my little scarecrows!

Halloween party at our friend Gigi's house!

rex thought his pal was a stuffed animal. he kept nuzzling and nudging him!

ready to trick or treat!

passing out candy!

what a day!!! we had a pretty relaxing morning resting and watching some halloween shows. we took an early nap and then went to a halloween party at our pal gigi's house! the kids had a great time!! rex was a little nervous at first, but then played on his own and with his friends without me having to be RIGHT there. hopefully he's getting over this clingy phase!! the kids had lots of yummy treats at the party and played with a lot of fun toys! malloy and rex both had jello for the first time and loved it! after the party we came home, had a quick dinner, touched up the face paint, and headed back out to trick or treat. we only went to about 8 houses, but that was enough for malloy! she's such a pro - she'd march right up to the door and say "trick or treat" and then said thank you after she got candy. when we got back, she was in charge of passing out candy. she was saying "i have to feed the kids." when kids were close, she'd yell out "come on, come on! i have treats for you! do you want candy?!" and while she was passing out candy she'd say "i like your mask. it's funny" or "what are you supposed to be?" and would say your welcome if the kids said thank you. it was so cute!!!!! when did she grow up?! needless to say, both kids went right to sleep as soon as they hit their beds tonight!!

playing angry birds on daddy's phone

pretending to sleep on the couch

she said "can i say cheese? cheeeeeeeeeeese!" with her eyes closed :)

we had a pretty quiet day today. this morning malloy and i went out to run errands. she loves going out "just mommy and malloy". she was such a good girl, too! she really needs that one on one time with her mama every so often - even if it is just running around to return boots and go grocery shopping!
rex was very whiny this morning. not sure what's going on with him - really hope it's just teeth and nothing to do with ears!! he's learning so much right now!!! he knows the animal noises for a dog, cat, sheep, horse, cow, elephant, monkey, duck, lion, chicken, pig, and goat. it's so cute!!! my favorite of the moment is his cat noise "mow". he calls all the animals by their sound, too. if he sees a horse he gets very excited and says "neigh neigh". rex got a lot of daddy time today while the girls were out and about. he LOVED it!!! it's not often that he gets individual attention and even less often that it's with daddy!!! it was a nice relaxing sunday! tomorrow's halloween - malloy is very excited!!

we had a fun day today!! we spent the morning at kelkenberg farm celebrating our friend, gianna's, 3rd birthday!! we saw sheep, goats, horses, roosters, pigs, cows, bunnies, dogs, cats, and baby chicks! the kids got to pet most of the animals and malloy got to milk a goat and ride a horse! malloy was so cute playing the donut game where she had to eat the donut on a string without using her hands. she really took the rules seriously and tried so hard to get that donut!!! she's a champ! the pinata was a little harder for her, but she tried!!! i just recently noticed that when she's going for something but she's unsure or embarrassed, her face is turning red - just like her mama!!! it's so cute!!!!!! she's really so sweet! rex hung out with daddy at the farm. he was such a good boy!!

we had a fun morning at our friends gianna and kenadee's house! malloy and gianna play so nice together - they were cute! at one point they came out into the kitchen both wearing tutus saying "look at us!!" rex got comfortable and for the first time in a few weeks and wasn't crying and clinging to me!! hooray!!
rex took a short nap and woke up crying. malloy woke up in a cranky mood and then told me that she needed medicine for her teeth. sure enough, she's got one molar in, one molar poking through a bit, and two just about to! no wonder why she was so cranky!!! both kids had a better afternoon once they had ibuprofen and spent an hour reading books with each other!! gotta love those moments!!
oh! when malloy woke up, rex was so excited to see her. he came right over to her, stood up and said "hi" with a bunch of smiles. then he pursed his lips and leaned in to kiss her! melted my heart!! he loves his sister SO much!!!

holy busy day, batman!! malloy had her halloween party at school today. she was SO excited to wear her costume!! she kept showing her friends her dress she was wearing, saying "do you like my pretty dress? i'm a scarecrow, is that funny?" she went down the stairs to go to class and she said to the teachers "my mommy painted my nose, is that funny?!" she had a great time at school with all of her friends dressed up in costumes. as we were leaving, mrs. messina said "malloy REALLY loves halloween!"
after naps, we got dressed up again (rex, too, this time!) and went trick or treating at the eastern hills mall. it was INSANE!!! it was so crowded - it was just one huge line of kids getting candy throughout the entire mall! the kids had fun though! after that we ended up going to dinner at friendly's with friends!! such a whirlwind day, but SO fun!!!

today was full of running around! we went to gianna and kenadee's for a playdate. malloy got to meet the newest member of our group, baby emery!! she LOVED her!!! she was trying to put blankets on her and couldn't keep her hands off of her. this afternoon, malloy was talking about baby emery and kept saying "she's teeny teeny tiny!"
malloy requested spaghetti for dinner, so we went out and got everything for dinner (and some last minute touches for halloween costumes!). uncle ryan came over and visited with the kids - rex didn't even want to finish dinner, he was just holding his arms out to ryan to get him out of the chair! the kids love their uncle ryan!!

this is what i found this afternoon when i came back into the living room <3 they're really so precious sometimes! they were watching tv together like this.

so, i seem to be writing every other day. let's do the catch-up game again!
yesterday, we had a playdate at our house. most of the kids were rex's age, but corbin was malloy's age, so she had one buddy to play with. they were so cute together! they play so nice - i peeked in on them in the playroom once and they were playing doctor. the second time i peeked in they were doing puzzles. then they read books to each other on the couch! rex had a love/hate relationship going on with his pal, benny. one minute they were fighting over a toy and the next they were rolling all over each other. he was also VERY clingy today. he's going through a very rough patch of separation anxiety! everywhere we go, he thinks that i'm going to leave him! this is just a phase and he'll get over it soon, right?!

malloy had school today and rex and i went shopping for the last touches of the halloween costumes. we had a good day today, not counting a little outburst right before dinner. the day was not too eventful!

quick update of our weekend!
friday we went to our friend brooke's 3rd birthday party!! it was pirate themed - SO cute!! on our way to brooke's, malloy said "i'm going to give brooke her present and say 'here you go, brooke, i made this for you' and she's going to say 'you colored on my present?! i love it!" she is forever cracking me up! malloy had a blast at the party. rex cried the minute i was out of his sight the entire time! it was very trying!!!

decorating pirate hats

rex loved taylor! i think he thought she was a live doll!

pinata time!

patiently waiting for another turn with gianna

hooray for candy!!!

saturday wasn't the best day. the kids have colds and so does neal. i wasn't sick, but was still feeling run down. it was mostly spent napping and lounging. the kids were pretty whiny and malloy was having a lot of accidents. mommy had a night out visiting friends including our very new friend, baby emery!!! she's so cute!!!
sunday the kids played with neal most of the day while i cleaned, organized, and rearranged the kitchen. malloy was excited to have a new kitchen :) (we got a new fridge on friday and she hugged it!!) we all sat at the table together for dinner - something we need to do more often!! it was nice! after dinner, we went for a quick walk and looked at all the halloween decorations. we have lots of halloween festivities coming up this week!!! it should be fun!!

malloy is in full story-telling mode!!! her latest:
i went to a pumpkin farm and the pumpkins were growling at me and said "give me some treasure" and then the scary ghosts were there, too. the skeletons wanted to get the treasure, too! they said "no! you can't have the treasure!!"
then she looks at me and says "erin? what're you doing erin?"
she is something else!!!

wow - we've been busy lately!! and the kids are going to bed a little later which leaves less time for the blog!
malloy had her 2 1/2 year well visit at the dr. yesterday. she did great!! we had talked about what was going to happen before we went. so she stood on the scale and was just beaming because she was doing a good job. she weighed 29lbs (which is 50th percentile for weight) and was 35 inches tall (25th percentile). she was very good while the dr. looked in her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. malloy followed all of the dr.'s directions. the dr. was very impressed with malloy's verbal skills and intelligence :) even though i know she's a smartie pants, it's nice to hear from professionals! she was also very impressed that malloy's potty trained and wearing underwear to bed. she's been doing great and staying dry overnight, but has started having accidents quite frequently during the day :( i don't know what's going on or why she's regressing. we're going to start rewarding for having dry underwear every time she goes to the bathroom and see how that goes. malloy's also started hitting more. i don't know what it's about - if it's from school and she's just trying it out or what but i hate it!! she's starting to be a little more understanding with rex and tries very hard to be nice and keep calm when he's doing something she doesn't like.
rex took a few more steps today!! we were in malloy's room. he just stood up and took about 10 steps!!! he likes to do things on his own time and doesn't want to play the walking games back and forth between people. it's just a different experience than when malloy started walking! one day, she just decided it was time to walk and did! she walked up and down the hallway and all around. rex is taking his time and testing things out. we had a little one-on-one time today while malloy was at school. rex playing in the fridge while i was emptying it out and putting everything in coolers. our fridge died and i was trying to salvage what i could!
the kids are on a tail end of a cold so we've been laying low the past couple days. i'm hoping that malloy will be even better than she was today so we can go to our friend, brooke's, birthday party!!!

our weekend in pictures!

rex and gigi

rex and kenadee hanging out in their wagons :)