Trick-or-Treat

The girls and their cousin Bridget dressed up for a trick-or-treat outing at our local mall. Participating stores handed out candy to kids in costumes. I didn't think there would be too many people there, but I was wrong! The mall was packed with trick-or-treaters. I'm not a big fan of crowds, but it was nice to take the girls around a bright and warm environment rather than outside in the cold and dark weather.

Photo Fridays 10.29.10

Unfinished Business

My DayZero Project countdown is well underway. I have 983 days left to complete the 80 tasks I have on my list (I still plan to come up with 101 total tasks).

I have a few tasks that are "In Progress". Also, a number of my tasks start with the word "Finish". I start a lot of projects I'm excited about but either take forever to finish them, or I don't finish them at all. This is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to plugging along with this project. I actually want to finish things I've started in the past, and finish tasks I'm starting during this project.

So, here's a little progress report:

Finish my Mom's Grandmother cross-stitch pattern
Every Christmas my immediate family draws names for a gift exchange. The idea though, is to make that person a gift rather than buy a gift. Last Christmas I drew my Mom's name. I had the ambitious task of doing a cross-stitch pattern I found on E-Bay to display the names and birth dates of my Mom's grandchildren. I spent a lot of time on the pattern, but failed to finish it in time. My goal now is to finish the pattern by this Christmas. It's coming along:

Memorize Romans
My Church, GENESIS, is going through a sermon series on Romans. Our Pastor challenged us to memorize the entire letter ("book") which consists of 16 chapters. I know this is a big undertaking, but I believe it is possible if I practice every day and attempt to add a few new verses each week. I tend to practice at the breakfast table with Abigail and Sarah. When I successfully add a new verse I get a little excited and shout "Yes!". Well, Abigail has now gotten into the habit of reciting her own "verse", which goes a little like this "Christ the Lord and the Gentiles...Yes!" So far I have 12 verses under my belt out of 433, so I'm 2.8% complete. I think this task will take the full 1,001 days ;-)

Read 5 classic "banned" books
My Mom and I decided to do this task together and read the same books that have been banned or challenged. I finished Animal Farm by George Orwell and am currently reading The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.

I still have a long way to go on my list, but I am planning on finishing what I have started!

Photo Fridays 10.22.10

I already posted the fun photos from this past week, so I'm going back in time for this weeks' Photo Fridays. My sister and I are driving down to New Jersey tonight with Sarah and Bridget for a quick wedding-related trip. My brother James and future sister-in-law Dawn are getting married next April, and my sister and I will be in the wedding party. So, we will be trying on potential bride's maid dresses with Dawn. I'm looking forward to spending time with James and Dawn, even though it will be a quick trip.

Here is a picture from April 2009, when my sister got married...

So Sweet

This would have made for a great Photo Friday post, but I just couldn't wait to get it up here.

One of my favorite things to do is sneak into the girls' room after they've fallen asleep to see what position they ultimately fall asleep in. My girls like to move around a lot. Abigail, for instance, often does not stay in the head-on-the-pillow-feet-towards-the-foot-of-the-bed position. She sometimes will sleep with her head on one side of the bed and her feet on the other. Sometimes her feet will be towards the pillow end of the bed and her head towards the foot of the bed.

Sarah is finally getting used to falling asleep on her own again. Sometimes it takes longer than other times, but she'll do it. Today it took her 35 minutes to fall asleep for her morning nap. Once she finally did I sneaked in to get a peak and this is what I found:

Her stuffed animals are always kept in the corner. She only started playing with them a few weeks ago. It's like she lined them up next to her to keep her company. So cute!

Another Great Visit

Grandma and Papa Kapaldo made the trip up this past weekend for Sarah's first birthday. The girls were quite shy when they first arrived, but warmed up quickly. Abigail was soon being carried around by Papa and Sarah was entertaining Grandma with her pretend sneezes.

We had a great visit and look forward to seeing Grandma and Papa Kapaldo for Christmas!

Sarah's First Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Sarah's birthday with family. We had a blast and I think Sarah did too. We went with a pumpkin/fall theme. I was adventurous and made a pumpkin spice birthday cake with cream cheese frosting-and I made it look like a pumpkin!

Sarah seemed to like the cake. At first she found it odd that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to take a taste. But once she started eating she seemed to forget about her audience. Abigail wasn't that interested in the cake, only the frosting and ice cream.

Sarah got a few new cool, bright, and noisy toys. She also got a few really cute new winter outfits. Thank you everyone for your generosity! Thank you also to Grandma and Papa Kapaldo for making the trip up. And thank you Uncle James for taking pictures (and for making the trip up too)!

Sarah is ONE!

As of 2:20 this afternoon Sarah will officially be one year old. I'm sure you will not be surprised to hear that I cannot believe she is a year old already!

It blows my mind that a whole year ago today I was holding a tiny little beautiful baby in my arms. I really wasn't sure how having two-under-two kids would work out. It hasn't been easy, but the rewards have been more than worth the tough times.

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Sarah's unique personality develop. It is so fun to see how different two girls born of the same parents can be!

My feelings are a bit more bitter-sweet with Sarah hitting this milestone than they were when Abigail turned one. I think the main difference is because when Abigail turned one, we already knew about Sarah. But now, my baby-my youngest-is turning one. Instead of having "empty nest" syndrome I think I have "empty womb" syndrome.

Every time Sarah learns something new I almost cringe-my baby is growing up too fast. Whether she is taking her first few steps, climbing the stairs, drinking from a sippy cup, or learning how to steer her walker on her own, I gasp a little. My baby can't be one already! Before I know it she'll be singing This is the Day and telling me she loves me. Before I know it she'll be running around the house, kicking bouncy balls, and really getting into things. Where does the time go?

Happy birthday, Sarah! We love you so much and look forward to watching you continue to grow and develop into the young lady God wants you to be!

Photo Fridays 10.15.10

We carved our pumpkins last night. Abigail helped Daddy with the smaller pumpkin. She refused to put her hand inside to clean the seeds. When she finally did she uttered an "Eww gross"! When the girls were asleep Jonathan and I carved the larger pumpkin.

Day Zero

Today I started my own DayZero list. DayZero is a 1,001 day project where you establish 101 goals/tasks to complete and track. I was inspired to do this because my cousin started her own list. This seems like a great way to establish attainable goals, keep track of them, and motivate myself to complete them.

So far I've only come up with 74 items. Some goals involve my health (losing weight, avoiding snacks after a certain time). Other goals deal with finances/organization (saving 3-6 months of expenses, cleaning out my closet). I also have goals that deal with my spiritual well-being (journaling, memorizing a book of the Bible). And of course, this list wouldn't be my list without a few random and fun goals (building a gingerbread house, learning a magic trick).

I encourage you to check out my list and check out this blog to see how I progress.

Pumpkin Picking!

Today we ventured out with Auntie Laura, Uncle Nick, and Bridget to search for the perfect pumpkin. We weren't sure where we were going to go, so I googled pumpkin picking and found Crescent Farms. I was not at all impressed by their website, but we decided to check it out anyway-we were not disappointed. This was the perfect place for us.

This farm was not crowded at all. They offer $3 hayrides every hour (we didn't go because we got there at 2:15), have a few farm animals, and also feature a corn maze. I was also impressed with the pumpkin selection. Also, instead of picking an already picked pumpkin we got to go right to the patch where the pumpkins were growing.

This was a modest farm compared to something like Smolak Farms (where we went apple picking) but we had a blast! I'm so glad we stumbled upon it with a simple Google search! This was the perfect day for pumpkin picking.

Photo Fridays 10.08.10

Ok, so I know it isn't Friday, but I did take this photo on Friday.

Playing with Scissors

Sounds bad, but it wasn't bad.

Whenever Abigail sees me with a pair of scissors she chases me in an effort to "try" them. I finally bought a pair of kid-safe scissors and let Abigail have at it today. I also let her use glue. She spent a good 30 minutes or so cutting and gluing.

Here is her final product. She added a few other facial features besides your typical eyes, nose, and mouth.