Happy Halloween!!!!

 Good morning everyone!! Vivi woke up this morning clinging to her blankie. Looks like we have another blankie lover...so sweet. Can you tell she just woke up?

 Our agenda for the day is to...

1) Nap time while mommy showers

2) Go to Bella's preschool so she can participate in her song and dance during the Halloween parade. So looking forward to this!!!

3) Lunch/Naps

4) Dinner with Aunt Jenny and Baby Romey

5) Photos in costumes

6) Trick or treating with neighbors!

7) Scary movie for Mommy and Daddy and maybe a Halloween cocktail :)

     Exciting stuff! 

A few pictures from last night. We finished carving our pumpkins, watched Halloween and roasted pumpkin seeds. How is it that my husband has never tried roasted pumpkin seeds nor has he ever heard of doing that. He thought I was fishing out all the seeds for an art project to do with Bella. He is definitely not from Maryland! 

Let me know if you want my recipe! I added a little Maryland love to it. I bet you can guess what ingredient I added! 😊

      Happy Halloween! Love, 

               The Cannons

Semi-Homemade costumes

Bella painting. About two minutes after I took this picture Vivi crawled over and stuck both hands into the cups of paint. Awesome

I always told myself I wanted to try to be one of those crafty moms that would make their kids Halloween costumes so, I attempted to do just that. I wouldn't say I failed miserably but I would say I used my hot glue gun a whole lot! I really wanted to try to sew and I attempted it but I then I just told myself Lynn, who are you kidding you studied Fine Art not Fashion. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job on their costumes and definitely spent under a hundred dollars total on both. (Not too bad right?)  Everyone calls me Martha Stewart but I am thinking I'm more like Sandra Lee. Hey, I like Sandra Lee she makes a cocktail with every meal she makes!
I will post pix after Halloween night because they look pretty sad unworn.

The other night Curt came home very excited to carve pumpkins with his two year old daughter. Bella was really excited to "do activity with Daddy." Bella sat down while I helped her draw a sad face on her pumpkin because that is what she wanted and that was about it! She is only a two year old so she lost interest pretty quickly. Daddy spent the remainder of the evening carving Bella and Vivi's pumpkins. He is such a good Daddy, I know next year she will want to do more so don't worry. Curt loves Halloween and he gets very excited to do these sort of things probably because he remembers doing them with his Dad. His parents love Halloween so much their picture was in the paper this year for their outdoor decorations. Pretty cute.

I love you Curt. I also love how you gave me a hug this morning and your after shave is still lingering on my cheek.

October Weekend

 

We had a long and very full weekend. It began with having family pictures with Blue Lily Photography in the afternoon a little before the girls would normally wake up from their afternoon nap. It was a bit cold but Wendy the photographer said that she got in some good pictures so I feel confident! Afterwards we promised Bella that we would go to Rio Grande for dinner. The other day we drove past it and she said, "Rio Grande!!" I said, "yes that is Rio Grande." She said, "maybe we go someday?" I said, "of course we will go someday!"

That's a half smile from Bella. I think she is all smiled out from her photo session!

 

 

Saturday afternoon we had Romeo's Christening in Bethesda. It was lovely, he was a perfect little angel. Romeo was "very attentive" said Father and we were all impressed by how well behaved he was. I love that little boy already and I can't wait to see him play with Bella and Vivi. I loved having cousins. We were all so close when we were growing up. Jen and I never had any boy cousins but we had plenty of girl cousins and it was always a big slumber party when we were together. I pray they are all close and look forward to family gatherings like we did growing up.

 

 

 

Sunday morning we went to Butler's Orchard to go Pumpkin picking! We met up with my sister Travis, her husband Lewis, my nephew Louie, my niece Brooke, Jen my sister, her husband George and their son Romeo. We had so much fun going from one activity to the next. We drank hot apple cider, ate cookies and had hot dogs! We are so very American but who doesn't want to be American this time of the year with delicious beers and football? Anyways, Bella loved the pony ride even though it doesn't look like it and Vivi loved the hayride. Brooke is so attentive to her cousins and is going to be a good mother. She is so caring and watches out for the little ones all of the time. 

 

 Every year we would go to the pumpkin patch but this year seemed very special, we were going for our children and they loved every minute of it. I can't wait to go next year!

                       
                                      Holding hands and laughing on the car ride. So sweet!

                                              Aunt Jenny, Uncle George and Baby Romeo

 

                                                             and we are done...

Hibernation

We woke up this morning at 5am to the not so gentle sounds of Vivian. I suppose she was just ready to start her day. We all ended up sleeping a little more off and on until about 6:30 and that is when our day began. Eggs on the floor, dog barking, and Tangled the Disney movie already on.
Not a whole lot happened today. It was pretty cold out and I felt like we were stuck inside because there is construction occurring out on the street. I figure that was our excuse to stay in and hibernate. We ate, slept, watched Tangled twice, listened to music and made some art.

This is how we have been ending our night's lately.

 

Parents Visit Bella at Potomac Glen Day School

Today was a very exciting day. Curt and I were able to go to Bella's school for Open House. Open House is when parents can come in for a few hours to visit their children in the classroom and observe and play. I worked at PGDS before I had kids and it is a wonderful preschool. I was so happy I am able to send Bella there. It always felt like a loving home away from home. I just knew Bella would love it there and today I think she loved it a little more because mommy and daddy were right next to her. I always thought about this day when I worked there and I have to say it was a little emotional! Seeing my "baby" participating at circle time, using glue and coloring was just precious. Her teacher's were sweet and patient just as I knew they would be. It was great visiting PGDS and I hope she stays just as happy there for a few more years.

We are also dealing with something else. Bella using curse words! The past two days Bella has been saying the D word and the S word. I told her that was not a nice word to say over and over but she kept saying it. Bella has a deep love for her blankie so I told her if she says it again I would take blankie away. There were no more bad words until Daddy was giving her a bath. She said it a few times and of course Curt was laughing every single time she said it which made her want to say it again and again. Curt would use his stern voice and say, "Bella don't say that again!" Then Bella would quietly say the D word. Next thing you know she is mouthing the D word which made him laugh even more.
I try very hard to not say "Oh my God" and I try hard never to use foul language with the kids around but sometimes they slip. I ask Bella where she hears it and she says, "Grammy" so maybe Grammy needs to have a time out!

 

Whole Foods then a quick stop!

The kids woke up from their nap so I decided to quickly take them to the grocery store before dinner. Bella said she wanted to take her baby who happens to be Vivi's new baby doll from her grandparents. She did such a great job tagging alongside her mama throughout the store. I have to say I am kinda in love with the fact that I don't have to stick her inside the cart anymore.

Vivi is still at the age where she wants to touch and grab everything. I have to push the cart so that it is perfectly in the center so that she doesn't take things off of the shelves on one side and doesn't start pushing the buttons on the credit card swipey machine.

After the grocery store I couldn't help but stop by this tree that I drove past on our way to the store. It was breathtaking. These are moments I hope I always remember with my kids. Bella was happy as can be throwing the leaves in the air and Vivi was busy exploring the colorful leaves in her tiny precious hands.
I love everything about Fall. The leaves changing color, the smells in the air, everything pumpkin and switching over to cozy clothes!

Why am I blogging you ask?

I wanted to start a blog mainly for my children Bella and Vivian so they have memories of their childhood. I feel like so much of my childhood were cute stories told by my parent's but nothing was really written down. I figure maybe if I start blogging my children will have many stories they can share with their families. I just want to have memories that will last a lifetime and more! I think there are so many sweet moments throughout my day and I hope I can share and inspire other mother's to love the moments with their babies just the same. 

This past weekend we celebrated Vivi's first birthday. Vivi has always been a happy smiley baby since the day she was born. We have been completely in love with her since the moment we met eyes. I love her loud giggles and I love the way she is becoming best friends with her big sister Bella. I know these girls will be best friends or atleast that is what I hope!
We spent Friday night with my in laws eating Mexican food at Rio Grande and then going on a late night shopping trip to Costco with my hubby. Saturday we woke up early, had breakfast, showered, put kids down for their nap and quickly got everything in order for the early 11:00am birthday party. We had a good turn out with lots of good friends on our block and family. It was a lovely day and I hope Vivi has many many more years of happiness and birthdays to come! More pix to come!

          This is a picture of Bella she was on day three of her princess outfit!

Wed night: Vivi's birthday on Oct. 16, 2013