Squeezable

Because he's been absent from the last few posts and because he is the cutest...

I love this boy...

Silliness

Uncle Andrew and Kate came to hang out with us a couple of Saturdays ago.  What a fun day it was.  Alyssa was absolutely exhausted after they left.  Here's a taste of the silliness that was...

Now that's more like it!

This weekend the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  October was unseasonably cold, but so far November has been unseasonably warm.  I'll take it!  My mom had the brilliant idea that we should put our Christmas lights up while it was in the 60's.  Brilliant I tell you.  I usually wait until Thanksgiving at which point my fingers go stiff and numb from the cold.  This was so much better!

Mid summer Chris snagged the wood of an Ash Tree that one of our neighbors cut down.  It has been drying in the garage ever since.  One of his favorite things to do on a Saturday is to go out and chop up a few pieces. It's also one of my favorite things for him to do because I LOVE having fires...lots of fires!!

Alyssa tired of the chore aspect of the day and decided coloring was more her speed.

Here's hoping for a mild winter!

After much waiting...

Halloween happened...and it was so much fun.  Alyssa is at such a great age for all things holidays.  She loves the decorations, and made some of her own.   She was filled with anticipation, (our Halloween countdown started at 54 days out!).  She picked out her own costume this year which was fun because it's never what you expect.  She also picked our her own pumpkin.  She couldn't wait to make a Jack O Lantern and had lots of advice on what each of us should carve into our pumpkins.

Friday night after Evan went to bed we dove into our pumpkins.  Alyssa was not a fan of the pumpkin guts.  She so desperately wanted to make pumpkin seeds to eat, but could not stand the sliminess of the process.

Look at her wince!

 So, she left that to me and began eating candy...which she promptly spilled all over the floor.

The pumpkin that Alyssa picked out was pretty small, but this thing was the hardest pumpkin I have ever carved.  Eventually I had to call in for help, and then he had to trade off again.  After much struggle, we carved the "spooky ghost" she requested.

 Chris' pumpkin

My pumpkin.

All of our pumpkins lit.

Saturday night just couldn't get here fast enough.  We occupied our time making trips to Nana and Papa's and to Grandma's to show off our little Trick or Treater's.

(Nana and Papa, if you send me a picture, I'll add it in.  We forgot our camera at your house.)

Finally, it was show time and Chris and Alyssa headed out for the big event.

They came back after ~45 minutes to warm up a bit, and then Aly-G wanted to head back out.  Evan had been trying so hard to make a break for it each time the door was opened, so Chris agreed to take him too.  This proved to be mighty beneficial to Alyssa.  In half as much time she came back with twice as much candy. Apparently Evan looks like he could use a little candy.

So after way too much candy and two nights in a row of staying up way too late, I consider it a success.  I think I enjoyed Halloween this year more than I have in a long, long time.