Life as we know it

Not too much to report here.  Isla got her first haircut, and Sawyer a trim.  Sawyer went first and did a great job, and so it seemed to make Isla feel pretty comfortable.  She hopped right up into the car, got the cape on and let Miss Kateri spray her hair and start cutting.  I was shocked.  We decided that we needed to cut off Isla's tail and give her some bangs.  Unlike Sawyer she doesn't have much movement in her hair so we need some more growth.  She looks so much more grown up I think, and Sawyer keeps looking at her saying how different she looks.  Miss Kateri tells us the sides should be fully grown out around Christmas/winter for a proper bob, and then we'll decide whether we want to go longer or even think about growing out the bangs.  Our little poser was eating Halloween oreo's when I snapped this so she's pretty much covered in frosting on the face.

As for Sawyer, she's just getting so big.  We brought home a bunch of clothes from Aunt Kate's house that Maeve has waiting for her from her other cousins.  Sawyer fits into many of them now so we decided to borrow some of our faves.  Sawyer has a lot of faves, but this is the outfit she put together for school - the green pants with the hello kitty t-shirt.  We had a warm spell here in Chicago for a few days with temps up in the 70's, and close to 80.  Was amazing and got us outside a bit more, but since then it has snapped back to the norm, dropping over 40 degrees in a matter of 24 hours down to the 30s-40s.  Boo.

As you can see - what a difference a day makes.  This was Isla bundled up for our walk on Saturday this weekend.  The girls is obsessed with this coat, but it is rapidly approaching the "too small" category.  She doesn't care.  So I had to do an extra sweatshirt underneath, and girl was still pretty chilled by the time we got back inside.

Uncle Ted came to town on Friday night because he and Mark were headed to Madison for the football game on Saturday.  We took the opportunity to carve our pumpkins that night, and I was loving the extra set of hands carving.  It allowed Sawyer and I to sort through the guts and pull out all our pumpkin seeds.  Isla had no interest in touching them, but loves eating the pumpkin seeds, and sits next to the pumpkins to pose for pictures all the time.

 As you can see we have a happy pumpkin, and an angry pumpkin, as per Sawyer's request.

Was a pretty uneventful weekend otherwise.  We didn't really go anywhere other than our walk, in part because it was pretty cold out and in part because it felt really good to just stay home.  We did laundry, got our Halloween candy ready, packed Halloween bags for our friends at school, and watched some movies.  Though I will say on Sunday afternoon they were starting to drive me crazy with incessant chatter and leaving the house to pick up the pizza for 10 minutes felt like a nice little reprieve.  Such is life I suppose.

And no today is Halloween.  Both girls have their costumes with them at school for a parade.  I am going to try and make it this afternoon to take some pictures, and then bring them home early to get some dinner before we head out trick or treating.  We're forecasting some cold temps, and Isla is in a tinkerbell tutu with tights so I know she won't last long.  Last year I think we did six house.  I'd say if we make 10 houses this year we'd be good to go.

Quick trip to Buffalo

Mark ran his 18th marathon this weekend in Atlantic City.  While he didn't have the best experience - not loving the race or Atlantic City itself, he finished and added another marathon to his goal of completing one in all 50 states.  Because I knew he'd be gone part of the weekend it seemed like the perfect opportunity to head back to Buffalo for a quick visit with family and to get some quality time with the cousins.

We don't have plans to head home for the holidays, and are planning on visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Florida at the end of winter, so I knew there wasn't a trip to Buffalo in our immediate future.  While it was just a quick visit, we had a great time seeing everyone.

Trip started out with lunch at Ted's with some sisters, some aunts, and some of my cousins but I had some fussy, tired kids so wasn't the most enjoyable lunch I've ever had.  We made it back to Aunt Katie's to get the girls down for a nap and rested up before the next party where we got the rest of the sisters/brothers and cousins together, plus a few Saxe's which always adds fun.

Saturday ended up being pretty relaxing with a stop to the cider mill and pumpkin patch before just spending the rest of the day playing.  Maeve, Sawyer, and Isla played so well together all day.  I wish I could say Sunday went just as swimmingly but Isla decided to wake up at 3am and proceeded to cry to go downstairs, and woke Sawyer up in the process.  So, the three of us headed downstairs at 3am.  Sawyer went back to sleep on the couch, waking up only when she rolled off the couch and face planted.  Isla watched videos on the iPad for 4 hours, but wasn't kind in letting me get much sleep on the couch, continuing to whine/cry if the iPad fell from its upright position, or if her show ended, or she wanted a different show.  Needless to say, when Kate, Ryan, and Maeve came down at 7 I wasn't in the best mood.  I put Isla up to bed, letting her cry for 20 minutes or so until she finally fell back asleep, and left Sawyer with Kate while I grabbed a bit more sleep.  I wish I could say I caught up, but not so much.

We still made it to Mark and Jennifer's for breakfast and playing with Luke and Aidan, albeit a little late.  I love how well Aidan and Sawyer get along.  They are best buds, and every time I think what a shame it is we don't live closer.  After some more playing at Kate and Ryan's it was time to head back to the airport to make our way home.  It was a long journey - flying through O'Hare is a lot harder than Midway - and while our girls were good on the airplane, they went a little wild on me in the time it took to get from the gate to our bag to the tram to the car....and then they fell asleep exhausted in the car, both sleeping 12-13 hours that night.  All in all a great trip so I began planning our summer trip today at work.

This week has started out relatively uneventful, but a few random thoughts:

• I have trouble understanding all of Isla's speaking.  One minute she's totally clear but then other times I just have no idea, and I can tell it frustrates her.  One area she's totally clear though, she counts like a champ.  Girl can count to 10 all on her own!
• Sawyer is now taking a Spanish class at daycare.  She took the introductory class today and seemed to enjoy herself so we've signed her up for the once a week class.  It's meant to teach mainly through songs and games so will be interesting to see if she learns anything other than vocabulary - she can already count to 10 in Spanish and knows some colors.  
• Sawyer has become quite a fun little dancer.  Girl has got some serious swagger, and rocks some hysterical faces when she dances.  She knows she's performing when she's doing it.

Happy Birthday to Mark

Has been a busy week+ here in Chicago.  Mainly due to work commitments - as a result we've actually kept our weekend time VERY low key to compensate.  As always, it's a balancing act with Mark and I tag teaming the girls but we're doing good and after a trip to the mall yesterday to get Halloween costumes, and a quick trip to Target today before I started work to get caught up on diapers, wipes, household items, Halloween candy, and other random needs I'm feeling much better.

We celebrated Mark's birthday last weekend - the big 34 as you can see from the candles.  We figured out Mark will always have perfect number candles because Sawyer turns the next age a few weeks before him.  So we used her old "3" and "4" candles and stuffed them into some mini cupcakes.  Mark and I actually had plans to go out that night for dinner and a movie, so I just picked up something small so the girls could celebrate with him and sing.  They did a great job singing Happy Birthday to him, and have been making it so easy on us lately when we leave them with a babysitter.  Even Isla, who was at the dinner table when we left, just looked up, waved, and yelled "BYE".  We quickly left!

Other than that, we did head over to our friend's for an impromptu dinner on Sunday which was awesome.  They had whipped up some Ecuadorian food, which Mark used to love when Leo's mom came to town and made it.  Was good food and a nice way to end the weekend.  We did have two tired girls who whined that they didn't want to leave the party on the way home though.  Thankfully, they fell asleep fast so we didn't have to listen for two long.

Not a whole lot else to share, other than random thoughts.  Here's a picture of two of the new trees we put in this summer - Red Maples.  They turn color faster than the others and we can't wait till they get nice and big.  This was only taken about a week ago, but all the green trees are now Yellow and our yard has LOTS more leaves on it.  

Here's a picture of Sawyer on the treadmill.  If Mark or I have plans to go on it, she usually tries to maneuver her way on first because she needs her exercise as she tells us.  She is far too smart for her own good, and knows how to put the safety plug on, and then start it at her pace.

 And eventually she even got a little running in.

And just because I like this picture, I took this of Isla last weekend.  She had me up early all weekend but by mid-morning was a bit tired herself so she settled in on the chair to watch a video.  She's just like her mama because she likes to have a blanket on her and cuddles up with her blankie by her face.  The difference is I would have fallen asleep, and she didn't.

Randomly I've been thinking I need to update the kids baby books.  I usually try to write in them every 3-6 months to just give a paragraph about what they're doing.  For example, Isla has taken to responding to every question with "No Way", which is super annoying.  She loves to play with baby dolls and constantly carries one, hugs one, cradles one, and sleeps with one.  Sawyer is just getting super independent.  She loves to read, is obsessed with the states - she recognizes most by shape and knows their location, and has become big into princesses and dressing up - I'm sure part of that is she got plenty for her birthday.

I found my shot record/weight/height book my mom kept for me the other day and was comparing it to some of the stats I have in the kids books.  It's amazing how much some things have changed, and how others have stayed the same.  The heights and weights are all relatively in same range and many of the shots are the same.  But I was laughing because I started on 2% milk at 5 months, and now you have to wait until 1 year.  Plus, I learned that I had the measles when I was a year and a half - apparently a reaction to the vaccine.  Isla is supposed to get MMR in a month, so maybe I'll have to ask if that makes her more susceptible to a reaction too.

Anyway, the ladies and I are leaving on a jet plane tomorrow and heading off to Buffalo to see the fam. We have no plans for visits through the holidays and are hoping to make it to Florida in the spring so 6+ more months till the next visit just felt too long.  I think they are both excited, probably just me that is dreading flying alone with them :).  Mark will hold down the fort part of that time, but then head off to Atlantic City himself to run his last marathon of this year.  Looks to be a nice day for him so fingers crossed it goes well.

And with that...I'll leave you with this show Isla gave me recently:

A little bit of everything

Where to begin.  Feels like we've lived a lifetime since Sawyer's birthday party weekend.  So we'll try to use some pictures to tell our story.  First off is we finally celebrated the ACTUAL day.  Sawyer turned 4 mid-week and we celebrated by letting her select her dinner of choice - a cheeseburger and fries from a local hole in the wall which suited us all just fine, and some more cupcakes.  She had gotten a birthday party at school as well, so she rocked her crown and seemed to enjoy herself so much.

And a little dark one of Sawyer and I while we were singing.

We ended the work week a bit early because we had Grandma and Grandpa come to town.  Started off a little rough - I kept the girls home from daycare and we went to pick up G&G from the airport before heading downtown for some fun.  However, our girl Sawyer didn't feel so hot in the car and threw up. Thankfully she gave us some warning and Grandma held a bag to her mouth so we managed to avoid any sort of mess.  Plus, she felt a whole lot better afterwards.  Something didn't seem to sit right with her breakfast I guess because she was all sorts of wound up the rest of the day.  We went and picked up some new shoes and a new fall coat, and got a quick hello in with Aunt Kathy and Aunt Sue who were also in town before heading out to lunch, and then back home for naps.  All that walking around the city tired them out so we got some good sleep out of those girls.  The rest of the weekend was spent hanging with G&G, getting pizza, going to the farmer's market, the library, the playground, out to eat...all good stuff and best of all Sawyer and Isla loved having them here.

I got a few good pictures of Sawyer playing catch with Grandpa.

 I couldn't get them in the same shot but love Sawyer's face.  She was being a crazy girl trying to take Grandpa's head off but it had both of them laughing pretty hard.

A big hit over the weekend was Curious George.  Toys go in and out and back in to fashion at our house, and George is riding an all time high after this visit.  Grandpa would have George dance for Isla, and then she started imitating him.

She has since started carrying him all over the house - and both Sawyer and Isla slept with him on two different nights which is new.  One night it even resulted in a big bruhaha fight between who would get him.  Grandma didn't get as much love this weekend because these girls were Grandpa's girls.  Next time I'm sure it'll flip flop.

Mark was gone for most of this time.  He headed out Friday morning for New Hampshire to run marathon #17.  Despite missing all of our fun, he seemed to enjoy some time alone and took himself around Manchester, Concord, and then finally Bristol where his race was.  Not having been there with him, all I really know is he ran his race in 4 hours 37 minutes which amazes me since he didn't run more than 12 miles at a time to train.  Sounded like it all went well, despite being a test of wills.  We were happy to have him back late Saturday night so he could see G&G a bit before they left town.

After they took off, Mark and I headed out for a little afternoon of fun ourselves.  We got tickets to the Ryder Cup from Mark's cousin and it was the first golf tournament for both of us.  Was super cool but crazy how many people were there.  We walked around a bit and saw Tiger and Stricker tee off for their matches, then made our way to the 13th hole before spending the rest of the day at the 17th hole where it seems the US team came to die.  So many matches turned on this hole but it was so cool to see the players up close.  This was our view and the players walked across that walkway to get to the green in front of us.  

And here's Mark enjoying himself.  We made our way home and I was so tired from the weekend and day outside that I feel asleep on one of Sawyer's twin beds at 8p while Mark was giving her a bath.  Woke up at 2am and felt pretty good, especially when I realized I could go crawl back into my bed and sleep longer.  It was definitely needed because we're all sort of fighting a fall cold, plus it's been a crazy busy week of work for me which means Mark's been covering for me with the kids, which means he's been busy too.  Such is life here in the Harris house.  We're looking forward to a pretty low key weekend with perhaps some pumpkin purchases, and maybe some apple picking in our future...