Is Halloween over yet?

Bah humbug! LOL

Nah, not really, but I am ready for Halloween to be over so I can put away the candy!!

The kids went to a Trunk or Treat on Saturday morning (can you say brrrr?). They got so much candy, it's not even funny! On top of that, we were a trunk, so we were told to plan on about 200 kids, so I bought LOTS of candy. I don't think we had quite that many, so we have lots left over.

There's another Trunk or Treat tomorrow night at the school, but I think we're going to skip it. It will be a nightmare...no parking, hundreds of kids...mass chaos. Josh doesn't really enjoy these things anyway - he gets very nervous and wants me right there with him. Saturday, he couldn't get out of his costume quick enough.

We'll go Trick or Treating in the neighborhood Tuesday night. After that, the candy goes into the freezer!! :)

The girls are UT cheerleaders this year and Josh is a dragon. :) They all look pretty cute!!

I don't have a picture of Josh's dragon costume yet, but you can see the girls in the picture above. :)

We're home from the beach

I didn't do a very good job at posting our beach excursions while at the beach. :)

We had a really nice time. The weather/water was a little cool, but all in all, not too bad. I just wish the pools at the condo had been heated.

It rained on Tuesday, so Wendy & I took the kids to the Children's Museum. It was small, but alot of fun. We stayed a couple of hours. All 3 had a blast.

Wendy kept the kids Wednesday night and let Phil & me go out to dinner alone. It was nice. :) They ordered pizza, which sounded pretty good by then. I was kind of over seafood.

However, Phil & I went back to Captain John's. I wanted shrimp & scallops, so I ordered the Deluxe Platter (minus all of the other stuff they put on there). Phil just ordered the scallops platter again. When our food came out, my plate was about twice as big as Phil's and I had probably had more scallops than he did! HA!! Needless to say, he ate his meal and most of mine, too.

Sunday, we cooked shrimp & scallops in. Monday, we went to Lee's Inlet Kitchen. As usual, it was excellent. I got She-Crab soup and a crabcake. It was delicious! I had to fight Emma for my soup, though. She loved it!

The drive home was fairly uneventful. We stopped at Mom & Dad's for supper. When we got there, Wendy got her pictures from Portrait Innovations (Mom had to pick them up during the week because their printer was down the night we had them taken). Anyway, they printed out the wrong sizes. We had to rush back up there before they closed to get the right sizes (Wendy was leaving the next morning before they opened). We wound up waiting almost 40 minutes!! We were all getting rather cranky by then.

Myrtle Beach - Day 1

We're at the beach! :)

We got here about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. Once we got to our condo (which is very nice), the kids were so excited they couldn't stand it!

Josh thought everything was "awesome"! Callie was jumping and running and just laughing. Emma was following whoever seemed to be having the most fun!

After we unpacked, we started getting ready to go to supper...All of a sudden, I thought I saw something in the ocean. I looked again and saw 2 big dolphins jumping and playing!! THis is the first time I've seen dolphins at MB. Josh was very excited. I managed to get some video, but no still pictures.

We went to a place in Calabash, NC for supper called Capt. John's. It was "awesome" (as Josh would put it). We had the best shrimp and scallops!! Not a bad first meal.

It got pretty chilly last night, but Phil, Wendy & Josh went down to the indoor pool. Luckily, it's nicely heated.

It was very cold when we got up this morning. Phil & Josh took a walk on the beach (didn't stay too long) and then Wendy & I took him back down to the indoor pool.

We're going to eat lunch in the condo and just hang out the rest of the day. I think Phil is going to the seafood market to get some shrimp & scallops this afternoon.

Once the kids take a nap, we'll go back out on the beach and introduce the girls to the sand. :)

Speaking of the girls, I guess they slept too much in the van yesterday afternoon because they did NOT sleep last night! Phil & I are pretty sleepy right now, but the girls seem to still be going strong. HA!

I'll try to post some pictures later!

Parent/Teacher Conference

We had our first parent/teacher conference with Josh's teacher yesterday. Overall, he's doing great!

She went over a test that he took on the first day of school...actually, I should say that he didn't take. :) It was basically a diagnostic test to see what he knows. Well, according to that, he knows nothing. :) That's absolutely not true and his teacher knows that. He just got very nervous that first day and couldn't bring himself to talk.

Needless to say, he's proven himself since then. He's now starting to read, writing words, spelling, etc. His teacher said he's a very good student. He follows instructions very well.

He has his moments when he's a little loud (ha) and forgets to walk, but other than that, his behavior is perfectly fine.

She said he raises his hand and answers questions in class (which surprised me).

Overall, he's doing a great job!!

He loves to come home and write and draw...that seems to be his favorite past time right now. He loves taking a pad of paper and pencil out on the front porch and just do his thing. :)

Is it Saturday yet?

We're leaving for Myrtle Beach on Saturday...just in time for a cold front, I think. The weather looks iffy, but maybe that will change. :)

Wendy is coming down on Friday to go with us. She and I are taking the kids back to Portrait Innovations to have UT pictures done...she wants to have her picture taken w/ the kids (I'm hopefully going to stay out of the picture). The girls have UT Cheerleading outfits and Josh has a UT windsuit. Now, if we can just figure out a way to put the girls' hair up in orange hairbows without them pulling it out! If they don't pull their own out, they pull each others out.

I think it's going to be a very busy week. Phil and I both have a ton of stuff to do...his mostly work related, mine house related. I have to get my consignment shop clothes together since I have an appointment to drop them off on Friday! I do kind of have them together - just not on hangers yet.

I hope the girls travel well on Saturday. They typically travel very well, but it's been a year since we've taken a long trip. However, we should actually make better time this time than last. The girls were only 7 months old the last time and we had to make lots of stops. They should be able to go longer this time.

Words the girls are saying (for the baby book)

I thought I'd write down the words that I can remember that the girls are saying.

Callie is much more verbal than Emma (may have to do w/ the cleft), but Emma is much more introspective. Emma really studies things...Callie just bullies her way through life. She's like "Okay, I've done this, what's next?". Emma can spend an hour doing 1 task - Callie gets bored with it. Emma loves to draw! Callie loves to read.

Callie:
Josh (favorite word)
mama
daddy
duck
kack (quack)
door
cry (she says that every time she sees someone crying)
shoes
juice
socks
night night
bye bye
ball
me
dog
woof
moo
this
hi
cracker
cookie
outside
Emma (sometimes)
uh-oh
book
bee bee (baby)
block
bath
clock
teeth


Emma:
Mama
Emma
mall (ball)
night night
bye bye (sometimes comes out as my-my)
hi
uh-oh
nana (banana)

This is all that I can think of for now. As you can see, Callie speaks volumes. Callie tries to tell us stuff all the time - she talks constantly! One of these days, all of those sounds are going to come together and she's going to be talking in complete sentences. Emma will probably need some speech therapy in the next year or so, but we were expecting that (because of her cleft).

Pretend Play

The other day, Mom was reading the girls a book. On one of the pages, there was a girl standing at the bathroom sink.

Well, Emma cupped her hands and acted like she was holding them under the faucet of that sink (in the book) and splashing her face and washing it! After she "washed" her face, she washed her hands. :)

Does pretend play happen this early? She's almost 20 months old.

At any rate, she was very cute with it!