Are They Twins?

Whenever I have Tessa and Claire sitting next to each other in the grocery cart people always ask me if they are twins. Tessa is tiny and short and Claire is "fluffy" and tall. They probably weigh within a pound of each other. Tessa can still wear Claire's 12 month clothes around the waist, but the pants are too short.

Anyway, sitting down they look similar in size. Tessa looks so much like Cole, but Claire - I have no idea who she looks like. At times I can see my sister and brother when looking at her, but I'm just not sure. She does have a square face when she smiles like Macie did at this age too.

On another note Claire is a walking machine. She is loving it. It only took her until 14.5 months to walk, but she is in heaven. She is writing on my walls (which can't be washed off due to the cheap paint the complex uses), sticks her hands, toys, and everyone's toothbrushes in the toilet, and is the cutest little baby around! Now that she is walking she and Tessa have become the best of friends. They love to have races up and down the hall together!

Halloween

With all the craziness of me traveling and Cole having surgery a few days before I was far from being ready for the ward Halloween Party and Trunk or Treating. Somehow I managed to make Tessa's Dora backpack and Dominic's cape with 15 minutes to spare to throw everyone together for Halloween.

Cole did Dominic's make-up and did an awesome and scary job. He was on a heavy does of Oxycodone at the time. Dominic was scared to even look at himself in the mirror.

All three of the girls have worn this cowgirl outfit. My mom made it for Macie when she was little.

Something spooky with the camera. Claire's arms look transparent.

Claire saying "cheese".

Trunk or Treating. We left Cole at home with his foot up and to rest.

After the party we stopped by Larry and Emily's to get candy and then headed to Dr. Shroff's house for brownie's (one of the resident director's).

We didn't trick or treat on Sunday, but my kids LOVED handing out the candy to all the kids!

Grandpa's Funeral

Although I didn't think I was going to I ended up traveling across the country and went home to my grandfather's funeral. I felt terrible leaving my family behind . . . Cole had just ruptured his achilles, was on crutches and couldn't do a thing. He and Macie kept the house going and it turned out fine.

I was glad I got to go even if I was in town for only a day and a half, was super busy and the traveling was LONG and boring. So many of my cousins were in town and it was fun to see them. I got to see my brothers again too . . . It had been 2 years! I also took a quick visits around to all of my in-laws homes. So fun!

I still need to gather pics from family members, but here are the few that are on my camera.

My family!!

After the funeral etc. . . all the family members went out to the "ranch" (my grandparent's house) and picked out items that we wanted to keep. It was kind of weird looking in every cupboard and drawer for things I wanted.  Just so I remember I ended up choosing some National Geographic movies (grandma lovedNatGeo), some Christmas ornaments (they always had the largest tree that was all decked out), a santa statue, some binoculars, some fun exercise videos - sweating with the grannies type,  a wolf statue for Dominic's room and Grandma's Kitchen Aid mixer. I don't own one and was told it still works. I won't know if it really does until we move back next summer. I obviously couldn't bring it home.

I always thought that the one thing I would want to take would be one of grandma's plate. She collected decorative plates and has hundreds and hundreds. I decided that I didn't want to take anything unless I would really use it so I took a picture of a set instead. This set of plates hangs on the wall in the dining room. Grandma had lots of plates with naked babies and these ones were always staring at you during Thanksgiving Dinner! Just a funny memory I have!

Soccer Season

Macie and Dominic played soccer again this season.

Macie really improved and enjoyed her soccer experience a lot this year. The games were rarely bunch ball and the girls learned to stay in their positions. She scored one goal this season. Unfortunatley neither Cole or I were there to see it. Cole was out of town and I was at Dominic's game at a different school. She even tried her hand as goalie for a bit one game.

Dominic either had good games or bad games. What I mean is that he would either try or wouldn't at all. He still doesn't think soccer is fun, but hopefully next year he will be on a team with kids from school or with cousins and he will gain some excitement.

Tessa is quite the little soccer player herself. Although she was not on a team she and Cole play soccer together a lot and she's got quite the dribbling skills for such a tiny little thing.

A Fixed Tooth

I took Tessa down to Cole's office one morning so he could do a quick and temporary cosmetic fix on her chipped tooth. She did really good. Only got a bit scared. I had to hold her hands down though. She kept wanting to put them up by her face. Look how tiny she is in that chair. Clearly his office is not set up for three year olds.