Not a Grinch!

So my family has accused me of being a Grinch. Steve had Matt covinced that they needed to put up the Christmas tree in October, because, "So what if we haven't had Halloween yet." For the record, I finally broke down and told them that they had my blessing to put the tree up. That was at least a week ago. Guess what...no tree yet. In the spirit of my holiday festiveness, I have changed our blog background. Scroll down to the bottom and check out the tree. :) You can even leave gifts for our very un-grinchy family. Happy Holidays!

Halloween

Our kids love Halloween. Okay, what kids don't? Not only do my kids look forward to dressing up and later gorging themselves with treats, but Grandma, their great-aunt, and their aunt came to visit. These wonderful women have come on Halloween for a couple of years now. They like to come see the kids and their costumes. The kids adore playing games, eating jack-o-lantern pizzas, and just soaking up the attention of people who love, love, love them!
Grandma and our aunt played a wild and crazy game of Halloween Bingo with the kids.
Rachel let me put her hair in curlers. Her hair is naturally curly, but we tried the spongy curlers to see if we could make it super curly.

We all went to Matt's school for the costume parade. Unfortunately Matthew zipped by too fast for me to get a good shot of him. My nephew went as Darth Vader (notice him in the bottom right corner). His costume was amazing. The entire time we were at the school, he had scads of little boys standing around him just staring at his costume - with their little eyes popping out and jaws on the blacktop. My sister is uber-creative and makes the most incredible costumes for her kids. Yah, we know where all the talented genes went...

I'm disappointed that I didn't get good pictures of the kids on Halloween. Perhaps we'll have a reinactment - minus all the gut and tooth rotting candy. They looked really cute, though. Matthew went as Albert Einstein. It's tough to see here, but his hair was all sprayed white. I let him grow it out for the occasion. (We even did family pictures last month. I so debated, but let him keep it long. Man, the boy has TONS of hair. So unfair!) Rachel and Bailey were princesses. Although, for several weeks leading up to Halloween, Rachel changed her mind quite a few times. Luckily, she came full circle and ended up with what we started.

The kids loved trick or treating and the weather was beautiful so we all went. We have a really super family in our neighborhood who builds a bonfire and serves hot cocoa and donuts. Yum. We had a blast. We really didn't stay out too long, but when we got home the kids were exhausted. Steve lied down on the floor and Rachel quickly snugged up to him and fell asleep.

Matt and I giggled about Rach and Dad, then I went upstairs to put Bailey to bed. When I came back down a few minutes later, I found him sacked out on the loveseat. The successful end to Halloween -- happy, tired children.

Pumpkin Walk

Every year we have a fun tradition to go to the Pumpkin Walk. Using pumpkins, people set up scenes based on a theme; this year's theme being "Heroes." We love to go in the evening because it's all lighted up and looks really cool. This year, though, we went in the afternoon to avoid the crowd and the cold.

One of the kids' favorites was Noah's Ark. (Tee hee, look at the cute elephant rumps in the doorway.)

This was one celebrating doctors and nurses. Rachel was enamored with the "pumpkin babies."

Brent, "The Waver," is an icon in Logan. He even carried the Olympic torch when it came through Logan during the winter Olympics.

This "Andy Griffith" one was cute. I wish you could see the faces better. They were painted on and it looked awesome. It totally made me think of my dear childhood friend who has every single episode memorized.

There were a bunch of wooden stand-ups for the coveted photo op. Actually, Matthew was a very good sport to pose for me. We took quite a few pictures, but the sun was shining in their little faces. That, and I stink at taking pictures. A lot of them didn't so much turn out.

Rachel - our "Wild Thing!!"

Catching up

I've got some catching up to do. Our computer has been out of order for a bit as the resident three year old tripped over the power cord and broke it. After finding the desired replacement cord at Best Buy for $149, we decided to call Gateway and ask about getting a new one. Great news for our pocketbook - the helper guy at Gateway was wonderful and arranged things so that we could get a new one for FREE. Yah, Gateway! So we had to wait about a week and a half for a new one. We weren't able to do a lot on the computer during that time, but, hey - free.
Fall has been kind of crazy this year. The weather stayed warm longer than I expected. Well, then it snowed. Then it got warmer again. Now it's rainy and cool. Anyhow, While the weather was still unseasonably warm, we took advantage of the warmth and spent as much time outside as we could. One evening we went to the park with some friends. Here are some pics.

Rachel and her best friend cheesing for the camera. (Do you like the little hiney hanging down in back of them? That was a stranger hiney.)

Baileys first ride down the slide with our cute friend. She really liked it.

Rachel hadn't napped that day and was tired. She was swinging in this big comfy swing and fell asleep. Truly, fell asleep right on the swing in the middle of the park.

SNOW!

Last Sunday we got our first official real snow. It didn't last long and nothing stuck, but there were big, beautiful flakes. The kids couldn't stand just watching from the window, so we threw on jackets and ran outside. Bring it on!

Princess Party

About a week and a half ago, Rachel and her best little friend celebrated their third birthdays. Rachel's birthday was in September and her friend's is in October. After realizing that we would be having 2 princess parties practically back to back and inviting essentially the same little group of kids, we decided to combine forces and have one party. So, poor little Rachel, who at three has no concept of time anyway, was even more confused by having a party several weeks after her birthday. She didn't waste too much time figuring it out, however, and just enjoyed celebrating again!


I know this picture is blurry (I'm not very good with our camera), but her friend's mom made the girls really cute little princess skirts and capes. It was darling, but of course, right after this photo, Rachel had to pull her trusty, tried and true purple princess dress over the top. Yah, she'd have to chose one of her oldest and not very birthday girlish dresses. Just for the record, I really tried to do her hair that day. She's actually getting really good at letting me do her hair - as long as I tell her it's princess hair. But as my life goes, on her birthday when people were going to be seeing her and we would be taking pictures, she didn't want anything but a headband that she could do herself.

The birthday girls decorating their princess crowns. They used very liberal amounts of glitter glue. Who can blame them?? C'mon, glitter glue! Because such generous amounts were used in the beautifying of the crowns, it took forever to dry. We had a gaggle of little girls with glittery hair and foreheads.

Steve worked the late shift that day so the lucky guy got to join the princess party. He was a good sport. The secret is that this dad is so completely smitten with his little girls that he really would have been disappointed to miss out. (Don't tell him that I blew his cover.)

The kids had a blast and it ended up being a really cute party.

6 Months Old!

On Friday Bailey officially reached her 6 month mark. How did that happen? I mean, when I was a kid, I'd nearly die trying to make it from lunch recess until the end of the school day. Now it seems that days, weeks, and months just fly by. Sorry, I digress. Anyhow, We celebrated the big 6 month day by giving her a first run in the excer-saucer. She loved it.

Our Bailey is such a sweet and mellow baby. She is so happy and so quick to smile - and she adores her big sister and brother. We love our little baby so much and can't imagine our life without her.