The twins' school fun run and 5k

Carter and Addison participated in a fun run that was held by the twins' school a couple weekends ago. It was a chilly morning but I'm not sure toddlers notice that. :) 

Silly kids before the race! 

Carter did pretty well -- he ran probably the first 1/2 a mile but then began to tucker out a little. Aunt Michelle found him and helped him along a little bit. Poor little boy's cheeks were so red! 

He just looks so tiny on the big course (and in his youth shirt). :) 

Sissy "ran" it too, but only did about 1/6 of a mile before she was over it. I carried her for a bit and then we headed back to the "finish" line. 

Bedtime - A Broadway drama by Addison Elizabeth

Broadway. That's kind of what bedtime is like in our house with Miss Addison Elizabeth. A full-out, award-winning D-R-A-M-A. (I know my parents are laughing because they think I'm dramatic, but NOTHING AT ALL like this child. See what I did there with the dramatic exaggeration?).

Literally, every single night is a production. To enlighten you, I'll give you a brief rundown of a standard night. And little miss follows the script to a T. She doesn't deviate.

Parents: Time for bed, Addison. 
Addison: NOOOOOO.
P: Yes, Addison.
A: Sing ABCs
[We sing]
A: Sing Jesus Loves Me
[We sing]
A: Um...sing Twinkle
[We sing Twinkle, Twinkle, pray and do kisses]
P: Night, night Addison.
A: Mommy?
P: Yes, Addison? 
A: I can't see my nightlight.
[Fix curtains]
P: Ok, night night Addison
A: Mommy? 
P: Yes, Addison?
A: Turn my fan on.
[Turn fan on]
(before it has a chance to start fully) A: It's not going.
[We reach up and give it a good push to get started FASTER]
P: Ok, night night Addison.
A: I need two cubbers (covers).
[Cover her]
A: Sing ABCs
AND REPEAT WITH EVERY STALL TACTIC THERE HAS EVER BEEN (Where are my dolls? Where's Carter? Mommy sleep on my floor? Where's my water? I'm firsty., and so on)

Then Seth has to go in and cover, sing, adjust curtains, make fan go faster, kiss cheeks. 

Lord, have mercy. 

Since we moved her to a big girl bed, this has been the new norm (for us....you know she'd go to my parent's house and go right to bed). She also wakes up pretty much every morning between 5:14 and 5:44 to go to the bathroom. And when we take her and then walk her back to her room...

YEP! You guessed it. She wants us to start that again.

My hair is graying and I'm low on sleep. Surely there is a brilliant idea out there for our lead actress?!?!! :)

Our annual tradition

Our annual tradition: 

Voting. 

Taking the kids.

Taking this photo. 

Dealing with the meltdown about the baked goods being sold on the way out. 

(All in a day's work.)

Playing in the leaves

This weekend has been pretty chilly here in central PA but we found the crazy wind to go outside today to play in the leaves. We didn't have too many but all of ours blew into one PERFECT pile in the neighbors yard, so we headed over there. They had an absolute blast and I ran inside to grab the camera to snap a few pictures. Addison wasn't so into the pictures (too busy playing) but I was able to capture a few. Love these two! 

Happy Halloween (and trick-or-treating)

Another year, another trick-or-treat in the books! Costume selection was pretty easy this year -- I had gotten Carter this TMNT costume from some secondhand sale a few weeks before and he thought it was for Halloween so SCORE! Sure made the decision process pretty easy. 

When Addison was an infant, I went to Walmart one day and they had all their Halloween costumes marked down 80% off so I guessed what size she might be in a few years and bought this one. It fit perfectly and she had no care in the world when it comes to what she wore (and I think she made a pretty cute little pirate)! ;) 

They also had a parade at school but because of my new job and the fact that I had a press conference at the exact same time, I couldn't go. I was so sad but thankfully my mom, Owen, Michelle, and grandma went to see them. 

To say that we have enough candy to last us until 2017 is probably an understatement--we had two FULL grocery bag fulls when we combined both of their things. 

Bradley and Ashley's wedding

Well, my brother and Ashley have been married for two months tomorrow, which is the true definition of being behind in my blogging. But it worked out perfectly being so behind because their photographer finished the CD of images just a few days ago. So voila! I have photos to use for this post that are significantly better than the ones I took while chasing two banshees around a reception venue! :)

Their ceremony was at the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. It was a gorgeous (albeit, hot) day. We had two no-nap kids, so it made things a bit interesting from the get-go. Carter was the guest book attendant with McKenna (and they also handed out bubbles after the ceremony), so the sweet boy had to be prim and proper.

It was a really pretty ceremony...I'm sure. Addison freaked out about 4 minutes in and Seth had to run out with her. Carter kept asking me if he could keep the $1 I gave him to be quiet. And Owen barfed. All Michelle and I could do was laugh. OF COURSE we were two rows from the front, too. Fortunately, Bradley and Ashley didn't realize everything that was going on during their ceremony.

This family photo was taken before the ceremony, so you'll notice the different changes of clothes on the Peryea family later (based on little Owen's episode). :)

In between the ceremony and the reception, we quickly got photos and then hopped in the car to get the kids to fall asleep -- which they did! However, after about 30 minutes, we really needed to head into the reception cocktail hour because Bradley and Ashley were going to be arriving soon. That didn't go over so well, and resulted in some upset kids. But when they saw there was food and a photo booth, they perked up. :)

Addison loved dancing with her Uncle Brad, and she was sure to steal the attention from Aunt Ashley for a little. Ha! 

The reception was fun, and Gramma brought goodie bags to bribe them to be quiet and well behaved. It worked for the most part; thankfully, they were able to let some energy out on the dance floor.

Bradley and Ashley were sent off with sparklers and cheers. 

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Lauver!

Soccer

The time has finally come for Carter to play "sports." We signed him up for Soccer Shots, a program designed to teach kids the basic skills of soccer and give them a little bit of "play time." It's an 8-week program on Saturday mornings for just 45 minutes, so it's a good, simple (and manageable) first athletic experience. 

He really likes it and gets into it. Here are a few pictures from his first day on September 20. Even Oma and Opa were able to be there for the first day of soccer! 

Does this make me a soccer mom?!? ;) 

Apple picking 2014

It's that time of year for apple picking! Seth's family came this past weekend, and we did our yearly tradition of apple picking at Paulus Orchards and then dinner at Pizza Hut. Carter started soccer Saturday morning (post to come), so they were also able to catch his first day of soccer, too! It was definitely warmer than normal this year. The weather was still really nice...just pretty warm! 

Every year, I take pictures of the kids on the apple crates. Usually they have ones that say Golden Delicious (which is perfect for those little blondies!) but this year they didn't, so we just grabbed the nearest one. It will be so fun to look back on for size comparison. I remember when  Carter's legs stuck straight out! 

 

Now, we need to get crackin' to make our applesauce and who knows what else!! Yum!

Bye, Bye Baby

That's it. It's official. She's not a baby anymore. She's potty trained, she speaks in paragraphs, does everything herself ("my do it!") and now this. 

She has been pitching a FIT at bedtime the last couple weeks. Excuse after excuse and mounting frustration for Seth and I. Then it occurred to us that she might be tired of the crib. An easy removal of a couple screws and sissy is now in a big girl bed. Eventually, we'll switch her over to the white furniture in Carter's room because it's more feminine and we'll move this stuff over to Carter's room and convert this crib into the full bed for him. We just wanted to make sure it worked before we disassembled everything! 

Night one: 4 minutes of blood-curdling screaming, 1 fall out of bed at 1 a.m., and 6:05 a.m. wake-up call. We call that a SUCCESS!

Tonight is night two and there was about 15 seconds of crying and some tossing and turning but she's asleep! 

We pack her for college in the morning.

New job

I figured now that I'm in my third week, it's probably time to catch up and blog about the new job. A couple weeks ago--while on vacation actually--I got the call offering me the job as the director of communications at my alma mater, Messiah College. Messiah is literally 2.1 miles from our house (we mapped it to see the exact!) which is an AWESOME change from my 25 mile commute. In this role, I'll be responsible for managing the feature and news content on the website, and in key areas around campus. I'll also be the college spokesperson, manage all media inquiries, manage the College's social media, and serve on the crisis team. 

I absolutely loved my job at Penn State Hershey, but it sure was hard to pass up a growth opportunity like this so close to home! So far, things are going really well. And, I'm not going to lie, I LOVE the option of running home at lunch and starting a load of laundry, the crockpot, or relaxing. I've gone for lunch several times with my new co-workers and I've worked out a few times too. I'm definitely getting into a new routine but it is so very awesome to be home 3 minutes after I leave the parking lot.