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!