Light Up Night 2012

A few weeks ago we went to Pittsburgh's Light Up Night downtown. It's one of our traditional family events.  We unfortunately did miss last year because Andrew and George were on a scout camping trip and I decided it was too cold to take Lily.  This year almost didn't happen though.

We went back and forth debating on going or not going and finally Daddy and Lily started a cheer with a clapping sequence and ending with "Light Up Night!"  We love the fireworks that night and ultimately we decided we'd go to make sure we saw those!

We bundled up in coats, hats and gloves and off we went to explore our beautiful downtown lit up for Christmas!

 

 

We hit a few highlights after grabbing something to eat ...which is part of the fun for my kids--eating carnival type food that night.  Complete with funnel cake.

After the mall trick or treat nightmare, getting Lily out of the stroller wasn't an option because once she's out, she's out and there's no going back in.  If she's doesn't get out, then she's none the wiser and we have no struggle. ;)

 

 

And then it gets later and she gets tired and wants to get out to "run run"... but we make her stay put.

 



We walked around looking at the various trees throughout the downtown area, saw the ice sculptures, people watched, listened to live music and then finally headed back to the Clemente Bridge to watch the fireworks.

old Horne's department store

 

Market Square

 

PPG Plaza

 

 

Finally it was time for fireworks! {and for Lily to get out of the stroller}

 

I love my little family and I'm glad it's important to all of us that we go and do this each year. ♥ It's a great kick off to the holiday season!

Trick-Or-Treat

Well, after our mall trick-or-treating {which we will never be doing again} we had our town's rescheduled trick or treating on Saturday after Halloween!  With the weather issues, we had decided Lily's original costume wasn't going to work out, so we had to resort to our back up{s}. It had gotten really cold, so I went with the warmest of the three choices.  My sweet little flower, went as a flower.

Andrew decided last minute to reuse a costume from a couple years ago and since we were in a different neighborhood, it worked out! He went as the Headless Horseman.

Reagan was supposed to be with her mother for trick or treating, but with it being rescheduled for us, she got to do both! Score!  Her costume lit up blinking with blue lights which was really neat! She went as a "dark bride."

 

 

We stopped over at our next door neighbor's house first to show off the kids...she adores them! Lily made herself at home, of course, and just went inside.

 



We headed over to Granny & Pappy's to trick-or-treat and just the kids and I headed out. Daddy was working and Oma decided her Arizona attire wasn't warm enough and she opted to pass out candy with Granny & Pappy and stay warm. 

Lily was afraid of her new wagon at first and was simply content to run from house to house saying "Chicken Treat!" which I love so much!!

 

 

Andrew was glad I had the wagon, so we could dump his bucket in and he could refill.

 

the haul

After I put Lily in the wagon, under protest, to keep moving along as we were all getting tired, she was content to ride and eat her Fritos.

About an hour and a half of freezing cold later, we headed back to Granny & Pappy's to pick up Oma and go home. The kids and I really enjoyed ourselves and the atmosphere while we were out was happy and festive. Many people sat outside in their yards often with bonfires and greeted the kids as they came up oohing and ahhing over how cute Lily was, how pretty Reagan looked and how awesome Andrew looked!  After the scariest trick or treat ever at the mall, the postponing of neighborhood trick-or-treating, we ended up having a really great time this Halloween!





Someone had an exceptionally good time...

 

 

p.s. Don't forget today's the last day to get $50 towards holiday cards!!

Ends 11:59PST. $25 of it can be used towards ANYTHING, but the promocode is only good for holiday!

The Scariest Trick or Treat EVER!

Along with the rest of the East Coast we were waiting for the big Frankenstorm aka Sandy for the last few days. I'd done my part with the groceries, meal planning and prep, ensuring batteries and flashlights were ready to go. George did all the man stuff and quite honestly, I don't even know what it all was. I'm grateful I don't have to worry or even know what he's doing to prepare for our family because it's simply taken care of.  {even though some of the process makes me insane}
I am forever grateful for who he is.

As the weather reports kept coming in worse, school was canceled for today and trick-or-treating was postponed until Saturday night.

Since the worst of it was to hit us late last night with high winds and tons of rain, we decided to take the kids to the mall for trick or treating where it would be dry and to have something fun to do. We met up with two of my friends and their kids. Seeing them both {and their kids} always makes me happy!

George took a vacation day to ensure we were prepared for the storm and a potential power outage, so he was able to come mall trick or treating with us.  Yay!

We blew out of the car, literally as the wind whipped the doors open and were hit by cold, cold rain as we ran inside. Despite looking like drowned rats, we were good to go. Andrew decided to recycle his Headless Horseman costume from a couple years ago and Lily went as Minnie Mouse.

We've been working on teaching her to say "Trick or Treat" and her version is "Chicken Treat" which I am in love with!

Apparently the whole city had this same idea to go to the mall for trick or treating. It was so packed and basically a long, long line for a little bit of candy for each of the kids. Think slow moving conga line around each floor of the mall going from store to store. 

 Lily had walked along in line holding her Daddy's hand happily throughout the night. As we made our way around half of the top floor, we got to a stopped part of the line by the food court. There were a couple little kids around age 4 or 5 dressed like Spiderman stopped near where we were and I saw a mom cover her kid's eyes when she saw Andrew's costume. I laughed as I told George what I saw and he jokingly said to Andrew, "You should walk over to them."

I started to fix Andrew's costume near his eyes at that moment as George said, "Where's Lily?"

I immediately looked by his leg where she was JUST standing holding his hand literally seconds ago and frantically scanned around amidst all of our legs of our group of 10 of us aside from Lily and she was gone.

I immediately started running back the way we had come {behind us} as random people in line were saying "Minnie? She went that way." pointing back. I went back close enough to George to yell, "I can't find her!!!" and then kept running back looking for her among a mass of people waiting in line for trick or treating. Only it wasn't like a single file line but a group of people in lines.  More people than I could possibly easily spot my 2 year old who I'm almost certain was grinning from ear to ear shouting "run run" as she sent me into a panic.  

I kept running, asking if anyone had seen a pink 2 year old Minnie and kept getting, "She went that way" still pointing back.  Panic was beginning to set in for me.  {as I'm typing this now even a day later, my heart is literally pounding out of my chest and I can barely see through my tears}

I got all the way near an anchor store at one end of the mall the whole time thinking, "She could NOT have gotten this far." 

At the escalator, there was a mall security guard and a police officer standing there looking over the balcony at the bottom level. I grabbed them and screamed, "I'm missing my daughter! She's 2, dressed in a pink Minnie Costume!"
The cop asked me where I saw her last and then radioed that a 2 year old in a pink Minnie Costume was missing between the Food Court and Macy's. 

At that time George and Andrew had made it to me as I shouted again, "I can't find her!!!" Right then a woman shouted, "I got her!" and there. she. was.  Praise the Lord! 

I grabbed her as she was looking up at the woman annoyed that this person was holding her from running. I heard the cop say over the radio, "She's been found." admist all the chaos of where we were.
Lily excitedly said, "Mama!" as she hugged me and then George scooped her up to hug her and carry her back to where Stef and Amber and the rest of the kids were.  Andrew walked with me behind George and Lily as I tried to process what had just happened and he kept saying, "That was so scary. I'm so glad we found her." I cried. George almost threw up.  I watched Lily look at her Daddy then put her head on his shoulder and later learned he was telling her she has to stay with Mommy and Daddy and we were so scared. 

This all took place in about 3 minutes time from "Where's Lily?" to finding her.  It felt like a lifetime.

The red X on the left is where we were. The red X on the right is where we found her.

I don't think it really had sunk in yet for me.  Honestly, one of the scariest moments of my entire lifetime.  My greatest fear is someone taking one of my children.

Stef, Amber and their kids were also really scared and so happy we all returned with Lily!  At that point we were done trick or treating. After an attempt to allow the kids, including our Lily to run off energy we headed to the play area, but quickly decided it was also too chaotic and after the last few minutes, so we headed to McDonald's to eat together before all heading home.

After we got home and Lily was safely tucked in bed, the reality hit me pretty hard. I cried a lot and when George said, "Can you imagine if we had to come home without her tonight?" the possibility of how close she was to an exit that someone could have simply left with her so easily terrified me.

There were a lot of prayers and praising going on as we went to bed last night.  

This was most definitely a reminder that in an instant, life can change.  Lily is such an independent little one and she is so fast. She had no idea. She was just happy to run and it literally happened in seconds. Letting go of her Daddy's hand, he said something to Andrew and we looked down and she was gone. SECONDS. 

I'm so, so grateful our story has a happy ending.

she must be thanking God...I know I was

Spray Park Playdate

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One of our playdates this super hot summer was at a local spray park! There are only 3 of them around the Pittsburgh area and we decided to hit one up with all the kids!  It's always good when the big kids are around to help and this was one of the rare times Andrew was home in between his trips this summer!

Lily wasn't so sure about it at first and just ran around the outer edge of the spray pad and would take off towards the park. 

Like I said, having the big kids around totally helps! Tracy and Stef's boys stayed with her on this park escape.

Eventually and with her big brother's coaxing, she was right in the middle and having a ball!

 

It was a busy day at the spray park and between the 10 kids {of ours}, there were a lot of things going on at one time!

Not to be held back because he's two and the biggest boys are double digits, Logan does everything the biggest boys do.

It was a super hot day where everyone played together, enjoyed cooling off in the water and had a great time!  I always think it's super fun to see all the baby girls together interacting. There's always a lot of laughter on the mom end.

 Lily going in for the side "huggin"

There was resting and eating going on throughout the day as well.

As the day went on, Lily definitely was happily splashing and playing in the water without Andrew to help her anymore.

 

 

This was one of my favorite playdates this summer! Lots of fun, sun and friends.  Lily and Andrew both slept all afternoon, but not until after we stopped at Sonic for a slushie on the way home. ;)  It was a happy summer day ~ one of the few days with Andrew home in the early part of the summer!