Happy Halloween and birthday and stuff

Okay, many updates are long overdue. But with the updates comes...lots...and lots....of pictures!

Let's go in chronological order. First, a wedding! My high school friend Tim got married early in October and I had planned to go with the whole family to cheer him on. Unfortunately that same day, my grandma Mary fell in her driveway and broke her hip, so I spend most of the day in the hospital with her. I'm happy to report that she had a successful surgery and has since been able to return home, though she is still recuperating, of course. I also managed to stop by the wedding reception for about an hour or so with Romelie in tow and was able to congratulate the couple, have cake and champagne, hear the wedding toasts and dance a bit. The best part was that I got to see Barb, my best friend from school who lives in Arizona and who I haven't seen since my own wedding in 2006. Romelie loved her, of course, and also managed to squeeze in a few dances with Barb and Greg (also a friend from high school, our pediatrician's son, and a doctor himself!).

Next, volleyball is all done for the season. It was a fun year with good players, but I'm quite happy to have my schedule back to normal as, I'm sure, is Chason. Thanks husband!

Uncle Paul was in town! We got to spend quite a bit of time with him and he was kind enough to make me a CD of a year's worth of pictures. After misplacing it for a while (what is it with me and technology?), I now have brand new pictures and videos from Cori's day of birth and beyond, which I will just plug in to the blog randomly whenever I feel like it. Like here.

On October 23, we had a baptism ceremony for both Romelie and Cori at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. Since Romelie had been dedicated at Corner Church but not actually baptised, our pastor Jamie had said we could have the ceremony for both girls, so we did. We went pretty casual for the clothing but I did get matching cotton dresses for the girls because, well, it is a special occasion. Romelie did surprisingly well (pretty rough on the practice day, but great for the actual baptism, even during the water-on-the-head part), and Cori cried. Which is fine...if I have to pick a kid to lost it, crying infant is a bit cuter than tantrum-throwing 3-year old. My mom, dad, brother, and grandma Mary were all able to be there along with Chason and the girls, which was wonderful, especially since we weren't sure if my grandma was going to be home by then, so I felt very lucky to have her there.

Continuing forward...Chason and I have decided to take the house off the market for the winter. We've had very little interest so far, and it's unlikely folks are going to be banging down the door during the winter months, so we're going to take a break and try again in March or so. So much for keeping the house clean...

On October 28, Chason and I went back to Orchestra Hall (we're so cultured), this time to see Herbie Hancock in concert. Boy, than man can rock a keytar. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself.








Okay, not the most impressive video, but it's what I've got. I'm still working with the internal memory only on my camera, which means I can record about 15 seconds of video at a time, so I did this on my phone. Again...technology...

Moving on, we have...Halloween! Yay! As per usual, we did pumpkin carving/painting at the last minute, saving it for the Saturday before. I carved a sweet Blue's Clues face into my pumpkin, then totally failed to take a picture of it. Trust me--it was awesome. Romelie painted her pumpkin, though it was pretty cold out, so she only painted about 1/3 of it before she decided it was time to go inside.

On Halloween night, we dressed the girls up and did our traditional trick-or-treat around the great-grandparent's neighborhoods. My grandma Ione wasn't home this year (aww), so we didn't get to see her, but we did go to my grandma Mary's house. We had dinner with my grandma and my mom, who was also in town, and went around the neighborhood with the girls. Romelie was great...she held Daddy's hand and was very polite, not candy crazed as I'm sure she will be in a year or two, and Cori just hung out in the background with me getting compliments on her cute mouse costume. We even got home and got the girls to bed at a reasonable hour. Not a bad night overall.

Next big event...Cori's first birthday! I had actually been looking through the pictures my brother had given me and was amazed at how different both of my girls look a year later. Looking at tiny newborn Cori made me a little nostalgic (not enough to make me want another kid, but definitely had some warm fuzzy feelings going on), and Romelie looked more like a toddler than the little girl she is now. Cori had a lovely birthday. She didn't cry when we sang happy birthday (Romelie had cried when she turned one...more nostalgia), and she went mad over that cake. She grabbed big handfuls and crammed them in her mouth; we had to keep an eye on her to make sure she wouldn't choke! She had a quick bath (the clothing was an absolute mess after all that frosting!) and then opened a few presents with some help from her sister. I like our low-key birthdays. We'll have parties for the girls eventually, but for now, cake and a few presents are all we need.

And that's about it for now (whew!). I'm sure I'll have more updates to share soon...Romelie's birthday is coming up...doctor appointments for both girls...pictures with Santa...and a visit from Grandmommy Diane is only a few weeks away!