Pumpkin Carving

We carved Marshall's pumpkin a couple days before Halloween.

While we were carving, Marshall was busy with this little bat and small pumpkin. The bat was making the pumpkin fly...it was pretty cute to watch.



Marshall requested a ghost pumpkin. As you can tell, Richard and I are both very talented artists...or not. Regardless of the lack of detail though, Marshall thought it was pretty cool.

And to conclude, my favorite picture from the evening. I just love the expression on Marshall's face, pure delight! Nevermind that he is holding the lighter; maybe that is why he looks so excited. Don't worry though, that is not something that he usually has in his possession.

A Visit From My Mother

We were lucky enough to get a quick two day visit from my mom a couple of weeks ago. We sure enjoyed having her around.

The first day she was here we had brunch at Blue's Egg. Delicious. After that we went to the children's museum for some good ol' playtime. The kids were in heaven and so happy to have Grandma Laura with them.


After that we left the kids at home with Richard and we ran to Target. It is so refreshing to go shopping with your mom and without children. I do love my kids though.

After that we left my mom at home with the kids and Richard and I headed to 5 O'Clock Steakhouse (one of the top ten steakhouses in the country). We enjoyed a great evening out and came home refreshed, stuffed, and happy. The kids of course, had a grand time with my mom, they had a perfect night.



The next day was the playgroup Halloween party. Bridget was a ladybug, and boy was she adorable.


I got zero pictures of Marshall in his costume that day. More pics of him to come with the other Halloween festivities. Playgroup sure was fun and my mom was reminded what it is like to be a young mom with crazy kids running all around! Marshall also had a grand time at playgroup; he especially enjoyed the cupcake he got to frost and decorate. :)


Thanks Mom for a wonderful visit! We love you!

Despite the lack of pictures of my Mom and Marshall together, please be assured he adores her. Hardly a day goes by when he doesn't say something about Grandma Laura. :) I'll do better next time!

Dancing Again

A few weeks ago I found myself back on the stage for a performance and it was great!

To The Pointe had been invited to participate in an evening of ekphrastic art; ekphrastic meaning multiple art forms coming together in order to relate more effectively to an audience.

Back in the spring visual artists painted or photographed their art. This summer these works of art were given to poets who wrote a poem for each artwork. This fall, To The Pointe selected three of those pairings (there were about eight to choose from) and we choreographed a dance for each pairing.

It was quite the undertaking, but a great one. In just five weeks time we choreographed dances, polished dances, found music, cut music, found costumes, came up with titles, wrote bios, and hopped on the stage. It was a crazy five weeks of my life, but I did have a lot of fun.

I collaborated with Nina, the director of the studio, and Beth and Ginger, two other teachers at To The Pointe. Most of our rehearsals were during the day, so I would just drag Marshall and Bridget along for the fun. They were champs, sometimes hanging out in the studio for four hours!

The first dance we performed was called "Dawn's Embrace". Ginger choreographed it and it was beautiful and quite possibly my most favorite dance I have ever learned. Ginger danced in it as well as Beth and I. Love those ladies.

I choreographed the second piece that was performed. It was called "Millinery Muse" and was based on a photograph of an old straw hat in an antique store window. I chose to dance in it and asked a student from To The Pointe to join me. I was the mannequin who was wearing the hat, and Margaret was the young girl who finds the hat and imagines herself dancing the night away. Margaret was so great to work with and she is a beautiful dancer; she did an excellent job!

The third and final piece we performed was called "Buzzz!!!" and it was SO much fun! Beth choreographed it and all four of us performed in it. Beth did an excellent job and we all had a ball. A local guitarist composed the music we used and he played live for us for the performance. It was awesome and so invigorating to dance to live music; I haven't done that since BYU!

It was a great evening, but also so fleeting. It is always amazing to me how much energy goes into preparing for a performance, and then once the performance begins it is over and done with in such a short while. We plan to perform these three dances in the spring recital in May, so that will give us one more chance to share what we have created and then hopefully we will be invited to work with this great group of artists again next year!

Friends and Pumpkin Patches

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Jim's Pumpkin Patch with our great friends, the Hassells and Irions. We had a grand morning. It was a beautiful day. The kids had a blast running around with each other, and the adults enjoyed visiting. Here are the pictures from the festivities.

A miniature corn maze for the little ones. I love the expression on Marshall's face. These two are good buddies.


We make one attractive couple. :)

The sock-less girl. Bridget refuses to keep socks on her feet; she might go barefoot the entire winter. And, we also discovered she has a fetish for straw.

The babies of the families: Bridget, Max, Charlotte. Doesn't get much cuter. I have about seven of these pictures and Bridget isn't looking at the camera in a single one. Oh well, she sure loves that straw.

Don't worry, despite Marshall's expression, he really did have a fun time.

Best picture of the day...Bridget!

More grass, fascinating.

Love these girls.

Violated

Why is our passenger side door wrapped in a tarp? Let me tell you...

We walked out of church today and discovered that six cars had been broken into. Yes, six cars. Two of those were our cars.

The van had the driver side window broken and the car had the passenger side window broken. Fortunately, nothing was taken (besides our registration stickers, but that is a common thing in MKE) , although they certainly tried to take our brand new stereo in the van, but they couldn't get it out and didn't even bother taking the face plate, which was in the glove box.

The same thing actually happened two weeks ago, but only two cars were hit. This time around, six cars, and one of the cars was the same one from two weeks ago! I feel bad for those guys; they just got their window replaced on Tuesday!

I am still in shock. I am just so glad Richard was there and not at the hospital. I would have just stood in the parking lot with my two kids starring at the car.

We have appointments to get both of our windows fixed tomorrow. Richard is overnight at the hospital tonight so he has covered parking for the car and some good friends were nice enough to let us park our van in their garage for the night as it has been raining since this afternoon. :)

I am just grateful this wasn't anything more serious; we can definitely handle two broken windows. A big thanks to our wonderful Milwaukee friends for helping to clean out our cars, sweep up glass, stay an hour after church, give us extra registration stickers, drive us around, and baby-sit our kids-thank you, thank you, thank you!

Crawling!

We have a crawler on our hands! At just 7 1/2 months old Bridget is officially a mover. :) Marshall did not start crawling until 9 1/2 months old so I really was not expecting this to happen so soon. Last week she started to get herself up on her hands and knees and when I saw that I knew it wouldn't be long! Here are some pictures from earlier in the week as she was continuing to figure things out.

This picture just cracks me up. Poor Marshall's world is going to change yet again as Bridget can now get to anything she wants that is on the ground. I think it will be good to finally have a basement where they can be separated a little bit more when needed and Marshall's toys can be contained downstairs.


And here it is, captured on camera, Bridget's first crawling experience! This just happened on Saturday morning. It's obviously still pretty rough, but even in just one day, she has improved a lot.

Random

I have much to catch up on and I want to get it all done before my mom arrives and I have even more things to blog about. So, here is just a random conglomeration of pictures...

Bridget and her high chair tray, makes her look so small.

Bridget in her striped tights, just makes me laugh.

Marshall and this poor ghost. My mom sent us this fun Halloween decoration to hang on our door. Well, the poor thing has spent hardly any time hanging on the door, instead, Marshall has been dragging him around. The ghost now resides on top of the fridge because his mouth is almost completely off and the hook to hang him up has been torn off thanks to Marshall. Sorry Mom!

This is how Marshall tucked himself in one morning after breakfast.

Bridget now owns a toothbrush! She has had two bottom teeth for weeks now and just this week I realized we should probably be brushing them, ah, poor second children, slightly neglected. :)