Happy Halloween from the Cupcake Princess and the Hulk!

This year was so much fun trick or treating with Haley and Noah! Haley knew exactly what to expect and it was exactly as I remembered it as a kid! Running from house to house and all you care about is making sure your bucket or bag was full! Haley was especially excited to have Papa dressed up with her!! Haley knew exactly who he was as soon as he rang our doorbell! She wanted Ernie to go everywhere with her! Noah on the other hand, was a COMPLETELY different experience! Clayton and I thought he was literally going to jump out of his high chair when Ernie came near him. He finally warmed up to him a little bit but was VERY cautious of him! Grandma stayed back at our house to hand out our candy while Aunt Sher Sher, Papa (Ernie) and the rest of us went trick or treating! Haley can't wait to do it again next year! Haley also got to wear her costume to school this past Friday for the Halloween Parade there and then i picked the kids up early and took them to the office for the Annual Trick or Treating event there!!! Wow do we have a lot of candy!!! Look how sad when she realized she had her last piece of candy tonight and that one has to wait for another day :-)

Had to throw in these few additional pictures....Noah's obsessed with the fridge. He comes crawling as fast as he can when you open that up and he will stay in there all day if you'd like him. Here is a picture of Noah enjoying walking with his tiger as i promised and a Video! By the way, he was fine.....he didn't even cry. Oh and as of Sunday Noah has gone from getting up the first step of the stairs to crawling up ALL of them!!!

Haley turns 4 years old!!!!

This is going to be a long post so get ready.......I can hardly believe that I have a 4 year old! Just saying it sounds so weird but it's true Haley turned 4 this past Monday and don't you worry......she is making sure the ENTIRE world is aware of it! She woke up the morning of her b-day party and Macy and Makayla had stayed the night and she walked straight downstairs and told Macy at least 3 times in a row "Hey Macy, I'm 4 years old!" It was so funny because Macy would just look at her and then go back to playing so then Haley would say it again...LOL! Repeat and Repeat! Haley started off her b-day weekend by getting to have Macy and Makayla stay at her house! Boy was Haley just thrilled about this! After we ate Princess muffins Saturday morning we headed to her soccer game very early as it was picture day. Next we headed back home to get changed and ready for her Princess Gymnastics Party!!! It was Princess themed with an emphasis on Princess Belle! Of course Aunt Sheryl made the Princess Bell Cake!!!! Haley was adamant that she was going to have a Princess Bell cake, luckily Sheryl was able to grant her wish :-) As some of you already know Haley decided she would rather have a Party at Gymnastics with all of her friends then go to Disney World! Crazy i know but that's what she wanted so that's what we did. Off we went to Gymnastics where there were about 18 kids, ages 2-4!!!!!!! That's a ton of little kids running around! There were also 4 others, including Noah that were under the age of 1 year. It was CRAZY busy but so much fun and Haley LOVED every single minute of it! When we got in the car to leave she said she wanted to do the exact same thing for her 5 year old birthday. I'm not sure we'll do it exactly the same again but we'll see what she thinks in another year. Was good to know that she truly enjoyed it so much though! After the party we headed back home to our house with Macy and Makayla where Emmy Cate was able to join us as well as Mimi and Grandpa! It was very relaxing to just hang out at the house and the 4 girls had an amazing night! They literally played ALL night long and were loving each second! They got to eat pizza at their own little table, go see the deer, put on their PJs together and watch movies, play chase with Mimi, stay up way past bed times, etc! Fun times!

On Haley's actual birthday (Monday) Clayton and I were both able to take off work and we took the kids to the pumpkin patch! It was the most perfect weather, the kids were in a great mood, no one was there since it was Monday and we just had a wonderful Family Day! We got to feed the animals and fish, ride in a cool wagon (check out those tires!), go on a tractor ride, eat popcorn and pick out pumpkins! We topped off the night with a trip to TCBY with Grandpa, Papa, Grandma, and Aunt Sher Sher! Then last but not least.......Haley was able to have a sleep over in Mommy and Daddy's room!!! This was something she'd been asking for for about 6 months now and we told her on her Birthday she could have a sleep over with us! Her and her 5 baby dolls of course!!!!

Grandpa and Pa stopped in the weekend before Haley's Birthday and we had a great visit! Since the weather was so nice we even had a chance to take them out on the lake after we all went to Haley's soccer game that morning!

So all in all it's been a busy busy week since Noah got his tubes in just a week ago. He seems to be doing much better. Still not sure he's 100% as he doesn't seem to want to lay down when it's bed time. Instead he'll just sit in his crib and rock back n forth until he basically falls over with his head on his feet or his head resting on the side of the crib. Of course when he does that we'll go in there and lay him down all the way but i still can't figure this out and why this just started all of a sudden. Is he afraid it will hurt if he lays down or does it hurt??? Not sure. Noah does have a new game that he loves which is throw any object that he is holding onto the ground so that you can hang him down so he can pick it up. Fun game huh?!?! Look how much fun Noah is having dancing with Grandma! One other thing i should note is that Noah is finally up and walking with his push toy tiger! I will upload a picture and possibly even a video soon but he's up and going and has also figured out how to get up the first step :-( I have been trying to distract him ever since i found him on the first step yesterday but I'm sure it won't be long before

he realizes he can go up all of them! He's also been standing himself up on anything he can find and will push himself off so that he is standing without holding onto anything. It's pretty funny because he holds his arms straight out like he's an airplane....ha! Baby boy is growing up WAAYYY to fast! I am NOT ready for this!!

Tubes are in and WHOA was Noah one mad little boy!!!

We had to be at the hospital at 6:30am this morning and the surgery was scheduled for 8:30am. We got started right on time! Everyone there was wonderful to work with. The Dr., nurses, and anesthesiologist team all came in the pre-op room to introduce themselves and to see if we had any questions. The room was perfect for little kids and had lots of toys, basket ball hoop and Noah's favorite, a ball! Noah got to go pick out a toy from the gift area prior to surgery! What a great idea, he got a little cuddle dog :-) (not pictured). I was able to take Noah into the actual operating room lay him on the table and stay with him till he was all the way under. This took all of about 1 1/2 minutes. I went straight to the recovery room and Clayton grabbed a cup of coffee right outside of our room and the Dr. was there already to say that they were all done and it all went well! It was literally like 3 minutes from the time i left the room, thank GOD!! Noah came rolling down the hallway still asleep by already crying :-( Once he started to wake up a little more he was MAD and crying even more!!! He pretty much screamed for about 2 hrs straight until just before we got to the house when he finally fell asleep. Nothing could comfort him. He woke right up as soon as we got home but luckily Grandma was fast acting on my text to her....."Noah needs Grandma's lap and the Ants Go Marching song please!" She was at our house within just a few minutes of us getting home and Noah was extremely happy to see her!! I think he's still holding a grudge against me for taking him into the operating room. Thankfully he is peacefully asleep in his bed now and hopefully he's ready for a big bottle and some food when he wakes up. He did finish his bottle from this morning just before falling asleep. Whew! Glad this is all over and I hope we are on the up and up after this and no more Dr. visits for ears!!!!

Noah's Tube Surgery is scheduled for this Friday 10/21/11

It's scheduled! Noah will have his tubes in this Friday 10/21/11. Hopefully he comes out of there feeling like a champ as we have Haley's soccer game and Birthday party on Saturday so no time to be feeling down! We took Noah for his ENT appointment today and the single ear infection that he had last week still turned into a double ear infection while we were on the meds. We had even caught that infection early and it still turned into a double....boo! Good news is that his hearing test today came back good and he hasn't had any hearing loss from all these ear infections. Dr. did say that he's probably not hearing everything very clearly more like muffled or how you hear things under water. They did show us on a graph how his ear drum hardly moves and that's due to all the fluid being in his ears. Once he has the tubes if he has an infection rather than always having to do oral or shot antibiotics we now also will have the option of ear drops! I'm sure that won't be the most fun but it's at least another option! Other than dealing with ear infections Noah and Haley have been happy little kids! We are trying to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible before the cold weather gets here.

Birthday's come early this year....

Aunt Sis made a very special trip to ATL to personally deliver Haley and Noah's b-day gifts. Sis has not been to ATL since mine and Clayton's wedding which was 6 1/2 yrs ago so she was well past due for a visit. We had made several attempts to take Haley and Noah to St. Louis this summer/fall time frame to see all of our family up there however unfortunately with all of Noah's ear infections it never worked out. After this last trip was cancelled Sis made a last minute decision to come to ATL for a visit. We had a wonderful time and Haley and Noah finally got some time to just hang out and be their usual selves. We did lots of shopping, playing at the park, playing at Aunt Sher Sher's house, dinner at the lake and dinner with Lichtenberg's! We were also able to finish picking up the rest of the stuff needed for the kids b-day parties coming up which was great. Thankfully Noah and Haley were both healthy and happy during Sis's visit and we all had a wonderful time! Noah, Papa and I headed back to the Dr. this past Tuesday as he had a nasty cough and another ear infection (#7) so we are on the meds again. Thankfully we caught this one pretty early and it's only in one ear so far, first time it's only been a single!! His ENT appt is scheduled for Tuesday 10/18/11 and it can't get here soon enough! He is still eating his foods like a champ though :-) Nothing less than 3-4 chicken nuggets, 2 vegtables and a fruit for this man at dinner time! Of course that's all followed by a 6oz bottle just before bed too..ha! Wouldn't want that poor baby to starve.

I just love this picture.....this was taken during a visit to TCBY with Papa and Grandma this past Sunday! Boy do these kids sure love all of their grandparents!!!

Haley is still playing soccer every Saturday and has her usual supporters :-) Grandma is always there too, she just didn't make it into this picture.