October {a *BIG* MONTH!}

It's the middle of October!  How did this happen?  Yesterday was Cora's 1st time playing in the leaves and she had such a fun time.  We've been super busy this month with school, activities & work, that I just realized what a BIG month October is.  This week, Cora will be 14 months, next week Marcus and I will celebrate our wedding anniversary, followed by Sonoma turning 3 and a half the very last week this month! Not to mention Halloween coming up too!  Did I ever tell y'all that Sonoma has had her costume for about 2 months now?  Yup, she's THAT excited!

In other BIG news for this month.....MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!!  KRISTA & JAKE ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!  I can't even tell you how excited I am.  Of course, you are always excited when anyone gets engaged, especially a close friend.  However, when your SISTER gets engaged, it's a whole different feeling.  I am just so happy for her.  Words can't even describe.

On to other updates with the family:

Cora:  Cora is walking most of the time now, but still enjoys crawling and eating things on the ground from time to time. She loves to climb on everything and stand up as if she is on top of the world.  She's always falling and has a hundred bruises and scratches all over her.  She really likes to climb on the speaker in our family room and stand on top of that, as well as our kids table in the playroom, any little chair, the foot rest in the nursery and the rocking horse.  I can't take my eyes off of her for one minute, and it's hard to get anything done during the day anymore.  I forgot how tough this stage was.  She is HILARIOUS, and always making us laugh.  She loves to throw things on the ground and yell "UH OH" in the cutest voice.  She also says "Barbie" which is one of my favorite words she can say. I took her to the gym day care for the first the past two Fridays and she did great.  Sonoma kept a good eye on her, and I'm glad I can go workout and take a class, and know she is in good hands.  Plus, Cora can't start our PDO until she is 2, so I want to make sure she gets some social interaction :)

I took Cora to her swimming class the past two Sundays because she was crying and reaching for me.  I thought if I took her a couple weeks in a row, I could show her how fun swimming was, and ease any uncertainties she may have.  This morning I told Marcus he needed to get back in the pool with her, and I left to go workout upstairs in the gym.  I came back 5 minutes early and sure enough, Cora was bawling her eyes out.  Marcus said she cried the. entire. class.

This girl won't get on a carousel but she sure liked her first real pony ride.  

Climbing in the closet

This is Cora's signature move right here.  

Checking out the animals at Blackberry Farm

She almost got her hand bit off by this turkey.

Icing her head with the Elmo boo-boo buddy

Checking out the fountain after a run

I have been catching Cora climbing on the American Girl furniture as if she is a little doll.  Lots of people have mentioned though, that she does sort of look like a doll.  It's really funny, but I don't want her to break any of it!  If you follow me on Instagram, then you probably saw my recent post of poor Samantha, missing her head.  (That was Sonoma's accident )

Cora is ALWAYS stealing our headbands, and she is ALWAYS climbing the stairs when we aren't looking.  This picture sums up Cora right now.

Happy girl.

Sonoma:  Sonoma is my little princess....always playing dress up, picking out accessories, purses, jewelry to wear for the day.  She is so creative and notices everything.  She is always giving out compliments and I love those things about her.  She is so helpful, and always helping me out with Cora, house work and other miscellaneous tasks.  She is still doing awesome in gymnastics and I'm proud of her.  She starts preschool gymnastics in a couple of weeks.  Both Sonoma and Cora are super healthy eaters and Sonoma loves to help in the kitchen and with grocery shopping.

Helping plant our bulbs!

The lady at the bank drive through said she was my mini me and had to do a double take when I pulled up.  She said we were both in the car, sipping our Starbucks with our sunglasses on :)

The Double Bob is my SAVING GRACE.  I do not not know what I would do without it.  I run with the girls just about every day of the week, and on the couple of days I don't run, Marcus runs with it.  Cora will NOT sit in the grocery cart anymore.  Even with the seat belt, she pushes it down and stands up.  So, I've resorted to taking the Double Bob grocery shopping.  Sonoma walks, Cora rides, and I pile everything up in the stroller.  It's a little crazy, but you do what you gotta do, right?!  Sonoma LOVES running and loves picking which paths to run on for the day.  Cora and I have been doing long runs on the Fox River on PDO days when I drop off Sonoma if the weather is nice.  This is the one baby item I could never live without.