now that's love

Abby and Carter had their 2 year and 6 month checkups today. Abby is 27 lbs and 34 inches tall coming in at about 50%. Carter is 19 lbs 11 oz. and 27 inches tall. He's in the 75th percentile for both. I would have guessed he would be in a higher percentile than that, but I forget that boys are naturally bigger than girls.

I took Abby and Carter to the doctor on Tuesday to check on their respective illnesses. I told the nurse practicioner I thought Carter was getting a sinus infection and she looked at him and said it was too early to tell. Well guess what? Our doctor confirmed today that he has a sinus infection. I just wanted to say "Seeee?" I think Doctors should really listen to mothers more often.

They are concerned about Abby having diarrhea for over two weeks now so they made me take a stool sample at home to send in for testing. Let me tell you; it is not fun digging that warm, runny, pungent stuff out of a diaper and putting it into little vials. So Abby, if you're reading this 15 years from now and you think your mother doesn't love you, just remember this.

sweet boy

Until I have the energy to think of something creative to post about, have a look at more pictures from yesterday. Carter is such a cuddly, sweet boy.

carter and my dad

Carter's smile and nose look so much like my dad in this picture! Hey Mom, you have any baby pictures of Dad lying around?

He's so stinkin' sweet I can't stand it!

sickos

abby has a stomach virus

mamma's feeling down

carter has a yucky cold

daddy's out of town

yay.

Thanksgiving, Birthday and Callings

We had a pretty great Thanksgiving this year with Brian's family. Six of the eight kids were there with their families, totaling 13 grandkids and 15 adults, so it was very loud most of the time. Abby felt it was necessary to squeal at the top of her lungs like 50% of the time in order to attract attention (sigh...I don't know why) so by the time 7:00 rolled around I was ready to lock myself in a padded room for a while. But it was good to be with family, although I missed my family that day. We'll get to spend Christmas with them though.

Saturday was my birthday and to celebrate, Brian took me to dinner and to see Enchanted. I've been dying to see it and it was a great movie! Amy Adams, whom I've never really heard of before, was AMAZING, and McDreamy was pretty great too! If you love happy movies, this is one you shouldn't miss!

Brian and I both have callings now in our newly restructured ward. I am still the primary music leader, which I am very happy about, and Brian is the first counselor in the EQ presidency. A good call for him and I know he will be great at it. I think its a wonderful opportunity to help build the foundations for a new ward and we're very excited!

The "D" word and other stuff

The last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful. For a while there, every day was crammed full of fun stuff to do and places to go, but that all came to a screeching halt when Abby came down with the dreaded "D" word. No one wants to be around you when your kids come down with it. It's like the plague. Granted, it's about as contageus as a plague, so I totally understand. So I cancelled voice lessons, found baby sitters without kids, declined on a baby shower and playgroup, and my weekly hangout with some girlfriends. My only solace was shopping. Hey. Abby probably got sick from a shopping cart, so *maybe* out of spite, I didn't care if she paid it forward. Am I awful?

So she's pretty much over it, except she has a monster rash and a severe aversion to diaper changes now. But she's in the clear and we're back in business!

Here are some random pictures:

Abby LOVES Carter and is really into hugging and kissing him.
Carter's mobile enough now where he can participate in some big-kid play time.

I love watching him sleep. I love his little drawn-in mouth and rosy cheeks. He look so peacful, and when I lean over to kiss him sometimes he takes a deep breath in like "Mmmm! Mommy!"

We went over to the Lamarche's and Abby and Andre rocked out on the piano. That is one place Abby never wants to leave.

I guess Abby felt like the pantry needed to be cleaned out, so she went at it.

This is For Marianne

You're not alone. These clothes have been sitting on our cedar chest since Monday. And today is linens day so I have even more to add to it. The crazy thing is it really doesn't take THAT long, so I don't know what my hang up is. Anyone else want to confess?

Split!

The stake presidency finally split our ward yesterday. We've been thinking it would happen for almost a year now, because our ward is busting at the seams. The Stake Pres. joked that if he let this go any longer we'd have to demo the stage to make room for us all.

So now Wylie has two wards and we are in the Wylie 2nd ward. I'm sad cause we're really going to miss the other half but we'll keep the same playgroup so we'll stay in touch.

The Primary is in a crisis though cause a few months ago the stake told us we couldn't have our primary program in September because it doesn't fall in the last quarter, (silly rule) so they had us move it to Nov. 18th, which is this week. But since we've lost half our primary and we'll have a whole new presidency, we're really in a tough spot. So even if my calling won't continue to be primary music leader, I'm going to keep things together until the program on Dec. 9th.

I think this split is an exciting thing though. Change is fun!

Busy Day

Today was a fun filled day on the McMurdie farm. Brian was on a campout and so this morning I hauled both of the kids to a primary activity where we practiced the sacrament meeting program. I'm the music leader and was busy the whole time, but luckily there are lots of girls that love to take care of my kiddos.

I had to leave the activity a little early so I could come home to babysit Melinda's kids. Mom came up for a visit to see her wonderful grandkids and she watched the babies while I took Abby, Anna and Tommy to the park. We had a great time! Here are just a couple of pics. I'll let Linna post the rest if she wants.

Anna and Tommy being sweet.

Abby has never wanted to go through the tunnels before, but today she jumped right in. Nothin' like a little positive peer pressure I guess.

Photo Shoot Gone Wrong

Carter and I had a little photo shoot today while Abby was asleep. But I really needed someone there to help me get his attention and keep him happy. I didn't get a single picture of him smiling! Here are a few of the cute ones.

And some of the bad...

Family Weekend

Saturday was a big day for my side of the family. Most of my family did a very special sealing session at the temple. We sealed my grandpa, who passed away a year ago, to his parents, then we sealed my grandparents to eachother, and then sealed my mom and one of her brothers to her parents. It was a happy day for my mom. She's been waiting for this day since she joined the church over 40 years ago! It was a great experience, and we are so grateful that our eternal family is getting bigger up there!

After the temple Brian and I hosted a monthly FHE for his side of the family. We talked about gratitude and rotated to different stations.

In this station we played spin the bottle. But instead of the traditional kissing, we instead said something we were thankful for about the other person. The kids loved this activity.







Brian's brother is on a mission in Italy, so we wrote letters to him thanking him for serving the Lord.











At this station we made gratitude jars. We handed out slips of colored paper and had everyone write things they were thankful for and put them in a jar. Then later when you're sad or need a pick-me-up, you can read a slip out of the jar to remind you of the blessings you have. I think I got this idea from Danielle....???







After the activities, we had pizza and fruit with yummy fruit dip, and then sent the kids outside to run while the adults talked.

It was fun to be with boths families this weekend, and we are so grateful for them!

Almost an Angel

Sure, she gets into things, bothers her brother and makes lots of messes, but Abby really is a good, sweet little girl, and that's why she's an angel for Halloween. Well, that, and it was the only idea I could come up with at the last minute.

You know when you start something and halfway through you begin to feel like you're in an I Love Lucy episode? The shell of her costume was a sleeveless fairy princess costume, size 4-6x. So I cut off the bottom to make sleeves, except I was working with ravelly silky material, and my sewing skills are pretty lame. So I got the sleeves made (after having a knock-down drag-out with the bobbin,) and tried to sew them on to the costume but realized the sleeves were too small to manuver into the sewing machine. So I hand sewed one sleeve on but it was getting super late so I went to bed. The next morning was a play group halloween party and the costume only had one sleeve so I got out the heat and bond tape and patched the sleeve on ten minutes before we left. Hey, it works! The wings were from the One Spot at Target, the fuzzy boots were $3 at Walmart, and our neighbor gave us that awesome halo after taking pity on our makeshift foil one. I think it turned out pretty cute.

This was Abby's first time trick-or-treating, and I think she liked it!

Especially the candy part.

Aaagh!

Is what you say when you discover your daughter has bitten off the top of every one of her Disney Princess markers, which aren't, by the way, very washable.


She's getting in her top eye teeth and so she's chewing on everything, and she's as grouchy as all get out. Heaven help me.

Random Pictures

For posterity's sake.

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last Saturday. It was mad crazy, but we still had a good time. We tried to take pictures of Abby and Ben, but they didn't seem too interested in the camera.

Whatever it was must have been awfully interesting.

Abby didn't care to pose for me on the pumpkins either. Instead, she went flitting about going from pumpkin to pumpkin.
And testing each one for structural integrity.This is me and my sis, Missy.
Took a picture of Abby and Brian walking around. I thought the people and objects in the background were distracting, so I removed them. Neato!


Our happy family.

Brian and Abby playing a little peek-a-boo.
And Carter hung out with cool Uncle Mark. He's always good for a laugh.

The Creature

I spied a creature crouched behind the foliage and approached with caution. This particular specimin is known to strike without warning. "Krikey!" I'm discovered, so I back away quickly to avoid the smattering of mud that is sure to ruin the outfit of anyone who crosses its path.

The creature, distracted by a patch of mud, loses interest in the camera and goes about its business, but not before shooting a look of warning at the photographer.
Success! After several attempts and close calls with the mud, I make peace with the creature and even manage to capture a smile.
And even got an amazing freak of nature shot. No editing! Weird!

At last, the creature's mom makes her clean up and come in. Ah, to be a creature again...