the John Deere tractor