Happy Halloween!

This week was definitely full of Halloween festivities!  On Thursday we hosted a little party for the nursery and sunbeam kids in our ward and enjoyed all the craziness!  We decorated the house, had a few games and crafts, and a TON of food.  It was nice to visit with the moms and see the kiddos in their darling costumes.

Our house ready for some haunting festivities!

Hylie dressed up as Anna from Frozen, and if I do say so myself, I think she makes a darling Princess Anna!

Hylie was REALLY excited to be Anna and loved running around the house as we played songs from Frozen.  Halloween is so much fun with little kids!

Hylie with one of her friends who dressed up as Elsa

On Friday our ward had a trunk-or-treat which was a delight and a great warm up for trick-or-treating on Halloween night.  On Saturday we got to frolic from house to house (after the rain let up) with some friends from the ward whose 4-year-old dressed up as an anteater and their little 2 month-old was an ant!  Ha ha!

Miles the anteater!

Hylie really got into it this year, it was so fun watching her run from house to house, saying "Trick-or-Treat", and excitedly watch the candy drop in her little bucket.

Eliana, on the other hand, wasn't digging this whole dress up thing.  We tried to get her to be a cabbage patch kid, but she just wanted to be Eliana this year!

Pumpkin Carving

Believe it or not, this is the first pumpkin we've carved since being married!  Ha ha!  Hylie really enjoyed it and didn't even mind the slimy pumpkin guts!

Hylie designed the pumpkin and was excited to have its tongue sticking out!

Preschool Fun!

Doing preschool with Hylie has been so much fun!  She's always eager to learn, I love putting the little lessons together (with "Pinspiration", of course!) and then watching her figure things out is such a treat.  It's amazing the changes I've seen in just a few weeks.

Learning how to count and recognize letters is always more fun with treats, right?

Learning how to skate! 

October Bliss

We've had such beautiful weather this October and got outside as much as possible to enjoy it.

I sure enjoy having these two in tow everywhere I go!

Fall Festival Flop

Every year I keep thinking our family will make it to a pumpkin patch, but for various reasons it hasn't panned out.  This year I saw our local nursery was doing a Family Fall Festival and took Hylie and Eliana to check it out.  The main pull for me was they advertised making your own scarecrow--Hylie has been asking about scarecrows a ton this fall, so I thought this would be perfect.  When I arrived they had a little sign being held by an adorable scarecrow which read: Scarecrows: $5 Adult-size, $3 Child-size.  Great!  We can make a scarecrow for $3!  So I stepped up to the cashier and asked for a child-size scarecrow and handed them $3.  They took my cash and then asked, "Do you want a head for your scarecrow?"  "Umm, yes?"  That was an extra $2.  I was worried what I had just gotten myself into.  Sure enough they were nickle and diming EVERYTHING!  Do you want a hat?  A handkerchief? Hair?  Eyes?  So I got the absolute bare minimum but when they handed me all the supplies, there were no clothes included to make the actual scarecrow.  Hesitantly, I asked about the body and got the response, "Oh, you're supposed to bring your own clothes."  By then, I'm sure my face showed nothing but disgust and displeasure.  One of the workers pulled out an old pink t-shirt and pants and said, "Here, you can have this."  Amazingly, they gave it to me free of charge.  I was then lead over to the scarecrow assembling area which was a massive pile of hay.  With Eliana strapped to my front and a confused Hylie in tow, I started stuffing the head and clothes as quickly as possible.  Poor Hylie had NO idea what was going on and was trying to help stuff--but it wasn't an easy task.  I got the head and shirt stuffed, assembled and tied together but by the time I had the hat attached I could tell Hylie had lost all interested and was a little worried about being surrounded by 10-year-old boys jumping crazily in the hay.  So I gave the pants back to the workers and got out of that mess as quickly as possible.  Oh, and did I mention I'm allergic to hay?  Ha ha!  Thank goodness for Benadryl!  The crazy thing was though, there were a ton of people making MULTIPLE, huge scarecrows!  There were families carrying four or five to their cars.  I may be missing something when it comes to scarecrows, but this was definitely not my bag.  Fortunately, they had some other activities.  Hylie got to decorate a pumpkin, get her face painted and they had a little photo area.  But I don't believe we'll be returning to this event next year...

Hylie waiting her turn for face painting 

Now if that doesn't look like a $10 scarecrow, I don't know what does!

Eliana - 10 months

Eliana is doing me a favor and is taking her time growing up...she still doesn't show any interest in being mobile, hasn't cut any teeth, and just loves being held and snuggled!  At her check-up she weighed in at 20 lbs. 8 oz. and is 28" long and continues to be happy and healthy.

It's pretty comical to set her on the floor and spread out toys to see if she will try to move for anything.  You come back a few minutes later, and she is exactly where you left her--but a little more grumpy.

 She continues to love self-feeding and prefers food from the table as opposed to baby food.  When we put multiple food items on her tray, it's amusing to watch her pick out her favorite items first.

Hylie and Eliana continue to have a sweet relationship.  In the mornings when I get Eliana out of the crib to change her diaper,  she'll be calmly laying on the changing table until she hears Hylie running down the hall, all of a sudden Eliana gets super excited--legs kicking, arms flailing, and giggling away!

Hylie showing Eliana the ropes of playing dress-up

Eliana enjoys herself quite a bit as well!  Who wouldn't love such a cutie?