First snowfall this year

Last weekend Manny looked out the window and was so excited to see that we had "a lot of snow Mama" (a light dusting) and decided that he should run around the driveway in circles:

Building with Daddy

After going to Manny's preschool Open House last week, Joe decided to make Manny a peg board so that he could make shapes with elastics. Manny played with this "station" for a long time and now plays for it for at least 45 minutes at a time.

Of course, Makenzie had to get in on the building fun:

Determination

At Chuck E. Cheese's Makenzie was determined to climb up on the equipment all by herself. She actually growled/snorted at me if I tried to help.

Here she is pulling herself up over the steps:


Turning around to say, "See, Mama I did it all by myself!"



Trying to figure out how to get down the slide:

I didn't help her down, but I was ready to catch her if I needed to.


She made it down the slide, but now is trying to go back up!

Chuck E. Cheese's

Of course, we couldn't go to Portland without a stop at Chuck E. Cheese's. We actually didn't tell Manny about CEC's, but we happened to be going to Target and went by CEC's and Manny shouted from the back of the car, "Hey, Mama, Sarah is that Chuck E. Cheese's?". So we had to tell him. It was a long 24 hours until we finally made the trip to the "Big C"

Visiting Uncle John, Aunt Carol and Sarah

We had a very fun three days visiting with Uncle John, Aunt Carol and Sarah while we were visiting Ben. Manny always gets so excited when he knows that he is going to Portland and this was no exception!

Manny and Makenzie relaxing in Uncle John's chair:

Manny sitting with Sarah

Reading with Uncle John:Some "big boy" reading:

Visiting with Ben

Since Ben was on his "vacation" from the Navy before going to Italy, we had to go visit. The kids loved being able to hang out with Ben (I think Ben enjoyed the visit too).

Ben and Manny:

Uncle John and Chris

GG and Makenzie

Ben, Manny and GG

Two Airplanes!

Manny and Makenzie (with help from Uncle John and Uncle Phil) flying through the air!

The new Fix-It Man uniform

In an effort to totally encourage using the bathroom, occasionally we allow Manny to wear just his underwear in the house.

When Joe had to go to the basement, Manny (of course) wanted to go down with him. However, he had to put his headlight on!

Potty Training Update

Manny has officially been dry for almost two weeks! He has only had one accident (when he was so excited to go to Uncle John's house that he didn't want to stop to go to the bathroom!).

He has even decided to wear underwear to bed (and not pull-ups). The first night I was really nervous, but in the morning he was dry and he had peed in his potty in the middle of the night. He had "footy" pajamas on and couldn't figure out how to get them back up (they had twisted under his feet) so in the morning he woke up with pajamas down around his feet.

Manny Says...

Piggy Bank Ride=Piggy Back Ride

Dance Team Bears= Berenstain Bears

Hurray!

On Tuesday morning, November 11, 2008 Manny decided to give potty training a go-on his own accord. He woke up and said, "Mama, I have to pee on the toilet.". I looked at him in disbelief and followed him into the bathroom.

My jaw dragged on the floor as I saw him drag his stool over to the toilet, take his diaper off, lift the toilet seat and proceed to pee...in the toilet.

I have never done a "pee dance", but I did that morning.

As of today he is trying his best to use the toilet and has only had a few misses. This makes me smile from ear to ear....Manny too.

The thought of not having to buy small packages of size 6 diapers for huge amounts of money makes me smile from ear to ear too.

So if you see Manny, please congratulate him on his many successes!

Veteran's Day parade

We met Christine, McKayla, Kristian downtown for the Veteran's Day parade where we also met up with Nicolle, Carly and Johannah. The kids had fun time playing and were really good and loved the parade.

Grampa and the Shrine Band playing in the parade. Grampa is in the back on the right playing the trumpet.

Kristian, McKayla, Johannah, Carly (I think, hopefully I got it right!), Manny, Makenzie

Johannah, Carly, McKayla, Manny and Kristian:
PS I will always be grateful for this doorway that allowed Manny to go pee in the potty...just in case you are wondering this is the first day of potty training and Manny has been dry all day and gone to the bathroom 4 times as of 1:30pm! woohoo!!!

Makenzie:

Makenzie's favorite

Recently I bought a huge box of apples so that we could make some apple sauce, apple bread, apple muffins etc.

Makenzie discovered the box of apples today:

Adventures in Babysitting

While my friend Christine had an appointment (Cograts on the job!), I was able to play with the kids at her house. It was quite a bit of fun.

The Ramos-Kendall band:

Getting comfortable while watching Little Einsteins.

Having too much fun:

Taking a break for a drink of water. I think Kristian and Makenzie are going to be really great friends. They each get very excited when they see each other.

McKayla trying to convince Manny that he should play Disney Princesses with her:

Playing with Uncle

Uncle came to visit, so of course we all had to play with trucks.

Makenzie even likes to play with trucks and even makes the "brrrrrrr" sound when she picks up a truck or car (or really anything that she can move across the floor).

Happy Halloween...

I know I am late, but here they are.

Visiting with GG:

So silly!

Playing together under Joe's desk:




side note: click on the picture so that it will enlarge and look at Kenzie's chin...yuck.

All four pumpkins from left to right: Makenzie's (yes she did put her own paint on it), Manny's, Joe's and Mine.

My pumpkin glowing in the dark:

Joe's pumpkin:

Decorating some pumpkins

Decorating pumpkins always seems like a good idea before you start, but then once you get out all the supplies and start carving...everything seems to seems to get out of hand.

Kenzie enjoying the taste of pumpkin:

"Mama, are we done yet?"

Joe getting all technical and using the drill on his pumpkin:

Manny using some paint (this was before he started painting his whole body...that is why he doesn't have a shirt on-we like to be proactive!)