Happy Halloween!!!

It has been a busy day of trick-or-treating! This afternoon we went to the businesses downtown. There were so many kids! Both kids had a blast and we got free tickets to the children's museum! I, unfortunately, forgot my camera. I tried to make up for it this evening when we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Here we are about ready to leave!

I liked Alaina's smile in this picture, but Leo wasn't looking.

Then I have this one where Leo is smiling cute but Alaina isn't looking.
Our first stop of the evening!
It got dark fast! We wound up following the Milwaukee Brewer Sausages for a while!
These guys whet all out decorating!
They didn't scare Alaina though!
Check out this front porch! I love this picture with Alaina waddling in her costume up the steps!
She rang the doorbell and waited so patiently for people to come!
Here are the kids checking out their loot!
Dave got another picture of our pumpkins :)
When we went inside, the kids went nuts looking at all of the candy.
Alaina unwrapped and gave Leo a sucker.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.

She unwrapped another....
Double fisting it!


She did so good out trick-or-treating! She said trick-or-treat and thank you without being prompted and when a lady told her she could take another piece of candy, Alaina picked one out and said, "This one is for my baby!" and put it in Leo's basket. She is so good at sharing! I'm so proud of her!

Dave and Alaina are now curled up on the couch watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. We have only been interrupted once for a trick-or-treater. I wish we had more kids coming, but what can you do....

I hope you all had a great Halloween! I can't wait to see pictures of pumpkins and Halloween costumes! (...that is a hint to my sisters...)

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving 2008--Part 2

We did get our pumpkins carved tonight! Dave and I just finished up and took pictures and I had to post them before bed!! Grammy, we took your advice and Leo made a lion :) Alaina made Tinkerbell, I made the flag and eagle, and Dave did an awesome job on the Vikings helmet.








We started out carving outside with our neighbors.



Leo was sitting so good watching me for about the first 10 minutes...until I realized why he was so content. Every time I poked a piece of pumpkin through, he was reaching in, grabbing it, and eating it.....

Oh well, no harm, no foul. It kept him occupied! We had a blast, and we can't wait till Halloween! Both kids are going to have so much fun!!!

Alaina and Leo got mail!

Alaina and Leo got a package from Grammy and Grandpa yesterday and had a blast going through all of the Halloween stuff! I think between Grandparents and Aunt Haley, we won't have to go trick-or-treating for candy. We have enough to last months now!

The kids we so excited going through the box.

Daddy read them the letter.
Leo went after the candy....
Check out this Hershey's Kiss!! (And notice Leo reaching for it!!)
A mouthful!
Yum, Yum!
Leo got in on the chocolate action.
And Alaina shared the Kiss.
Then they danced to the music card.



Oh, by the way, this silver dress and the crown has become a little bit of a uniform. Alaina only spends a few minutes a day in her real clothes because she always wants to be dressed up like a princess. This is her current favorite dress.

Today Alaina made a fort!

Pretty cool, huh? She has her own little tv and chair in her fort. (And yes, that is the same dress and crown from last night...)
We have moved down a little TV from upstairs to put by Alaina's toys. The big TVs use so much electricity, not to mention, I'm sick of listening to Dora in surround sound....We got this idea on Sunday when Alaina wanted to watch a princess movie during football. Dave asked me on Monday if I wanted him to put the tv back upstairs (where it has been turned off since we moved in...). I said, "Thanks, but no thanks!" I really like having it down here (and Dave doesn't care), so it is staying down here for the time being. It will be great this winter when we can't go outside as much. Plus, now I can watch the morning news (because who has time to read the newspaper when you can multi-task while watching the news) without being asked 20 times to watch cartoons.

Pumpkin Carving 2008--Part 1

We are carving pumpkins in stages this year. With all of the obligations we have, we haven't had a few hours straight to dedicate to pumpkins. So, to make pumpkin carving possible, we have split it up over 3 days. On Sunday, we went as a family to pick out pumpkins. This would have been a great photo opportunity if we had gone to a traditional pumpkin patch as opposed to Wal-Mart....But because of our time constraints, we took the easy way out this year. That is the reason I am starting our photo diary of pictures with cleaning out the pumpkins.

Today I decided that the kids and I could clean out the pumpkins so that it will be easier to carve them in the time we have available. We did this while Dave was at class because, really, who cares if they miss cleaning out the pumpkin "guts".

The kids did great! The dog even watched!

Alaina was not at all afraid to get her hands dirty!
She showed Leo how to do it...
Leo ignored her and ate it....no surprise....
Then, the neighbor kids came over to help!
We got out a bunch of spoons and they all dug in. I even put out bowls for them to put the pumpkin seeds and strings into. I was optimistic! I had one bowl for the strings and one bowl for the seeds so we could cook them! We all know that toddlers like to organize and separate things, so I thought this was a grand idea!
Unfortunately, they liked making a mess more than organizing....
I was a little too optimistic. It's OK! Nothing a broom and mop couldn't quickly fix. They did have a blast though!

I'm almost done scraping out all of the pumpkins. I have very little left to do before we carve them. I'm putting them back outside for now and we will be carving them tomorrow night after Dave finishes work. I made a pattern for Alaina's pumpkin. She is going to have a Tinkerbell pumpkin. Dave wants a Vikings pumpkin, but will settle for a traditional Jack-O-Lantern with the triangle eyes if time doesn't permit tomorrow. I haven't figured out what we are going to do for Leo or me. I have found a lot of cool things online, but nothing has stood out. I think it will depend on how much energy I have left after cutting out Alaina's Tinkerbell and cutting out whatever we decide for Leo. If you have any cool ideas let me know! I'm drawing a blank.

After we carve the pumpkins, I will post pictures of them! Hopefully that will be tomorrow night!

The Newest Video of Leo Walking

So, I just got this video of Leo walking a few minutes ago. He is really coming along. Here he walked all the way across the living room floor! He only turned 10 months old 2 days ago!




Well, I need to get back to the endless dishes and laundry.....

Guess what????

You know what this is???


Snow!!! I had a hard time getting it to show in pictures. You can kind of see it here.
Even though it was nap time, I had to get the kids out to play in the first snow of the year. Check out these chubby cheeks!!


Alaina showing me the snow.

Alaina "collected" the snow.



Leo had his first bath without his baby bathtub last night. He did wonderful!

It makes me sad that my baby doesn't need his baby bathtub anymore! :(


Off topic, but look what Betsy (my sister) did last weekend!
This too!!



Ok, just kidding. I was having fun with my editing program. I hijacked pictures off of her facebook to make these pictures.

Happy Monday!