Pumpkins

We carved and painted pumpkins last night. Gramma Jane and Grampa Rick came out and helped us be creative. Paige, Gramma, and I painted while Cowboy and Grampa opted to carve theirs.

Halloween preview

We attended a Halloween party on Saturday night--up in a big old barn loft. Very cool. The gal had set up some little kid games and they played those and had a lot of fun. Paige debuted her monkey costume--which we like; but not necessarily with the hood up. But its very nice and warm.
Playing a game where you throw the rings on the witches hats. She just walked up there and put them on; but it counts!

New Hats & Braids

The other day I attempted to do braids in Paige's hair--they turned out alright. I thought they were cute until I picked her up from Kim's and she had redone them after Paige's nap. Bless her for keeping the curls under control. She's going to be getting a haircut sometime soon as well.

This child has my huge noggin and we are having a really hard time with winter hats. I finally found one that works and is cute--plus its various colors and will go with all of our coats. Paige was so excited that she had to wear it for half an hour the day I got it.

ABC's

So Paige started rambling off letters of the alphabet the other day to me. We've always sang the ABC song--she just watches me and will repeat a few after me. But we have some letter magnets on the fridge and a thing that plays the name and sound--she starts telling me which letter is P, M, D, K & C. We have learned them by saying P is for Paige; M is for Mommy. But she just started rattling off a few by herself with no prompting. It was great. I thought for a moment I had a genius.

BBQ at the ranch

So this last weekend we spent up at the ranch in MT. It was the annual fall party for friends, neighbors, etc. We went up on Friday night and had supper at the supper club--which was the busiest I have ever seen it. Lots of hunters. Anyway, Saturday was perfect--weather wise. Could not have asked for a nicer day. So Paige was up early and we had to go check out the cows. The calves are in the feedyard; so her and Grampa Keith and Daddy had to hang on the fence and check them all out.

Following the cattle inspecting; Paige had to help G'pa Greg block the vents on the house. She learned how to hang on to the screws and hand them to him. Its a valuable skill and will lead to driving lifts around someday. We all have to start somewhere. Soon she'll think she can drive the Bobcat. She got bored so she and G'ma Shelly drove around on the four wheeler and got tired--thanks for that Mom.

Later in the evening after supper, Paige decided she better drive the Club Car with her cousins. She was easily entertained and thanks to the Clarke girls for keeping her that way. She loves to play with the girls and plays very hard.

I had to get a picture of our host, Grampa Keith. He's on the right and co-cook Tim is the other gentleman. They cooked us up a great supper of ribs, potatos, etc. I learned that baked potatos with black bean cheese dip is fabulous and I am stealing some the next time I go up there.

We had a good weekend and despite the major lack of sleep had fun. I met some new entertaining people and didn't have to do the dishes!

More snow pictures

"Daddy, wait for me!"

Twenty something and still likes to make snowmen.

Paige making a snow angel--or rather, her trying to figure out why Mom was throwing her in the snow. But she liked it!

Mood swings

I had just read the other day about toddler mood swings and how they hit about 2.5 years old--and wow, are we there. This week, we are in a "I only want Mom" phase. Tonight, she told her Dad to "Leave me alone!" more than once. I swear she sounded 16. She's also been crying when I drop her off at daycare. Hopefully this is short lived.

Anyway, tonight after she was done eating she wanted to watch some cartoon. I said no. She started to throw a semi fit--then the real stuff kicks in. The lip has officially made its appearance--it juts out a good 1/2 inch. Then the whiney noise starts. Plus, its topped off with this really sad eyed sentence--"You made me sad." I did not laugh in front of her; but Cowboy and I looked at each other like--Wow, this is pretty dramatic. I really hope she doesn't become the whiney kid. The good news is that her fits and moods are very short lived--happy to sad and back in about 1 minute. Lets hope it doesn't get worse--I'm not ready for the attitude yet!

Dress up Day

So last Friday was dress up day at daycare. (Kim has a different theme each Friday.) Since it was finally cold out; we had to pull out the tights and turtleneck. G'ma Shelly found these boots with Allison and the outfit was born. So ladies, this is what the final outcome looks like.

Snowy Sunday

So the weather man has been screaming snow for several days and all we got was a skiff that melted right away. Well he was right today. All I know is it will be gone in a day or two; and Peanut was very excited to go play in it. She was out right away this morning helping her Dad shovel--he said it was very heavy snow and was about 4-5 inches in the driveway. I learned these things about my family and snow today:

One, no matter what kind of hat I buy, its very hard to keep Paige's ears covered up when she's outside. We had 2 or 3 hats on at some point and I was constantly pulling them down. Two, no matter how old a man is, he will always try to do something inappropriate to a snowman. My example is a stick that was placed in an anatomically correct place not appropriate for a two year old to see. She wouldn't understand, but its the point of the matter. Three, its very hard to convince Paige to take her snowpants off. We got inside and she strutted around for an hour before we got them off of her. The same thing with boots. We were leaving Mom and Dads and she kept announcing to G'pa that she had 'fancy boots.' Four, its very hard to play baseball with snowballs. I kept trying to hit the ones Cowboy was throwing at me with a stick and I suck. Five, my family does not like Chinese food. Paige was trying to scrape the rice with sweet and sour off of her tongue. Cowboy was nice enough to choke it down but said he'd be okay if we didn't have it again. Hope you all learned as much as I did today!

Daddy-O & Trucks

As the picture shows; Paige now has a truck to play with, courtesy of G'ma Shelly. She discovered her little butt fits in there and its a lot of fun to scooch around that way. It's also big and tall enough to run with full bore and not fall over. It got played with a lot that first day. It's been sitting idle for a few days now; but that's how the toys at our house work. They are obsessed over right away; and then rediscovered at a later date. There was one Saturday where we were home all day long and I think every single toy was strewn all over being rediscovered. There were shrieks that sounded like the equivalent of 'I had forgotten where this was!'.

The other day Peanut just randomly started her Cowboy Daddy-o. Not sure if that is how it is spelled; but that is how it sounds. We have no clue where it came from, so we just blame it on some other little person at daycare! We hope its a short lived issue because it really irritates Cowboy!

Singing

So Paige is now singing--or at least her version of singing. We aren't real sure what the song is, I just know its the words "action, action" over and over. But she's really into it and has great hip action! By the way, the crank handle on the window is her microphone--it stick out a few inches and is the right height.

"Hi Hon"

So I usually call the Cowboy "hon" as an abbreviation for honey (which I can't stand). I use this without thinking when he comes home, when I have to yell across the house for him, etc. I never realized how often I did it until Paige started calling him that. She did it when she was smaller; which was super cute. Now if you ask him her Dad's name she says its "Hon" or "Daddy" which ever her mood is in. She normally calls him Dad, but you never know when the "hon" is going to slip out.
The comical version of this was last weekend at Mom and Dad's. Cowboy had been hiding from us; and we were trying to find him. We couldn't find him, so I yelled to him to come out. Then little Miss Attitude just bellowed "HON--WHERE ARE YOU? HON!" I sort of giggled as did Cowboy who laughed and jumped out. My mom, who was on the other side of the house; almost had to be picked up off of the floor she was laughing so hard.

The weekend

We had a pretty ordinary weekend. Paige and I attended cousin Dani's volleyball tournament in Dickinson--or 'walleyball' as Paige calls it. Dani played very well; and Paige behaved so it was a double success. We got home late in the evening and Paige was watching Nemo for the 154rd time in our room because we just can't handle watching it ourselves anymore. She came out with some of my clothing on--I thought it was a nightie but it turned out to be my tank top. Ryan and I chased her back into our room where the door was closed and she was hiding. We looked at each other in the hall way and went--oh no, how big of a disaster is it going to be. It wasn't actually too bad; but she was trying on all of my pj's. There were about 3 tank tops around her neck and clothes all over the floor. I had some laundry on the bed to be folded; and it was no way near as organized in the pile as it had been. Oh well; that will teach me!

Today, we had a relaxing day at home. Cowboy was home and fulfilled his honey-do list very well. The AC is out of the window and the coat rack is up. Thanks! Gramma Shelly came over and we ran to the store to get some things. Paige was picking her nose in the car and we were telling her to stop it. I kept asking her what she was digging for. She looked at us and said "Snakes." So watch out everyone, they are now invading noses.

We also played in the leaves for a few minutes--cute picture to follow. We have traditionally had our annual leaf photo shoot in early October, so hopefully if its nice this week we will rake a pile and play in the leaves--and take some cute pictures.