These Kids

Life has continued happening even though I have not been posting about it. Ramona turned 4! I don't think I took any real pictures of her birthday because I was kind of stressed out at the time. I'm kind of sad about it, but meh, she had a lot of fun. We went to trick-or-treat at the zoo and then had family over. She is excited to be four, and already can't wait to be five.

Halloween was good. They delayed our trick-or-treating due to weather fears (that were pretty much unfounded.) Ramona changed her mind about what to be for Halloween about a million times. She finally settled on a fawn about a week before Halloween. Then she changed her mind the night before Halloween when we were getting ready to go to the store to get supplies to make her costume. I admittedly didn't do the best job on this costume, but she was happy with it, so whatever. Ruby was a Ru-bee. (Hahaha, I am funny.) They both did pretty well walking around (well, Ruby was in the stroller) and Ramona was really good at saying trick-or-treat and thank you this year.

Joe was very unimpressed with my rainbow costume. I guess he'll just make the next conceptual costume our child comes up with the day before Halloween.

Pregnant me, my sister and the kids. Miles was a horse. It was pretty cute.

Life has been really really good lately. The kids are just really fun to be around. Ramona is my little buddy. She's getting into doing crafts, baking, and playing games, so we always have some sort of "project" we are working on together. It's fun to teach her new things. She's learning how to write and draw and is obsessed with spelling. Hanging out with her generally feels like  you're in a constant spelling bee, which does get old sometimes, but, I love that she loves to learn.

Ramona with her worm friend.

Ruby is firmly in toddler mode, which means more than a few tantrums (especially when she's tired) but she also has a big grin and can be pretty charming, which makes up for it most of the time. She's an "I do it myself" kid, which was not the case with Ramona. Sometimes that's really great, others, not so much. I mean, she just is incapable of doing some things, so it gets frustrating for both her and us when she desperately wants to do something and can't and won't let us help. But, such is the life of the toddler. She is starting to talk and has a little list of things she says- mama, daddy (although never when Joe wants her to, much to his annoyance. I don't think he would mind as much if she didn't totally mess with him by responding, "Mama?" every time he asks her to say daddy.) She says yeah and no, bye, ball, bubble, apple, balloon, baby, water, thanks, clap, Ramona, and cat and does a few choice animal noises. She also says, "I did it!" and "Yay!" from a book about using the potty that she is obsessed with. "No!" also started from reading Where's Spot? And "Hop on Pop" is something she says when she jumps on Joe as well as what she calls any Dr. Seuss book.

Ruby loves pizza as much as the rest of us

New baby is doing well (I mean, from what I know.) This baby is not dropping and so I cannot breathe, but other than that, the pregnancy is going well. I'm looking forward to being able to climb around with the kids and play more, but I'm trying to enjoy this pregnancy since it is most likely my last. We finally have names picked and are super excited to find out if we'll be an all girl family or if we'll add a boy to the mix. I've got about five weeks left until my due date. Then we'll have another kid. WEIRD.

I'm looking forward to expanding the family. The more kids, the crazier and busier it gets.This family makes me pretty happy.

We have these moments, when we can't make everyone happy.

And these ones- everyone loves playing "elevator" in our closet.