Fall Festival

Last night, we had the annual Fall Festival at church. It was a great time this year, complete with a DJ, cider, doughnuts, a pie-eating contest, crafts, and games for kids to play. Miley had a ball dancing to the music, and just being able to run wild in general.

Miley and I decked out in costume

Cam walking Miley through the costume parade...sorry about cutting off your head, Cam! :)

Cam taking part in the pie eting contest...he came in a close second (behind a girl, I might add), but he claims her pie was only half the size of his. :) Who knows...

My good witch friend, Becca, and me.


Do you think she was having fun? :)

Halloween has been so much more fun this year, not that Miley is a little older. As you will recall, she was not as fond of the whole thing last year. We have been having so much fun getting her dressed up in her adorable costume, and I think she is enjoying it a little more herself. :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween Has Begun!

This year, I have been hoping to use Miley's Halloween costume more than once, because I LOVE her ladybug outfit (thanks again Mom, for going all the way to Arizona JUST to get it...ha ha!).

Last night, we got our first chance to whip it out when we went to the Mall of America's annual Halloween celebration with our friends, Taber, Becca, and their adorable little girls, Teya and Brinley. Becca's sister, Sarah, also came with her cute little guy, Noa, and we had so much fun! Miley was dressed in her ladybug costume, Teya was Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Brinley was a princess, and Noa was a leopard.

Miley and Brinley

We just let the little ones run around while Teya (the oldest in the group at 3) got to go around to a bunch of little stations and trick-or-treat. It cost $15 for a wristband to trick-or-treat, so we decided not to splurge on that for Miley since she was happy just running around, and we were happy to just get to use her costume!

Miley not super thrilled to be in her stroller!

At the end of the night, we were able to go on a couple of rides...Taber and Cameron were brave and went on the Rock Bottom Plunge.


Becca and I were a little bit more wimpy and went on the Pepsi Orange Streak, a roller coaster that goes around the whole park, but it was just the right speed for me!


(Note: the pictures of the rides are not our pictures, just some that I found on the web).

Happy start to the Halloween season everyone, and here's to many more opportunities to wear cute ladybug costumes! :)

The Kleins Come To Minnesota - Part 2

Well, I have finally gotten over my most recent blogger's block, and figured it was time to finish documenting my sister's visit up here.

On Friday morning, we woke up thinking that everybody was going to be feeling good and ready to go, so we decided to make the Mall of America our journey for the day. The morning started off well, with kiddos getting naps and Gelsey catching up on some sleep from the night before, but then Kipp got hit with the bug. So he was down the rest of the day. We decided to put off the mall, and spend the day recovering.

Evening rolls around, and Cameron comes home from work saying he has not been feeling well all day. So off he went to bed, where he was in close proximity to the bathroom! Gelsey and I decided to take Miley, and get out of the house for a bit. Shortly after driving away though, Gelsey said if we didn't get back home soon she might be using my car to throw up in. So we turned around and got her home to rest (fortunately, no pukies for her...the rest did her some good!) and Miley and I continued on to run some errands.

At this point, I was just biding mine and Miley's time until we got hit. Miley didn't last long...she started throwing up around 6:00, and finally stopped around 2:00 am (although she got a good couple hours of rest in before that last one). Thank goodness for having Kipp and Gelsey here...since Cameron was feeling miserable, it was nice to have them feeling better and they were a HUGE help cleaning up after Miley and helping comfort her every time she got sick.

Holding little Miley when she was finally able to get some sleep between throwing up! :(

Saturday morning comes, and everybody is feeling better, except now I start feeling a little yucky. But I never felt like I just needed to lie down and do nothing, so I decided I needed to suck it up so we could get out and do something fun! Cameron stayed home with Miley so they could catch up on some sleep, and Gelsey, Kipp, Bode and I took off for the mall. We had fun, looking at the amusement park, eating, and getting some shopping in.





Sunday was a "day of rest" and we spent the day watching football, which I don't think anyone minded too much! Gelsey and Kipp were able to sport their Vikings attire, and join the rest of Minnesota in cheering the Vikes on to victory against the San Francisco Giants.


The Kleins had to leave the next day, Monday, and we were so sad that the trip went by so fast, and with someone feeling sick most of the time! But we were able to squeeze in lots of good conversation, some good games of Farkle and Boxers or Briefs, cute cousin time, and lots of loves on the little kiddos.



Thanks Kleins, for coming out here and visiting us! We miss you guys lots, and can't wait to see you again at Christmas!

The Kleins Come To Minnesota - Part 1

We were lucky to have my sister, Gelsey, her husband, Kipp, and their cute little boy, Bode, come to visit us from September 23rd through the 28th. They got in late at night on the 23rd, and so we stayed up to visit for a little bit, but then decided to turn in so we could get some rest for our jam-packed next few days. Little did I know, little Bode man was up that whole night with the pukes. :( Not a great way to start the trip. Gelsey and Kipp were running on very little sleep, but in the morning Bode seemed almost back to normal, so we chalked up the previous night to food poisoning. We decided to take our chances, and go ahead with our plans for the day of going to the Minnesota Children's Museum.

The two little buggers had so much fun. They got to explore "Our World" which had a little grocery store, post office, doctor's office, and a stage where they could dance and it showed a video of them.

On the stage with their instruments...Miley thought her maraca was a baby!

At the grocery store...

Cute cousins shopping together!

She LOVED all the buttons on the cash register!

We then moved on to a water area, in the "World Works" exhibit where Miley was in heaven! There were little table filled with water that was just their height so they could splach, make big bubbles, and race boats. Miley was not thrilled when we decided to move on to the next exhibit.




The last exhibit we went to was "Earth World" where they had a life size ant hill, trees that kids could climb in, and other nature things. Miley and Bode had a blast walking up to the top of the ant hill, and then running down as fast as they could!

Run!!!

The kiddos and Kipp in the "mole hill"

We were sad that the "Habitot" area was closed that day, because it looked like something that would have been right up Miley and Bode's alley. It was like playground heaven for kids their age.

Later that night, we went out to the Olive Garden for Cameron's birthday (why don't I ever take pictures of these things???) and went home to play some games and to get to bed early to catch up on some sleep.

Stay tuned for the rest of the visit...the REAL fun was just beginning... ;)

I Finally Did It!

I finally joined a gym. I have been wanting (ok, perhaps a better term is NEEDING) to do this for quite some time, but just in the last few weeks I have been actually wanting to do it.

I have been stuck at about 10 pounds over where I want to be ever since I had Miley, and it seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't lose it. Now our apartment has a small little gym, but I always had an excuse to not work out...I don't like to go at night, I can't go during the day with Miley, etc, etc.

Well, no more excuses! My gym (Lifetime Fitness) has a child care area that you only pay an extra 5 dollars a month for, and I can leave Miley there anytime for up to 2 hours at a time. So far I have gone yesterday and today (we just got the membership on Wednesday night), and not only do I feel better, but Miley loves going to the child care, and I love that she gets to get out and play (especially now that the weather is turning cold!).

So here's to hoping I keep it up...pretty sure I will, since now I am held accountable to my hubby who is paying for it. :)

Oh and you Minnesota girls...join up and take a class with me...kickboxing anyone?? You know you want to... :)