Ballerina Bunny

In case you haven't figured it out- Lily was a Ballerina Bunny for Halloween this last year! Initially some people were confused, but really it fit her perfectly- combining two of her favorite things- ballerinas and bunnies! And oh my- isn't she the cutest Ballerina Bunny you have ever seen?:)

Halloween 2010

There are two things that I will always remember about this last Halloween.

First, I will never forget the search for Eli's hat. See, he was a spider for Halloween. The body of the costume was a hand-me-down (which I thought was adorable, warm, and Eli actually didn't mind having on). But, it was missing the hat. So I found this super cute spider had and once again somehow convinced my mom to make it!:) My mom worked so hard on it (even having my grandma help some too I believe). She even express mailed it so that we were sure to get it before Halloween. Now, I'll admit that I was a little nervous that he wouldn't wear the hat- but I was hoping (I just didn't think that his costume looked complete without it).

So, we spent the morning of Halloween carving pumpkins. During the afternoon the kids slept and Joe and I watched the Green Bay Packer game. It was turning out to be a wonderful day. My plan was to get the kids dressed in their costumes once they woke up, go outside to take their pictures, and then have a quick early dinner before we headed over to "Trunk-or-Treat" at our church. It was a good plan and all was going smoothly...until I started to get the kid's costumes together. Fairly quickly I found everything...except Eli's hat. The adorable spider hat that my mom worked so hard on. The one that completed his costume. It was just gone. I looked everywhere- twice. I tore through laundry piles and closets and just about every room and nook and cranny in the house. Joe helped too. For about an hour we searched and tore apart our house. Joe humored me as I had a slight emotional break down. It was, after all, Eli's first Halloween. His first costume. I was so very sad (and a little bit angry too). Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

But we had to keep moving. It was already pretty much too late at that point for pictures or dinner. And then, just as we were about to put on shoes and head out the door to church Joe found the hat!!! Let me tell you what a wonderful husband he is- simply for the fact that he was even still looking for me! It was in my camera case of all places! With new found happiness I snapped just a few pictures and we headed off to church to Trunk-or-Treat!

The second thing that I will remember most about last Halloween was that it was crazy cold! I mean seriously cold. Lily had been so excited to go trick-or-treating this year but even her enthusiasm was greatly dampened by the nasty chill in the air. We managed to make it through "Trunk or Treat" okay, but once the sun set and we tried doing some trick or treating around our neighborhood things went downhill quickly. We managed to make it to a few homes and the nursing home near our house, but that was it! Lily was WANTING to go home. Oddly Eli didn't seem to mind the cold too much, but he must have been chilly because he kept his adorable spider hat on the entire time!:)

So, that was our Halloween. Next year we'll hope for better weather, and I'll be sure to lay out the costumes the day before!:) And maybe I'll post the pictures after a few days instead of a few months!

Get Ready...

Get ready...the Halloween pictures are coming!

P.S. We fly home tomorrow afternoon and would sure appreciate your prayers once again for safe travel!

Last Year's Pumpkins

"Guts"

We bought Lily a kit to make a kitty face on her pumpkin (Joe thought he would give her a little help by pre-drilling the holes)!

Pounding

Eli's pumpkin

Above: Joe's pumpkin

Below: My pumpkin

I know...I know...I'm off by a few holidays here!

But shortly after Halloween I ran into a few issues with my pictures (specifically my photo editing program). But now finally everything seems to be back up and running and I'm finally getting around to some of these long forgotten pictures! Most of them are from Halloween so look forward to seeing two really adorable kids dressed up in the next week or so!

In the meantime, here are our pumpkins from this year. The thing that I will remember most from carving pumpkins this year was that it was the first year that Lily would actually pull out the pumpkin guts! I remember two years ago thinking that she would love this- but she wouldn't even touch it! Not this year- she dove right in!

Pickle Pucker

Recently we gave Eli his first pickle. Oh my was it entertaining! Here he is taking a bite.

And the reaction.

The pucker... he's not so sure about it...

But wait...he loves it! And each time he took a bite he went through this sequence (bite, cringe at the tangy taste, and then giggle in delight)!

And so officially BOTH of our children love olives and pickles (and who can blame them really)!

P.S. We are here in Myrtle Beach. Ummm...it's cold (pretty much as cold as back home), but we are here to work and we have a wonderful beach house! Our travel yesterday went fairly well all things considered. On our second flight yesterday we had to sit in the plane on the runway for an hour and a half before we took of (bad weather). We had to get up at 3a.m. yesterday morning to make our 7a.m. flight in Portland to it was a long day. And by the time we were sitting in our plane on our 2nd flight we had one VERY tired little boy who did not want to sleep. Thankfully he fell asleep about a minute after we finally took off and slept the whole flight. Thankfully on both flights we were in the first row in the bulkhead (meaning we had lots of space). This was a first for us and it felt like luxury. And we were also very thankful that we had amazing flight attendants on both flights (the girl on the first flight actually played games with Eli throughout the flight)!

And now we are here. Lily is having a blast, Eli is sleeping crummy, and we are with friends and co-workers that we love.

Holly

Not many members of the family were excited to have their pictures taken on Christmas (and really who could blame them with so many other fun things going on?)! But, there was this one sweet little babe who was willing to help me out! Oh, my niece Holly is just such a doll (as you can see)! She is the youngest of the Cousins brood (just a few months younger than Eli) and I think I would be correct in saying that she is the most content and laid back. Oh, I'm sure that she fusses and cries like every other baby, but I never see it! Oh my, what a doll! And I'm not just saying that because she was the only one who would let me take her picture on Christmas night!

P.S. And this finally finishes my posts from Christmas! And just in time because tomorrow we are off again! This time for a week of meetings (with the whole family) in Myrtle Beach. We fly early on Saturday morning so please keep us in your prayers as we travel. And look forward to some beach pictures!:)

The Cousins Girls

Oh, I think this one is my favorite! Can't you just tell how much Lily and her cousin Brenna love each other?! They have made each other laugh like this pretty much since they were able to laugh!

And here it is again...a little fancier!


The girls were having so much fun screaming (and Maggie looks just thrilled)!

Over the last few years Joe's family has been a bit overtaken with little girls! In fact five of the eight grandchildren are girls (and Eli is the only boy who isn't a teenager)! We just love our little Cousins girls!

For Christmas this year Joe's mom bought all of the girls fancy dresses (Lily just had to have purple)! So of course we had to try to get a picture of them all together in their dresses! This was quite the feet. Of course we were having so much fun through the rest of Christmas day that we sort of forgot about doing the pictures (or maybe we were just putting it off) until it was late, dark, and the girls were pretty much bouncing off the walls! Actually, all things considered, these aren't too bad (we did, after all, get them all to sit in once place for more than two seconds)! Let me just tell you though that it was pretty much madness! But then again when the house is full with all of our little ones it usually is!:) I tried photomerging some of them together to get a great picture of all of them looking, but they were just moving around so much from picture to picture that it just wouldn't work (or more likely my skills just aren't that advanced). But, the more I look at these the more I'm coming to appreciate how real and beautiful they are (not perfect, but fun and sweet)- just like our 5 little girls!