Sneak Peak

 A little taste of what's to come....

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was pretty good to us this year. My mom came out to visit again (this is her sixth visit since we've moved here - seriously - thanks mom!) and Greg and Britt came up to see us too. We had the pretty typical activities - first, we went to the church "trunk or treat." Here we are all dressed up and ready to go. Can you guess what everyone is? Eliza and Esther thought that I really was Mary Poppins. Eliza called me Mary Poppins all night and thought I was so awesome. She also did everything I asked the first time I asked her. Maybe all it takes is a Mary Poppins costume every day. That and a really bad british accent.
Erik and Eden at the trunk or treat.

Here is Eliza and her friend Carson from nursery. I've already arranged a marriage.

Our bishop made balloon animals for all the kids. Here is Eliza waiting for her puppy.

Nana and the girls at the trunk or treat. We didn't make Nana wear her costume to church. Read on to see why.

I think we had the best trunk in the ward. We had a spooky cauldron and scary noises.

The next day we carved our pumpkin. I was smart and only got one this year, because it always goes down the same way: everyone is interested at first, and then I am left by myself to carve. Here is Erik doing his part - cutting off the top. Pumpkin guts give him the heebie jeebies so he never wants to participate past this point.

Eliza got into it for a while, even scraping out some guts. About three minutes later, I was all alone. I wish Erik had gotten a picture of that.

So, Eliza was in charge of picking out everyone's costumes this year. Britt was assigned to be a ghost, so she went old-school Charlie Brown style with the white sheet.

We decided she looked more like a terrorist than a ghost. (As you can see, Greg was a "soldier.")

Poor Nana had to be Mama Odie (from Princess and the Frog). I have to say, she did a dang good job with her costume. What a good sport.

Here's the crew heading out trick or treating. We were quite a sight to see - a soldier, a terrorist, and Mama Odie.
We also can't have a holiday without decorating sugar cookies. Eliza and Esther really loved it this time. Does everyone love Eliza's new 'do?

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope yours was as fun as ours!

(Thanks again for coming Mom, Teets, and Lenny).

Esther turns 2!

Happy Birthday to Esther! She turned 2 years old on the 13th. We celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese (we can't escape it) and having cake. When it's your birthday at our house, you get a new party dress and balloons, and then you run downstairs to open presents. As you can see, when Esther gets excited, that tongue does not stay in her mouth. Ever.

Here she is with a couple of her presents:

A new kitchen
A Belle Doll:

And her favorite, a shopping cart.
Aunt Lori and Uncle Greg sent Esther these awesome Belle cookies. She was so excited that they had to sit next to her bed and "watch her go to sleep."

Every day leading up to her birthday I asked Esther what kind of cake she wanted. "Belle. Belle. A thousand times Belle." The day before her birthday she changed it up on me. Good thing I had a spare Cinderella from when Eliza turned 2.
Happy Birthday to my little Lee-Lee! We love you!!

Seven Months Old

Time flies.

BIG 3-0

Happy Birthday to Erik! He turned the big 3-0 on Saturday. As Eliza says, he's "tir-dee" (say it out loud hehe). He got a very special present - something that he's wanted for a long, long time!

It's already a huge hit. Eliza calls it the "big phone."

Erik wants the exact same cake every year. Chocolate cake, chocolate icing, snickers on top.

After the birthday celebration, we went over to a local farm that had a pumpkin patch. It was awesome.

Eden liked to play with the hay.

They had a huge stack of hay bales with different slides coming down. Esther went straight for the tallest one, but once she got to the top she realized that she wanted a little help coming down.

Eliza saw another little girl getting her face painted and decided she wanted to give it a try. She giggled the whole time.

Such a beautiful butterfly. Every day we talk about going back to the pumpkin patch to paint our face again.

Once Esther saw the awesome butterfly, she wanted to give face painting a try too.

After the face painting, everyone wanted to jump on the big air bouncer.

Thirty and still a hottie.

I think Esther's favorite part of the whole day was playing with the wagons. She loved trying out every one.

Hooray for the pumpkin patch! We didn't get any pumpkins this time but I'm sure we'll be back once or twice before Halloween.

College Football

Who are you rooting for?

School

I didn't want to do it. I wasn't quite ready. Plus, to be honest, I didn't even think she would go.

But she kept on asking.

"Mom, can I please go to school?"

I don't think she knew entirely what she was asking, but we signed her up. And she loves it.

Eliza has never been able to go to anything without melting down. Nursery, ballet, swimming...you name it. Needless to say, I thought preschool was going to head down that same direction.

The first day rolled around, and I took her to the front door. I gave her a kiss and told her that I would miss her and to mind her teachers. "OK Mom," she says. Then she turns around and heads into school, without a second look. WHAT?!?!

I'm so happy that she has found something that she loves SO much. She goes twice a week but asks every day if she can go to school. I think mostly it's because there is a sandbox on the playground.




Now Esther wants to go too.