Pictures Pictures

Maddie and Olivia love to play airplane with Matt and I, they just crack up when they are up there. We sure love these girlies!
A while back we had a little photo shoot during dinner. Olivia was loving her some pizza and polished it off pretty quickly.
Her face usually looks like this when she's done eating.

Maddie was a little more into the posing than her pizza. Her little hand under her chin is killing me in this picture. Notice Olivia was done eating and Maddie had barely started at this point...pretty typical in our house.
So, I am pretty into sanitizing in our house, and I guess it has made quite an impression on my kids. I came out to find Maddie playing with her barbie dolls, and all of the dolls were naked and had a squirt of sanitizer on their bums!!! I was dying! I asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm just sanitizing their bums so they could get in their tubby"!! -we call the bath tub, "tubby" in our house.
She made their "tubby" with her tea set container, she was so proud of her great idea!
Olivia thought this was pretty silly and really wanted a picture of herself while I was trying to capture the moment with Maddie.
I promise I don't sanitze these cute little bums before I put them in the tubby!

Halloween

For Halloween this year Maddie was Tinkerbell and Olivia was a Pumpkin - the same costume we used for Maddie a couple of years ago! The girls were so cute all dressed up and had a lot of fun at all of the festivities.
Here we are at our Ward party with Dan, Ashley and baby Cal. Obviously Dan and Ash were Tigger and Pooh, at the last minute Matt and I decided to dress up as Dwight and Pam from one of our favorite TV shows The Office.
When Matt wasn't wearing his nasty Dwight glasses I think people thought we weren't dressed up and had just come back for the Temple or something. I felt like I had to give anyone I talked to a disclaimer " Oh, I am dressed up...as Pam from the Office". It was pretty funny. The party was great, oh except for Olivia's MAJOR meltdown, like nothing I have ever seen! I left early with her and drove around for a while, so Maddie and Matt could stay and have fun with her friends.
Carving pumpkins! We had such a fun time carving pumpkins with the girls. We hadn't carved pumpkins since we got married!! Maddie wasn't so sure about shoving her hand in and pulling out the seeds at first, but eventually she warmed up.
Yummy Yum!!
We decided to carve the pumpkins to look like the girls. At the time Olivia was still really into making the face she's making in the picture, and for Maddie we did a smiley pumpkin for our happy girl.
Another fun thing we did to celebrate Halloween was go to Pottery Barn Kids for story time and face painting. Maddie enjoyed the stories and Olivia just played in the store. Afterwards Maddie got a cute little butterfly painted on her cheek.
On Halloween Sandee and I took our kids to go trick or treating at Corte Madera. It was really fun and easy, the kids ran from store to store that was passing out candy. I love this picture of Maddie and Brock, they are such adorable little friends.
Olivia and Blake just hanging out. Have you ever seen a more precious cowboy!?! Blake was darling in his costume he had such a little strut, perfect for a cowboy.
We had a little bit of a rough start to our trick or treating but we ended up having such a fun time. Dan, Ashley and baby Cal were sweet enough to take the bus over to join us. It was so freezing outside so we weren't out for too long but it was so much fun. Maddie jumped right in and Olivia followed along with a little help from Matt or I. We can't believe how fast the girls are growing, it is so much fun while at the same time it breaks my heart. I would just giggle as I watched Maddie go to the door and say her little "trick or treat", she is so sweet.
I love this picture!!! I know I will have pictures like this every year for the next million but I can't stand how cute it was to see the girls go to the door together and get their treats.
The stash.
We were checking out the girls candy and pulling out anything that looked questionable when we looked over to see Olivia going to town on a tootsie pop! We couldn't resist a picture of her sitting in front of her big pile eating her lollipop.

Pumpkin Patch

This year we went to a Pumpkin Patch that I have wanted to go to for the last few years and I am so glad we did. It was really fun, there were lots of great pumpkins to choose from and they had a bunch of jump toys for the kids to play on. Maddie and Olivia had a blast with Brock and Blake.
Great picture...The funniest thing that happened that day was when Maddie and Brock were going down this astro jump spaceship slide. Sandee and I were waiting and waiting and they weren't coming down and none of the other kids in line were either. So, I decided to go up and make sure everything was okay. There were about six kids in line behind them and they were all screaming and pushing on Maddie and Brock, who were freaking out and stuck in a space so small that I nearly had a panic attack trying to get them out. Not to mention there was this big girl who was sitting on Brock's lap trying to get past him and go down the slide.
I love how much Olivia was hating this picture! Poor girl...I love pictures where she is so mad and crying, they just make me laugh.
These pictures of Maddie crack me up! She always comes out of her room with the best accessories and funniest little get-ups.
Crazy girl!

Just Hanging Out

I was going through the girls clothes trying to see what still fits and Olivia was a great assistant during the process.
I don't really know what this is I just threw it in for fun.
Look at that profile! She is a crack up!
A few (well quite a few) weeks ago we had Maddie's friend McKenna over to play, and the girls had a blast playing dress ups. McKenna is such a fun friend, she and Maddie get along really well. My favorite thing about this picture is the bunny ears...what!?
Olivia couldn't miss out on all the dress up fun. She could hardly walk in the dress, but she loved every second of it!

Fleet Week

Every year I forget that Fleet Week is coming and on the first day of practices there is always that moment where I could swear that we are under terrorist attack!!! Because this is our last year in the city I thought it would be fun to go down for a practice day. It was really fun, to see the planes. I think our favorites were the toy looking ones that would spiral down to the ground and do all kinds of flips and tricks, and of course the Blue Angels! I think that Sandee and I were more into it than our kids :)
All of the kids were so good, it was so cold and so loud that I was amazed at how happy they stayed! Maddie and Brock were trying to keep each other warm, so cute.
All bundled up.
Olivia's funny freezing face! For a good laugh try blowing this one up!
Coldy, coldy, cold...

Some More San Diego

While we were in San Diego we also went to the Maritime Museum. It was so much fun, we got to explore a couple of ships and a submarine. The sub was a little intense especially when the kids would start to get a little restless, I kept getting little rushes of panic!! It was a little intense. We had so much fun with Grandma, Grandpa, Ashley and John while we were visiting and can't wait to live closer.
I have to say, one of my favorite parts of the sub was coming out and looking at the Celebrity Cruise Ship a little ways away. Going on a cruise would be so fun, and from the outside that ship looked like a blast!
Maddie, Ash, and Olivia trying out the cots in the submarine.
Matt and I taking a quick rest.
This is kind of random, but Olivia looked so cute riding around the yard in the wagon -I just had to share!

Really Quick...

If anyone wants a Christmas Card from the Carpenter's this year please email me with your address. If you think that I have your address you're probably wrong and I know you don't want to miss out on our card!!! Let me know asap I am trying to actually get my cards out before New Year's! My email is mcarp5@hotmail.com