fun, fun, fun Halloween

This was Elise's outfit for school on Halloween day


Of course we had to throw some pictures from Halloween up on here.... only a week and 1/2 later. Not bad, really.

Kids had a blast, we really enjoyed it, too. This was our first Halloween w/o a stroller or wagon, and that was NICE! Well, it was nice until the last 30 minutes when the two little ones were both crying, tired, and begging to be picked up... which was right after Adam rolled his ankle and fell hard to the ground while holding Mitchell, who was kind of thrown and then of course screaming. Adam was in pain and couldn't hold anyone, so Mommy was trying to carry two 30 lb kids up a steep hill... oh, man, it sounds bad all written out. Ok, we'll just pretend that part didn't happen. Rose-colored rearview mirror, people. =)

The girls only wanted to be princesses (easy! already have those costumes. Thanks, Paul and Jen, for Elise's dress from two Christmases ago). Mitchell LOOOOOOVES monkeys, so he was stoked to re-use a 5 year-old costume, too. win-win.
We hung out with neighbors we love and all was good. impressive that all 6 of these kiddos were at least 'pleasant' looking-no way possible to get all 6 smiling, happy, and looking at the correct camera.




He's really just awesome. He's been wearing the monkey outfit all week, too... just put it away yesterday.
We gave away 1/2 our candy to some friends who were out of town and didn't get to Trick-or-Treat, but I'm still ASHAMED of how quickly the stuff is disappearing...and it's not the kids eating all of it. augh. "fun size" Kit-Kats are my enemy.

Probably not going to be a professional song-writer...

I just walked downstairs and wanted to get this written down immediately...
Elise is at school, so I was putting Ainsley and Mitchell in bed for naptimes and Ainsley asked me to sing her a song about princesses. I told her that I don't know any songs about princesses, but I could sing something else instead.
Her reply:

"Mommy, want me to sing YOU a song? It's called the Four Princess song."
(she actually sat upright, cleared her throat and started....she swayed the whole time, it was all SUNG in a cute little squeaky voice.)

"There were four princesses-Ariel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Aurora. They all went for a ride in the forest one day. One had a horse, one had a unicorn, one on a horsey, one was on a reindeer, and one on a sheep. They were all so happy. They went for a ride in a forest. The horses picked them beautiful flowers. They were happy. All the princesses loved their flowers and so they (drawn out for dramatic ending!)....went.... home.....to their castle."


"That's it. Did you love my song?"

Absolutely. Beats Old McDonald ANY DAY!

that picture was a few weeks ago, but it's sweet, so I stuck it in here. That's her 'new' smile... we do miss the 'growl' smile as it used to be called, but this is cool too.

LOVE the Fall in Virginia!

Two Saturdays ago, we woke up to the PERFECT Virginia fall day. It was a little cool in the house, THIS was my view from bed (after I ran downstairs and got the camera...).

REALLY! THAT IS MY VIEW. EVERY DAY. I LOVE IT.

Actually, THIS if my view from bed. The above shot is when I got closer to the window and turned off the flash. Whatever.


Since our kids are AMAZING and sleep until after 8am on the weekends, Adam and I got up, enjoyed our coffee on the back deck (don't judge me, ok? no makeup yet and it was my first cup of the morning!). It was glorious.

We decided to take a little family hike for the morning at a local park- another joy of living so close to mountains- we drove about 3 miles and had access to GREAT hiking trails heading up a good-sized foothill of the Blue Ridge Mtns. We couldn't do THAT in Ohio, Florida, or South Carolina...
We probably hiked a total of 2.5 miles (?ish). Mitchell was in the jogging stroller for part of it, Ainsley's little legs got so tired and I was piggy-backing her by the end, but they all did GREAT overall!


Ainsley found a cute little walking stick that she loved, although she never actually used it correctly, she looked good with it! Agreed?

Elise (NOT surprising to anyone, of course!) was a total adventurist! She kept running ahead and exploring for us.

We kept following markers for the "Old Giant Oak Trail" or something like that... figuring it gave us something to look forward to, right? take some cool pics by a huge Oak tree. I'd read somewhere that it's a record of some type? largest in the Region? Oldest in VA? something special...



Well, 30 minutes of doing that and we found the OLD GIANT OAK... laying (lying!?) on it's side where it's, apparently, been for YEARS. awesome. I guess it never said, "Old Giant ALIVE Oak" tree.

It was great to climb onto it and play some, though. At least for me. I've always had a thing for climbing around in the woods... Elise loved it, Ainsley was ok with it for about 35 seconds... just long enough for Adam to snap one cute picture of the Moseley Girls. =)

Happy.

Dance Party...

I think this pic was from the same night as one in the last post, so I'll throw it on here quickly...

We love dance parties. I often have music playing in the background while we're getting everyone ready in the morning or as I'm cooking dinner at night. If something fun comes on, we can quickly have 2 or 3 little 'dancers' on the kitchen floor. That is one reason I'm hesitant to get a kitchen island...where would we dance!? anyway.... The girls ESPECIALLY love to dance with Adam, which of course makes me cry thinking about my dad and all, but i can usually hold it together enough to make it through the Rave session. =)

Caught one cute shot of Ainsley and Adam that night... she INSISTS on the crown of flowers and the slippery/dangerous high heels. it's unreal cute.


Then she gets silly, runs away, Adam chases and it ends up like this...


and then she'll run away more, someone will get knocked over, stepped on, tripped, there will be tears from a 2,3, and/or 5 year old, mommy will scream for everyone to get out of the kitchen, and the dance party will be over.... how's that for reality?

Still wouldn't trade it for the world, though... =)

where did a MONTH go?

slacker, slacker, slacker. I've been trying to think of a fun blog lately and.... I got nothin'. Really. We've had a great month, we're settled into school-routines, gymnastic classes, etc... but nothing that's even a little exciting for other people to catch up on... so, here are a few pictures to appease all 5 of you that may look at this.

Nana visited for a quick weekend mid-September. Always fun to have her around...the kids loved it, of course! Mitchell calls her "Ninny" which is funny and adorable, too.


Mitchell and I get 3 mornings a week to hang out alone and we LOVE it. We get laundry/cleaning done, run some errands, build LOTS of towers with blocks, and he's often in jammies until 11am. I'm fine with that. He also, like all toddlers, (right?) constantly wants to put on everyone else's shoes... my tall rain boots were quite an attempt.


They were a little tall for him...

But he giggled the whole way down and then tried it 4 or 5 more times!

We had some chilly weather last week, so were forced to stay inside. So the dress-up box came out and the girls tried on outfits that may be Halloween costumes. And then they kept them on all afternoon.

Although they have moments of 'sister grumpiness', they really do get along well most of the time and I'm so thankful for that!!!

It was only a matter of time...

...until we ended up in the Emergency Room with one of our kids. I mean, really, I'm thankful that we've managed to avoid that trip before now.

I'll set the scene:
It was Labor Day and Adam had to go into the office for just a few hours. The kids and I were all upstairs around noon. Ainsley was happily playing by herself in her room (this is normal!) while Mitchell, Elise, and I were in the Master Bedroom reading some books in our bed. All was well. I decided to vacuum up there since everyone was happy and peaceful. I was about 15 feet from Elise and Mitchell, vacuuming the hallway right outside the bedroom. I felt a THUMP on the floor at the same second Elise screamed "MOMMY!!! MITCHELL FELL!" I reached him as he stood up and saw a good-sized gash next to his eye, which was starting to bleed pretty heavily. I kept my cool, but knew immediately that this was ER-worthy. BUMMER. I was RIGHT THERE and they were resting/reading under the covers just seconds before! Augh.
I asked Elise to run downstairs and get my phone to call Adam and/or the Pediatrician's office. Of COURSE this happened on a Holiday, so there were only nurses in the office. Adam came home, agreed that it needed to be checked out by a Doc. Adam took him in (yes, I was worried that I would have a hard time watching the whole thing!) and then sent this picture back to me.


He was still smiling. Poor thing. By the time Adam got home (15 minutes after the fall), Mitchell had already stopped crying, the bleeding had stopped, and he was acting totally normal. Adam said that he was trying to do somersaults on the exam table at the ER. such a boy. I'm SOOO realizing the innate differences between girls and boys...

Adam said that one nurse, after irrigating the wound, said, "wow. that is a deep cut...". Yes, it was.

2 hours and 3 stitches later, he was home and ready for a nap. He didn't even need Tylenol.

This was first thing the next morning:



And a couple days later...

Nothing says, "Happy 2nd Birthday" like a good cut, black eye, and a scar...
We love him.

Happy Birthday to Mitchell...

I cannot believe that Mitchell is 2. Really. It's amazing to think that two years ago, we still lived in South Carolina, Ainsley hadn't started talking yet, Mitchell was a calm, quiet newborn at 1 week old, etc... ALL of those things seem very removed from our current life.
Have I mentioned that we miss SC, but love living in VA...Ainsley never, ever stops talking. really.ever.... and mitchell never, ever stops running around and yelling "no" to everything he hears?

Things are fun for sure, though. We celebrated Mitchell's bday last Friday night.

The girls colored pictures for him and we made a cookie cake. you can even see it behind them in the oven.

A friend had given us the light-saber as a hand-me-down, so we made it a bday gift for him. The newest Jedi LOVES his weapon and runs around making 'light saber' noises...

We put him in the high chair to open presents. I don't really know why... we did it last year b/c he couldn't sit still to open gifts. This time, I'm not so sure...sorry, kid.

Ainsley giving him a pep-talk about how to open gifts and eat messy cake. Adorable.
Opening his 'Construction' set from Nana. He LOVES the hammer and tool belt the most.


Then it was BRING ON THE CAKE time...


the candles weren't really that close, i promise. He blew all of them out by himself.

He wasn't sure 'how' to get the first bite, so Ainsley said, "Lick it like a doggie." He did.

After the first few tastes, all manners were gone and a gigantic mess developed.



Family Shot at the end. Mommy looks like a floating head... everyone else is smiling, though, so it's fine...


The next morning, he played with the tball set form Aunt Amanda. GREAT gift!!!


Thanks to the rest of the family for fun stuff, too. I PROMISE he loves all of it, but I just didn't get those pictures all on here...=) THANKS SO MUCH for thinking of him and sending fun stuff along.