round 2:

well, we took the girls "real" trick-or-treating tonight in our old neighborhood and it was PACKED with kids. i know some of you aren't gonna believe this, but it was their first time doing the door-to-door thing, we've always just done the trunk-or-treating. it was fun, but there were a few scary houses that the girls weren't crazy about going to the door...you know, the 2 headed men with flash lights leading them to the doorway on 1 house, etc. i don't blame 'em...if i was a kid, i doubt i woulda' ran up to that door either. :) kinda creepy.
anyways...leia was still princess leia and (as you can see), kaia had a wardrobe change...she wanted to be wonder woman (her costume from last year)...


alana wasn't having a great night...look at the silly little face she's making, that was in between "i wanna go home" cries. thank you for being a good sport, baby!

round 1:

because of this "2 night halloween" thing (kinda), we went trunk-or-treating last night & we'll be going trick-or-treating tonight. as you can see, leia was over the "puppy costume" so, we threw together this princess leia costume a couple of hours before we went out. very appropriate for her name, huh? :) and kaia was "kitty kaia" & alana was her little pea-in-the-pod baby VERY briefly...she was not lovin' her costume :)

poor baby...





can you see derek hiding behind alana...it looks SO real huh? haha.

leia's costume parade...

leia had her halloween costume parade at her pre-school today...it's still so weird not having kaia there. leia loves the fact that this is her school now. so cute. anyways...leia was a puppy (whick i tried to talk her out of being, because the costume was WAY too small, you can't tell in these pics, but the "ankle" part stopped right below her knees :). but, there was NO talking her out of it...but now i think she changed her mind because during the parade she kept yelling, "mom, i wanna be ariel!" it was kinda funny but...ahhhhhh. i wish i woulda known this earlier. haha. so, i'm gonna try to "throw together" my version of ariel with costumes we already have for halloween...we'll see if she goes for it. hmmm.



baby alana was there supporting her big sis (almost 5 weeks old)!

"tiny little sister"

that's what leia calls alana...tiny little sister. she LOVES holding her! kaia too!

1 month old

wow...1 month already! that was the fastest month EVER!
this month has been interesting...learning to divide time between 3 kids is a challenge. kaia and leia are great big sisters, they want to hold & touch her constantly (especially leia...and she's turned into this "little mama", you should hear the voice she makes when she talks to alana. SO cute!). at the same time, all the "help" makes for not much quiet around here. i feel like poor alana's constantly getting woken up. hey, you pay a price for big sisters helping out. :) ha.
anyways...i can't believe how much alana changes every day. i know this shouldn't be a shock to me since she's our 3rd baby, but it still is.
anyways...happy "1 month b-day" baby!

Rainbow family night...

it's been WAY too long since we've done family night, like months...and the girls have missed it & have been asking if we can do family night lately. i have had NO creativity lately, but we pulled together a family night last night and it was great! very simple, but one of the smoothest, non-drama family nights we've had.
they're very into drawing rainbows lately...especially kaia, so we had "rainbow family night"...
we made "rainbow rice krispie treats"...you can't tell, but they're the rainbow marsh mellows.
alana helped too :)
ta da!
then we did a rainbow experiment...
with food coloring...
both girls did 3 colors (kaia mixed red and yellow to make orange)
and leia mixed red and blue to make purple...
then, they made their rainbow crafts...
dinner had nothing to do with rainbows, they just love making their own pizza's...
and, the rainbow fruit salad!

Tom's Farm

we went our to Tom's Farms on saturday after kaia's soccer game with papa & nema. it was fun but SO hot...what happened to the fall-like weather i was so happy about?
anyways...the girls got to feed the adorable baby pigs, and baby goats in the petting area & they got to ride a pony and go on a little train ride...
check out alana's smile...i guess she heard daddy say "cheese" haha.


i guess alana was having fun too :)
alana's first train ride...and as you can see, she was thrilled...

sorry baby...i didn't know there was gonna be a "western shoot-out" during the ride, that was pretty loud!
yeah, and i'm doing a great job at keeping the sun out of her eyes...poor girl.

pick a punkin...

leia's pre-school had "pick-a-pumpkin" day yesterday & leia was SO proud of the pumpkin she chose. it is a pretty perfect pumpkin. she's so funny...me, alana and leia were out doing errands today and leia saw a pumpkin that looked similar to her & she yells, "MAMA, that's my pumpkin!!!" she was SURE that somehow her pumpkin had gotten "pumpkin-napped".
i had to convince her that it's one that just looks a lot like hers...too bad all small, round, orange pumpkins look alike.
haha.

so practical...

AND adorable. so adorable that it took me 3 weeks to bring myself to take it apart and actually put it to use (well, at least wash it so when she grows into it, she can wear it).
my dad sends us a bouquet of flowers every time we have a baby, which i LOVE, but they eventually die. :( so, this time, he (and his fiance, debbie) sent us this adorable clothing bouquet called Baby Bunch. as you can see it has stuff for babies to wear. i just had to blog about this...it's SUCH a smart idea. and, i'm really into practical gifts, so it was perfect! thanks guys!

so snuggly...

this pic was taken a few days ago...i just love how snuggly alana is.
sidenote: also, i had to brag about her 2 week appt. last week. the dr.'s say that by 2 weeks old they like to see babies back up to their birth weight at least & alana had already gained 1 pound-2 oz. and grew 1 more inch (actually, her appt. was 2 days past her "2 week b-day", but still...not bad, huh!?
i guess i have some good milk!

i'm cheap.

i went to the mall today and didn't spend 1 penny. first i stopped by Victoria Secret to get my free pair of undies (thanks heather for the scoop) & then we took alana to picture people to get her halloween pic taken (with a coupon for a free picture)...i woulda' paid for more pictures if they came out cute, but none came out very cute. this was the best one...hey, i can't complain when it's free. ;) haha. oh, i almost forgot...we even stopped to get a free sample at cinnabon.
i love free stuff!

comment of the day #20:

it doesn't rain here much & yesterday we were driving in the car with the girls and it started sprinkling & leia says, "what's that stuff on the window?"  that, my dear, would be what we call rain.  :)

starting young...

i know alana's barely 2 weeks old, but we thought today would be a good day to take the girls to disneyland. our passes run out in a couple of months, so we wanted to get at least a couple more uses out of them before then. we got kaia out of school a couple of hours early today & off we went. i think she liked it, she slept most of the time except for when we were on the carousel, i think she liked that one. :) either that, or she was thinking, "what are my parents doing to me?" here are a few pics from today...
first, she "met" mickey...

then, here she is on the carousel...no, she didn't sit on the horse during the ride, just after it stopped for a pic.





also, we went to watch the Aladdin musical...i guess she liked it, she slept/nursed through the whole show. hey, works for me!