Rounding out Halloween

I have so much to catch up on...including Caitlin's 3rd birthday party (the big day is Thursday) and Baby Tres turing 35 weeks....but I figured I'd better finish up with Halloween.

 

The week before Halloween, we headed to Sunny Acres.  We decided to try the Wristband Wednesday so the girls could do unlimited rides..but we went on the Wednesday that was almost 80 degrees, so we weren't the only ones who had this idea!  Even with the crowds, the girls had a great time.  I'm really trying to treasure all these things we can do together now because I know in a few short weeks, it won't be as easy to just pick up and go.  The girls had a great time!

 

1st up, the roller coaster!

They were so cute because they had to hold hands in line everywhere...and Abigail always helped Caitlin get on and off of a ride.  It was melting my heart.

Train Ride

We didn't get to do Dumbo at Disney because it was closed...so this was pretty fun!  :)

1st Pony Ride!

A big girl, riding it all by herself!

Swings!

 

I LOVE seeing how they've grown in a year.... 

Abigail 2012

 

Abigail 2011

Caitlin 2012

 

Caitlin 2011

My 2 Pumpkins

 

The girls also had Halloween Parades at school the week of Halloween.  It was my first time juggling "mommy" and "teacher"...and while it worked, I wished I could have focused a little more on the "mommy" part...but for the Xmas concert I'll be just a mommy because I'll be on maternity leave!  :)

Caitlin at her parade

Caitlin's class

I LOVE this bug!!!!

Little Mermaid and Darth Vadar (aka Luca)

3rd Halloween together!!!!

Abigail's class on stage

2 groups of sisters!!! It's so cute because the older sisters are in class together and are so similar (quiet, smart, always drawing) and the younger sisters are in class together and are so similar (funny, not shy, always eating)...and the younger sisters were dressed alike!  :)

 

On Halloween, the girls had so much fun trick-or-treating.  I had a dr appointment and missed most of the trick-or-treating time, but Rob took the girls and they had a great time.  Funny side note: When  I told Abigail I wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating, she didn't understand it was because I would be at the dr.  She said, "Mom, you don't have to get candy, you could go trick-or-treating for wine!"  Ha!  I wish......

Getting the goods!  By the way, we had ZERO trick-or-treaters while we were home...so that being said, most people filled their pumpkins up when they came to the door. People are missing out by not trick-or-treating in our subdivision....and lots of full-size candy bars!  ;)

Happy Halloween 2012! 

 

Already thinking of what 2013 will bring the Wennerstrom family...3 blind mice...Goldilocks and the 3 bears....3 amigos???  I can't wait!!!!!

Hallo-weekend

As happens every October, by the time we get to Halloween, we are a little "halloween-ed" out!  It was another great weekend of enjoying our costumes, pumpkins, and candy!!!

 

Tonight we carved our pumpkins after dinner!

 

The girls and their pumpkins.  They each created and drew their own faces...and we just carved them for the girls.  They did a great job!

A family picture..and Kramer always finds his way in!

Caitlin and her happy pumpkin

Abigail and her spooky pumpkin

A nice picture...

and a silly picture!

Pre=carving (wow, the pics on my Iphone are really blurry compared to our camera)

 

Today the girls headed downtown to Roscoe Village for a little trick-or-treating and parade.  The girls were very excited to see their aunts and their cousins!  We weathered the cold and enjoyed the day!  They have talked about this day all week because they have been missing seeing Lucy and their aunts, so no matter how tired I was feeling, we were going to make it!  :)

Aunt Katie and her nieces...3 as of now....5 by next Halloween!  A whole lotta girls!

 

A very Disney Halloween!  Nemo, Snow White, and Ariel...in winter jackets!

Heading out for the day.

The 3 cute cousins!

 

Friday night, we headed to Boo Fest in our town.  We had a fun night!..even though the party started at the girls bedtime so they were very quiet and tired.  They finally told me they wanted to go home to bed!  That's tired!  :)

Ariel throwing bean bags.

Caitlin playing a game.

Candy hay-search

 

And just a fun idea for parents.  Tonight, we decided to "spookify" our bathtime.  I found this idea online and we tried it...we put glowsticks in the girls bathtime!  They had a spooky bath! 

 

I'll have to post about our visit to the pumpkin patch later this week! 

 

 Also, this weekend the girls had a great weekend with daddy.  Mommy had her 15th (we are old) annual Xmas shopping day with her friends.  We had to move it up a little early (usually in December) due to the soon-to-be arrival of Baby Tres as well as vacations planned by friends.  Daddy took the girls out on a lunch date and they had a great time...and told me all the things they did that daddy told them not to tell me, like having suckers before lunch!  :)

 

Boo! at the Zoo

This weekend we packed up our favorite mermaid and our favorite fish and headed to Brookfield's Boo at the Zoo.  One of our favorite family traditions!!!!  This year Auntie MoMo was taking Patrick too, so we were able to hang out with them as well as their neighbors.

 

Ariel and Nemo

(I officially received procrastinator-mom-of-the-year award...we were leaving for the zoo at 10:30 and I started Abigail's costume at 8:30!  The only thing I had purchased was the tulle (but had not made the tutu yet) and the bathing suit top.  Thank goodness ole Wallymart came through!)

Daddy and his favorite sea creatures!

Round and Round

I tried to get a picture of them "underwater"....

There is nothing cuter...in the WORLD...than Caitlin's tail.  While eating lunch, she kept shaking her tail, it was so funny!!!  And we had our sit-n-stand stroller with us, so she never sat down, she just stood up and shook her tail throughout the zoo!

The whole crew

 

Patrick hanging on Uncle Rob

Our growing family!

 

A flashback to our family 2009.  Wow have things changed! I was only a week or two ahead with Caitlin than I am now with Baby Tres, but it feels like I was months ahead!  This is definitely my "healthiest" pregnancy!  :)

That's one BIG baby!!!!

Just a quick update on Baby Tres.  We has her 32 week ultrasound, and she's measuring at 33 1/2 weeks!  Which is good news because she really could come at any time now (by now she's 34 weeks in size) but bad news for me if she decides to go the distance do 40 weeks.  I can't remember if the dr said she's weighing 3lbs 7oz or 4 lbs 7 ozs...I think it was the later!  Since my kids have never met the 6lb mark, this could be very interesting....

All in all, she looks great!  And yes, one last confirmation, she is definitely a SHE!  I've got 3 more weeks of shots...felt like we'd never get here 17 weeks ago.  I start weekly non-stress tests next week because I'm not able to feel as much kicking because of her location.  But she seems very happy and content....I'm 100% sure she's going to go the full distance of 40 weeks!!!!  My family had a couple of requests of weekends not to go, so we will she if she obeys!

Can't wait to meet our baby girl and have our whole family here safe and sound!!!!!

Hillbilly Heaven

Rob got to live out a dream of his...he got to go see Hillybilly Heaven Nascar.  It's not big surprise that I'm not a huge fan of this sport...I swear it lasts 48 weeks and it's on EVERY Sunday...and every week they just keep on driving in circles. 

 

But it makes Rob very happy...so I was very excited for him.  Mo got special pit passes for Rob and Brian...I think they died and went to heaven.

 

I'm not going to be able to give much info on these pictures...but I'll try!

Rob in front of Jeff Gordon's garage ????

Rob next to Jeff Gordon's car.  (I'm pretty sure that one's right)

I know that number...Jeff Gordon...my hillbilly husband has a belt buckle with that number!

I can only imagine what was going through Rob's head when he was close enough to Jeff to take this picture!

Brian with someone!  :)

And proof that Mo went too!  She's Nascar FANCY!  :)  This is the same girl who not only owns a shirt that looks like the Nascar slogan but reads "Boring"...but wore it in Nashville!  She was a trooper to go there so that Rob and Brian could be there.  That's her client, Best Buy, which is the reason they were there!

 

Danica.  Okay, as much as I kid, that is one pretty bad-ass girl!  I'll give her that!

 

Thanks Mo for taking Rob with you!  It was a dream-come-true for him!  

Lil Pumpkins, 31 Weeks

Our littlest pumpkin at 31 weeks, 3 days!

 

We made it to our next milestone!  31 weeks, 3 days...the day Abigail was born!  This is sort of my "worst case scenario" date, and we are a day passed it!  :)  Every day is uphill from here! 

 

This pregnancy continues to go great (although I hate saying it because I don't want to jinx it).  We are starting to get our act together and get things...but slowly.  We now have enough beds for all the kids (post to come) and have Xmas pajamas purchased for 3 little princesses!  :) 

 

I'm feeling good, but a little bit "over" this whole pregnant thing.  I tell this little lady that she's being evicted on Thanksgiving...although knowing this one, I'll probably go 41 weeks!  Either way, I'm trying to enjoy all the little kicks and other parts that come with being pregnant because I'm sure one day I will look back and miss it...maybe.....

 

This week is our 32 week ultrasound, so we'll hopefully have new pics and more updates coming soon about our 3rd lil pumpkin!

 

And speaking of pumpkins, we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch with friends this weekend to celebrate our friends' daugher Avery's 1st birthday, but due to the rain we had to postpone the pumpkin patch.  However, we still wore our pumpkin gear!  So here are 2 pictures of my 3 favorite pumpkins!!!

 

We are very excited about the upcoming Halloween season that begins next weekend with Boo at the Zoo! 

Tough Girls Have Scars!

Being a girl with a scar, I know that tough girls have scars!!!!  And Caitlin is joining the ranks!

 

This story begins on a boring Saturday morning.  We had no big plans, and all day to to them, so we decided to look for bunk beds.  This has been an on-going search and we decided it was our final day of looking!!! We headed out to Arlington Heights were there were a bunch of stores in a row.

 

We had hit 2 stores with no luck.  The next stop was a quick stop into Burling.ton for a bathroom break for the preggo!  While there, Daddy distracted Caitlin by looking at "right-up shoes" (light up shoes).  She's been obsessed with getting them...and stomps when she wears her Lelli Kelli's (they have sparkles on them) because she thinks they light up.  So daddy and her picked out what mommy considered HIDEOUS light-up shoes.  They were so excited but mommy rained on their parade and said we'd keep looking.  (Mommy also knows that Abigail said she was going to take money out of her piggy bank and buy Caitlin the shoes for her birthday....and she didn't want to ruin that surprise).

 

We went to our next store where we were quietly walking in, discussing lunch after this store...with the 2 girls walking right behind us.  Next thing we know, we hear a "splat" and bloody-murder screaming (we still aren't sure what happened, if she just tripped or if she slipped on something...but her chin just hit the ground).  I pulled the old "Caitlin, you're okay" because usually that stops crying instantly, but the second we picked her up, we knew she wasn't okay. Let's just say she had split her chin open. 

 

Even Rob, who always thinks I am dramatic, instantly went to get the car because we both knew she needed stitches.  The store managers came to help and after we got some paper towels to help with the bleeding (sort of pointless, but okay)...we jumped into the car.  We weren't near our home hospital which we love, but luckily there was a Children's Memorial extension hospital only a few miles away, so we headed there.  I sat in the backseat with Caitlin because I was holding her chin together for her.  All she remembers is that she didn't have to wear her seat belt!  :)

 

Caitlin was scared (she told us that later) but did a great job.  However, when we got to the hospital, she was very scared at first.  She screamed if anyone tried to look at her.  In fact, to get her weight, she had to be weighed while I held her, then my weight subtracted!  ;)  yikes.  Luckily they had a Nemo display in the pediatric emergency room, so her obsession with Nemo kept her occupied.  This is also were she started crying "Can I have "right-up shoes?"...I mean, come one, it was heartbreaking.... and of course we promised her new shoes, milkshakes, and a happy meal!  This is also the point of the story where we start to go broke!  :)

 

When they looked at the cut, they said yes, she'd need stitches.  However, because of the location (under her chin where there is a lot of loose skin) they said they have a lot of success with glue instead of the "sewing" stitches.  They said if she was a boy, they would automatically do the stitches because it requires calm play for like a week...but with girls, they let the parents decide.  Well, we knew we probably should do the stitches because Caitlin plays "like a boy", but of course we didn't want to tramatize her anymore so we opted for the glue.  They put steri-stiches (Stina, you are probably dying right now at my spelling and naming of items) on top of the glue to hold it close.  They also said the scar would be the same, so we felt okay with our choice.

 

After 30 minutes of waiting for it to numb (with topical numb thank god), they needed to clean and glue it closed.  This is where they recomended "Mom" waits outside because some moms pass out (great, thanks) so I took Abigail outside to wait.  I waited to hear screaming, but 5 minutes later they came out with popsicle for Abigail and Caitlin and said we were done.  They said Caitlin as a perfect patient and they wish all the kids were like her!  :)  I'm pretty sure she was just in shock at this point!

 

This story ends with Rob hitting McDonalds and spending $25 bucks on his princess!  ;)

 

I'm happy to report that almost 24 hours later, she has not reopened her chin, so we are happy we opted with the glue!  :) 

 

Here are a few pics from the unexpected adventures:

 

 

Daddy and his princess waiting in the room!

This is where I said "Who wants milkshakes?"  :)

Watching some tv waiting for the numbing cream to work.

Abigail did so great.  By the time, we left it was almost 2:00 and they hadn't eaten, but she just sat quietly in a chair and waited.  The nurse rewarded her great behavior!

The final product!

Our sweet girl!  She did great.  We always joked we'd never make it to her 2nd birthday without stitches..and while we made it to #2, we didn't make it to #3!

 

I have so much to catch up on...Nana's bday, our weekend at the cabin, Rob's Nascar day, and my dad's marathon!!!!  We are off of school the next 2 days (Thanks Chris Columbus) so hopefully I'll do lots of updates!