{ happy halloween }

Never fear, O & S are here!

{ wordless wednesday: cruisin in the hood }

{ 15 months }

I've been called out for lack of blogging. And it's true, it's been on my list for over a week to get something up. I blame it on the busy toddlers that are ruling this household.

But since they turned 15 months on Saturday, I thought I should do a little update.

We've been enjoying the amazing fall weather and took a one night trip a few weekends ago up to the Lodge. The guys assisted in taking out the boat and dock, while the kids enjoyed the outdoors.

There was no lack of leaves.

The John Deere was a big hit.

And (of course) the swing.

For the big kids too.

Their stats at the 15 month appointment showed that they are healthy, growing babies. They took their last round of shots like all-stars. No crying! Official stats for documentation purposes:
Oliver
Weight: 25 lbs 8 oz
Height: 32.5 inches
Stella
Weight: 24 lbs 12 oz
Height 32 inches

While this age has proved to be easier in some ways, it also has brought about new challenges. Can you say toddler tantrums?!

But aside from that, here are some of their other favorite things at 15 months:
Peek a Boo.....it never gets old (for them at least!).

Despite the piles of toys in our house, outlet covers are way more exciting.

But really, the fact that they can just pull them out kind of defeats the purpose.

Wrestle mania.

Being silly.

Eating with spoons and forks. As if it wasn't messy enough before!

But who needs utensils or hands?

Waiting for daddy to come home (And yes, the window is really that dirty. Don't judge).

Talking jibberish. Neither of them have much of a vocabulary of words, but are trying. Stella's favorites are dog, hi, mah-mah (for milk), mommy, dada. She also loves to make noises for dogs, cows, cats, monkeys, and lions.

Oliver is mainly a mama, dada, dog and truck boy when it comes to saying words. Oh, and roaring too.

Bath time!

During which we try to keep Oliver from emptying the tub.

We are in the process of transitioning to one nap. Going anywhere in the morning means battling to keep them awake on the car ride home. But some days even a cheese stick won't win over sleep.

{ black & blue }

It's a daily occurrence in this house.

I open the refrigerator door.
I hear footsteps tromping from the living room.
I look to see giddy toddler faces coming at me.
If I'm quick enough, I've already grabbed what I was looking for the the door is closed.
If I'm too slow, hands are grabbing for any bottle that can be reached on the door.

Last week this scenario played out and I was too slow. And Oliver got a glass salad dressing bottle off the door. And dropped it on his toe.

Ouch.

Now we are just waiting for him to lose the toenail!

{ a case of the crazies }

{ wordless wednesday: flying }

{ why i love fall }

One of the reasons I love the midwest = fall. When I think of fall, I think of sweatshirts, football, pumpkins, colorful leaves, Halloween, soup. All good things in my book.

As Chop's co-workers know, one of my favorite things to do in the fall is bake with pumpkin. You see, I love to bake but hate having baked goods sitting in the house because I'm the only one that will eat them. So I usually bake treats and ship them off to work with Chop.

I thought I would share with you some of my favorite pumpkin recipes over the course of the next few weeks. First up, one of the best and easiest recipes using pumpkin. And when I say easy, I mean three ingredient easy.

You literally take the three things you see in the above picture, dump them in a bowl, and mix them with a spoon.

I traditionally turn them into cookies by plopping them onto a cookie sheet, but for fun I decided to turn them into mini muffins.

It was a success. Perfect little bite size treats.

This recipe is truly fool proof. No eggs means no worrying about under cooking them. And the pumpkin keeps them moist even if you over bake them a little. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box spice cake mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
2 cups chocolate chips
Mix together and drop by rounded spoonfuls on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes.

The colors have also peaked in our area and we are already starting to see bare trees. I snapped a few pictures of some of the best trees in our neighborhood last week.

Unfortunately I don't think it will be too long until we will be seeing white stuff on them!

{ toddler talk }

We have been so busy and mom never lets us have any computer time. But we finally took some time away from eating, pooping, playing with the toilet lid, sleeping, pulling wipes out of the container, and climbing on things we shouldn't to give all of our blog fans a little update.....O & S style.

We have a yard full of awesome toys but we prefer to just climb on the stairs. It really makes mom mad which is the best part.

But we just win her approval back by giving each other kisses. That gets lots of ohhhh's and ahhhh's.

We have perfected the giant slide in our backyard after only a week of having it.

Even though I am a pretty good walker now, accidents happen. Like this one.

I hardly cried though. I just gave the cement sidewalk the stink eye.

I can't do what Oliver did to my nose. I've been practicing my runway walk for modeling. I even talked dad into letting me wear these jeggings to show off my awesome legs.

Do you think they make my butt look too big?

This big, yellow, furry thing has been hanging out at our house. We call her dog but other people call her Maizy. She loves it when we bring her sticks.

Except sometimes.

Whoa! Nicey Maizy.

This last Saturday we went to the apple orchard with our friends Lena and Ayla.

I was super embarrassed because dad kept trying to hold my hand as we walked.

Not me. I headed right for the chickens.

And in case there was any doubt that we have grown in the last year, here is proof that we have.

We were super curious when it came to checking out the animals in the barn.

But I really hated the hay. It was weird.

I worked a little bit on my modeling while we were there.

Then we went and got lost in the giant corn maze. It took a financial analyst, math professor, and a web entrepreneur to get us out of there.

Our dad is really smart but not when it comes to using mom's fancy camera. I mean, even mom can't get half of her pictures to turn out so how is he supposed to? But look, some that he took actually turned out which means that in our baby book we will actually get to see pictures of our mom!

Then she was back behind the camera when we spotted these awesome orange things.

I was in the midst of trying to get mine over to the stroller to take home when all of the sudden, I spotted a TRUCK (or if you want to get technical, a tractor).

Truck, truck, truck, truck.

Then came the highlight of the whole day for both of us. We sat down for a snack and got to try doughnuts.

Can you say: best. snack. ever.

I was so happy that I kissed Lena.

And told her mom, Auntie Deborah, to tell my mom that she should let us have that white sugary stuff on our food at home. We always have to eat healthy. Lame.

 

The problem with eating too many mini doughnuts is that it makes my jeans too tight. And then it is hard to get up off the ground.

It was time to leave but mom and dad begged us to cooperate for just one family photo. All it took was a bribe of one more mini doughnut. We might only be 14 months old but we totally know how to get what we want.