Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well, today was a fabulous day! For Halloween Molly was a "Fifi doggie" (in her own words)... also known as a pink poodle. I really enjoyed Molly's excitement for Halloween and her insistance for wearing her costume almost every moment I would let her. The day culminated with dinner at our friends' house. We had hot dogs and homemade macaroni & cheese (a traditional Jarquin Halloween meal) and Molly was in heaven. And then we hit the streets with her little buddy Winter to get some candy. The first few houses Molly was very timid and was pretty scared by some of the older kids' ghoulish costumes. But she got over it when she realized that people were throwing candy in her bag (although Daddy still carried her most of the way at her request). Then she finished up the night by downing a Kit Kat with some milk and heading home to bed. If I were a two-year old, I would say it was the perfect day. And I got so much joy watching her smile all day long!

Watch out Celine Dion...

I'd like to present Molly's singing debut for your listening enjoyment. In her latest efforts to pursue a passion for music, she has begun making up songs about random subjects. And usually the subject of the song is the only word that is understandable by normal English speaking people. You'll notice that she is standing on our elliptical machine while she's singing, because apparently it makes the perfect stage for her performance. You'll also notice that at one point she stops to check her "microphone" and say "check, check, check". She must be watching Mommy pretty closely during worship band practice!

Home from Portland...

Hey everyone! We're back home from Portland and we had a wonderful trip! We thorougly enjoyed our visit with Steve's sister Christie, Scott and Hailey. And let me tell you... Hailey and Molly had a blast together. For the first time they actually really enjoyed interacting with one another and we'd occasionally catch them exchanging spontaneous hugs without any parental prompting. It was pretty darn cute! And of course, Portland is a fabulous city with tons to do. On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market and enjoyed some awesome food! Here's some pictures from that outing!



And then on Sunday, I had a fun time shooting some family portraits for their family (I'll post more of that session later on my photo blog when I've done some editting). Christie picked this great park for the pictures, and all the trees were changing colors and dropping leaves. It couldn't have been a nicer setting! And of course Molly had to get into the action so I couldn't resist snapping a couple of her too!



After the photo session, we went to a local farm to enjoy some fall festivities. The kids enjoyed seeing the farm animals, going through the maze of straw bales, and picking out their own mini-pumpkins to bring home.



And then on Monday morning we let the girls paint the pumpkins that they picked out. They were very serious about their artwork as you can tell from the picture!



We got home late yesterday (Tuesday) and are still trying to get back in the swing of things here. It was sad to say goodbye, particularly because we know we won't be able to get up there again for a while. This is pretty much our last trip before the twins come. The day that we were leaving I was telling Molly that after her nap we would be getting on the plane and going home. She said, "Hailey plane?" and I told her that Hailey would be staying there at her house. She simply said, "Molly sad" and hugged me. How's that for a tear jerker. You can tell those two little girls love eachother very, very much!

A trip to Apple Hill...

Today Molly and I went up to Apple Hill with our friend Katie and her daughter Chloe. For those of you unfamiliar with Apple Hill, it's a collection of ranches in the foothills that sell produce and have "attractions" for the kids such as animals and pony rides. It supports a huge cottage industry and people sell everything from crafts to homemade jam, pies and fudge. It's the epitomy of fall with pumpkins, caramel apples and straw bales everywhere!

The kids had fun taking in all the action and Molly particularly enjoyed her first homemade apple fritter. Yum! And Katie and I got laughs at the MULTIPLE people that asked us if we were sisters, or if Molly and Chloe were sisters. I guess we're all just so stinkin' good looking that we look related - hahahaha!

But the highlight for Molly was DEFINITELY her very first pony ride. I was so proud of her. She wasn't scared at all and was very serious about hanging on tightly. And when she got confident, she'd even reach down and give her horse some gentle pats. I may have enjoyed watching her more than she enjoyed the ride (which may explain the 50 pictures I have of her on that horse). It was heart warming!

IT'S A......

... girl AND a boy! Yup, this morning Steve and I had our diagnostic ultrasound, and thankfully the twins were cooperating and let us see their "goodies". We were able to clearly see that we are having a boy and a girl. Very exciting! Twin A, the lowest twin, is a girl and will be born first assuming that I can deliver normally. She's hanging out on my left side. And Twin B is on my right and he's a "he". I've been having dreams about them being a boy/girl set, but I must admit that when they told us the first one was a girl, I was a little worried that we might not get a boy too. I must admit that I got a little teary when they said we would get our boy after all!

So I'm now 20 weeks pregnant and probably have around 16 more weeks to go. I'm about the same size as I was at 30 weeks pregnant with Molly.

And for those biology geeks (like me), here's a cool diagram of what the twins may look like in there at 20 weeks (this is taken from babycenter.com). We have ultrasound pictures, and when I get them scanned in I'll post some. The babies are each around 6 to 6.5 inches long now from head to bottom, and about 10 inches long from head to foot. This pregnancy definitely feels like it's going by much faster than my first one!

I told Molly after picking her up from preschool that she was having a brother AND a sister. She smiled at me and then ran off. I guess that's her level of excitement. I suppose that a 2-year old doesn't really understand that her world is about to be rocked!