Carmen

Each of my girls are so unique and wonderful in their own ways. Carmen Ruth is very affectionate and motherly. She is also a good leader, sometimes a little bossy, but what big sister isn't. I saw a picture just like this one in a book on secrets to motherhood and took inspiration from it. We had the same princesses and Carmen LOVES to take in the bathtub. So, of course I had to recreate the same picture I saw in the book.

She begs to take a bath every day, sometime two or three times day. Just so she can play in the water with her princesses. These are the one toys we could not live without!

Aliza

My Aliza Kate is our funniest child. She says the funniest things all the time. And yet she is so sweet. Here she is showing a spider that we made one day for a Halloween craft.

And I took this picture because I have so many friends who do amazing things with their little girl's hair. I have to admit to being a little jealous that 1.) I don't have girls who will let me even brush their hair, much less put a bow or anything else in it and 2.) I severely lack the talent to make hair look cute. However, Aliza has turned a new leaf and will now let me do her hair (this week anyway). So this hairdo was completely impromptu and also my very first attempt ever at making her hair into a cute hairdo. I have to say it turned out cute for my first time. Next time I will do the parts better.

Charlotte

Lastly, my Charlotte Grace. She is so beautiful and funny and loving. I love her curls in this first picture.

She has started sticking her tongue out and she knows it's so funny because we laugh at her so much, she keeps doing it!
And this last picture was just a great capture! I couldn't have planned it. I was taking pictures of her sticking out her tongue and this fly landed right on her nose! Her eyes are crossed trying to look at it.

Camping in the Backyard

Last week we were all a little sick, so David stayed home from a scouting camp out. I guess he was feeling a bit deprived, so he wanted to camp out in the backyard. We made s'mores (on the grill) and played Old Maid in the tent. Then Charlotte, Aliza and I promptly went inside to each sleep peacefully in our own beds. David and Carmen roughed it out all night long in the tent.

Somehow the s'mores just weren't the same as over a camp fire.... :o)

Pumpkin Carving

Let the ghosts and goblins come out, our pumpkin has been carved, so Halloween can officially come. Carmen designed it herself, David cleaned the guts out and I cut out the face. Aliza just wanted to draw on some paper with the marker.

Aliza thought the inside was pretty gross!

All lit up outside on the front porch.
I told Carmen she had to hold really still so I could get my ISO low enough to get the light of the pumpkin and still be able to see her, and not have her turn out blurry. She held very still and she turned out perfect, but the pumpkin looks a little scary.
After we were done, we did our family's new favorite thing to do - lay on a blanket and look at the stars. We've done it many times the last few months and the girls really seem to love it. I even saw a shooting star tonight!

Although the weather is still warm enough to play outside, summer is over. This picture depicts all that summer was to us this year.

Randomness

These are random pictures that are all pretty old. They came off our other camera that I hadn't downloaded in a couple of months.

David attended Wood Badge Training a couple of weeks ago. This is a leadership training for Boy Scout leaders. He came home feeling very energized and excited about scouting! This is his group, the Bobwhites. He had to tell me what a bobwhite is... it's a bird.

Here is Aliza with one of her favorite cousins, Hailey. We really think that Aliza looks just like a mini Haley. I don't remember why, but this particular night we were over at Tim and Kathy's house for something super fun.
A random picture from Carmen's swim class. She really grew by leaps and bounds during this two week swim class. She went from being terrified of the pool to floating around the deep end with a floatie on in a matter of a few days. I was amazed!
These are really old. I think this was the first time I gave Charlotte two ponies in her hair. She looks so much bigger now!

Charlotte at 6 months old
Her new favorite thing is to ride the tricycle around the court. I push her along and she just kicks her little legs in excitement.
This was just this week - the girls were out front playing with side walk chalk. I sure hope our neighbors don't mind too much that they color all over the court! This is one the first pictures I think I've posted since Aliza got bangs. I love them and wish we had done it a long time ago. Now you can actually see her face, she's not hiding behind all that wild hair. (which by the way, I can not seem to tame no matter what I try)
Carmen with her bestest friend.

Fun with Markers

I mentioned in my last post that we have all been sick this week. On Tuesday both David and I felt really bad, so we both laid down to rest a little bit. We left the girls with coloring books and markers to keep themselves busy. Oh boy, did they keep themselves busy!! And they were very creative too.

They said they wanted to look like tigers... I still don't know why they had their swimsuits on either. It has been four days and Aliza still has a red tint to her face!

Princess Classics on Ice

This week we went to the Oakland Oracle Arena to see Disney Princess Classics on Ice. We had all been sick throughout the week and were worried we wouldn't be able to go to the show, but we still made it! And it was so much fun!! Aliza was so excited the entire time and could hardly keep herself in her seat. Each new princess who came out on the ice she would jump up and down. Aliza's favorite part was seeing Tinker Belle and Carmen's favorite part was seeing Mini Mouse. Funny - that's what they are both being for Halloween!

Of course we had to get Princess Snow Cones! They were really the hugest mess!!! I wish we had just stuck with popcorn and cotton candy.