Happy Halloween.

Jenelle was a witch for Halloween this year. It was a beautiful night. Usually I'm freezing my a** off, but this year was quite pleasant. So nice that we trick-or-treated an extra long time. Jenelle got lots of candy this year. The switch witch did visit our house again. She switched a lot of the candy for a zhu zhu baby stroller. Jenelle is very into zhu zhus right now.

Here are some pictures from our fun night and from pumpkin carving (all pumpkins were grown in our back yard.)

40th Birthday - Oct 5th

I'm 40 now. This is a huge milestone so I decided to celebrate it. I organized a cruise for my 40 something friends. We took a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. We had a fabulous time. We spent a day on Coco Bay. The snorkeling was great. The next day we went to the Atlantis. Curt and I have always wanted to go there. It was so cool. They had a great lazy river, water slides and of course the leap of faith. The leap of faith is a water slide with a sheer drop that was incredibly fast! I couldn't keep my eyes open. All I could do was scream. I had to dig my swimsuit out of my butt when I got to the bottom. It was scary, but exciting.

Another highlight of the trip was just hanging out with my college roommate, Debbie and my high school friend, Celine. I miss those girls so much. We drank too much and stayed up way too late. We soaked up the sun and had lots of fun!

One of the highlights of my day

Jenelle puts on a fashion show for me every day! I'm not kidding. It started this summer. Jenelle likes to dress in the colors of the rainbow. Each day she dresses in all one color. She parades her outfit in front of me every morning. The slide show is a sample of some of her colorful outfits. Jenelle is very into fashion and often accessorizes with necklaces and silly bands. I haven't picked out her clothes in years. She often puts together outfits that look funny or don't quite match, but I think it's cute.

Eight is Great

Jenelle had a pajama birthday party this year. We almost had a sleepover party, but I just couldn't go through with it. So the pj party was our compromise. It was the easiest party yet. The girls came over and watched the new "Barbie in a Fashion Fairy Tale" while they ate pizza. We played the limbo game and then the girls spent the next 40 minutes playing dress up and walking down the runway. I saw dress up clothes I haven't seen in years. The girls had a great time putting on new outfits and accessories. I would add commentary while they walked down the runway twirling and posing. It was so fun and so easy. I didn't have to clean up after a messy craft. Curt and I didn't have to haul everything over to the park. Lots of fun memories were made. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but Jenelle's cake matches her pajamas. The only downside to the party that I could find was that she got 8 Zhu Zhu pets. 4 pets and 4 babies. Those Zhu Zhu's are a pain. The wheels are constantly get clogged up so I'm constantly performing "surgery" to get them working again. Oh well, she loves them.

Seven is Super

Jenelle is 8 now, but let's take a moment to reflect on this past year. Seven was super. Jenelle really came a long way this year. Last summer she was deathly afraid of bugs including the sweet ladybug. If a ladybug landed on her she would scream, cry and go a little ballistic. Just last week she was dismembering a grass hopper and pretending to eat it.

She jumped off the diving board and learned to ride her bike without training wheels this summer. She showers by herself and can swim really well. I just can't believe how grown up she's getting. Where did my little girl go?

First Day of Second Grade

Today was Jenelle's first day of school. Don't be fooled by the top picture. She was SUPER excited for school. The last few weeks she was moaning about school (probably because I was moaning about school.) Her teacher is Mrs. Hart. She was Jenelle's kindergarten teacher. She is the best.

On the first day of school they have an "Opening Day Ceremony". We've never been able to make the ceremony because we were always too late. Well not this year! We were on time; early even. So we're off to a good start.

This morning Jenelle asked me, "What am I having for lunch?" I told her that it was only a half day so she'd be home for lunch. About 2 minutes later she said, "I hope it stops raining for the second recess." Again I told her it was only a half day. About 2 minutes later she asked about something else. It's only a half day!!! At least she was excited.

I was surprised when I picked Jenelle up from school. She had homework!! Who gets homework on the first day? I was telling her that she probably wouldn't have homework the first week. I guess they really buckle down in 2nd grade.

Cousin Love

We went to Chicago last week. We had the best time. Jenelle spent lots of time with her cousins and there are many highlights to share.

Jenelle went down her first water slide. We went to Rainbow Falls and with a little encouraging she went down the slide. Jenelle and I shared a double inner tube. I could tell she was really nervous. She had tears in her eyes as we were walking up the stairs. Well she had the best time. We did that slide a bunch more times.

It was hot and humid while we were there so we also spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool. They have a low dive there. I kept asking Jenelle if she wanted to jump off the diving board. Each time it was a definite NO. David was putting together a video montage of our trip and he convinced her to jump off. David did an awesome job with the video. He picked very dramatic music and now we have this great memory of her first jump all on DVD.

Carly and Jenelle had lots of fun dressing the same and they put make-up on almost every day. David built a huge two room fort to play in. David did some magic tricks for Jenelle. The cousins really had a good time.

We tried to go sailing on Papa's boat, but we didn't get the right weather. We'll have to do that next time.

We miss everybody!