Great end to Thanksgiving vacation! Great dinner. Both kids in bed. Hot shower. Pjs. Wine. TV. Awesome hotel room. Haaaaappy. :) And to think we considered for just a moment to forgo this stop and drive another four hours to get home tonight. I would have had to Benadryl the girls. Kidding. Kind of.

Yum. :) So happy to be out of the car!

 

So. Bored.

Much-needed naptime! #arewethereyet?

 

Dinner is served. ;)

❤️

❤️

 

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

 

Dean's great-great-great-great grandpa, Martin Peterson. How COOL is this?!

 

Bath time!! :)

 

She just learned how to wink. ;)

Aubree snuggling with Great Grandpa :)

Quiet time. :) Aubree finally fell asleep after asking 367 questions and Ayla is hanging out with the babysitter...I mean the iPad.

Ohio-bound! We've been on the road for a couple of hours. No meltdowns yet! Time for snacks, drinks, and a movie. :)

Frog ride at Amazing Pizza Machine!

We went to the Amazing Pizza Machine for my nephew, Bennett's, birthday!  After torturing the girls, and by torturing, I mean making them eat dinner, they ran off and had a blast. :) I wasn't going to let Aubree ride this ride because it raises them up and down pretty quickly.  As crazy as she is, she's not much of a daredevil when it comes to stuff like this.  However, when she say Ayla and Makayla get in line, she insisted on going as well.  I thought she was going to freak out, but she (well, all three of them) loved it!  They ended up going twice.

Comfy? :)

We made s'mores after dinner and the girls decided to prop their feet in front of the fire afterwards.  Aubree's bum was barely on the chair. Hilarious. :)

Wine and s'mores by the fire. Perfect night for it.

 

Go BIG Red!!

 

Aubree Raspberryhands

So excited to push a little cart for the first time. Watch out!

Ayla had a field trip to HyVee on Friday so I had to keep Aubree entertained in the store for an hour.  Not an easy task.  I let her push this little cart for the first time and she thought it was pretty awesome!

Got all this on the clearance rack at Target for 40 bucks!! (for the girls): 7 dresses, 2 sweaters, and 3 t-shirts!

 

Bubble bath!!

After Aubree's nap, I thought it would be fun to let them take a bubble bath in our tub.  It started out okay but by the end, there were tears, snot, screaming, screeching, Barbies being used as weapons, and bubbles on the walls.

Sigh.

Brilliant idea, Anne.

What exactly happens here?

Most of the time, Aubree wakes up looking like a total maniac, but this morning was especially bad. :)  I posted this on Facebook and got some hilarious comments:

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  Kathy Stamm This is just too dang funny for words! Made my day!!!

  November 8 at 8:30am · Unlike · 2
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  Megan Mullen Gilligan I think you just found the pic that will go at the back of her senior yearbook 

  November 8 at 8:56am via mobile · Like · 1
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  Anne Wang Peterson I actually thought about that, Megan! 

  November 8 at 9:00am via mobile · Like · 2
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  Surina Cole Wang Love it! So stinkin cute!

  November 8 at 9:22am via mobile · Like
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  Ann Jones She resembles you when you were little! LOL

  November 8 at 11:39am via mobile · Like
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  Bryson Stamm She looks like she needs a cigarette.

  November 8 at 12:11pm via mobile · Unlike · 2
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  Anne Wang Peterson Ann, my mom tells me that all the time!! 

  November 8 at 12:50pm via mobile · Like
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  Jenn Anit that's the best!

  November 8 at 1:07pm · Like
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  Kathy Stamm And a martini to go with that cigarette (or a B&W)

  November 8 at 1:15pm · Unlike · 2
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  Angel Horn Is she doing the miley cyrus with her tounge? !

  November 8 at 7:03pm via mobile · Like
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  Anne Wang Peterson Eww, I hope not, Angel!!!

Love my Aubree.

I love when she snuggles with me.  Best feeling in the world.

Munching on snacks, watching the rain, and most importantly, taking a break from screaming and beating each other up. Always a bonus.

This 10-day stint at home with them has been very challenging.  The last time my parents were out of town just a few short months ago, the girls and I had the best time!  I didn't want to go back to work.  This time, I've been counting down the days until I can to work again.  Ten days has felt more like ten weeks.  They just haven't been getting along very well.  They can't be in the same room for more than a few minutes before one of them is screaming or crying.  My head is about to explode.

Halloween...and a visit to the dentist

The girls were sooo excited for Halloween...it couldn't get here any faster!  Before lunch, they had dentist appointments where Aunt Surina works.  Since it was Halloween, they got to wear their costumes. :)

Aubree did so well!  I was really surprised that she listened so well and wasn't freaked out.  I think she liked that Surina was there.  Ayla started out okay--Surina took an x-ray of her teeth.  The first one went just fine, but when she went to do the second one, she refused.  From that point on, it was a bit of a battle.  It took a lot of coaxing to get her to listen.  They ended up getting everything done...minus the other x-ray, but they said they could just get it next time.  No cavities for either one and everything looks healthy. Yay! :)  The dental office was awesome--Smile Station.  At the end, Surina took them around the office to different pumpkin buckets so they could "trick-or-treat" and pick something out of each one.  They even had a wall of vending machines--they were each given a token to get something.  Such a cute idea.  

After we wrestled through an early dinner, the girls put their costumes on and probably asked about 100 times when they could start trick-or-treating.  We went outside to take a bunch of pictures to kill some time.

When I was painting the freckles on her face, she kept giggling because it tickled. :)

Love this one.  A real smile!

A curtsy from the princess :)

So. Awesome. :) Kody is so sweet to put up with this costume every year.

Off they go!

They both lasted longer than I thought they would.  At one point, Aubree muttered, "I'm soo tired." while she was hauling her bucket up another driveway. :)  She wanted to be held a lot at the end.  Probably better that way because she kept tripping and dumping her candy on the ground.  She was thrilled to discover a roll of Smarties at one point and proceeded to eat just about the whole thing.  By the time we decided to head home, their buckets were completely full.  We let them each have a couple pieces of candy before getting ready for bed.  I think they both had a blast--Aubree understood it this year and with Ayla, it was fun to see her get so excited for the day to actually come.  :)