Happy Halloween

Halloween morning we awoke and were pretty darn excited. A fun day to wear our costumes visit with neighbors and go trick-or-treating in town and our cul-de-sac.  Plans would soon change but for the morning things were looking good.

Jaydon was cookie monster

Lucy wore this fun winnie the pooh costume in the morning because a friend had given it to us and it was the right size.

We needed to go to the grocery store and Jaydon was excited to bring his fake cookies with us.

The kiddos posing for a picture, Cookie Monster has never been known to share his cookies very well and this held true in our family too.

Happy boy!

Three hours later we had a sick boy on our hands.  I noticed at the store he was really mellow and when we got home at midday he wanted to just rest on the couch and soon fell asleep in dads arms (something he hasn't done since he was a baby).  We put him to bed and he woke up with a fever and some other not fun cold and flu symptoms.  We had to text the neighbors that we would not be making it for trick-or-treating but that they might see us in a few days.

 I think these photos are of the next day, being sick means soup dinner on the couch while watching a sesame street.  He was laughing so hard about Grover trying unsuccessfully to build a playhouse.  We had to watch it over and over because it was so cute to watch him.  

Feeling better but still not perfect!

First tooth

Obligatory photos to attempt to show the first tooth coming through

Halloween Party

The Leighton's are enjoying hosting their annual Halloween party for the second generation of kids.  Most of the attendees went to the party when we were kids and are now bringing our kids.  Pretty awesome!

Jaydon as cookie monster

Lucy as a chicken, her hat is a bit small.

The four of us

Carving pumpkins with dad

Brenna and her daddy carving

Jaydon found the lawn mower, that was way more exciting.

The finished product, I am guessing Jeremy must have taken this photo and handed Jaydon the sharp knife to hold in front of it.  Cute if not somewhat scary!

Lucy 7 Months

Time is going so fast!  It seems not that long ago that Lucy was five months and not doing much more than rolling and playing on her back or tummy on the floor.  Now in two short months she is moving everywhere, walking on things like a champ and just growing up so fast. I tell people that it doesn't even seem like I have a baby anymore, she just seems so much older than 7 months most of the time.  

I don't have any new stats at this time and probably the most exciting news is that for the first time since birth we had a whole month that we didn't have to go to the Dr.  She is gaining weight - absolutely loving her solids and doing much better with her spit up.  She still has some flare ups and times that are worse than others but it is getting better.  She is a loving girl who likes to get her snuggles in but also enjoys rolling around and 'tackling' her brother and anyone else who wants to play.  We will have to work on this but she already shows signs that she might be a biter, when she gets mad at Jaydon she will go right up and put her open mouth on his leg or arm trying to bite down.  Thankfully she hasn't had real luck yet but I can see it coming.

Ok, I LOVE these photos!!

Driving her car.

Playing some hoops

Riding on the explorer truck!

Sucking her thumb in her exersaucer

Tunnels and foam blocks - life is good!!

Pumpkin Farms

As is tradition we went to the local pumpkin patch for a fun day of seeing animals, doing fun pumpkin patch activities and eating tasty treats (I couldn't eat them this year but it already makes me look forward to next year).  On our way we drove by a different location advertising a pumpkin patch so we stopped there first, it was nice but not quite the same. So after a couple photos on the wooden horse we continued on.

First stop and a fun rocking horse!

The blue ribbon winners!

"How tall this fall"  I love that we have a photo of Jaydon in front of this sign the previous two years, look back to previous October posts if curious. 

Hello!

Feeding the geese

Feeding the chickens

Both kids posing on the hay horse!

Jaydon chose a bright orange pumpkin cookie which he loved!  Jeremy enjoyed an apple turnover!  So delicious and so fun.

Cookie Monster

Jaydon wanted to be cookie monster for Halloween after he saw a costume in a shop he went in with Dad.  They even ended up buying the costume at a later date but the zipper was broken so we returned it.  When I found out how expensive it was I decided to make him one myself.  Not to mention I had had made all his previous costumes so I felt bad not playing a part in this one.  It was a bit of work and I couldn't find the pattern I wanted so I ultimately ended up driving with the kids an hour and fifteen minutes south to go to a good friends house because she is a great sewer and had a bunch of patterns and costumes from her kids.  She helped me pin and cut an old bear patter and then I loaded the kids and headed back up.  Thankfully Wendy had also just bought a sewing machine so we were in business.   

Here it is mostly together just working on the hood part and hemming.

Final product (on the day of Halloween we put ping pong balls on for the eyes), but the fabric worked well for the time being.

He loved it!  Here he is eating some of the fake cookies I made.

Swim Lessons

We enrolled Jaydon in swim lessons for a couple times a week and he was excited yet a bit apprehensive at the same time.  He enjoyed playing and splashing in the warm water but he wasn't the best at following the teachers directions, it was a bit horrifying for me as a teacher too but the instructor did a nice job and got him to join in the activities.  He doesn't want to put his head under yet so we are going to do another few rounds to get him more comfortable.

Just having had the pre-swim shower, never a real fun activity.

I am not sure what this face is but he was watching what was happening before being called into the water.

Wading in for his first day.  Then of course I have no other photos of him doing anything fun because I was keeping a baby entertained.  Hopefully next session I can get some better action shots.

Happenings

Trying to save time, a little, and combine some of the shorter posts or pics I wanted to include.

Joint bath time!  With how well Lucy sits and plays with stuff and holds her head up she moved into the big bath and Jaydon was excited to start taking baths with her.  They have a surprisingly good time hanging in the tub.  When Lucy is done after not too long Jaydon will then continue to play for a long time enjoying his water time.

Jaydon will sometimes read to Lucy.  Here he was giving her a bedtime story about shapes. See how engaged she was in the story :)

And a random photo of the massive amounts of laundry I do almost daily and a pic of Higgins in one of his new favorite spots atop the nice warm clean laundry.  Jaydon climbed into the basket and did not make Higgins that happy but Higgins put up with it to stay on the warm laundry.

Playing Together

Lucy loves her big brother and Jaydon loves his baby sister!  Now there are some exceptions to the rule and it certainly wasn't easy for Jaydon to go from having a baby sister who didn't do anything to immediately having a baby sister who could get to wherever he was and try to do whatever he was doing.  One of the best sounds in the world is hearing my two kids laughing and giggling away as they play.  It is awesome! 

Jaydon readint to Lucy while she played with the cups.

Tackle has been a common game in our house since Jaydon was about a year old and it has continued with Lucy, she gets right in there and doesn't back down.

 The kids loved being on this box together and sliding around on it.

Having so much fun!  I absolutely adore it.

 Jaydon 'pushing' Lucy in her swing.

 Some fun shots of them sitting on the couch together.

Love this!