Halloween Wrap up

I thought about separating these events so this post wouldn't be so long...but then I didn't. So here's to Halloween! 
For  Halloween this year Isabella wanted to be a pink butterfly. We looked at several wing options online and she chose one and I ordered it. She was so excited when it came in the mail and when we opened it she said- 'That's not a pumpkin?!" I'm not sure what that was about....she never mentioned being a pumpkin. Haha! Then she told me she wanted her face painted like at the arts festival we went to last month. I told her that man had LOTS of practice, so we wouldn't be able to have it quite like that, but she could have her face painted.

First up: "trunk or treat"

Nana painted her face a couple of times and Mimi painted it for trunk or treat at church. 

She helped pass out some of the candy at our trunk, but got distracted eating her own candy.

Benjamin wore a lion costume my mom made for George when he was a baby. I loved it!

Pink butterfly and Santa 

It was not planned, but Ava and Izzy both had pink wings. A princess fairy and a pink butterfly. 

We did a jungle themed trunk with the Andersons. 

 Benjamin slept through a lot of trunk or treat, but woke up toward the end.


Next: Storybook forest
This was our 3rd year to go to Storybook forest. And for the first time we waited in line to get in for  an hour and 10ish minutes. It was crazy!! The friends we were meeting went ahead and went through as we were so behind. Heather and Ava were behind us in line and we got there about the same time and went through the forest with them.

The girls held hands almost the whole way...it was pretty sweet.

Last: Halloween Day 

We had something every night of the week, so by Thursday I was ready to just be at home. We ran a couple errands in the morning, and then came home and mixed up sugar cookie dough to make halloween cookies.  We baked the cookies before nap and then decorated them afterwards. She did the sprinkles by herself...which meant we shook some of them off because they had a huge pile of sprinkles in one area, but I think she had fun.

Cappy and Nana came over to trick or treat with us. Benjamin fell asleep before it was time to go, so I stayed home with him while they went out.

After he woke up I dressed him up and he "helped" me pass out candy for a while. It was a fun day! And we have waaaay too much candy at our house from all of these events!

I packed up our Halloween decorations Friday morning and got out a few Thanksgiving things. I'll be getting things ready to do our thankfulness tree and looking forward to creating and continuing family traditions this season. I'm planning on a month of intention, purposefulness, and working to foster thankfulness in our family's lives and conversations.

6 Months

Happy 6 months Benjamin!! It is hard to believe half a year has already flown by! This month you rolled over of the first time, and several times since. We have begun trying out some foods. You have tried sweet potatoes, carrots, and bananas. You gagged when eating the sweet potatoes as though I had poisoned you. You took  your longest car ride this month, a little over 4 hours, and did great. At your 6 month check up you weighed 18lbs 8 oz and were 28 inches long. You are in the 92% for height...no surprise there! :)  You can be very quiet sometimes and the others loud and gabbery. You have settled into 3 naps most days, occasionally 4 if they are shorter. Your sleep at night is still inconsistent with what you do, but usually there is a good long stretch. Overall, you have been such a content, happy baby!

Not a fan of the sweet potatoes                                      But Yay for bananas!

                                                                     Happy growing boy!

I started his 6 month pictures outside, not realizing it was a bit chilly. So we had to move in pretty quickly. But he was mostly a good sport for me!

I love you so much Benjamin Bear!!

FALL

We came home today from lunch and Isabella ran straight to the pile of leaves in our front yard. We have a massive tree that has begun its yearly shedding of huge leaves. I knew exactly what she was up to and grabbed my camera out of my bag. Its getting harder for me to capture Isabella just naturally when she is not looking and making a "cheeeese" face and she moves so fast I still get a lot of blurry pictures. (Benjamin is my easier, more cooperative subject until he starts moving more in a few months and that ends!) So I was really happy to get a few pictures of her fun personality, and continuous shooting mode helped!

end of the week...

Wednesday:

We got "boo-ed"! So much fun, thanks Nana! A great surprise to wake up from nap time to find!
(The next day my dad left cookies on the porch from McLaren's pantry...I could get used to having treats dropped off every afternoon! :) ) 

Thursday:

Thursday evening we dressed up and went to trick or treat in the dorms. 

Isabella was scared by the eagle mascot at the door, but otherwise we had a great time!
Nana and Nuriya were able to join us!

Friday:

Friday night we went downtown to ride the Cinderella carriage. I had gotten a groupon to do that for Isabella's birthday. She loved it!

Saturday:

Saturday we finally carved a pumpkin. Isabella had been asking for a couple of weeks when we were going to scoop the seeds out.

The tree in our backyard has finally started turning. I love it! I wish I would have taken a picture every day from when it started to see them all complied together. Its a glorious time of year.

Beavers Bend

Friday Michael flew in from a work trip and we headed out on a family trip to meet up with the Anderson's.  We had this planned for a few months and it was nice knowing on his recent travels that a few days off and some family time was coming up. We spent the night in Durant as Beth and I had been training for a 5K race for that Saturday morning.

It was freezing race morning! But the race went well and we were happy with our time.

We showered off and headed to her parent's cabin in Beaver's Bend. 

It was a relaxing time away- as far as "relaxing" gets with a 3 year old and an almost 6 month old. Haha! Isabella didn't feel well for the first day there, and was really congested the whole time. Lately its seemed like as soon as she gets better, then something else pops up.

Here are some photos from the trip:

The cabin- it was so nice! I'd never been this far into south east Oklahoma. It was really pretty with tons of trees, and the river and lake at the state park were gorgeous!

We rode the train in the state park. Izzy still loves trains.

We saw deer on our train ride!

Great sunset from the back porch! 

Campfire s'mores in the backyard

Meet our friends the Anderson's and our daughter who insisted on being in their picture... :)

Cooking "smashmallows"

My dainty little girl 

Pure joy

I love a baby in a sink bath!

Yummy breakfasts and Isabella showing Milo how to dip your bacon in syrup...

Blanket forts 

Swinging on our balcony on our last morning 

She rarely sleeps in the car anymore, and we had to drive through nap time on the way home. I was really glad she fell asleep. We had about an hour and 15 minutes when both kids were asleep while we drove!! We were able to have uninterrupted conversation!

We had a great time. We didn't get the best sleep between our two kids waking up for various reasons. Michael got to read a whole book. We made risotto that was delicious!  We watched crazy documentaries about "Killer Whales" and "When fish attack". It was fun to visit a new place and make some memories.