Pumpkin carving

Is this a Shaun face or what?

At least the girls are being normal...

Oh, yay, a nice picture!

Love this one of Sophia lounging.

Eating purees, yeah I decided to let her try them.

She's not so sure about them.

I'm a graduate student

So, I'm not sure how many people know this already, but I've been working towards going back to school for nursing. I had about 7 pre-req classes over the past year and a half I had to take before applying and, in total, I applied to 4 schools. I applied to 3 Associate degree programs and one Master's program. I was denied even being considered into the first school because I messed up the paperwork. Major dumb move on my part but it was one of those live and learn moments. The second school I was accepted into but it was a private school and tuition ran into the $500+ per credit range. Ouch! So I actually turned that down. The third program said I met qualifications, but I didn't score high enough on their rubric scale to gain acceptance.

By this point in time I was majorly bummed. Really? If 3 Associate degree programs didn't pan out, what hope did I have for the Master's degree program? So, just this week, I seriously started the hunt for a full time job. I applied to 10. Then today...

I got my acceptance into an Entry Level Master's of Science in Nursing degree program! It's an intense full time course load over 7 semesters (including summers) so I'll graduate in about 2.5 years. After a little less than a year of study I'll qualify for my LPN (it's required before clinicals). The program is 29 undergrad credits and 31 graduate credits. In the end I'll be an RN with a Master's degree.

My mind is racing about a million miles per minute right now and I'm having a hard time grasping the news. They only accept about 30 students per year into this program. I seriously was thinking I had no shot at getting in. I have to turn in my acceptance form by Nov 11th (uh, that thing's going in the mail tomorrow) and then I'll get more information about orientation and registration for the spring semester. I CANNOT WAIT!

Daycare Fall Festival

Here are some pictures from the Fall Festival at the kids' daycare. Consider this your Halloween preview. Next up: post of the pumpkin carving fun!

Sophia as a monkey, her real monkey costume should arrive this weekend.

Evie's top model pose.

Face painting!

It's a spider on Captain America.

Eh, not so sure about the face painting...

But the sucker sure is good!

Hi Soph!

Cheese!

Feel the love

After how much teaching, "redirection" and structure I provide there are times that I feel less than liked by the kids (yeah, yeah irrational, but it's true). So it's nice when every once in a while the kids let me know just how much they care:

- Recently I went out of town for 3 days. After getting home my least cuddly babe, Lex, just wanted to sit on my lap for a good half hour.

- Last week Evie was able to spend the night with her Nana Jane and I was preparing her for the change in her routine. I let her know Jane would pick her up from school and take her to spend the night at her house. Evie thought it was a great idea but told me that she "would be sad too." When I asked her why, her response was "because I will miss my mommy." Awe. I always figured whenever they hung out with any grandma that I was the last thing they thought about because hanging with their grandmas is their favorite thing.

- This past weekend they went to my mom's cabin for the weekend. It was nice to find out that they wanted me to come to the cabin all weekend. Next time kiddos, next time.

- Can't leave out Sophia. She lets us feel the love every time we go to pick her up out of her crib. That big ole smile is enough to melt anyone's heart!

Fall time fun

I love that the kids love to read. For their birthdays this year they each got a Tag reader so they're able to read books to themselves. One weekend day a couple weeks ago this is how I found them in their bedroom.

This year we went to a local hibachi grill place for Shaun's birthday. They bring out a delish banana dessert and sing a birthday song while placing this on the birthday person's head.

Here are a few pics from their recent trip to the cabin with my mom.

Now time for the videos, right? The first couple are of Sophia, trying to capture her giggles on camera. She's very stubborn about this. Just this morning I was getting belly laughs from her and as soon as I pulled out the camera she stopped. Little bugger. I promise to keep working on getting a great video of the belly laughs!

This next one is just a video of the older two playing in the leaves as I'm trying to rake. They've become obsessed with this fall activity and request it every time we pull into the driveway at home.

This last one is Sophia's latest trick. She's starting to mimic us! Check out what she's choosing to mimic.

Hello readers

I love that Blogger tracks how many page views, what country people are viewing your blog from, and what links or searches send people to your blog.

For example, from using this stat tracker I discovered that an image search of "Raspberry Massacre" or "Stereotypical American Family" will bring up pictures from my blog in the first few images/pages. Searching the web for "the Daily Life of a Ladybug" generates my blog as the 4th link. Some other searches that have linked to my blog include "contractions", "hows baby lifes", and "for me again". Not really sure how those linked to my blog but apparently they helped people find their way here.

I have readers in India, Macedonia, Brazil, Indonesia, China (hey, I'm not banned here!)...to name a few that I don't know people in. I received a hit from the Philippines the other day that may have been Phil on a trip, or some random reader. I'm fairly certain hits in Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Canada, Italy and the UK were the result of some mom groups I'm in or Jane and Phil on their travels. I only wish Blogger stored information for all the countries that I get a hit from. Unfortunately, they only store the information for the top viewed from countries.

So, hello readers! Feel free to leave a comment from time to time. With 400+ page views a month I'd love to hear from you!

-and- I promise photos and video tomorrow!

Short update

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm planning on getting on here later today or tomorrow with a proper post. In mean time, Lex has been using the toilet to go potty! At home and at daycare he's been sitting on the toilet at diaper changes. He hasn't actually been going potty on it at home (not really at daycare as far as I know either) but last night he went twice! I'm so excited that he may be as easy to potty train as Evie was. Also, yesterday Sophia made progress on her rolling over. She's not rolling all the way (yet) but she's getting closer. What surprised me yesterday is that she almost rolled from her back to her belly. She may actually roll that way before going from belly to back.

I love these kids

Just some cute pictures of the kiddos :-)

I love the look on Sophia's face here.

Sophia "What the heck are you doing to that baby?!"

When did Evie become such a ham?