Halloween: Ladybug edition

Leah made an adorable ladybug this year for Halloween. My mom even sent her the ladybug dress she's wearing in the pictures, and Logan's mom gave her the costume to wear for Halloween. She looked cute in both.




Last night we went to a church Halloween party where Leah and I were matching ladybugs. She didn't want to wear her headband, so I put them on instead.

Then today we went to Logan's work and trick-or-treated to the different desks at the Daily Herald. Everyone commented how cute she was, and I would have to agree. She was nervous at first when strangers approached her with candy (she still has stranger danger). But when she saw all the colorful wrappers in the bowls, she just couldn't resist. We got to enjoy the candy since she'll too small to chew them.

Tonight she also enjoyed opening the door to the kids treat-or-treating at our house. She would wave bye-bye when they were leaving, usually after we closed the door. And after she got out of the bath tub our door bell rang, and she wanted to come see who it was. Logan had to rein her in since she was still naked and wet. Overall, our little ladybug had a fun Halloween.

Happy Halloween: Pumpkin Edition

(Disclaimer: no one was harmed in the carving of pumpkins. The people in the pictures are professional actors. Okay, so not professional but they were acting.)

Since you've already seen Leah's costume, I will let you know what else we've been doing to celebrate Halloween. Last Saturday, we had a knife party, I mean a carving pumpkin party with Logan's brother and his wife along with another couple from church. Logan made pumpkin pie and also helped me make my favorite fall beverage besides hot chocolate, hot apple wassail. This recipe comes straight from my mom's kitchen where she made it every fall and winter while I was growing up (even if it didn't get all that cold in Texas). Our friends from church brought some dirt and worms from their house for dessert as well (it was actually Oreo cookies and ice cream mixed together with some gummy worms).

Here's the recipe for wassail if any of you are interested in trying it out:

Ingredients: 2 quarts of apple juice or cider, 2 Tablespoons whole cloves, 7-8 whole cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 3 oranges or orange juice.

Instructions: Mix sugar and water in a small sauce pan. Dissolve the sugar and boil. Add the cloves and cinnamon sticks. Boil for 7 or 8 mins with lid on. Strain out the cloves and cinnamon sticks (set out to dry and reuse). Put this liquid in a large pan, and add the 2 quarts of apple juice. Add fresh juice from 2 squeezed oranges or add orange juice. Cut the third orange in slices without the peel and add for garnish. Cook until hot and ready.

After we all figured out what we wanted to carve, we set out to work on our pumpkins. The hardest part I had forgotten about was scraping out the insides and trying to get all that spaghetti-like stuff to detach from the pumpkin. My arm got a workout during the process.

And as you can see Logan's pumpkin is a skull with some flames coming off of it, which he thoroughly enjoyed carving. And mine displays a cat with a waning moon. Logan added that he thinks everyone should get Halloween off of work. And I have to show both of Braden and Haley's pumpkins because they were so funny and creative. Braden's is the face (sketched of his own face) and Haley's is the spider of the lower left hand corner. If you can't already tell, we had a blast.

Halloween costume and snow

A couple of weeks ago Leah got dressed up in her Halloween costume for a birthday party, and I just have to post the picture even though it's not Halloween yet. Logan's cousin Natalie had a birthday party for her son whose birthday is just a month and a half after Leah's, and it's on my brother Drew's birthday so I can remember from now on. At the party, I tried to get her to wear her headband but she kept taking it off. Oh well, she's still a little young to know what it's for. She didn't mind wearing the rest of the outfit and looked pretty cute, I might add. Logan and I both agreed that she looks so grown up in her costume.

I also wanted to show pictures of the snow we received just this past weekend. We were watching BYU give a beating to Eastern Washington, and the snow started coming down in a flurry. By the time we woke up the next morning, it had stuck to the ground and covered the tops of most of everything outside. The sad part was the sun came out that afternoon and melted almost all of it. But at least we could enjoy it that morning and it didn't stay and freeze on the ground.

Crazy Hair

Leah likes to rub her hands in her hair after she has eaten bananas or strawberries or any other fingers foods. And on this particular day she was getting her hair really sticky and gooey so I took a warm washcloth and tried to get it out. And it made her hair poke out in all directions. (Her hair didn't look much different when she was rubbing food in it).

This next picture was taken this morning when she woke up with a bad case of bed head. And once she'll sleep on her hair funny, it's hard to get it to stay down. She usually wakes up with some form of bed head in the morning, but you can usually get it to lay down if it's not too bad. I can't wait until she's old enough with long enough hair so I can fix it everyday. I'm sure it won't always be exciting if she refuses to let me do it. But I'm hoping we'll both enjoy it.

The last picture is one I took last Sunday when her hair was cooperating. I dressed her for church and had a few minutes to spare so we took some photos outside. We were out in the front yard where she likes to smell the flowers and pick them off the stem. It was a pretty bright day so I couldn't get a good smile. Her Grandma M gave her this dress for her birthday. It's really cute.

Celebrating Fall

I know it's been awhile since my last post so I'll try and catch you all up on what we've been doing. I can't believe it's already October, and the leaves have been turning colors all around us. We finally had a chance to enjoy them during Conference weekend (Oct. 5-6). Logan's parents rented a condo in Eden, UT for his family to gather to watch Conference. Eden is in a beautiful little valley tucked away in the mountains. We woke up Saturday to huge flakes falling outside, but it didn't snow enough to stay too long on the ground. There is a ski resort called Powder Mountain just a few minutes away, so Logan and I took a drive to see the falls leaves and the snow covered pine trees. It was fun to leave Leah with her grandparents while we drove up the canyon. We even stopped along the road to take pictures.

Another activity we have enjoyed this fall was this past Friday where we picked pumpkins at the Big Red Barn, just 30 minutes south in Santaquin, UT. Logan had an article in the Herald a couple of weeks ago about all the Halloween activities happening in Utah County. So I have been wanting to go pick pumpkins since then. After Logan got done with work, we drove down there and were amazed at how big the barn really was. They have a store inside where they sell all kinds of fruit preserves, candy, fudge, ice cream, apples, apple cider and so on. Outside we waited for the tractor to pull up for the hay ride. You jump into the trailer and the tractor takes you on a hay ride over to the pumpkin patch. We weren't actually sitting on bails of hay, but it was still fun to imagine. Here's us on the tractor ride.

Even more fun was taking Leah to see all the pumpkins. She couldn't walk around too much because the ground was a little uneven and tangled with branches. But she loved patting the pumpkins and enjoyed being outside. After looking over a large part of field, we found two big pumpkins nice enough to carve, and one smaller pumpkin for Leah. You can see two of the three pumpkins we found to the right of Leah. Overall, we had a wonderful time and want to make this a tradition for years to come.

Our future fashion star

Leah's new favorite thing is bringing clothes and her bear to us to put the clothes on. When you start putting the clothes on she gets really excited that we understood her and are doing what she asked. Then she'll carry the bear everywhere with its new outfit.

I think she's going to be the next Stacy London from What Not to Wear (for all of you who watch TLC know what I'm talking about), though she'll be cuter and a little nicer when others are making fashion mistakes. She's on her way to the top!

Here's Leah enjoying her new design. She knows she's made a masterpiece.

P.S. She's a lot happier than yesterday. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

She had a bad day

Leah woke up happy and her normal self this morning, and I thought "Today is going to be a good day." She didn't wake up too early like she normally does (which is around 6 or 6:30 a.m.) and allowed us to sleep in. We had a rough day yesterday, and I thought nothing could get worse.

That was until she woke up unexpectedly after only 30 minutes of napping. I was finishing up in the shower and had to hurry and dry off before I went in there. I found her crying in her crib over a pile of throw up.

We fed her some eggs this morning for breakfast, and it was the first time she ever had eggs. So we thought that was probably what set her off. She also has had diarrhea lately so her stomach probably not feeling the best. I changed about three full messy diapers this afternoon and one leaked out on to her pants.

This picture was taken after she tripped on the carpet and bonked her face on our office chair. I'm probably a bad mom for taking this picture while she was crying, but I wanted to have a picture to show you all how my day went today. Luckily she has been very happy the rest of the day when she's not throwing up, tripping and falling, or messing her diapers.

We're hoping for a better day tomorrow.