A preview of tonight's costume...

In case you are wondering what Tabitha is going to be for Halloween this year, just check out these photos from the Ghouls and Ghosts event at the arboretum this past weekend.  Even though she is telling everyone that she is going to be Cinderella...I do think she secretly liked her elephant costume (plus she got way more compliments as an elephant than as a princess :)

Practicing her ballerina moves

Lookin' cute

Profile view

In front of the gingerbread house.  It was a bit chilly outside.

She stopped just long enough to snap one picture....

In front of the spooky cemetary

The terrific (yet sometimes terrible) twos

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...."  That quote in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities somehow describes our life with a two year old.  I've been told by a lot of people that they really like this age, and by others that they really hate this age.  I've come to realize that it can be both...many times it happens in the same day, the same hour, and even at the same time.

Now that Tabitha is mobile, can effectively communicate with us, and has her own opinions, she's always testing us it seems like.  I suppose that what you have to do in order to learn your boundaries.  She loves to try different things and is into exploring new items...even if they are forbidden by her parents.  She'll give us a sideways look with a mischevious grin and do something that she knows that she shouldn't be doing.  At the same time though it's fun to watch her learn, and to tell us her opinions.  There aren't many days that go by that our 30 minute drive home from work/daycare isn't filled with learning about her day at school, singing, or telling me about her friends.  I absolutely love this!  But then we can get home and she'll immediately pitch a fit because I won't let her do something (more than likely because it isn't safe--let me note for the record I am not overprotective though).

A funny story from today....James and I had had it with trying to get her to lay down and take a nap.  So, we just decided that we would do our own thing and let her do hers.  Instead of joining in with whatever she was doing, we just let her do it and ignored her...hoping she would get tired or bored and go and take a nap.  So, I was in our office going through old files while sitting on the floor.  Tabs came in and started trying to get me to look at her.  Pretty soon she left and it was quite, and thinking to myself that she had gone to take a nap, I looked up to find her marching back to where I was at.  I quickly avoided eye contact and went back to what I was doing.  Soon I realized she's right over my shoulder and before I knew it she was sticking one of her old pacifiers into my mouth.  Trying hard not to laugh at what she was doing I quickly removed myself and went elsewhere.  While it was so funny to see her trying to get my attenion, I was frustrated with her because she should have been taking a nap.  I am sure it will be these moments that I will miss when she gets older.

If you are wondering, she did finally decide to take a nap.  Not in her bed, but next to Fred.

A few weeks ago we took a trip to the Children's Museum.  It's one place that we hadn't been with Tabitha yet.  I had heard great things about it, so we decided to check it out.  We had a fantastic time!  There was so much to see and do that even though we knew Tabitha was hungry, she didn't want to leave.  I guess we'll be looking into a membership there too ;)

Pulling out the flowers and sticking them into the ground

Bringing mommy a really big sandwich!

Stacking blocks in the castle area

Watering the garden

Picking out produce at the grocery store

Checking out with daddy

The slide!

Curious George exhibit

Driving the Metro Transit bus

I took this picture on a gloomy, overcast Thursday.  It was too cute to pass up and certainly brightened the day!

The Big Girl Bed!

Much to my dismay, as of last weekend we are once again a cribless household.  As you have probably guessed already, that is because we made the move to a big girl bed.  When we purchased Tabitha's bedroom set, we want to make sure that we bought one that converts to a toddler bed (and also to a full size bed later on).  I think this helped to make the transition a lot easier.

In addition to the big girl bed, we decided that Tabs could also get new sheets and a pillow.  And of you can guess, she decided to pick out princess sheets!  She wanted Elmo sheets, but we didn't find any on our (short) hunt for new bedding, so she decided that Cindrella would work great.

So, far the move to the toddler bed is going well.  She's good about staying in her bed and she wakes up every morning talking about her princess pillow.  Ahhh...to be a two year old again.

After putting the princess sheets on she quickly climbed up and voluntarily took a nap.

Excited about her new bed (with all of her friends and blankets)

The Apple Orchard

Several weeks ago now, Tabs and I went with Grandma to the apple orchard.  Unlike last year's apple orchard visit in shorts and a t-shirt, this year's visit was in a heavy coat.  We had a lot of fun picking apples, riding horses, and seeing lots of neat things.  We can't wait for next year's adventures....

Burrr...it was a cold one outside

Helping grandma!

Driving the tractor

I've got 14 more years until Tabs turns 16 and I see my car insurance rates climb to some sky high amount.  Until then though I'll let her "practice" driving.

Bed head

Need I say more....

Check out James' new blog...it will have lots of his awesome photography and more.

Chaco Dunbar Photography

Here's a preview of things to come.

Today I put my garden to bed.  With overnight temperatures expected below freezing for several upcoming nights, I decided now was the time to finish gathering my crop and getting it ready for the snow.

I read an article in the paper about a month ago that said people were having a poor crop in their backyard gardens this summer.  Between the heat and little rain, things such as tomatoes just weren't doing as well.  I beg to differ though!  This is the fifth summer I've had a garden, and by far it was my most productive and well producing garden. 

So, what did we do that made this year that made it so much better.  I am not sure.  The only thing that we did differently this year was take down the huge tree that partially shaded the garden.  The canopy in years past was so thin that it let a lot of light in already....so I don't think that had much to do with it.  While my neighbor couldn't get any cucumbers to grow (and her garden is a mere 10 feet from ours), we couldn't pick the cucumbers fast enough. 

So, with that, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking....

In April...after tilling the garden

In June...behind Tabs and James is a growing garden.

Tabs proudly showing off a cucumber almost as big as her!

Taken a few weeks ago.  Luckily I had so much in there that it kept the weeds to a minimum.

My harvest of about 30 cups of carrots.

Another 30 cups of green onions

Approximately 50 cups of tomatoes (this is only about 1/4 of the total amount of tomatoes we picked all summer)

And my most proud moment.  I was FINALLY able to grow not just 1 pumpkin...but 4 of them!  And this is only from one seed that I planted.  (Yes, the one in the back is green, but we'll paint that one for halloween).