Scare in the Square

It was a sad day at the Wink house on Friday. We have all been so spoiled by Dave's job that he never misses anything, he can either work from home, leave early, go in late, etc. but he never really misses any functions or appointments. Well Friday was the first time and as depressing as I make it sound it was totally not a big deal. We had planned to go to McKinney's Scare in the Square but the darn thing went from 4-6pm so we knew by the time that Dave got home and we got to downtown McKinney that it would be over and done with. So Isabelle and I decided to go on our own, Dave was worried that Isabelle would be upset but she could have cared less when she found out there was candy involved.

So on the way we started discussing what pirates say and all week she has been saying "Argg Matie", well on this particular night she told me that they say Arrgg Smartie. I told her that they do not say Smartie and that was when Iz said, "Mom, don't you know that Smartie means Matie in spanish? Maybe you need to take Spanish classes". Well apparently I do because I was not aware of that tidbit of information.. LOL Her and all of the spanish words that she makes up, now she has started to throw in "sign language" on top of the spanish.

When we got there we trick or treated up and down the streets of the heart of downtown McKinney it was really kind of fun. The only bad thing is that none of the shops were open, they have apparently got some new stores since the last time that I have been so now I am going to have to make another trip out there. Iz was not being very patient that night, anytime there was a line with more than 10 people at a particular store she would say "I don't like this line, let's just skip it".. LOL, it worked for me so we would skip the store and go on to a shorter line.

This was our first year there and it was ok, I think that I had a little to much build up you know when people build it up so you expect so much more.. I was a little let down but I am sure we will go again next year, hopefully Dave will get to come then =)

She was so excited about taking a picture with this witch that is until she thought it moved.. LOL It didn't move but you could tell by the look on her face she was a little scared.

Sophie Grace

After Dave got of work on Thursday we headed over to Fort Worth to meet my new niece Sophie Grace. She is definitely a cutie pie, and the first thing that Isabelle asked when we left was if I had a baby in my belly yet. She really knows how to pull at your heart strings, I feel so bad telling her no. I know that she desperately wants to be a big sister so hopefully it will happen soon. =( I even thought about hanging out by the Safe Haven drop spot and wait for someone to drop off their baby but Dave wouldn't let me, he is such a party pooper. Anyway, Sophie is a cutie...

My sister in law, Jennifer =)

Isabelle's Class Halloween Party

Isabelle had her class Halloween Party on Thursday and of course Mommy organized it. It was a lot of fun, the school had a Noah's Ark themed that they called Ark-tober fest. I had already made Isabelle her pirate costume but the school asked that the kids dress up as an animal from the Ark or as a bible character so Isabelle and I agreed upon a bunny rabbit. Here is the little bunny girl:

The school really did a good job of organizing the party. They had each class host two games inside of their class room and then all of the kids would travel from class to class taking part in the games. Myself and another mom helped in the 3 year old room by doing the face painting. The kids were so cute, of couse we were not professional face painters but we did have some crazy requested. One of those request being from Isabelle who wanted a moose, why in the world would she want a moose? Instead we compromised for a heart.. Another little boy wanted Lightning McQueen, yeah right, instead I painted a bolt of lightning. It was a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Since it was raining all of the events were inside which was perfect, a bounce house in the chapel followed by a popcorn picnic at the pumpkin patch (aka Mrs. Kiser the music teachers room).

The gold fish filled witches that Isabelle gave to all of her friends for Halloween, so mad at myself for not getting pictures of the cupcakes that I made. Urghh!

SUMC Trunk or Treat and Blood Drive

Last Sunday we went to the Trunk or Treat and Blood Drive at our church. We had a great time but Isabelle for some reason is going through this shy, timid, everything is dangerous stage in her life. I am not really sure what is up with her but I am hoping that it passes quickly. She has been like this for a few weeks now but the first evidence of the day was on the train at Trunk or Treat. Isabelle was so excited to go, waited her turn in line, jumped in and then all of the sudden she decided that she had to go potty and did not want to ride. She really didn't have to go potty that was just her excuse for getting out.. At least I captured a good picture of her before she got out so it appears as if she rode =) She did however jump on the saddle at one of the Trunk or Treaters cars and pretend to ride the horse.

After the TorT Dave and I decided to go donate blood, now that was the experience of the day... I want it to be known that I am not scared of needles, I am not a wimp, nor do I mind giving blood. After I was done giving blood that blood sucker (I mean worker) as me if I was ok and I told her that I was feeling a little light headed. She calls Dave over to bring me some juice and Dave later told me that I was as white as a sheet. After I drank the juice I told her I was feeling a tiny bit nauseous (HUGE mistake do not ever do this). Next thing you know the technician is lifting up my shirt to put a cold rag under my shirt on my head, and throws a enormous red trash can in front of me to throw up in. I told her I was no where near throwing up but she insisted that I hold it, I was so embarrassed! Then she wants me to take off my sweater, I had to draw the line there and insist that I was going to be fine.. I don't know why I got so lightheaded but I was so embarrassed, hopefully someone will end up using the blood I donated that way it will all be worth it. The funny part is that about 2 minutes before all of that happened Dave had just sent Isabelle over to say, "Mommy are you flat lining" little did they know I was.. LOL

Brooktone Fall Festival

I have to say that we the Social Committee really outdid ourselves at the Fall Festival this year, we had soo much stuff planned. We did kind of a carnival style festival with small games for the little kids, games for the bigger kids, Trunk or Treat, pumpkin pie and glow in the dark necklaces. There was a lot of preparation for getting ready for the event and Isabelle decided that she had to help. She is getting so big and wants to help with absolutely everything, good part is that if you give her a small task many times she can actually be productive =) Dave, Isabelle and I had to make some goody bags for the kids and Isabelle's job was to put two pieces of candy in the bag, pass it to Dad so he could put two additional pieces and then I tied it. It was hilarious, Isabelle would put her pieces in and then carefully watch Daddy to see what pieces he was putting in. A couple of times Daddy got yelled at for putting her favorite kind in, so we had to explain to her that it was for the community party. She helped for about 30 minutes and then her attention span was spent and it was on to bigger and better things.

At the festival Dave and I seem to run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to make sure that everything runs smoothly. With so many games and things going on it seemed like both of us were running a little thin. The bad thing about these events is Isabelle really suffers the consequences of Mommy running it because neither one of us can spend much time with her letting her participate in on the fun. So Dave was "watching" Isabelle while running the Pass the Pumpkin game (like musical chairs), and I was trying to serve up pumpkin pie. I stepped away to go check on Dave and Isabelle and went to were I last saw them and asked someone where Dave and Isabelle were. The answer I got was, "umm, they actually just left to go look for you". So as I am walking around looking for thw TWO of them I run into Dave who was infact not looking for me but for Isabelle he had LOST her, the guy I had just talked to was apparently covering for Dave. Later I found out that he was not covering but mearly "not going to cause a mother to panic by telling her that her child was lost".. I guess I can appreciate that, kind of .. Luckily we quickly found her and she was fine, she had found a friend and was off playing with them. Ewww! Next event I am going to have to figure out some kind of solution to make the event fun for Isabelle without loosing her=)

Isabelle and Mak being partners in the candy corn toss game.. they were so cute =)

Trunk or Treating

Sorry for the bad pictures I took the crappy camera instead of the good one.

Crafts, crafts and more crafts =)

I have been working on getting my new room organized all day today and I am in desperate need of a break. You know when you stare at things to long, you have rearranged them a million different ways, and you suddenly become overwhelmed.. that's me right now! So while Dave is researching all of the possibilities of what could be wrong with our dishwasher on the internet (did I mention it broke.. urghh, just another reason I am overwhelmed right now), I am going to take the time to catch up on my blog a little =)

The past couple of weeks in the Wink house have been somewhat of a blur, we have been going non-stop. Among all of the things that we do here one of Isabelle and my favorite things to do is craft projects! I am blessed to have a daughter that loves to do craft projects, she is definitely her mother's child. I cannot wait until she gets old enough to learn to sew, we are going to have so much fun. I even saved her my old machine so that when that joyous day comes I can pass it on to her, I get so giddy just thinking about it =) Focus Erica, focus... So anyhow I have been dying to make a Fall wreath but just have not gotten around to it. Of course when I bring it up to Dave he says, "do people really do Fall wreaths??" Of course they do, so the last time we drove through the neighborhood I was happy to point out all of the wreaths on the neighbors doors and wha-la I have now finished my first Fall wreath...

(Isabelle just had to be in the picture with her piece of candy.. LOL) Now there are a couple of things wrong with the picture. First, my door looks pitiful and really needs to be restained (on my to do list), second the picture does not show all of the sparkliness (if that's a word) of the wreath, third thing is that the darn wreath will not stay on my door. What the heck, by the time I come up with a solution it will be time to hang up a Christmas wreath!! I first bought a suction cup to hang it up with and because of the drastic temperature changes it kept falling off. Then I bought a hook but because of the grooves on the door it makes the wreath stick out 4 inches from the door. So now, when I get a chance I am going to go buy one of the magnetic wreath hangers. I hope this works because I am tired of seeing all of that hard work just laying on the dining room table.

The other craft projects Isabelle and I did were decorating the Halloween gingerbread house and decorating our Halloween tree. Yes I said Halloween tree, laugh if you must Isabelle and I like to be festive. Sad to say that this week it is being redecorated from a Halloween tree to a Fall tree.

Again the picture does not do the tree justice, it looks a lot better in person. As for the gingerbread house, Wilton has now made me do one for every single holiday! Since our first gingerbread house last Christmas Wilton has started to come out with Easter houses, Halloween houses, etc.. Of course Isabelle has to do them all, just can't wait to see what they are going to come out with for Valentine's day, cupid's crib??

CVS Adventures

The other day Isabelle and I were at CVS and she wanted to try on some Halloween masks. Then she showed that she really knows her Mommy when she said, "take my picture and put it on the blog".. LOL I had completely forgotten about it and before taking her to bed tonight I told her that I had updated the blog and she could look at it when she woke up in the morning. (She is a follower of the blog, she looks at the pictures and watches the videos all of the time) She then asked me if I remembered to put the mask pictures of from when we went to CVS, and I had totally forgotten since they were on my phone and not on my camera. Isabelle, just for you I posted the pictures.. Love you girl!

Oh yeah, and this is the other side of the Halloween outfit I made with the witch embroidered on the front!

Photo shoot at the Arboretum

Today Isabelle and I, along with our good friends Jaime and Kaitlyn went to the Dallas Arboretum for a photo shoot. We did this last year too with the girls, and although it is absolutely exhausting it is incredibly rewarding. Rewarding in that we get great pictures, exhausting because you are fighting with three year olds all day to get pictures. We packed at lunch and headed out, when we arrived we found that we were apparently not the only ones with this idea. The line was crazy, I guess this was the first non-rainy Monday in 5 weeks so people were coming to take advantage of it. It was a beautiful day and perfect for pictures. Here are just a few of the good ones that I got:

There are a still a bunch of them that I need to make a some adjustments too, but these should be good for now!

Ladies and Gentleman it's Isabelle...

I was so proud of my girl on Sunday, it was her very first singing performance =) At Isabelle's preschool they take music classes once a week and they have been working on a song to perform at the service this past Sunday. Isabelle was a little nervous at first but after a couple of rehearsals she did great!

I love how she emphasis the words with her lips, it's hilarious!

Party People

On Saturday we had all kinds of fun parties to go to. We started out at our friends the Smerczynski's house for Haylee's 5th birthday. The party was pirate themed (Isabelle's new favorite) and so much fun! There was a pinata, craft projects, a gorgeous cake and cupcakes, and tons of friends to play with. Unfortunately, I am a moron and forgot to bring my camera. It was so much fun and I hope that Haylee had the best birthday every, we love you guys!

Following Haylee's party (we picked up our camera) and headed over to Isabelle's boyfriend, Jonah's house. Jonah and his little sister Meredith were hosting a Halloween bash! It too was really funny. There was another pinata, bobbing for apples sanitary style (with tongs), mummy wrapping game and Isabelle even got to decorate her own cupcake.

Look at the love birds =) The second picture Isabelle looks a little evil like they just got busted kissing or something.. LOL

Bobbing for apples, and catching spiders with straws

This icing somehow got everywhere; her jacket, her skirt, ME! Oh well, she thought it was yummy and she had fun that's all that matters!

Fertility Update

The theme of the month is SHOTS! Dave and I went in for a consultation with the RE (reproductive endocrinologist) since we are still not pregnant. On our first visit he had told us we should be preggo within 4 months of treatment, but as you can see that did not happen so we had to regroup with him. He said that it could be that I possibly have endometriosis which if that is the case then I would need to have a laparoscopy to see if I had endometriosis and if I did then he would do his best to get what he could off of my fallopian tubes. The other alternative would be start doing FSH injections to boost the amount and quality of the eggs that I produce. The doctor recommended the injectables for now and if they don't work by December then I will go ahead with the laparoscopy.

With all of that being said we started the shots about 3.5 weeks ago. It is a good thing that shots do not bother me but I have to admit by the end of the whole thing I was starting to feel like a science experiment gone wrong. I went in to the doctors office to see how many follicles I had. There were a whopping 10-15 follicles but unfortunately only 2 made it to the grand finale =( I was really hoping for more but it only takes one, and hopefully one of these will actually take. We did the IUI two weeks from this Thursday and so I take a preggo test this week. I am not suppose to take the test until Thursday but I am very impatient so I will probably do it tomorrow, so please keep us in your prayers.

The good thing about the shots is Isabelle and Dave LOVE giving them to me. I have a feeling that a very small part of them will be sad when they don't get to give me shots anymore.. LOL Isabelle transforms into Nurse Isabelle, and she gets to wipe what she calls the "sanitizer" (really an alcohol swab) on my leg. Then Dr. Daddy give ms the shot. The first time that I got the shot in front of Isabelle she stood about 10 feet away and watched, you should have seen the look on her face when Dave shot me. I asked her, "are you ok, or are you freaking out?" She told me that she was fine and then admitted that she was freaking out a little bit because she thought maybe she would be next.. LOL Another time right after Dave gave me the shot there was the tinniest speak of blood so nurse Isabelle was quick to run over with her sanitizer and rub it off. Ever since then before each shot she tells me, "I hope you bleed". What a sweet little girl I have =)

Nurse Isabelle & Dr. Daddy

Tosha's Baby Shower

My sister Tosha is having a baby this month, so my mom, my sister-in-law (Jennifer), and myself all threw a baby shower for her a few weekends ago. It turned out really well and Tosha got a lot of really cute stuff.

The diaper cake I made for baby Sophie.. Tosha and Josh (the babies daddy) with the diaper bag and accessories that I made for Sophie

The blanket that my Grandma made for baby Sophie. Grandma does this for all of the great grandkids, they are so nice=) The blanket that Grandma made Isabelle is her most favorite blankie in the whole world, she calls it "white blankie" and she CANNOT WILL NOT sleep without it. The last picture is of a Christmas outfit Sophie got that is ADORABLE! I am going to figure out a way to duplicate it for Isabelle, obviously a bigger girl version.

Isabelle's Halloween Wardrobe

I have created Isabelle a Halloween wardrobe, so if you see a bunch of pictures lately with her in the same outfit it is because I am making her wear them everyday.. LOL Hey it is a lot of work making these outfits and she only gets a month to wear them so she is wearing them every chance we get =)

This outfit is reversible, unfortunately I do not have a picture of the other side (yet). I am sure that she will be wearing it again soon, I will capture a picture then.

I am so incredibly proud of her costume! I was very nervous wondering if I was going to be able to pull it of, but it turned out sooo cute! Unfortunately the belt is crooked in this picture but that is not the norm =) The patch work skirt was a serious undertaking! I don't think that I have every gathered so much in my entire life, but it turned out really cute as well. I have already purchased a turkey fabric to make a Thanksgiving one, my goal is to have it done before Halloween so she can wear it the entire month of November.