Ryan's revised post...

OK... I get it... Most people (even Erica) don't want to be associated with me if I kept my original post active. I going to keep to the video's of my children. I know that they are much more endearing...

I am going to stick to videos.

1. Claire being silly at the dinner table.



2. Abby and Claire singing Happy Birthday to their Aunt Sarah.



3. Abby singing Tutti Ta Ta Song (Claire trying to help...)




Until next time...

Ryan

Sad, I know, but Ryan and I got a good laugh at this video. Claire definitely holds her own with Abby. If Abby comes anywhere near her and she doesn't want her to, she screams at the top of her lungs until Abby goes away. If Abby does not go away she then resorts to violence and will hit, bite or throw things. Whatever it takes to get what she wants. I get glimpses of what the fighting will probably be like in a couple of years. What you can't see in the video is Claire looking at me with a puzzled look and saying "what happened?" That is our Claire Bear!!!

The cousins

We had a crazy week at our house. Ryan's sister and her family came up for the week from Atlanta. They have two kids Erin 8 and Joel 5. We don't get to see them that much so we love it when they come to stay. All four kids had a blast playing with each other for the week. The house was LOUD and hectic. Here is a picture of the kids watching wall-e. I think they watched it 3 times that week.


Of course they had lots of time to play the Wii. (Ryan didn't mind having other kids to play with him for hours on end.)

Ryan brought home a BIG surprise for the kids over Thanksgiving weekend. 9 baby chicks. The kids freaked out when they saw them and were so excited to play with them. We did have some casualties and now we are down to 3. I think these three are going to make it and they are pecking away at the box as I type this post. I don't think they had a chance after the kids handled them. They were dropped, flipped, and probably scared to death!!

I love this picture of Erin and Claire! As you can see by Claire's face we had just eaten ice cream sundaes.

The whole week, Abby followed Erin around. Abby did EVERYTHING just like her. Erin was a good sport and let her tag along and copy her every move.

The older kids got to make gingerbread houses with Nana. Claire hung around just in case there were any "loose" pieces. I still frequently find her chewing on candy she has picked off of the house.

We went the the children's museum one day and the kids had a blast. Here is joel sticking his head out of the submarine. I don't think he paused for more than 2 seconds the entire day.

They got out a parachute for the kids to play with. I think this was my fav part!!

For Thanksgiving my side of the family and Ryan's fam went over to my sister's house to eat. Here is my poor mom in the kitchen all by herself. The rest of the family is off playing.

Here we are making our "Black Friday" plans. Vicki, Sarah, and I went shopping for 10 hours on Friday. It was insane, but has become our little tradition. The guys took all of the kids to chuckie cheese.

I found Carmen sneaking this cookie and thought it was too cute!

Potty Training

I was really hesitant to start potty training Claire. I thought the few times she went were flukes and I was going to wait until after her 2nd birthday. But, she asked to go on the potty 6 times this week. So we are all about potty training in the Russell house. We went and picked out some "big girl" underware while Abby was at school. She picked Dora which is funny because she doesn't even watch Dora. But I guess she wants to be like her big sister who chose the same underware when she was two. We then went to Dunkin Donuts for a special "big girl underware breakfast." So today was the day when we went diaperless. I think a vast majority of my day was sitting on a stool in the bathroom. I was very surprised at how well she did. She went 7 times on the potty with only one accident. The thought of no more diapers makes me giddy!!!!

big girl potty

Claire went to the bathroom on the big girl potty again!! Go Claire!

tick o teat

I have been pumping the girls up for Halloween for weeks. I don't think that Claire really understood what it was about, but learned to say "Tick o Teat!" Abby was so excited that she could hardly stand it. Abby had decided last year that she wanted to be a black cat and stuck to it. I decided to make Claire a sheep. I glued over 600 cotton balls onto her shirt. Here is a picture at the end of the evening.






Abby loved her costume and crawled around like a cat meowing all night. Abby was really into it this year. Her and Erika literally ran from house to house and we could hardly keep up with her. It is so fun to see your kids so excited to do something. Especially because we were never allowed to trick or treat growing up...(long story)!

For Clarie's costume, I glued over 600 cotton balls onto her shirt. I was so hype because I thought she was going to look so cute in her little hat with ears on them. The time came to put on her costume and she freaked out and screamed bloody murder!!! It took us forever to try and negotiate with her, then we realized she is 21 months and we just forced it on. I know we are mean parents, but I spent a lot of time with the glue gun and have the burns to prove it. Here she is in her hysteria!

Finally, after we put it on, she looked down and said excitedly "Sheep, Sheep!!!" I am literally sweating at this point and the night had not yet begun. In the wrestling match to get it on we tore some of the cotton balls off, but I was glad we got it on her! If you walk around our neighborhood, you will see a trail of cotton balls...it was hilarious!! Next came time to put on the hat...not going to happen. I really hope 30 years from now she is not sitting on her therapist's couch telling her the horrible stories of the things her mom put her through, like stuffing her into a sheep's costume while she was wailing!! I decided not to push the hat!! But, I did display it proudly on the handle of the stroller for all to see! When she went up to the first house and got her candy, she looked held it up "CANDY!!!" It had finally clicked. She was so excited each time she would get a piece and would hold it up triumphetaly. She could not believe that everyone was giving her candy! We will look back at the pictures of Claire from this Halloween and talk about the infamous "sheep costume" that caused so much drama and laugh!!!!

These are our next door neighbors all posing, looking cute!

Here is the fam at the end of the night, tired and ready to go eat our candy!

Jennifer's shower

This weekend we threw a baby shower for Jennifer. I have been friends with her since elementary school. It is so hard to believe that we are old enough to have children. I have so many memories with her in them... swimming in her pool, volleyball, slumber parties, riding around in her Saab, more volleyball. I can remember all of the fun we had like it was yesterday. OK, enough reminiscing, I am going to make myself cry. It was so good to spend time with my girls! We don't get to do it enough! I miss you guys!


Abby decided she wanted to go with me to the "big girl party" She helped with the presents and games. I think she was dissapointed in the games because she thought they were going to games like bowling and candy land.

Here is the cake that Christie and I made. Well, Christie deserves most of the credit. I was there mainly for moral support and to decorate it. Good job Christie! Maybe we should go into buisness.

Here is Jennifer in all of her glory. Only 1 1/2 months left!

And the winner is....

Sorry Ryan, not you :)! We carved pumpkins this weekend for Halloween. Abby dug right in and got dirty, but Claire was a bit hesitant (imagine that!) Ryan was trying to be really creative this year and he created...well, I am not sure what he created. The girls decided his was scary and they liked theirs better.

Yeah Claire!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Claire asked to go pee-pee in the potty today. Yeah Claire! She thought I was crazy with all the screaming and clapping. I am very excited and even though she is only 20 months, I hope this continues. I love the thought of no more diapers!!

Waterman's field trip

Today Abby's class had a field trip to Waterman's farm. They get to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and pick a pumpkin. Then they played on all of the fun stuff they have there. We jumped on a bouncy house and went through a corn maze. Below is a picture of Mrs. Flora's class. The middle picture is Abby on the hay ride, and the last one is Abby with her buddy Emily.

Hay Ride

Fall is always a crazy time in our house. It is by far my favorite season and I love all of the fun "fall activities" there are to do. I always feel the need to spend as much time as I can outside. I have this feeling of impending doom of winter arriving. It will not be that far from now that we are cooped up inside counting down the days until spring. Here are some pictures of a bonfire/hayride that we went to last weekend at southeastway park. One of the girls in our playgroup has one every year. It is always fun to get together with everyone. The kids had a blast and did not want to go home. It was a very late night but worth it. Lainey got hay in her eye and her eye was enormous so she was taken to immediate care to get it flushed out, poor Lainey!

The not so great bike ride

This weekend was a gorgeous weekend so we decided to take a bike ride on the Monon Trail. We loaded up the bikes and the girl's trailer and headed off (10:00am). Ryan got directions from his blackberry and it took us the most ridiculous way right through the ghetto. We finally got there at 10:45. I have to admit I was at this point annoyed. Another 30 minutues passed as we hooked up the girls to the bike and wondered around trying to figure out where to get onto the Monon. We finally figured it out and were making our way down the busy street when Ryan's peddle fell off. So we pull over into a parking lot and spend another 15 minutes trying to fix it only to figure out it is not fixable and we have to go home. I now am beyond annoyed and may have thrown out something about Ryan being thrown into the White River. We finally make it back to Broadripple park and decide to go ahead and eat our picnic lunch and let the girls play on the park. Abby wondered why we chose to drive so far to get to a park when there was one so close to our house. Excellent question Abby!! I am wondering why there are so many people dressed in unusual outfits at the park. As we venture further we discover that it is Indy's pagen pride day. Great!! Ryan asks if I want to check it out. He obviously did not know what it was and after googling it he changes his mind. The girls ended up having fun at the park and it was beautiful out so it was not totally wasted, but seriously, next time we will stick to riding around the neighborhood!!

Ryan's a celebrity

Here is a picture of Ryan that was in the Indianapolis Star this week. It is not the best picture but we are proud of him so I thought I would post it. He is at school serving kids Qdoba for an awards program. Any request for autographs should be emailed to him :)!

Claire LOVES chocolate

Tonight we went over to my mom's house to celebrate my sister's birthday. We ate chocolate cake then we all went outside to play. After a few minutes, we realized that Claire had gone back inside. Ryan went in to find her and she had climbed on top of the table and was digging into the chocolate cake. She was absolutely covered in cake. He did not have the camera on him so he could not take a picture, but how funny!! Here is a picture of all 5 cousins playing in a tub of sand.

Apple Orchard

We took the girls to Anderson Apple Orchard this weekend to pick some apples. This is the first time we have ever actually picked our own apples. The girls had a good time and were amazed at how many apples there were. It is always so funny when they get to see food from where it actually comes from. Doesn't all produce come from Meijers? I think we will save the origin of meat for another day!! :) After picking apples we got a treat from the store there. They have the best apple dumplings and caramel apples ever. We got so many apples I am not sure what to do with them. So if anyone wants any apples, come on over!

Cute Pictures

Here are some cute pictures from the week...


The first one is of Abby playing in the rain. After a couple of minutes, she was literally rolling in the puddles. She was absolutely soaking, but she had fun! Claire and I were under the front porch. We are wimps and did not want to get wet.

Claire does not like to get her hands dirty, so this is how she eats corn. Hey, I don't mind, it is less mess for me to clean up!!

Abby got this outfit from our neighbor. She will not take it off and I am sure there are many more pictures to come in it!!!

The girls love to help me cook. They pull up a chair every night when I cook dinner. In this one we were making animal pretzels. Ours did not come out looking much like pretzels more like blobs of dough.

Sick Girls

Yesterday Abby spiked a temp of 102 at her Nana's house. Then when she got home she threw up and didn't quite make it to the bathroom. She threw up all over the carpet and the wall. Conveniently, I was at work and it was cleaned up by the time I got home. (I love when it works out that way!) This morning she woke up complaining of a sore throat and Claire woke up with a temperature. This is the first time Claire has ever been sick. Ryan took the morning off to take them to the doctor. (yes, it is very impressive that he took two sick girls to the doctor by himself...good job Ryan!) It ended up being a virus that usually lasts 10 days. Oh the fun of going back to school. I should use the day to catch up on laundry but there is something about sick kids that makes you lazy. So the day is going to be filled with movies and naps (for me too!) Pray that the girls recover quickly!

While Ryan was at the doctor, I went to my follow up appointment for my foot. It still is infected so I get another round of anibiotics and a follow up next week. I am still grounded from running. It feels much better and it does not hurt to walk on it anymore. It just looks nasty still. I think I will consult another doctor at work tomorrow.

Just a little side note: Claire randomly counted to ten yesterday. I have no idea where she learned to count. I don't frequently walk around the house counting to ten! Maybe Abby taught her when I wasn't paying attention. Since we all made such a big deal out of it, she thinks she is the coolest thing ever and counts nonstop. We are going to get it on video tape when she is feeling better and we will post it.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Labor Day weekend was spent watching my two nieces. My sister moved into her insanely nice house this weekend and so the girls all stayed here. They were actually good and all got along very well. Olivia is 4 and Carmen is 20 months, so obviously they make good playmates for Abby and Claire. My dad and grandma also stayed at my house all weekend so they could help paint and move. I tried to keep them busy with lots of fun activities. But, I have to say I am worn out. Ryan and I have decided that we do not want 4 kids! Whew, it is alot of work!!

I could not get them to go to sleep last night. They giggled in their beds for hours. One would do something as simple as yawn and it would send them into a fit of laughter. They woke me up at 6:15 this morning ready to go play. They talked Ryan into pitching the tent in the front yard to eat their breakfast in.

The picture below is Erika, Abby, and Olivia playing in the water.

It is rare that I can get them to stand still long enough to get all of them in one picture. But how adorable is it. They are so lucky that they have cousins the same age to play with. Holidays in our family are crazy(My brother has a girl that is almost 3).

The girls wanted to dress up in their princess costumes and go get some movies. They thought it was the coolest thing ever to wear this out. They danced and giggled the whole time. They did manage to pick out some movies. One of course was the Hannah Montana concert.

Infected Foot

Well, today I am supposed to be at work. Instead, I am at home on the couch watching TV. I got a preatty bad blister a couple of weeks ago and it turned into a big old infection. I went to the doctor yesterday in fear that they would admit me for IV antibiotics. Instead she told me I was not supposed to walk on it, no working, soak it 4 times a day, and come back in a week for a follow up appointment. The part that made me the maddest is no running for at least one week :(. I have to say that there is no way I could run, I can barely put pressure on it and am resorting to crawling to get anywhere. My ankle looks like a large brick, red and swollen. It throbs like crazy and I have pain shooting up my calf. I think I am going to give Ryan a heart attack by the end of this ordeal. He woke me up a thousand times last night asking me if I was ok. The moral of the story... take care of your blisters! Given my occupation, you would think I would do a better job at it. Oh well, lesson learned!

First Day of School

Today was Abby's first day of Pre-K. She is going to Gray Rd. Christian School again and will go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She was a little nervous at first, but after meeting her teacher on Friday, she felt a little better. Most of the kids in her class are the same that were in it last year. We went out yesterday and got her a new back to school outfit, bracelet, and even underwear. Aunt Sarah painted her toes and fingernails. Drop off on the first day is hilarious! You would think it was their wedding day. Cameras are flashing everywhere, there are lots of tears and hugs! The entire morning Claire said "Abby, Abby, Abby?" She did not understand why she was not here to play with her. She was very excited when we picked her up. Abby came home full of tales from the day. I swear she grew up 10 years in one day. (just like Noah on young and the restless who came back from summer camp all grown up :)) We miss her but I really enjoy the morning with just Claire!


Here she is sporting her new Hello Kitty backpack (wet hair and all). The picture below is her buddy Lainey. Lainey and Abby have been in a playgroup together since before they were one. Don't they look like little teenagers?