Neenah

We headed over to Neenah the first weekend in November for my Grandma's birthday.  It's become a bit of a tradition - we always stay my aunt and uncle's house (who are very generous to let us stay there!) and as many of the relatives come who can make it.  This year all my mom's siblings were there, and a few of us cousins.  Brian, Katie and Ella came down so everyone could meet Ella.  We had such a great weekend, we always have a lot of fun when everyone gets together.  My cousin Laura has a daughter, Sadie, who's about 10 mths younger than Jocelyn.  They had a lot of fun playing together and it was so great for them both to have a play mate!

 The girls in their matching pj's

 Great Grandma and Ella

 Me and Ella in our matching sweat suits.  I was so glad they came down - she's changed so much since we saw her two months ago!  She was smiling and cooing at me, and is such a good baby.  Just had one little crying fit because she was hungry, but besides that just takes it all in!  I can't wait to see her again at Christmas - she'll have changed again so much by then!

 Saturday night we had a party for Grandma and Jocelyn.  And what's a party without party hats?!

 Sadie eating her cupcake the way cupcakes were meant to be eaten

 My mom's brothers are big jokesters - here George is smashing a cupcake all over Jim's face!  I think Jim was pretty nice - I don't think he retaliated...maybe he's saving it up for a rainy day....

How wonderful to have such a fun family that always enjoys spending time together.  We are very blessed!

Halloween

Halloween seemed like a very long holiday this year!  We had lots of things to do and it was spread out over the whole weekend.  The Tuesday night before day care had a family night where the kids dressed up and then each classroom had different stuff to do.  Her room was the 'haunted house'.  Which she would normally be terrified of, but they got to help set it up during the day, so she was okay with it.  Friday Jocelyn had a party at day care.  She insisted on dressing up as Elmo again this  year, even though I had bought her a cute monkey costume already. 

 She had fun at the party - they went trick-or-treating to each classroom and then had a party back in their room.

 Friday afternoon the downtown business do trick-or-treating.  We went, but it will probably be the last year we go.  It's always so crowded, and really, who needs more candy?  Here she is with her first piece of gum!

 Monday I convinced her to wear the Monkey costume.  It's so nice and warm, and so cute!  We took her trick-or-treating for the first time, just up and down the block.  Neither of us love to do it, and she didn't really care either.  She had way more fun passing out candy to the kids at our house.

 This is the grossest, scariest mask.  We've had it forever, my parents got it years ago.  It took a lot of convincing for Jocelyn to even sit by him for this picture!

 Going out with Ama and Mommy.  At one house, she knocked, said trick-or-treat, then walked away without getting candy!

 Knocking on our door for the kids to come and get candy.

Cities

The weekend before Halloween we headed over to the Cities for the day.  My aunt and uncle were in town from California, so we headed over to see them.  And, we hadn't seen Henry for way too long, so then we headed over to Moe and Nicole's for the afternoon.  He's getting so big, and so cute, and is way too little to be almost walking!  He was so happy and smiley and we had fun playing with him!

Adam, Angie and Elliot came over for a bit too so we could see them!  Elliot looked so cute in his dragon costume.  Isn't he a sweetie?!

We love having nieces and nephews!

Bad Blogger

I have been really bad about keeping up with the blog lately!  I was sick a few weeks ago, and that just totally threw off my whole plan.  Luckily all I had to miss was 2 days of work, but I still got nothing accomplished at home!  So, be ready for lots of pictures and lost of posts - it's been a busy month!

Enjoying a carmel apple - yummy!

 Still dressing herself....

A beautiful day for a fall hike at Lowes Creek Park.  The dogs loved it and so did Jocelyn!

Ellie is so patient with her - she's such a great dog with kids.  She often tells her "Ellie, you're my best dog ever."

 Even Ginger was putting up with her since she was holding the leash....

Jocelyn loves to draw circles.  I can already tell which pictures at day care are hers...she has a distinct coloring style!  She also loves to write her name - it's towards the top - the backwards J followed by a bunch of lines.

 Playing dress up!  I think Kailee secretly loves it when Jocelyn gets out all these fun toys...I guess I secretly love it too.

 Kailee's getting pretty good at the clarinet...the dogs don't run away nearly as often anymore.  And, she got her 1st quarter report card on Friday...all A's and B's!  We're very proud of her - she's really gotten better this last month or so about studying and paying attention.  Middle school definitely has been a transition for all of us!