Halloween party

Our development's community center throws activities each month and this one was, of course, a halloween party for kids.  They had activities and games for little kids and a lot of treats and candy, too.   At the last minute, we had dinner with our friends, the Elders, and their cute little girls and then headed over and met up with our other friends who we know from church and playgroups over at the clubhouse.

For Mark's (Ryan's dad) 60th birthday, he was given a book with everyone's memories of him in it.  It was funny how a lot of them mentioned something about how he always has tootsie rolls and is always giving them to his grandkids.  So Ryan was pretty proud when Lucy wanted the tootsie roll... wrapper and all. :)  Mark, this picture is for you!

This was Lucy's first actual trick-or-treat, and of all the good candy in there, she picked a pixie stick.  We'll have to teach her what to grab and what not to grab. :)

Sucker

Lucy's cousin sent her some cute little halloween suckers in the mail.  Lucy was really upset at the moment for some reason, but as soon as I gave her a sucker, she went right to town on it and was super happy. :)

Lucy was fighting hard to get her hands on these, so it's pretty blurry, but you get the idea.  Cute, huh?

Pumpkin carving

For FHE on Monday, the Madsens came over to carve pumpkins.  It was a fun filled night with not only pumpkin carving, but all sorts of treats such as cinnamon rolls, pumpkin cookies, candy, and hot chocolate, and little football watching, kid chasing, and toy playing.  You can't really go wrong with all of that!  

See the little plate filled with chocolate below?  Funny story about that.  Ty was upset that he wasn't allowed to eat any more candy, so I told him he could take a piece, put it in his backpack, and eat it the next day at home, which made him happy.  So a few minutes later, Marci and I had been chatting for a while without any disruptions from the kids, which seemed odd.  Then out of nowhere, Mya came falling to her knees and slid along our floor to Ty's backpack.  Marci asked her if she was okay, to which Mya gave a quick response that she was.  A few minutes later, Adam told us how Mya had walked in front of him and Ryan sideways and facing away from them. Turns out, Mya and Ty had been sneaking pieces of candy the whole time from the plate and into the backpack.  It was filled with chocolates! haha.  Those sneaky kids!  It was hilarious once we put two-and-two together and the things we had seen them do the past few minutes to get that candy in there without any adults noticing!

Here are the kiddos with their pumpkins all ready to be carved (by the parents).  This was about 2 seconds before Lucy fell off her chair and banged her head.  Parent strike one of the night. Also, pics are super blurry- we only had an ipad camera for the night.

I'm pretty sure Mya and Ty's pumpkin (the one on the left in front of Mya) won.  I also forgot to get tea lights for in the pumpkins, so our big Yankee candles worked for the night!

So close!

Lucy is getting so close to walking!  A few days ago, she stood all by herself for a few seconds without holding on to anything.  The next day, she did the same thing a couple of times.  Then the next, she stood for way longer.  Just today, she has been a standing machine.  Also, I have been trying to get Lucy to walk with a little walker we borrowed from someone, but she has only been interested in playing with it, not walking with it.  Today though, when we were at a children's store, there was a walker there that Lucy really wanted to play with, and for the first time she used it to walk!  We love how happy she is for herself. :)  She's been using it all day (obviously we had to buy it) and has been super excited every time she walks with it.  And of course, Ryan had his handy dandy ipad on him so we got a little snippet on video (mostly for our own excitement because it's probably not that exciting to other people).

Lucy's other latest and greatest accomplishment is saying "yeah!"  I was with a friend the other day and when we asked her kids "do you want to go play on the playground?"  Lucy gave an enthusiatic "yeah!" right away.  We both looked at each other and laughed that she answered the question.  Since then, Lucy has started saying it a lot after we ask her a question.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't really know what we are asking her a lot of the times (unless she recognizes a word such as "drink" or "food" or "outside") but at least she knows how to use it! 

It is so fun seeing all of these little milestones happening.  Every day Ryan and I are so surprised by how much bigger she seems.  We love it!

Picture outtakes

Ryan had an appointment today so he got to come home from work early.  That and the fact that it was in the upper 70's and sunny, we decided to hurry and go take a few impromptu casual family pictures (thanks to my friend Marci for snapping the pics).  We got some that I really like, but these are the funny ones that I wanted to share first.

This first "set" shows that Lucy, even after an entire summer of it, is still hesitant about sitting in the grass.  :)  These were just snapped super fast without worrying about lighting or anything just because it was funny!  I must admit though that she never fell over- she must have pretty good balance.

Lucy was kind of a grumpy goose today, so we had to do some things to make her happy.  In between shots, Ryan "flew" her, which obviously worked, and some swinging in the air.

Attack of the bugs!

Taking waving very seriously.

More leg raising....

Trying to sit sideways and backwards in her car seat in an attempt to not be strapped in.  Haha! Smart girl, but it didn't work!

Favorite blurry/way too sunny pics:

Favorite intense "attack!" pictures:

And our favorite good ones are up next.

Circleville Pumpkin Show

Every year on the third weekend in October, a little town in Ohio named Circleville has a big "pumpkin show."  The quaint little main streets are shut down and filled with everything pumpkin, as well as carnival games and rides, craft and trade booths, and food stands of every kind.  By "everything pumpkin" I mean huge areas filled with every kind of pumpkin you could ever imagine, tons of pumpkin food, as well as contests for the largest pumpkins, and the world's largest pumpkin pie (which, sadly I didn't get a picture of, but is about the size of a small car!).

While there is typical fair food, everything has pumpkin mixed in: pumpkin burgers, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin soda pop, corn dogs with pumpkin batter, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pie, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin waffles and pancakes, and some more that I'm sure I'm missing.  The awesome part was that a lot of the pumpkin things were smaller pieces that were sold for cheap, which made it so that we were able to try a lot of different things without wasting tons of money.  We tried the pumpkin donuts, pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin waffle, and pumpkin soda pop.  I want so badly to be a fan of pumpkin since it's such a fall staple, and fall is my favorite season, but this adventure confirmed that I really don't like it.  The pizza and pop pushed me over the edge.  I only like pumpkin if it's baked into something and smothered with cream cheese frosting, although I will admit that the pumpkin donuts were the best thing there and SO good.  Ryan, however, likes pumpkin a bit more than I do.  Also, Lucy seemed to be a fan too, as proven in these pictures. :)

All Saturday afternoon there was a combination of really bright sun and dark puffy clouds, and a temperature that definitely called for boots, sweaters, and coats.  Since Circleville is an older town, all of the trees are really big and the leaves were at their peak colors, which were a perfect complement to the older structure of the buildings.  I felt like I was walking around in a fall setting of a movie (minus the trashy fair stuff).  Also, the town goes a little nuts with the fall and pumpkin decorations.

And a zonked out child on the way home is what I call a successful outing. :)

This was a perfect fall activity for a perfect fall day.  We even made it home just in time to watch the BYU vs. Notre Dame game, which made Ryan a happy camper (too bad they lost). 

11 months

Eleven months!  I can't believe it.  This month has been so great!  This is such a fun age because she's still a cute baby, but I can see toddlerhood around the corner.  We can actually play games with her and she gets that it's a game, we can all communicate better (not necessarily via words, but by tones and actions), and, probably most importantly in my book, we've SLEPT!  Seriously, three straight weeks of really good sleeping (minus a night or two because of reflux/congestion) and we're all our best selves. haha.  So here's a little about the Gooster at 11 months:

• Currently 20.5 lbs., but not sure of her height since she doesn't have an appointment this month.
• One day, Lucy decided she was going to eat real food.  She really went from just having 5 bottles a day and that's it, to eating three meals a day with bottles in between.  Yay!  She has loved carrots, peas, corn, jam sandwiches, any kind of bread, peaches, bananas, kiwis, crackers, pasta, and her very most favorite of all- cheese.  She does not like scrambled eggs and broccoli.
• She has been sleeping 12-12.5 hours a night, usually 7:30pm- 7:30 or 8am (which of course is probably the biggest change this month brought!) and takes two 1.5 hour naps at about the same times each day (10am and 2:30pm).
• Lucy finally clapped for the first time, ironically at the Giant's game when they won. :) haha. She saw enough people around her clapping for a few hours, so I guess she figured it out and she's been practicing ever since.  
• She also waves like crazy with one hand, both hands, whenever and at whatever. 
• Lucy explores like crazy, getting both into and on everything.  She has started getting into cupboards, drawers, and baskets, as well as climbing up onto the back of the couch and onto our tables and even going from couch to couch via the couch's arms.  
• We go to baby storytime at the library each week and it's right up Lucy's ally.  There are a bunch of other kids her age there and they all sing and dance and play instruments and with puppets together.  She loves it. 
• I've tried teaching Lucy a few signs (really I've just tried to drill in "food" and "more" since those seem to be the two words she could really use right now), but she wants nothing to do with it.  She does, however, understand a lot of what we are just saying to her these days.  I just wish she could talk back somehow!  It's coming, I know.
• She stands here and there for about 5-10 seconds on her own until she realizes what she's doing and then cautiously wobbles back down to the ground.

I love the following pictures because they are all distinct "Lucy" faces that we frequently get these days.  She's full of expression!!

Loving eating carrots finally (she eats a ton more than what this shows, fyi... she must have already eaten most by this point).  Here's to hoping this helps her eyesight incase she inherited my terrible sight.

 This was the first time I actually got a bow to stay in her hair.  I was pretty excited since she won't let a headband stay on her head longer than .2 seconds.  Since this day it seems to be growing fast.

Lucy likes books.  This was Ryan reading with her after work one day.