Happy Halloween!

above: dressed for church (she ran to get her pacis because she wanted a picture with them.)
below: she wanted this side pose.


HAPPY Halloween from the Brust girls! Calla wore her orange and black hairbow to church (from Aunt Courtney for her birthday). That was about as Halloween-ish as church got, of course.

Kelsey fell asleep on the way home from church, as usual, so the rest of us ate lunch and then I put Calla to bed just as Kelsey was waking up. Someday they will take their naps at the same time!! Maybe I should have posed that as a question...someday they will take their naps at the same time? Someday?

Trick or treating began in Wheaton at 3pm, so Jonathan manned the door while he watched football. I cannot give a realistic headcount of the amount of kids who came through, because at 4ish we headed out the door ourselves for some trick or treating.



Last year, we went trick or treating with Luke and Jenny and Norah and Erik, and so this year we decided to go with a Round 2. We met at their new house, which is still unfinished but the outside looks done and the cabinets were in so I was dying to see it. Jenny and I took a long tour while the boys got the kids started with the trick or treating.

below: HAHA, while Calla slept, Kelsey and Daddy had a photo shoot.


watching football:

below: looking dishelved, as usual.

Awww she's our orphan child. Calla loved these overalls.

Hair in the face, her signature look.

Ehh. Tired of it.

Really tired of it

Trick or TREAT

the Trick or treaters...

Once again, Kelsey was only the bottom half of the bear. Bummer. Calla always did great keeping the bear hat on! But then again she had no hair; she was probably grateful for a hat.

We brought the wagon for Kelsey, but she wasn't a huge fan. She would much prefer roam the neighborhood. Erik was in it for a long time...he just sat there stuffing the candy down. Calla mostly ran ahead with Norah but she took a break to eat some candy:

It looks pleasant, but 30 seconds before this photo Calla was crying because she thought Erik was kicking her. He really was just trying to find a place for his feet since the whole bottom of the wagon was full of candy.

Roaming the neighborhood...

The girls had a fun time. It's a nice way for Jenny and Luke to get to know all their new neighbors. They hope to move into their home in the next month.

We had hoped to stop in and visit various friends' homes, but by the time we got back into the van Kelsey was crying. I think she was all Trick or Treated out.

below: Jonathan ran to get the minivan and we all piled in to go back to the Moo's house. Calla and Norah were laughing hysterically about the daddys in the trunk. I think that was the highlight of the day for them!

I had made chili this afternoon, so it was waiting for us when we got home. Yum. I think that will be a Halloween tradition. I like a nice hot bowl of soup after being out in the cold (and Calla really likes chili!).

The girls were tired after all the excitement so they went to bed early. Ahhh another Halloween tradition to carry on....

Callaism~

~ Daddy always knows what Calla is learning in her Sunday school class at church, since all ages study the same and Daddy helps with the youth group. So today, at lunch, he asked Calla what she had learned about Gideon. She looked at him with disgust (you know the look). "I didn't learn about...about...Gid-man. I learned about Abraham." I asked her what she learned and she said. "You know, about the tents." Oh?

Kelseyism~

~ Kelsey loved running to the doors of houses and getting candy for herself. I don't think she was in the mood to be stuffed in the wagon and hand-fed. She wanted to do the dirty work! She was a sticky icky mess for sure!

The Girls Meet Braxton

below: Erik (monkey), Norah (sleeping Beauty), Calla (Tinkerbell), Kelsey (bottom half of a bear)

below: costume Daddy thought was so clever

TODAY was our Halloween, Part 1. The four of us went to the sports center this morning, and then put on the girls' Halloween costumes and headed to downtown Glen Ellyn. The Saturday before Halloween, businesses in Glen Ellyn offer candy to kids in costume from 10am-noon.

Daddy and Luke took Calla and Norah last year, but this year all of us went. It was a fun time, although very crowded! It was too crowded for a stroller, so I carried Kelsey most of the time. (Although I switched off with Luke...for some reason, Kelsey loves Luke. It is the oddest thing. He is tall and has a deep voice and you'd think he'd be scary to young children.)

You would think walking door to door with her family and friends to get candy would be the best morning of Calla's life. But instead she was very crabby and wanted me to hold her (probably because Kelsey was crabby and wanted the same thing!) and it did not make a very pleasant time for Mommy and Daddy.

We left after about an hour...I was tired of trying to console a crying 3-year-old in the midst of a Trick or Treat event. It got old very quick!

Calla took a loong nap after we got home and so I think she was tired! Kelsey was tired too, but only napped for an hour and a half so Mommy and Daddy juggled her while we did stuff like run errands and mow the lawn. She likes to be a sidekick!

Kelsey got a runny nose during the course of the day at some point and right now she is in her room coughing so I hope she is not getting sick. )-: Playing at the playground in 45 degrees is catching up with us. (Although in my defense she was dressed warmer than an eskimo that day!)

below: Calla lining up her candy from this morning...

Organizing it was a lot of fun!

below: she is pointing and saying "no, I want a picture of the CANDY not me!"

soo here's the pic:

YAY ! the face of a girl who ate a TON of candy!

It was a day of sugar...

Yikes. Bad hair day, Calla.

We had plans to go to Mema's for dinner, but we stopped at our friends' the Van Rossums beforehand because this afternoon Ellie came home from the hospital! YAY! I could hardly believe I was sitting there looking at her! She showed Calla her "ouchie" (the big incision on her side...fortunately there's a huge bandage over it). She was sitting on the couch playing paper dolls with her grandma when we arrived and was in very good spirits.

It was nice to see Dutch and Julie and hear the update on Ellie. Thank you all so much for keeping her in your prayers. I heard Aunt Corinne's class in Texas was praying for her!

The Van Rossums' home is on the way to Mema's, where we also saw Opa of course, and Aunt Courtney and Kurt, and Uncle Stephen and Alicia, and Jonathan's Aunt Carole and her husband, Sarge, and Poppi....but, most importantly, Braxton!

below: the girls seeing Braxton for the first time.

below: Kelsey insisted on trying on his shoes. Oh brother.

below: Calla holding Braxton. She LOVED holding him! I wish she could have been like this when Kelsey was born! There's an advantage of not having kids super close in age. (-:

Cheese. She felt like a big girl.

below: Cousin Kelsey getting in on the snuggles. She did kiss his blanket and seemed interested in him. (Not quite as interested as she is in Maverick, but I don't think any of us can compete with a dog! Haha)

below: Haha Kelsey is blocking the little man.

Oo that's a good big, except Braxton is bored to tears (sleeping) and Kelsey is making the oddest face.

Trying it again...Kelsey wondering why we are staring at her.

A picture with the daddies.

OH noKelsey just woke up. Callaisms tomorrow!

A Fabulous Friday

below: some pics Jonathan had on his phone of bathtime...


below: Calla praying (note her servings of vegetables):

below: This is common practice for Kelsey...I will open the refrigerator to get something and she'll run between my legs and try to dig something up for herself...here she is giving me the pasta dish lid so she can stick her hand in the pasta!

TODAY and these past days I've just totally dropped the ball with pictures/videos! AHHH! The only real picture I took tonight was at a party for my friend Jeff (he turned 30! YIKES! I know people turning 30....actually everybody but Jonathan and I already turned 30 so I should really get over it - soon I'll be attending 40-year-old birthday parties ha).

Today the girls and I had a really fun morning. We went over to my friend Ali's at around 10 for a playdate. Ali's girls, Brooke (4) and Anna (2) are very sweet and have lots of fun girly toys! Baby Blake was sleeping most of the time, so we didn't see much of him, so it really turned into a relaxing coffee date! Haha. Ali and I sat on the couch and drank coffee like grownups! Ha! Just the way I always envisioned it when I became a mom.

A friend, Brooke, came over with her three kids at lunchtime and it was a little noisy. Ali is the type of person that rolls with the punches - she threw down some PBandJ sandwiches, grapes and chips for the kids and the adults just talked louder to hear over the crowd!

The little girls did crafts for a while, then got musical instruments and paraded around (I really have to get the girls some little musical instruments for Christmas - they LOVED them!). We ended up staying for almost four hours...needless to say, Kelsey was fast asleep by the time I was turning off their street!

The rest of the afternoon the girls napped and we just played around the house. I fed the girls dinner, and they were very excited for when Daddy came home. Kelsey got over her excitement a half hour later when it was time again for Daddy to go to sleep!

THANK goodness she didn't make a big fuss - she quieted down instantly (just like before PA - yay!) but he said she was just laying awake. She was still awake when 7:30 rolled around and we left for our friend Jeff's birthday party. But our baby-sitter, Amy, is such a sweetheart and said she'd deal with putting her to sleep.

Amy must be a softie, because she said she ended up picking her up, but she did fall asleep instantly after that and stayed sleeping the rest of the night. I feel like whenever she falls asleep in my arms (which IS a nice feeling) it disrupts her sleep later and she wakes up more often (which is NOT a nice feeling) but that must not be the case as far as baby-sitters are concerned!

Calla had a fun hour with Amy...she had books and a puzzle and coloring all out and waiting for her when she arrived. Amy said Calla is very obedient and goes to the potty and to bed without a word of fuss which is good to hear. I'm glad she respects our baby-sitters. Sometimes she's so excited about them coming that I fear she thinks it's a playdate! Haha.

It's late after this party so I am waay too tired for Callaisms and Kelseyisms. Sorrry!

A Not-Fun day

TODAY oh my was just one of those days. I told the girls this morning as we headed to the sports center that this was the "fun" part of the day! Haha. Most of Calla's friends were there (because their moms are in the same class as I am) and so she knows almost everybody. She was excited to work on a big spider made out of construction paper. I noticed when I picked hers up (there was a line of "spiders") that hers was the only one with orange paper hearts glued on it. Haha.

I wasn't sure how well Kelsey would do since we haven't been in a while, but she didn't cry at all and they said she had a lot of fun playing.

Sooo the fun part of the day was out of the way and we came home to work on laundry and clean. Cleaning is a drag for the girls because they aren't really interested in helping clean in ways that they would actually be a help (i.e. pick up toys). Calla would much prefer help clean a toilet or dust off the coffee table with a half a bottle of Pledge.

By 4:30 or so, Kelsey was literally pounding on the front door to leave and Calla was crying about something as she moped along. So we put on our WINTER coats and gloves and hats and headed outside to play with riding toys. (Current temperature: 44 degrees.) Alas, Daddy had put all the riding toys in the garage (understandably so, since it was 44 degrees) and I couldn't find the right key....so, we went with Plan B. We drove to the park where the girls acted like it was 70 degrees out. They were busy going down the slide, and begging me to give them "the under-dog" on the swing (Kelsey squawks and squawks until I do it and then she laughs ha).

I didn't know how I was ever going to coax them back into the car, but fortunately I knew Daddy had arrived home from work so I could tell them we had to go see him! Kelsey starts squealing with excitement when she sees his car, it's just so cute.

Kelsey's relationship with Daddy gets rocky towards bedtime. After dinner and baths, 6:30 had rolled around and we were reading books. Before I left for PA, Kelsey always did best when Daddy put her to sleep. He'd turn the fan on, turn the lights off, put her in the crib, and sit on the floor with iPod for five or so minutes until she laid still (if she stood up, he'd say, "night night!" and she'd make a dive down to her crib).

Daddy asked me tonight, "What did you DO to her in PA?!?" HAHA. Tonight (and last night and the night before, etc.), she started crying and clinging onto my neck as soon as we talked about night night. I handed her over to Daddy and you would have thought I had handed her over to wild animals.

She just gets hysterical - wailing, shrieking, screaming at the top of her lungs. Daddy says she is crying "Mama" although I honestly can't understand what it is , it's just awful. I went in there last night because I felt bad but tonight Jonathan wanted to stick it out. I wouldn't mind putting her to bed from now on, but she sleeps much better if Daddy puts her to bed. Somehow whenever I put her down for the night, she ends up waking up to check in or something.

Anyway, Calla's bedtime ritual seemed like a breeze after all that agony! (-: We made up some more verse cards. She kept making up verses she'd want on them. She'd say (very honestly and seriously, "put...'I am your child, show me Your way." (Which I think is something she learned in Sunday school.) She also would go on long tangents like, "Mommy, write, 'Moses was the father and Jesus was the son and they went on a walk and saw Abraham...." She gets a lot of the Bible stories very mixed up! It is cute for now though!

There is no real transition to Halloween from Bible stories, but Calla is excited to where her Halloween costume again this weekend. Since I didn't take any pictures today (cleaning isn't very exciting!), here are some pics from last year....

(HAHAHA...the day was over and this was all we had to show for it! We were at the Moo's and Trick or Treated with them)

....and, 2 years ago....Calla's first Halloween (we did not celebrate it when she was 6 weeks old back in '07!)

Callaism~

~ Back in the summer, we went over to my friend Debbie's house for lunch and Calla swung in her swing for about ten minutes. Today we were reading a book and Calla pointed and said, "That swing is just like Avery's!" Haha (it really was). I wish I had the memory of a 3-year old!

Kelseyism~

~ Kelsey says "I want that" (sounds more like "I ant at") probably a dozen times a day. She wants a lot of stuff.

600th Post (If you were keeping track)

TODAY the girls and I slept in until we heard pounding from next door. Our neighbor (literally five feet from the girls' bedroom window) is tearing down all the siding off the house and putting on new siding, not to mention a new roof, a new front window...it's pretty much a new house. I was studying it the other day and wondering why they didn't just pick it up and throw it on the back of a trailor and ship it out and build a new one in its place. Right now it's hardly a commercial for all the political signs in its front yard (Republican). Ha.

Anyway, the noise is really astounding. I have a fan in their room going full blast but it is no match for the drills and hammering or whatever is going on over there. It worked out that we were up early because we had to be out the door for Bible Study.

YAY Kelsey did wonderful at Bible Study!! Melanie, the coordinator, is so sweet to continually check on her and told me she had a great day. (The room ladies also told me that when I picked her up. They did say there was one incident when she was dragging the stroller around and tripped and fell but hey that happens a dozen times a day so she should have taken it in stride.)

Calla was happy to be back in the Owl room. The craft today was a "prayer wheel" out of construction paper and she was just thrilled with it. Right after Bible Study, Suzi and Eli came over for lunch and a dentist appointment (Suzi's, not Eli's!) and Calla kept interrupting Suzi to describe different aspects of her prayer wheel. Suzi and I were trying to have a serious conversation about Ellie's surgery, and Calla couldn't get over how her wheel turned (revealing different "times" to pray during the day). It really is so cute. I will have to get video of her explaining it.

I am so behind with videos!

This afternoon we were a bit apprehensive about Ellie's surgery, but were soo excited to find out that the "best" (and least likely!) scenario came true! The biopsy revealed the tumor was benign (although Jonathan says they are cautious pending additional testing, which will take a couple days) AND equally importantly the surgeon was able to remove the ENTIRE 8cm+ tumor! We were soo excited. I still can't get this smile off my face. I am so relieved and so amazed how gracious God has been to Ellie and her family. He is so good! I know He is good no matter what the outcome would have been, but it is so exciting how merciful He has chosen to be. (-:

below: Kelsey, Calla and Eli watching Barney (we threw it on to distract Eli while Suzi slipped out the door)


This afternoon Daddy came home from the hospital and played with the girls before dinner. Right after dinner on Wednesdays, he heads to core groups (church) so it was nice they could read books and mess around.

below: washing their hands after dinner...(Kelsey climbed up after she saw Calla)

below: reading books before bed

below: Calla thought it was silly if Kelsey wear the pajama top and she wear the pajama bottom. Size 12-18 months (they are a bit short)

She requested a picture of her back.

...and of her face...

below: Kelsey reading a book (I'm not sure how with all that happened with all the hair in her face!)

Kelsey's nap was so short and Calla's nap was nonexistent so they both went to bed early. I can't say I don't enjoy that every so often; it's nice when my evening starts at 7:30! (-:

Callaism~

~ "Mom let's read 3 books because I'm 3." (We read 3 books.) "Okay let's read how many books you are!" Me: "It would take all day becauseI'm 28." Calla: "YAY! 28 ! Let's read 28 books!"

Kelseyism~

~ Kelsey's word of the day: "chip"