Pumpkin Carving!

It’s sad to admit, but both Aaron and I were almost ready to be lazy enough NOT to carve any pumpkins this year. The fact that three of our pumpkins, big and small, turned out like this:

made us a little skeptical of the innards of these two that survived (besides the little one to the left that Malia got from her preschool field-trip and decorated at a little neighborhood get together.)

Malia had a lot of fun helping dad dig out the insides.

See Allie just chilling in the background? That’s where I should have left her. The other reason we weren’t looking forward to carving pumpkins, (besides the mess of course and our laziness), was balancing our activity AND the kiddos. I wanted to get some pictures of Allie involved in our pumpkin carving and this is what I got…

An “I’m not really likin this mom!” face:

“You’re the worst parents in the world! How could you do this to me!?!” I got a lot of these sort of pics.

And an “I can’t believe we just had to do that” face:

I thought that maybe she didn’t like standing on the countertop, so I took the pumpkin over to her high chair to see if she wanted to play with the insides, but she wouldn’t even stand up and just screamed. But I though her feet and pumpkin head was a funny picture.

I was in charge of carving the faces. Nothing fancy this year… but hey, at least we made the effort!

Malia is always asking me to take pictures of her making silly faces…

(Allie just looks so big in this picture!)

We sure had fun. Malia LOVED this fun tradition, and though we nearly faltered, we do look forward to do this again next year! And hopefully Allie doesn’t throw a fit again.

Happy Halloween!

Silly little girls…

After we got home from the zoo we hung out for as long as the sun would let us before the chill set in. Both girls were in spectacular moods despite missing their naps, which made for some fun random pictures of them and the only good thing that came from our garden: a miniature green pumpkin. Funny thing… we NEVER planted pumpkin seeds, and are still perplexed why this would grow and not our zuchinni, cucumbers, greenbeans… you get the picture. How weird huh?

(Malia’s been making houses drawn from chalk for the caterpillars.)

Happy Howloween!

On Saturday we celebrated Halloween zoo-style with the Horrocks family! The kids loved the fun scavenger hunt, and of course were happy with any opportunity to dress-up. It was a little chilly, so we improvised with a cute witch hat for Malia, and lady bug ears for Al. It was a beautiful fall day and most definitely a day well spent.

The zoo was so busy we had to take the shuttle from a far away parking area. The kids sure didn’t mind the school-bus ride!

Malia, Hadley, Allie and Collin

Aaron doesn’t come to the zoo often with us, (since we usually go while he is working on one of my days off) so it was really fun to have him tag along!

 

Allie is our own, real-life monkey.

I love that both Malia and Hadley were lassoing the horses.

Orson was so good! He just hung out and slept in his stroller for the whole 3+hours we were at the zoo, what a great baby.

Another successful trip to the zoo. So glad we have a membership!

A lil’ Halloween preview…

On Wednesday night the youth of our church put together a carnival for the families in celebration of Halloween! After a long day of work we came home and threw together the girls’ costumes. (Until this point I still had no idea what Allie was going to be… this is actually Malia’s first costume ever sized 3-6mo. but it still fits! Much to Malia’s pleasure too… she was begging for Allie to be a princess just like herself.) Malia was so excited to be Belle. I’m a little disappointed in the quality of these pictures, but don’t worry, they will be so much more ‘dressed' up’ on the big day and hopefully I’ll get some better shots of them both.

Just for the record, Malia had her costume picked out at the very end of September and insisted that she needed princess shoes, gloves, hat… the whole dang thing! Lucky for her, Nana sent a surprise package in the mail.  

For Allie on the other hand… I just couldn’t decide if I was going to purchase her a new costume, or have her wear a hand-me-down. I just hate the idea of looking at pictures years from now and seeing year after year Allie dress up just like Malia did the year before. But alas… with this princess costume, now Allie will be wearing Malia’s ‘3-years-ago-costume’ which for some reason doesn’t seem so bad with that sort of distance. Thank goodness they make them stretchy.

Flu Shots and Lollipops

Last Saturday we made an exciting trip to the doctors for flu shots! Exciting you say? Yes! Exciting it was! We got Malia all excited to look forward to her flu shot by promising her that it was going to make her stronger than her daddy. That, and the promise of a lollipop when finished were more than she could have ever asked for! No tears from either girl made for a perfect trip. Even Malia was surprised when Allie didn’t cry: “Mama… Allie is strong too like me! Good job Allie!”

This was Allie’s first lollipop ever. I’m pretty sure these yummy treats erased all memories of their needle pricks.

A budding hobby…

I in NO way claim to be any sort of photographer, I just have fun coming up with ‘a vision’ for photos. But… one day when I break down and buy a big ‘ole huge fancy camera… then we’ll be talking! Haha.

Work gave me the fun task of coming up with a “Fall or Toothy” picture for a mailer we send out. I looked through my pictures for something I might already have as I had no desire to take any new one’s on this particular day, and look what I came up with!

Who knows if it will get used, but even if not, it’s still something I enjoy!

Sunday evening walk…

We’ve been trying to enjoy every last bit of sunshine we can! Here are some random facts to go along with the pictures:

1) Allie has become so independent lately that she HATES going for walks in the stroller or wagon and cries and screams until she can get out and walk herself… but even then, she moves so slowly as she stops to pick every flower, to step up, down, and over the curb, and to walk every which way BUT the direction we are headed.

2) Malia is such a silly character and has been into jumping off and onto things, and making silly faces for the camera. Thankfully though, this cutie pie can smile on command and is quite photogenic. Like her sister, she likes to dress herself and shoe-herself, which seems to still be a difficult task as her shoes are on the wrong feet.

3) Aside from the hundreds of caterpillars that Aaron ran over with the lawnmower, we seem to still be finding these cute furry things everywhere! At one point in our walk Malia was no longer carrying this little guy, I asked her what happened to him and she said “I put him down so that he could find his mommy and daddy!” Cute…

4) Fact: this is the biggest preying mantis I have seen in real life!

5) Since we walk ‘basically’ the same route every time, we spiced it up with a face-off between whale and mantis. The girls thought it was so funny!

6) Do you see that DUMB pacifier??? Ugh… Allie will not give that thing up. It’s so funny raising two kids. These girls are soooo different: looks, personalities, behavior… all of those things! It’s crazy; you think you have one kid figured out just to start ALL over and figure out another one! Biggest difference so far with these two is #1 Allie still doesn’t sleep through the night #2 Teething has been a nightmare where it was barely noticeable for Malia #3 Allie is a bigger baby and wearing size 2T (hand-me downs straight from Malia’s closet) #4 The binkie, and Allie can not sleep with out her stuffed duck where Malia only has a blanket #5 Allie is a terror… but I guess that’s what being lil’ sister is all about!

7) Do we seem long and slender? Haha… we’ve been running together again! I’ve finally gotten Aaron to come with me, only sucky thing is he makes me push the girls since I’ve been running for a year now. Wow… thanks babe! Oh, and with the craziness of this household, we have been LOVING our weekly date nights with just the TWO of us!

So there ya go… a few random facts about our crazy little family!