Life lately

Emily in her flower-girl dress for Dan's sister's wedding. Isn't she just adorable? (Erin was asleep by this point - I promise to add a picture of her from the wedding when I get one!)

Our adorable jack-o-lanterns, complete with tutus, rainboots, and cute pink hats. You'll notice they're not standing next to each other - apparently they were so excited every time they saw each other they shrieked and ran around.

We have Dan's grandma's rocker in the girls' room now. Erin has claimed it as her own. 

Me in my bridesmaids' dress for Dan's sister's wedding - lovely wedding for a lovely couple!

Emily and Erin sharing lunch one afternoon. The eating of apple slices is a big deal 'round these parts. 

That day that we smelled burning insulation around the dryer, and when I went to unplug it, something was wrong...scary stuff! Thank the Lord for guardian angels who are on the job!

What? You don't get exhausted while you're eating your lunch?

Boots are a big hit with this one. Also Mommy's headbands (see Erin's "necklace").

One evening where I had the energy to clean before Dan got home from work. A rarity, I can assure you.

Miss Emily, all dressed up after Mass a few weeks ago.

My dad picked out these adorable overalls. He has fantastic taste in clothes, don't you think?!

This is Elmo-the-jack-o-lantern. Emily and Erin were beyond thrilled when he lit up.

Erin is actually just obsessed with shoes at the moment, particularly mine. She struggles a bit with the Birks though.

One night, Emily went to bed at 5 and Erin fell asleep at 6:20. I suddenly had no excuse to put off painting our new bathroom cabinet any longer. 

...lesson learned from above painting project? Paint will always drip beyond the best-laid newspapers.

I succumbed to the boots and tall socks trend for Saturday night Mass last week. Love.

I chased Erin around long enough to get her hair into pigtails. She was greatly distressed, so we haven't tried it again despite - despite - all that cuteness.

One day, I wanted granola with yogurt and we were all out of granola. So I made my own. I am officially a "crunchy" mama now, I suppose. Coconut oil makes excellent vanilla granola, just in case you were wondering.

Emily's favorite new game is to put toys up on the windowsill and play with them. It's quite adorable. (Her second favorite is to walk around the house with a toy in each hand, waving them and singing. I don't have a good picture of this, for somewhat obvious reasons, but I'm working on it.)

This guy whisked me off to the coast for our first date since July - he arranged for the girls to stay with his parents and everything! He's pretty awesome. And, like all awesome husbands (right, Grace?) he likes to read plaques.

I probably shouldn't be bragging about the fact that it's taken me a solid 2 months to get this completed, but all (all!) of our clothes are put away. (Did I mention that we share a 2' deep, 4' wide closet? Vertical space usage was a necessity. There's a step-stool hidden at the bottom.)

This is the one where I attempted to get their attention. I cannot compete with Elmo board books or IKEA cars. It's just not possible. They're just a day shy of 17 months, though, so this could be one of those cute milestone photos - except I don't have a "17" sticker for their fronts. You can imagine it, right? Right.