Pigtails. Cute. Mine. :)

Children in boxes.

We were decorating yesterday and the kids decided to play in two boxes together . . . for over an hour. Climbing in and out, laying down in them, and eating pretzels together in their boxes. Eli asked to sleep in his box, but as that could be construed as child neglect I said no. Plus, I realized that I might want to actually save the boxes and put the little trees that came in them BACK in them, so the child-on-box violence needed to come to an end. It was fun while it lasted, right kids? :)

Climbing in our boxes.

Eating in our boxes . . . and smiling. :)

Singing in my box.

Looking super-cute in my box!

November Recap

Looking over my pictures from November I realized I 1) Took almost no pictures and 2) Our month looked pretty boring in the pictures I did take. However, I know we were busy, and we were sick, so there you go. Even on the trips we did take (Ohio for a weekend and then Thanksgiving) I took one picture. COMBINED. What?!? I must have been having an out-of-body experience for the whole month. Don’t know what I was doing, but being a shutterbug I was not. Oh well. 

Anyway, here’s a recap of our November, based upon my pictures since I have no memory of the things we actually did.  :)

Matea found Eli’s old sunglasses and wore them around the house for almost an entire day. I had forgotten that, but hey, I have a picture of it!

Hollywood here I come! 

Matea was sick after our visit to Ohio (I’m not sure what it was but she had a high temp and was clearly miserable but only for about 4 days and then was fine). She wanted to lay around all day . . . and really liked to lay on a pillow with Eli. Or just on Eli if he’d let her, which he did. He was super sweet to Matea while she wasn’t feeling well. Awwww.

We built forts . . . which we do a lot (I love making forts!). But for some reason I decided to take pictures only once, and then of the smallest fort we built. Go figure.

Matea enjoyed wrecking the forts, much to Eli’s consternation (and yes, this was taken the last day Matea was sick . . . obviously she’s starting to feel better).

Matea started wearing her hair down more, instead of in her trademark “whale spout.” Momentous people, momentous. I took a picture so obviously I cared about it. :)

For Thanksgiving we made a really fun craft with the kids . . . making turkeys out of Styrofoam cups. The kids LOVED painting the cups and then the feathers and then gluing it all together. Best craft ever . . . seriously.  I loved that they could do most of the steps themselves and I could make some turkeys too.

Eli’s turkeys! He had help with the “M”s and the football wings, but the rest he did himself.

We also made turkey cupcakes. A whole flock. :)

And this is my only picture from Thanksgiving . . . seriously, I don’t know where I was or what I was doing. I must have been off being thankful . . . yeah, that sounds good.

Mommy must have been super-thankful for me, because I’m the only thing she took a picture of!

There you have it folks . . . our exciting November. I didn’t even take pictures of my house decorated for fall (which I’ll regret next year when I try to remember where I put things). Hopefully December will get more screen time than November! :)

Halloween!

Trick-or-treat! Here’s your treat . . .  I’m finally posting pictures of Halloween on the blog! :)

This was our first Halloween in our new house, and while we’ve trick-or-treated in our sub for the last two years with Jeff and Lori, this year we were able to give instead of just receive. We weren’t sure how many kids to expect though. We got a fairly large amount and gave out about 5 pounds of candy or so (unfortunately we got just as much back!). I think because it got cold and windy that people didn’t stay out as long.

We started out by trick-or-treating down the street to meet up with Jeff and Lori, and Matea quickly discovered that she liked this trick-or-treating thing. And I quickly discovered that lugging around a baby is the “trick” part of trick-or-treat. It’s not much fun. Matea couldn’t walk fast enough to keep up with the older kids though, so I carried her around for a bit, then stuck her in the wagon with a piece of candy to chew on while she watched the kids run around. At that point (about half an hour in) the wind really picked up and it started to get cold. So when we went past our house again Matea was deposited at the door (a trick or a treat, I’m not sure) and we continued on. Grandma Amanda and Grandpa Terry, visiting to celebrate birthdays, stayed with Matea to hand out candy, which was very much appreciated!

After just one trip up and then back down the next street over Eli was finished. He said that he had enough candy (his bucket was full quickly with the handfuls of goodies he was getting at each stop) and, while he was warm in his outfit, Jon and I were cold!  Jeff and Lori continued on a bit longer but we headed inside to paw through our loot (which I didn’t get a picture of this year for some reason).  Then we headed over to Jeff and Lori’s for homemade marshmallows and hot chocolate. Nummy nummy! Our first Halloween in our new house was definitely a treat!

Why am I in the wagon again? What’s going on?

Posing with Koorny the scarecrow, Sleeping Beauty, FiFi the pink Poodle, Venom (not black Spiderman, don’t make that mistake), a dragon, and a Ninja. What a crazy family.

Candy grants the dragon the ability to fly off porches!

Waiting politely for candy(see Matea’s head?)

And taking a bite of it immediately.

Mom says she’s tired so I’ll just sit here and eat candy.

Still going strong and RUNNING between the houses (just watching made me tired).10 minutes later . . . one pooped candy collector.

Fall Fun - GFS Trick or Treating!

One of the annual highlights of fall is the time when we can go trick-or-treating at Jon's work. Eli really looks forward to it and was beyond excited when it was time to go there this year. Matea went last year but was only 4 months old, so it was all new to her this year. She spotted candy to grab almost immediately, and then loved getting candy in her bucket. It took her a while to catch on that you got candy, went to the next spot, got more candy etc. She wanted to just play with the candy she got at first. Eli knew to keep going and get more loot, so Daddy and Eli went ahead a little while I coached Matea on the procedure. :)

Shortly after that Matea realized what was going on and then was very in to it. She loved seeing the big blow-up Scooby Doo that one of the offices puts up, and really wanted to stay by him. Mommy finally had to pick her up so we could catch up to Daddy and Eli because she wouldn't leave Scooby! When we were done and walking back to the break area for cider and donuts Matea kept reaching towards every candy bowl she saw and protesting as we kept walking by. And once back at Daddy's desk she kept trying to make a break for it back to the hallway where the candy started. Once she had the hang of it she didn't want to stop!

Eli was happy that he got to pick out his candy from the bowls this year. He picked all sugar/gummy kind of stuff though so Mommy and Daddy are mooching off of Matea's loot (the chocolate that we picked and stuffed in her bucket). Some of the offices are decorated over the top, but Eli was brave enough to head on in right away this year. The promise of candy overcame any fear. :)

We had another great year at GFS - whoever thought of this tradition should get a raise! We love it and the kids love it!

Matea found the first bowl of treats and grabbed a bunch of them.

This place is big, whoah.

Look what I found in my bucket, Mommy!

What is this kind of candy?!

Heading in to one of the spooky offices.

Posing with a pumpkin decorated to look like a GFS truck!

Visiting Scooby Doo, a GFS trick or treating tradition (bonus: they have really good candy back in this office too).