Happy Halloween!

We made a whole weekend out of Halloween this year!  We started on Friday going to Kailee's school for their annual Halloween parade.  Jocey wanted to wear her costume to school.  It's really warm, so she didn't even need a coat.  I'm getting warm costumes every year!  She loved her Elmo costume - I think she's going to want to wear it all the time!  I was a little nervous she'd be scared to put it on, but nope - it was a hit.

 Kailee's last parade!  She was a vampire this year....

 Then after the parade we went downtown to go trick or treating.  All the businesses hand out candy (typically on Halloween, but they're not open on Sundays).  It was really crowded, we had to wait in line for some places!  So we didn't stay real long, but the girls had fun.

Saturday Pat and Anita came over for dinner and then we carved pumpkins.  Jocey started by putting stickers on her little pumpkins, but they didn't stick very well.

Hmmm.  What's in there?

 Is it okay to put my hand in there, Ama?

 This isn't too bad...

 Look - a seed!

 She decided that the insides were okay, and helped Anita scrape out her pumpkin.

We moved on to painting her pumpkins after the scraping got old.

 Calvin picking out seeds to bake.  We've discovered that Jocelyn loves pumpkin seeds!

The finished products with their artists.

Then today we of course dressed up again!  Kailee went trick or treating with her mom, and Calvin had to work, so it was just me and Jocelyn handing out candy.  She thought this was the best thing about her whole weekend!  She loved watching the kids come up to the house and liked all the different costumes.  Towards the end she even handed out the candy, and didn't even try to keep any for herself.

 She has a major sweet tooth - she was digging in her pumpkin all night!  Luckily there were enough distractions where she was fine with just the sucker.

 Waiting for more kids to come.  She'd run for the door whenever the doorbell rang.

 Playing with the Halloween stickers from Moe-moe and Cole.

I'm hoping that maybe she'll want to hand out candy again next year...I'm not a huge fan of trick or treating. I'd much rather stay home in my warm house and pass out candy.  Plus, she's not allowed to eat all the candy she'd get anyway.  And I certainly don't need to eat it! 

Katie & Abel's Shower

So the reason for the trip home was for Katie's baby shower!  Two of my mom's good friends hosted it, and decided to do it over Skype!  What a fun idea.  We just plugged the computer into the TV and it worked great.  Mom opened all of the gifts, and then everyone stayed for a wonderful dinner and conversation after that.  Isn't technology awesome?!  She got some really cute outfits, stuffed animals and books.  I don't have a lot of pictures, but here are a few....  

Mom and the hosts, Lynette and Joan

Fall Photo Shoot

This weekend Jocelyn and I headed over to my parents' house for a Skype baby shower for my sister.  We got there Friday evening after spending a very fun day with Calvin's sister going to the zoo.  My brother was also there Friday evening, and it was so fun to hang out just the three of us; we got some great talking time in!  My parents didn't get home from visiting my sister until Saturday night, so we had Saturday during the day to get all the leaves raked.  How come chores don't seem too bad when they're at someone else's house other than your own?  So after Jocey woke up from her nap I wanted to get some pictures of her playing in the leaves.  Brian raked a nice pile of the pretty red leaves from the neighbor's maple tree for our backdrop.  We got some great pics, and she thought they were pretty fun - for the most part.



This is my new very favorite picture.  Brian seems to always get great pictures of us!

Running thru the leaves with 'Abri'

She wasn't quite sure about how the leaves felt, but she wanted to hide from Brian...

Not sure she can take it much longer...

Nope...get me out of here!

She LOVED Brian and Katie's dog Bruno.  I thought she might be nervous because he's so big, but nope!  Ginger was way more scared than Jocelyn was.

She's not purposely teasing our dogs, but I thought it was pretty funny....

Helping Brian pack down the leaves

We had a great weekend and I'm so glad Brian and Katie have moved back to ND!  Now we just need to work on getting Katie and Jonathan back here....

All of us update

So here's what we've all been up to these last few weeks.

Last weekend Calvin had a 4 day weekend, it was absolutely beautiful, and he and Joceyln got sick.  Of course.  So this was the scene Saturday morning at our house!  They're both better now, but Kailee had a fever on Thursday.  She's good now though.  I, so far, have escaped it all. 

 My friend at work had a birthday last week.  Instead of cake, we thought it'd be good to do fruit - so I did a fruit boquet!  Kailee and Calvin both helped, and it turned out so cute.  It was pretty easy, and really fun.

Playing outside.  It's been so hot out (too hot for me this time of year) that we're having to take advantage of it and play outside all we can!  The girls had a lot of fun playing in the sand last night while I cut down the raspberry bushes and some flowers.

Today we went to Festival Foods with Ama for their pumpkin day.  Last year we were in winter coats, hats and mittens!  It just doesn't seem like fall - I really can't get into the fall mood.  The trees around here are absolutely beautiful, but it just is too weird with the weather.

 

Oh, and I'm sure all of you reading this blog already know, but my sister had her baby on Thursday!  It's a boy!  His name is Abel James.  Jocey and Kailee are so exicted to have a cousin!  And Calvin and I are so excited to have a nephew!  They're coming to visit for Thanksgiving, and I can hardly wait.

Ice Cream

We love to eat ice cream at our house.  I typically don't like it except in the summer, but it's growing on me. :)  Jocelyn has been quite messy with her food lately.  She's stopped using her fork and likes to use her hands for everything, even ice cream.  Calvin gave her some on a plate the other night, and she thought it was great fun to finger paint with it!

 Then last night we had ice cream again.  This time she didn't use a spoon either, and thought she needed to get every little last bit out of the bowl.  I know I probably shouldn't let her lick her bowl out, but hey, it is ice cream....

 It wasn't supposed to be bath night, but is sure was after that!  She freaked out when she saw herself in the mirror - she didn't like how that chocolate looked on her face.

Kailee Update

Here's what Kailee's been up to the past few weeks!

Playing fall softball.  They play four games in the fall, although it's felt more like summer than fall this year!  I think they've won the first three games - her last one is tomorrow.  It's getting to be a lot more fun watching them - they're pretty good!

 Guess she didn't like that pitch....

 She's the one at short stop - I hope there isn't someone up to bat!

 Finding animals in the garage.  She likes to be outside with the dogs, and last weekend she found a bunny in the garage while she was out there.  Isn't it cute?  It took us a while to get it out - poor thing was really scared.  It was fun to watch him though!

 She had to feed it also - he may have starved for the half hour he was in there!



Jocelyn Update

Here's what Jocelyn's been up to the last few weeks!

Playing with her babies/stuffed animals.  I think she could do this all day, every day.  She loves to haul them around, put them in the stroller, put them in blankets, put them in their bed, then do it all over again!  She's great about playing by herself, and this is the activity that keeps her busy the longest.

Her second chore - setting the table!  Her first chore was learning to clear her plate when she's done eating, and she's so proud every time she does it.  I needed her out of the kitchen while I was making dinner, so I had her set the table.  She put all the plates on by herself, and put all the silverware on the plates without me even telling her!  What a big girl.

 Trying on Kailee's shoes...still needs a few more years of growing before they'll fit!

Picking up poop.  She sees us use gloves to pick up the dog poop outside, so she's been wanting her socks on her hands and she pretends to pick up poop.  I guess they really do imitate everything they see!

Watching cartoons.  She only really likes her DVD's - Elmo and Baby Einstein.  But she really likes them.  We have to limit it to one a day.  I hope they're teaching her good things!