HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween with Aunt Amy

Little Pumpkin

Daddy & his bumblebee - she was more interested in eating her Halloween candy

Grumpy bumblebee

We had a great Halloween. Caroline was really into it this year - she actually wore her bumblebee costume most of the day. We had a birthday party to go to that afternoon and she wore her costume to the party. I was proud - I was afraid she would not want to put it on.

Nonnie, Aunt Amy & Uncle Brian came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood has so many kids so it was really fun. We parked our chairs at the bottom of the driveway and just waited for kids. We walked around to about 15 houses and Caroline was very good at the trick-or-treating. She was so cute.

Trying to keep everyone healthy. We all have little colds but doing our best to stay away from the H1N1 virus. A little baby at daycare was diagnosed over the weekend so fingers crossed we are all okay. The grils have one more round of vaccines and then hopefully we will be in the clear. Gabriella's cold is much better today.

Gabriella is pulling herself up to standing on anything she can get ahold of. Yesterday I was folding laundry on the couch and she was on the other side of the living room. She crawled over to me and pulled herself right up to where I was. She is so quick. I bet she will be walking within a few months - Lord help me. Junior was an early walker, she is taking after her daddy - he was 9 months old. I was 14 months old - I know, a little slow. Caroline was also 14 months old.

We are ready for the holidays and enjoying a little cooler weather here in AZ. The Georgeson's are coming from Denver next weekend. We will celebrate Junior's bday and our 1 year wedding anniversary. Wow, what a year!

SICK GABBY

Sick baby - oh so tired
She was so restless and this is how she finally fell asleep

Yummy blueberries

Love that face

Caroline loves to do "her" makeup while I am doing mine

Oh no, we are in so much trouble with this little beauty queen

Gabriella is home sick today with mommy. She has a nasty cold and is having trouble breathing so I thought she could use some extra kisses and hugs today. Take a look at the picture of her finally falling asleep last night in her crib - she was so tired - poor little thing. She only lasted about an hour in her crib then daddy was booted to the couch and she got in bed with mommy.

We are looking forward to Halloween. Gabriella is a pumpkin and Caroline is a bumble bee. We will take lots of pictures. Nonnie, Aunt Amy and Uncle Brian will come over for trick-or-treating. Should be a fun night.

Not much else new is going on - we are getting so excited for our trip home to KC for Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween to everyone.

OUR LITTLE PUMPKINS

OMG, she loved this teething biscuit - this is the first time I gave her one.
Enough with the pumpkins mom

Little Pumpkin - Gabriella's first Halloween

Caroline eating Kettle Korn this year

Caroline & her Kettle Korn last year (she has grown up so much)

Picking her pumpkin this year

Picking her pumpkin last year (she downsized this year because we made her carry her own pumpkin)

Our Sweet Little Pumpkins

The Silverio's

Nonnie and her girls

Mommy and her girls

Gabriella's first pumpkin patch visit - she will be back next year

Last weekend we went to Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, Arizona. We did this last year with Caroline and it will now be a yearly tradition.

We had so much fun.

Not much else new going on except our little Gabriella pulled herself to standing - yeah, that's right, not quite 7 months old (will be this Saturday) and she wants to stand. Nonnie was babysitting so I did not see it happen though I saw her after she got to her feet. She pulled herself up on her activity cube that my friend Kelley got Caroline for her first birthday. Both the girls love this activity cube and Gabby has found that it is stable enough to pull herself up. We are in so much trouble with her - she wants to do everything.

We are good and looking forward to going home to KC for Thanksgiving and being with Junior's family - can't wait for all the girls to be together. Caroline and Gabriella will have so much fun with their 6 girls neices in KC. Abuela will love having all her granddaughters together - we plan on having family pics taken.

Love to all. BTW, I finally joined Facebook so you can look there for pics too though I will continue to update the blog because I want this for the girls someday.

GOTCHA DAY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Here I go with my new monkey "Boots"
Wow, I'm overwhelmed

Giving Boots her 5th bath

We love you Caroline

Gabriella liked Build A Bear too

Look at me - I can sit up by myself

Love this pic - Caroline always stands there while I am changing and dressing Gabriella.

Yesterday, October 1st was our 2 year Gotcha Day anniversary. What a special day! Two wonderful years with my baby girl. I can't believe it.

Caroline and Gabriella spent the day with Bapa and Nana since they babysit for them on Thursday's but we all went to the mall last night for dinner and Build A Bear. Nonnie, Aunt Amy, Bapa & Nana and The Silverio's all went - we had to make it special. This was Caroline's first time at Build A Bear. She loved it - she picked a monkey and of course named it "Boots" from Dora. They have a pretend bathtub where you can wash your new animals and Caroline kept going back to this bathtub saying "monkey bath". She must have walked back to it 5 times - the monkey was very clean by the time we left.

Here are some pics from our special night.

We love you so much Sweet Caroline!

THE ADVENTURE BEGAN 2 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chiefs Fans - daddy makes them wear this every Sunday - it's not helping the Chiefs
Love this pic

Daddy and his girls

So sweet

Caroline feeding the ducks

She loves to feed the ducks

Two years ago today Amy and I boarded an early morning flight for our trip to Kyrgyzstan - what an adventure that was. No need to relive the travel part :). I cannot believe it has been 2 years with my Sweet Caroline. Our "Gotcha Day" is October 1st - that is the day I first held her in my arms and we left the orphanage to start our life together. I am so proud of Caroline and the little girl she is becomming - though very challenging at moments she is my sweet baby whom I was meant to mother. This is a special week for us and we will celebrate by taking her to Build a Bear - this will be her first time there and I'm sure she will love it. I will take pictures of her and her new bear and post them later in the week.

A funny Caroline story from the last few weeks. She LOVES the Three Little Pigs story - I myself am so sick of it because I have to read it each and every night. Anyway, she is very worried about the big bad wolf when he falls down the chimney into the pot of boiling water - this really stresses her out. She tells me that she wants to jump in the pigs book and help big bad wolf. She repeats "big bad wolf burn butt". The other day the book was laying on the couch and she opened it to the end where the big bad wolf falls into the hot water and takes her babies (if anyone knows Caroline they know about her little baby blanket dolls - these are her everything) and puts them on that page and says "Here you go big bad wolf." She knows that her babies make everything better so she wanted to share them with the big bad wolf. It was so sweet. She has such a little soft spot in her heart for anyone that is hurt. She is such a little caregiver.

GABRIELLA UPDATE

Gabriella had her 6 month check up last week and weighed in at 16lbs 8oz and is 26.25 inches long. She is 50th percentile for both weight and height. The poor little baby has an ear infection in both ears though you would never know because she NEVER complains. I swear she is the best baby I have ever known - she is the sweetest little thing in the world. She is starting to sit up pretty much on her own and is scooting across the floor. Not quite crawling yet but she can certainly get to something if she wants it. I would suspect she will be crawling in the next couple weeks. As sweet as she is she is going to be a handful once she starts crawling. She wants to get into everything. I'm sure the fighting will start once she starts messing with Caroline's things - this should get interesting.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy.

The Silverio's

OUR SWEET IRIE

Irie had to have surgery this week on a large mass that literally must have appeared overnight. We noticed it one day last week and it was shocking. After a visit with the vet they pulled some fluid out of it and confirmed that it was not a lipoma (which is typically filled with fat) but instead was someother kind of a mass filled with unknown fluid. They suggested that we have it removed. That was done on Wednesday of this week. She is recovering well and we are waiting on the results of the mass. Prayers are flowing that it is not cancer. I already went through that with Jasper. Irie is not acting sick or like anything hurts her so I am hoping that it is just some sort of growth that has all been removed and she will be fine. She has a very large insision with a lot of stitches and two drains coming out of the insision (GROSS). The drains should be removed on Sunday.

Irie turns 10 years old next month and has been an amazing dog. Junior bought her for me 10 years ago next month. This girl has been with me through a lot of happy and sad times. I love her so much!

Please keep her in your prayers - she has a lot of years ahead of her.

BIG UPDATES ON THE GIRLS

She loves the swing
Why does my mommy put these hats on me?

Sleeping beauty - she loves to sleep like this on Junior's arm

All dressed up

Building things with daddy

New outfits from Abuela

I'm so good at this potty thing

Pretty new dress from Abuela

CAROLINE IS ALMOST POTTY TRAINED!

Caroline has decided she is ready to be potty trained. We were all sick this past Labor Day weekend so it was the perfect opportunity to spend several days in panties with the potty chair in the living room. WOW was it successful! She can spend several hours at a time with her panties on and will sit on the potty herself when she has to go. She is getting so many stickers on her potty chart. Yesterday she peed in the potty 8 times and actually pooped twice. Right now she is in the living room with only a tank top on with the potty chair ready. She has only had 1 accident in the last 4 days. Of course we have only been doing this at home and have not yet taken her out of the house without a diaper on but that is coming soon. It sure will be nice on the budget to only be buying diapers for one of them :).

GABRIELLA HAS 2 TEETH NOW!

Gabby got her 2nd bottom tooth - they are so cute and sharp! I haven't gotten a good picture of them yet but I will keep trying. We are working on her food choices too but she is still a green bean and sweet potato girl. She doesn't really like anything else. I've tried carrots, fruit and yesterday we tried yogurt - she hated it. She gags and makes the funniest faces. We will keep trying. I have been making my own babyfood which I have enjoyed and then I know exactly what she is getting. I had to make more green beans this week since that is her favorite. She is almost sitting up by herself. She can for a short time but eventually falls over but she is getting stronger and stronger and will be sitting soon. This one is going to be on the move. She is very interested in everything around her and wants to get her hands on everything. She grabs and reaches for anything in front of her. As sweet as she is she is going to be a handful once she starts moving. She continues to be one of the best babies I have ever known - she is so good. Makes me want to have another but I'm sure I would only luck out like this once. She is one of a kind.

Junior's new job in the solar business is going good and he is very excited for the future in this business. My new job at American Tower is great - I really like it and don't miss the sales quota hanging over my head. We are working on some projects around the house now that we are both working. We got a big new leather sectional in the living room and had it painted a really neat green color. We are getting hard wood floors put in the living room next week. This is so necessary with kids and dogs - the carpet is GROSS. I can't wait for the new floors.

Love to all!

The Silverio's