"Trick Treat"

Happy Halloween! We had a great Halloween. I had to go back to work today, but it ended up being a good day to go back because it was Halloween.

We had a busy night. Auntie El came by to give Kate an Elmo trick or treat pail. It was a big hit, Kate loved it & carried it with her all night. Then we stopped by to say hi to Papa & Grandma Jill. After that we went to see their cousins, Alexis & Kyle. We then trekked over to the Mitchell's for a party & trick or treating. We didn't think Kate would go trick or treating. Boy, were we wrong. She LOVED it. It was so cute seeing her walking down the street in her costume saying "trick treat". She seemed like such a big girl, it made Kevin and I kinda sad! To end the night we stopped by Grandpa Jimmy & Mimi's house. It was such a fun night!


Meow.
With Auntie El
The whole family



Kate & Claire with their cousins Kyle & Alexis

Kate Trick or Treating, it took her so long to decide what to pick..Rolo or Recees. She made the right choice...Recees.
Kate and Taylor eating their treats!

Kate at the end of the night crawling around like a dog.....can you say sugar high?

Pumpkin Palooza 2008

Tonight was the 4th annual Sembrat-Larson Pumpkin Carving Palooza!

We have been doing this for the past 4 years which is when the Sembrat's moved up the street from us. Mark & Kevin have been best buds since 4th grade! Mark, Tara & Kevin all went to middle school and high school together. (I was a few years behind them at the same schools...they are old). It is so fun having childhood friends live a few doors up!

Each year the Pumpkin Palooza gets bigger & better. Here are some of the pictures from the night.

On our porch trying to get a picture of both girls. If you can believe it,this is the best one. Yes, they are in matching outfits...I love having 2 girls to dress alike :)

The drink master...Sir Mix-a-lot Marky Mark:

Isn't this drink cool? It was good!

Me & Kev. Cheers!

Tara & Zayden the peacock:

The pumpkins & goards before being carved:

And after:

Right Place at the Right Time

So, Kate decided she was done with dinner (spinach nuggets & ketchup) and she flung her plate across the table and it landed on Boulder. I am so glad Boulder was there so that the ketchup didn't land on my carpet. Now, that would have been a mess to clean up. Luckily, there were only 2 tiny spots that got on the carpet, but they came out. That was a close call!

Way to take one for the team Boulder, I guess we will keep you around :)

Pictures from our week

On Monday, we went to the Oakland Zoo.

Natalie, Lars, Kate & Claire

We saw giraffes

Elephants

and zebras

Kate was in a zone looking at the meerkats. She loved them!
Kate petting the goats.

Lars and Kate had fun on the tunnel slide


This is what Claire did the whole time.


Kate dancing on our deck that Kevin finished sanding, staining & refinishing


Later on this week Uncle Trav meets Claire for the first time!


This is what happens when a 6 week old doesn't poop for 48 hours. RIP onesie. (thanks to my BFF Anna-Karin for the idea of cutting the onesie off!)


Kevin feeding Claire. Maybe this will help her sleep better at night. Just kidding. Kind of.
*note, no alcohol was consumed by Claire :)

Claire smiling for the camera

This weekend we headed down to Hanford to celebrate Grammy's 97th birthday. On the way down, our friends Jenna & Ian (they live in San Diego) randomly texted Kevin to tell us they were on the road driving to the Bay Area. We haven't seen them in over a year. They were driving North on I-5 while we were driving South on I-5. Well, it turns out, we were able to get off at the same exit in the middle of California for 5 minutes so that they could meet Claire! One of the most random & fun experiences I have had on a road trip!

Grammy holding her 5th great-grandchild for the first time! I hope I look this good at 97!

4 generations of Fry-Mikkelsen-Cartmell-Larson women!

And, I added pictures to my post about my Maternity Pictures that my friend Caryn took in August. Click HERE to see that post.

Hand Me Ups?

My sweet Kate is 21 months today. She is such a goofy little girl. We love her so much. She is such a great big sister to Claire. I love seeing her hug, kiss, torment, poke & put stickers on her little sister.

So, today, Kate was in Claire's room opening all of her drawers and taking out all of Claire's clothes & socks. About 99% of Claire's clothes are hand me downs from Kate. (It has been very beneficial to our checking account having another girl). She grabbed a pair of Claire's little jeans (that were Kate's when she was a baby) and she was trying to put them on & was getting very frustrated & was saying to me "pants on". These jeans were size 3 months, so I figured there was no way they would fit. But, then, for the fun of it, I decided to see if they would fit. Lo and behold, these size 3 month pants fit Kate perfectly around the waist & made a cute little pair of capris for Kate.

Who would have thought a pair of size 3 month jeans would fit a
21 month year old. Not me! So, here is Kate wearing these pants when she was 3 and a half months old and today, 21 months!

Ketchup & Hiccups

I don't like ketchup. I don't put it on hot dogs, hamburgers or french fries. I like my fries dipped in ranch (or if at Pete's Brass Rail, I dip fries in their cajun mayo).
The only thing I like ketchup with is hash brown or breakfast potatoes.

Well, Kate LOVES ketchup. Loves it. She has become a picky eater the past few months. That has been challenging because we need this girl to gain weight! Well, about a month ago, we were trying to get Kate to eat some chicken nuggets (which she usually likes). Kevin said, "give her some ketchup to dip them in" I immediately made a face and said, "ewww, nasty". But, Kevin insisted we give ketchup a try. He squirted some ketchup on her plate & she ate up every last morsel of chicken nugget. Kate became a big fan of ketchup that night.

So, now, whenever we are trying to get Kate to eat something we squirt some ketchup on her plate & she goes crazy.

Tonight, Kate had chicken nuggets for dinner. I gave her a chocolate chip cookie for dessert while she was still in her high chair with her plate with leftover ketchup on it. I witnessed the horror of Kate repeatedly dipping her chocolate chip cookie in ketchup. Kids are gross!

Here is a list of things Kate likes to dip in ketchup:

• eggs
• quesadillas
• meatballs
• french fries
  
• chicken nuggets
• spinach nuggets
  
• toast
• grilled cheese
• tortilla chips
• string cheese
  
• bananas (gross)
  
• chocolate chip cookies (double gross)

Onto hiccups....when I was pregnant with Claire, from 34 weeks on, she would get the hiccups every night from 10 to 11. This trend has continued for her outside the womb. She still gets the hiccups every night and she also gets the hiccups at least 2 more times throughout the day. These are violent hiccups, her little body convulses every time she hiccups. She doesn't like them & usually starts crying a few minutes into her hiccuping session. The good news is that her baby acne has finally cleared up (how shallow am I????)
Claire is 6 weeks old today & I almost caught a smile with my camera! I wasn't quite fast enough!

Kick for the Cure & Pink October

So, most of you know I played collegiate soccer at the University of Colorado (Go Buffs!) About 2 months ago, I got an email from the coach that was sent to all the Colorado soccer alumni letting us know about a charity event that the CU soccer team was participating in. Every year CU soccer hosts a soccer tournament. This year's tournament was called Kick for the Cure and the tournament funds was going to support Breast Cancer & breast cancer awareness. Nike donated pink soccer jerseys that the CU soccer players were going to wear in honor of breast cancer survivors & women who had lost the battle with breast cancer. The email I got told me about the event & the opportunity to "bid" on a jersey. If you were the winning bid, the money would be donated to breast cancer research & you would be able to have a name embroidered on the sleeve of the pink jersey to honor someone who has battled or is currently battling breast cancer.

As soon as I got the email, I told Kevin about it & we knew we wanted to buy a jersey to honor our sister-in-law Cindy's mom. (Kevin's brother Jeff is married to Cindy & her mom Linda lost her battle to breast cancer in May 1999). Kevin's mom joined us in the efforts to purchase the jersey.

I wanted to purchase a jersey number that either Cindy or her sister Kathy wore for soccer. Kevin's mom searched through old SRVHS yearbooks to try and find their numbers. I managed to sly-ly ask Cindy what their soccer numbers were one night & I found out she was #4 and Kathy was #5. My niece Alexis is #9 and my nephew Kyle is #45. The auction for the jersey's ended the day before I had Claire, and I was bidding on jersey #'s 4, 5 and 9. I got out-bid on jersey #4 and jersey #5, but I won jersey #9. Yay!

***Disclaimer...I am math teacher, and a self-proclaimed numbers dork, so I was happy that at least I got #9 because 4+5 is 9....so Cindy's number plus Kathy's number is the number we got.....not to mention #9 is Alexis' number and Kyle is 45 which also equals 9 if you add the digits together. I told you I was a numbers dork!

The Colorado athletic department sent me the jersey last week & we gave the jersey to Cindy & her sister Kathy last night. They had no idea that we had done this (we actually pulled off a surprise!)
Here are pictures from last night:


My niece Alexis wearing the pink jersey (her favorite color and mine!) in honor of her Grandma Linda.

Cindy & Kathy with my nephews Kyle & Drew and niece Alexis
Did you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month?


In honor of this, the White House has gone Pink for October:

“During a ceremony at the White House, First Lady Laura Bush flipped a switch and suddenly a building that has been white ever since John and Abigail Adams took up residence there in 1800 was suddenly pink. She said:

We’re showing our support of breast cancer awareness and research in a historic way. In recognition of the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives who struggle with this disease, we’re lighting the White House in pink, which is the color of the cause. May our lights tonight shine as beacons around the world, a signal of the United States’ commitment to saving lives for breast cancer.”

Kudos to Laura Bush and all the other women around the world who are working hard to raise awareness of this horrible disease.

Also, check out these re-useable shopping bags I picked up at Safeway last week. Normally, Safeway's re-useable shopping bags are $.99 But, they have these special edition Breast Cancer ones that are $1.99 ($1 from each bag goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.) Aren't they cute? I picked up 5 of them! You can now go Green and Pink when you shop!

Front & Back Views: