Pre Halloween Festivities

Cruising from the coffee table to the couch!


This is her "remember how cute I am because I'm about to be mischevious" look


Will in the ballpit at the bottom of the slide

Will and Allie Grace. They literally slid for an hour without stopping.



This cracks me up-everytime I lay her down, she immediately flips over and stands up before I can even get to the door. At first I would settle her back in and lay her down again, but I've started just letting her figure it out on her own. This is how I find her now when I go to check on her-her head resting on her bumper pad (I know I need to take this out).

Maggie's first attempt at a slide.

Will and Maggie at the Harvest Party. I still haven't managed a good picture in their costumes. And Will does have fire boots-he just couldn't work the bouncy slide in them!


I was going to wait until the trick-or-treating marked the official end of Halloween to post, but I'm not sure when I can post again so I decided to go ahead and blog about the past 5 days of parties. Saturday was our Harvest Party at church. Will had a blast, once again on a bouncy slide. He had to be pulled off of it while the party was going on so other children could play on it, and after it was over Eric and I stayed an hour or so to help with the take down and they had to deflate the bouncy slide to get Will to leave it. It was kind of funny-when I went in his room Sunday morning to get him up for church he jumped up in bed and fell back down. He looked at me with this serious face and said "Oh, Mom...my legs don't work." He walked a little funny for awhile that morning-he had actually gotten sore from climbing the slide so many times. That's saying a lot too, because this boy NEVER sits still and practically lives at the park.

We had a party at Will's school, but he was so distracted from having Eric, Maggie, and I there that he didn't really get into it that much. We also had our neighborhood party. Every year they have a firetruck and firemen there for the kids to play with. Since Will was a fireman and Maggie a dalmation, obviously I really wanted to take advantage of that photo op! Well we got there late because Will took a really long nap that day and the firetruck was pulling away, but they were nice enough to pull down a side street and let Will climb on it by himself. No pics of that either though-they got a call about a fire and had to go, but Will did get to see the lights and sirens up close!

We are going trick or treating tonight around the neighborhood, then to my parents' house and then up to our church for "trunk or treat." Will's been practicing all day.

Family Week

Will and Eric carving a jackolantern.



Will and Aidan making silly faces



Will coloring a pumpkin with markers. FYI-they don't dry-EVER!



Will was playing with his magnadoodle the other day and brought it to me to show me how he wrote his name-sorry for the brief "have to show off my son's new trick" moment! Am I the only one who can tell it says Will?



At the cafe halfway through Fossil Rim



Will driving the truck on the "safari"



Don't worry-the window was rolled up when this ostrich was checking Maggie out



A giraffe eating out of Eric's hands. Will wasn't sure what to think about all this.


Will literally fell asleep while drinking some water on the way home.

Another busy week in the Mittig household. As most of you know, last Friday was Eric's last day of work, so we've spent the last 5 days doing lots of fun stuff with Daddy! We've gone to the park several times, gone on walks almost every day, carved pumpkins, stomped in puddles, and lots of other fun things. Our friends Aaron and Collette brought their two kids, Aidan and Ella, over on Saturday. All the kids had a blast playing together.

Today we drove about an hour out of town and went to Fossil Rim. It's so neat-I'm not sure why we never thought to do this before. We drove through for about 2 hours and fed all kinds of animals-it's amazing to see them come right up to your window and look at you like "Where's my food?" Zebras, Deer, Goats, Llamas, Ostriches, and some other things with special names that aren't in our childrens' books. The giraffes actually ducked their heads into the truck and ate right out of Eric's hands. Will and I weren't sure we wanted to participate. They also have cheetas and rhinos, but they're in a fenced area where you can see them but for some reason they don't allow two year olds to feed them :)

As for updates on the kids. Maggie is now starting to walk behind one of those push walkers-only on the carpet. She is also pulling up on just about everything, including our brick fireplace surrounded by slate floors-not a comfy landing for a wabbly 7 month old. So it's nice to have an extra set of hands around to help keep an eye on her. We're starting to work more on potty training with Will, but I still don't think he's ready. It will be so nice to only have one in diapers-someday!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy halloween!

Fall Fun

Will splashing in the puddles behind my parents' house.



Maggie loves to show off another new skill



The new Cowboys stadium as it looks today-I took this picture by holding the camera out the driver side window from a turn lane. The top of my truck is what you see in the bottom of the picture. Sorry I have short arms and couldn't get it taller!



As you can tell from the pictures, we made another trip back to the pumpkin patch this past weekend. This time Kristy and I just took the boys for some special Mama/son time. It was SO much more crowded this week, but of course the kids still had a blast.

Maggie is now 7 months old-SO hard to believe! I didn't realize the month had already gone by until I was telling someone she was six months old and realized that she wasn't anymore! She is changing so much everyday. She is pulling up on EVERYTHING and you practically have to bend her at the waist if you want to sit her down. I'm finding new challenges with having two little ones. Maggie loves to blow bubbles with her mouth and has now discovered that when she does it with food in her mouth, she can watch it fly across the room. Originally she was in awe of the whole thing, but once Will saw her do it and laughed uncontrollably, she realized what kind of reaction she could get by doing it over and over!

I posted the picture of the new Cowboys stadium being built because it is something positive to focus on regarding sports. I'm having a rough football season because all the college teams we support are pretty much out of it (although Michigan is making a comeback!), and the Cowboys showed Sunday that being the "best of the NFC" doesn't mean much when you're playing the Patriots. AND, the team I picked in our Survivor pool (Chicago-I know, what was I thinking?) LOST, so I'm one loss from being eliminated with 11 weeks to play. At least we have the new stadium and the Super Bowl that comes with it to look forward to.

I guess that's all for now. Eric has a lot of work stuff going on right now, so please say a special prayer that it all gets worked out soon. I'll post more when I know more.

Pumpkin Patch and Papa's Visit

Papa and Will

Tyler, Maggie, and Will on the hayride. The boys loved the tractor that pulled it. Maggie just loved the hay!

I love this stage where you can just prop them up next to something and they can't run off before you take the picture!

Big brother introducing Maggie to hay. I'm sure the washer will be full of it when I wash these clothes.

Will and Tyler and their annual picture at the pumpkin patch. It's amazing how much bigger they are compared to last year's picture!

How cute is this little sweetie?

Tyler, Maggie, and Will driving the train.

I wanted to get costume pics at the pumpkin patch, but the weather started rolling in and the kids started giving out by the time we got around to it. Will loves his fireman costume!

Will and Tyler loving the slide-about a hundred times!


Well it's been awhile since my last post. The first week was because we passed a stomach bug around for the better part of a week. What a helpless feeling when your six month old daughter is throwing up constantly. It's pretty upsetting when it's a 2 year old, but at least we can explain things to him and he can tell us he doesn't feel well. Maggie just gave me this pathetic look everytime like "Are you really just going to stand there and let this happen to me?" Oh, so sad...But we're all better now and we were ready for Papa (Eric's dad and Will's middle name sake) to come and meet Maggie!

Papa got here on Thursday afternoon and flew back to Michigan this afternoon. We had a great time at Toys R Us, riding the carousel at the mall, playing outside, going to the park, and at the Pumpkin Patch. He was also here to witness Maggie crawling for the first time! She can also get into a sitting position from her stomach now, and she's loving that new skill! I can't believe how fast time is going-I know I always say that but it's true!