Superheroes, crazy hair, and snow

                quite possibly my favorite pic of him lately

fighting bad guys

                              SHE CAN FLY!

My children in all their adorableness

HER HAIR....Check it out! Isn't it glorious?

Our snowman decorated with sidewalk chalk. Yes, his nose is orange sidewalk chalk, not a carrot

My lovely snow covered home

playing "drive-thru" , note max in his car at the window of the kitchen.

school picture day

goof ball

Kathleen Joy is here!

She's here! Kathleen Joy Brough entered the world on November 9th, 2012 at 10:45pm. She weighed 7lbs 12oz, was 21 inches long and has a FULL head of beautiful black hair. It was not a difficult pregnancy or delivery. She arrived 9 days early but is very healthy. She is calm and loves to sleep and eat. Lilia and Max adore her and fight over whose turn it is to hold her. I am feeling amazingly well and am proud to report I wore my pre-pregnancy jeans today! Katy or Kitty (whichever you prefer) is now 10days old weighs more than 8lbs and still loves to eat and sleep. Yet again Daddy's heart has been stolen away. We all love and adore our newest angel from heaven. Here are a few pics of Katy's life so far.

This was taken the day before she came.

just born

First family photo

she didn't show her eyes too much at first. but she has beautiful deep blue eyes.

They adore her!

Happy Family!

ready to go home

1st tubby. Sissy was a big help. Katy loved it so much she fell asleep in the bath and started to snore.

my girls

she loves to sleep

They are the reason I wake up in the morning. I love them dearly!

She's all that and a bag of chips.

Sweeties!

We have much to be thankful for!

this is our backyard around 5pm. its now 8:30pm and we have tons more snow.

On this snowy November evening we had a wonderful Family Fun Time! We read about Nephi and the golden plates. We had a sock "snowball" fight. And we cut out paper snowflakes and hung them from the large beams in our great room.

We also discussed all we have to be thankful for and Thanksgiving. We recently were spared from Hurricane Sandy's wrath and many were not. These are a few of the items we listed.

Daddy- food, house, job, toys
Mommy-heat, electricity, family, house, Gospel of Jesus Christ
Lilia- snow, bats, birds, Jesus, Heavenly Father, the Prophet, Joseph Smith, jack-o-lanterns, soup
Max- milk, orange juice, food and spiceys, buses, little people, ice cream, chickarina soup

The Never Ending Halloween Part 2

If you're keeping track this is now the
7th Halloween Activity:
Absecon Trick-or-Treating with our besties, the Perez Ladybugs
The kids were so excited to be out together they started skipping down the sidewalk singing, "we're going trick-or-treating"! So cute!

The kids went around our neighborhood, which isn't full of kids nor houses giving out. so those who did give out, filled their buckets quickly.

We also visited a more popular section of town and hardly got anything. Next year we'll stick with our small area of town. But of course it was fun! Dave said we only had 1 trick-or-treater at our house .


8th Halloween Activity:
Absecon Nursery School Halloween Parade and Party

Lilia was so excited for this! It had been postponed from the previous week. She was excited to show off her Bat costume to her friends. It was freezing outside, yet they all were happy to march by the parents.

This shot gives you a better view of all the different costumes in the 2 classes.

They stood in line and sang a few Halloween songs. I was in heaven watching my little Lilia singing!

9th Halloween Activity:
Linwood Trick-or-Treating with friends
I know we seem crazy, "why go again?" you might ask. Well, the kids overheard me talking with our friend about it and they wanted to go with some more friends, so I agreed. It was about 30 degrees that night so we really bundled up!

Lilia was a cheetah. I quickly sewed black ears to this knit hat, and had her wear layers under this cheetah costume including a scarf. She never complained of being chilly. She loved the whiskers on her face.

Max was a monkey once again and also wanted make-up on his face. They had lots of fun with our large group of friends. And they made out with tons of candy again! Max was an 'on and off' trick or treater, for a while he sat in the wagon or our friend's stroller and ate candy. I wore them out! Max started yelling at me when I'd ask if he wanted to go up to the door. He'd yell "NO CANDY! ALL DONE!"

And I reiterate his words "ALL DONE!"

The Never Ending HALLOWEEN part 1

Our first Halloween Activity:
trick-or-treating on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

Lilia wanted to be a bat. I made her hat and wings. Forgive the wrinkles, they hadn't been ironed, but how many 4yr old care about that?

Max insisted on being a monkey. He has a number of costumes on hand that he dresses as on a regular basis including, fireman, policeman, monkey, duck, and doggy.

Getting their free pumpkins before getting their candy.

 

It was such an amazing day, the kids tired of getting candy and begged to play on the beach. so I bought some $1 swimsuits (I bought about 9 in all different sizes cause they're awesome! normally $25 each) and we had a blast on the sand.

2nd Halloween Activity- 

Church Trunk-or-Treat

David the hippie, Mel as Ursala, Lilia as Ariel, and Max the puppy

Our under the sea trunk

3rd Halloween Activity-
Kid Halloween Playdate Party at our house.

We had pin the eye on the monster, balloons, playtime outside (gorgeous weather), mummy hot dogs, and lots of fun with our friends!

a shot of my awesome mummy dogs, which were actually quite tasty.

4th Halloween Activity-
Trick-or-Treating at Shoprite. The kids went through the store and got candy at all the different dept. usually the store wouldn't have been so full but this was 2 days before Sandy hit and so it was insane! This is Lilia's 3rd costume, a witch.

 

5th Halloween Activity- 

Our 5th Annual Halloween Party

VILLAINS!

 David was Darth Maul and
 I was Ursala the Seawitch. Our friends came and we had lots of fun, as always!

 Our villain club included the Queen of Hearts, the Headless Horseman, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlet and Col. Mustard from CLUE, a pirate and a witch.

I had so much fun doing Dave's make-up.

 

6th Halloween Activity- 

Trick-or-Treating at the Mall

So SANDY hit NJ pretty bad and cancelled Halloween for most of us. Well, they postponed it but it felt like a super lame Halloween. Lilia had school but no party until Monday, and no neighborhood trick-or-treat until Saturday. So we went to the mall along with the rest of the state! The kids only got 2 pieces of candy each cause their were lines 50 kids long to get into each store and sometimes after waiting for 10mins the store ran out of candy. Thankfully, my kids enjoyed seeing the thousands of other kids in costume and didn't mind the lack of sweets, since we've already done our fair share of Halloween.

This time Lilia was again the bat(this time with ironed wings) and Max was a pilot flying his plane (my favorite of his costumes)

 

demonstrating flight through Build-a-Bear.

 

We gave up on candy amd played at the playground in the mall and the kids thought we had a marvelous Halloween night. I tried to make it special throughout the day with "ghost" quesadillas, and soda for lunch, a parade of costumes through our living room, a Halloween dance party in the kitchen,and jack-o-lantern pizzas for dinner.

Tomorrow night we'll trick-or-treat through the neighborhood and the kids love to hand out the candy too. And on Monday Lilia will have her parade at school. It will be Nov 6th before I can finally say goodbye to Halloween. I do love the holiday, but its lasting a little too long this year.