Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. Between living in a place with a real autumn season and having kids old enough to understand the holiday, it was the best one yet! I set up the Halloween decoration at the end of September and when Jackson woke up and saw it all he was so excited! He had enjoyed it somewhat in the past but this year he would stare at all the pumpkins, skeletons and witches and understood it was all to get excited for Halloween at the end of the month! We got lots of Halloween books from the liberties to add to our collection of holiday books we already had. We watched Halloween specials on tv and spent the whole month thinking about the holiday! Jackson was excited to be a firefighter and to have Abbie be his fire doggy dalmation.

I had been nervous that he would end up wanting to be a different costume, he had mentioned police officer, pirate (again) and spaceman as other costume ideas. But since I had the gear for the fire fighter costume I luckily was able to steer him that way and get him excited about it.

On the actual day of Halloween this year we woke up to some pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. And since it was a Thursday (our one free weekday morning) we were able to attend a halloween play group with our church friends at the church building. Jackson had so much fun playing with his friends, making a spider craft and eating yummy food!

This was the first time I'd put on Abbie's costume again since the trunk or treat and she once again was not a fan. It made Jackson so concerned about her frustration with it all. Why was she so sad he wondered. He can normally make her happy and get her to stop caring about her clothes but it wasn't happening today. It's not like this shirt, leg warmers and skirt is so different than her normal clothes - I went with the costume that would be the most familiar to her but she had it in her mind that she didn't want to wear it and when this girl gets an idea, well there's no turning back. After a lot of wiggling and crying, eventually we got the costume on, made it to the party and she got happier when she noticed the food haha.

You're the best fire doggy in the world Abigail!

Making a spider web!

Jumping over the leaves

We went home for lunch and naps and then we did what most people do on Halloween: met Tyler at the DMV to get our new Connecticut Licensees and Plates. We waited until the last day of the month and it probably wasn't our best idea. (Our license plates expired in October in FL, turns out it didn't matter we could have registered the next day with no penalty.) While we really did get through the lines quick, we just got stuck in awful traffic driving home and didn't get back home til around 6 pm. It was a stressful time and I was nervous we were going to miss our neighbors trick or treating. I didn't know what time our neighbors normally went out! But it was getting dark just as we got home and then we had our first trick or treaters 15 minutes later or so. We took the kids out and left a bowl of candy on the doorstep. 

Of course Abbie hated the costume again but as soon as she realized she got candy, she stopped crying and wore her dalmatian ears with pride!

He was so excited to ring all the doorbells!

She would pick the chocolates out, specifically kit kats, snickers and reeses. Smart Girl

The crew!

Pouring out the loot!

Open this please mom!

Pleeeeease

Halloween Week

The end of October was a lot of fun since we had lots of Halloween activities and my mom came to visit!

We got to go on a field trip with Jackson's school to a farm! Jackson picked apples, helped make apple cider, went on a hay ride and saw lots of animals! It was the first really cold day (50s and windy) of the year and we were all shivering!

I had forgotten they say a prayer before all their snacks, now Jackson says it at home too

Abbie sitting with the big kids, the happiest she was all day.

Picking his apple!

The thing he kept asking for "when can we see the cows??" was our last stop of the day!

Later that day Grammy flew in to visit us from Arizona and both kids were so excited. Within 5 minutes of her being here, Abbie was requesting to go to Grammy instead of me.

Lots of book reading with these two!

The next day was the day of our ward's trunk or treat party. The primary was in charge of the event which meant I was there helping set up all morning! Finally when I got back we all went to a pumpkin patch and got amazing apple cider and apple fritters. Then we headed over to Farmington Shoppes to look around Jackson's favorite store - The Sports Store aka Dicks.

Hay ride at the PickN Patch

The party went really well! So all the work setting up was worth it. We switched things up a bit from how they've done this party in the past and honestly it ran perfectly! We had a soup/chili dinner, a kids costume parade, games & activities and then headed outside to trunk or treat. It's a small ward but the place was packed and everyone had a great time. I serve with great ladies who have great ideas and decorations and I help where I can :)

The Dalmatian wasn't so thrilled about the costume Grammy and I whipped up the night before

My mom and Tyler helped me with my room of games!

They were a little cold outside trunk-or-treating

But this girl got a lot more happy when she realized her pumpkin was full of candy!

This boy still doesn't love candy (luckily) and chose suckers first haha.

Jackson and I at his preschool Halloween party on Monday!

Jackson was a fire fighter this year, thanks to his rain boot and jacket we got this summer.
All we needed was a yellow fire hat and some yellow tape on his black sweatpants and we had a costume! This boy still loves fire fighters and wants to be one when he grows up, that or a police officer..

Monday night we went trick or treating in the afternoon at the Farmington Shoppes. It was not too cold and thought it'd be fun to go with Grammy. Jackson and Abbie got spoiled with lots of really good chocolate candy from most of the stores!

Such a happy boy, he loved seeing all the other costumes

Tuesday night was Grammy's last night and we carved our pumpkin!

Carving our pumpkin!

The kids loved Grammy's big boots!

I degutted, Jackson picked the design and Tyler carved. I think Abbie ate chocolate.

This girl discovered the chocolate bar this week and she was sure loving it!

This is what we spend most of our evenings doing at bedtime, these two kids love books!

my two shopping buddies!

We had such a great time with Grammy and are so glad she came. Now its just 3 more weeks until we go to her house for Christmas!!

Heublein Tower Hike

The weekend after Tyler's birthday was the perfect fall weather. We had a cold storm during the week and I thought the warm days were behind us! So the sunny and warmer day was very much appreciated. On our to-do-list since we'd moved here was to hike up to the Heublein Tower. We live in Farmington Valley which is in between two small mountains. Coming from Florida, they are mountains - but from Utah or Arizona they might be classified as hills. But nevertheless, we live just 5 minutes away from Avon Mountain and Tyler has to drive up and over it to get to work every day. At the top of the mountain we can see this tower that is always intriguing to Jackson who calls it the spaceship tower. I really wanted to hike up there in the summer but heard the views in the fall were the best! We almost waited to long, but I'm glad we were able to get the hike in this year though! It will be an annual tradition for sure.

Jackson with his walking stick!

Somewhere along the trail, heading up!

My hiking partner

Views from the top

It's much more than just a tower

Such beauty, it rained leaves on us with every breeze.

The floor blanketed by leaves

The kids were troopers and we hadn't bothered to borrow a carrier for Abbie so Tyler carried her most of the way. Jackson needed to be carried on parts of the steep uphill but he walked most of it on his own. We didn't realize but it was the Annual Tower Toot that weekend so when we got to the top there was a fun German band playing music and food for sale. We enjoyed some warm cider and a cheeseburger to go along with the few snacks I had packed.

It was one of my favorite activities in Connecticut for sure :)

Abbie is 18 months!

This blog is getting caught up slowly but surely! Whew, it's been a busy 6 months! I just looked back and I was totally caught up with normal blogging when Abbie turned 1 in April. That really seems like a lifetime ago but at the same time I can't believe my baby is an 18-month old, full-fledged nursery-attending toddler now. Since her birthday we had our hospital scare with Kawasaki Disease, moved across the country, visited Boston 3 times, NYC twice, upstate New York, California, Utah, Washington DC, Phillie, Vermont, Cape Cod, with a few day trips thrown in there. Wow, no wonder I'm behind!

But now it's time to write about Abbie at 18 months, and the best part is ... as I'm writing this - she still is 18 months old so it will be easy to do :)

*The girl who started out as such a chunk is still just a little peanut. She weighs 22 pounds 1 ounce (40%) and 31 1/2 inches long (38%) It's just funny to me that she's only gained 2.5 pounds in 9 months!

*While most people don't hear her say much, she actually does say quite a few words. She has a cute soft, little voice and her recent most favorite words are yes and no. Yes sounds like "syes" and No is nooo. It's hard to get mad at that cute little voice. She loves waving hi and blowing kisses bye to everyone and everything including each room as she leaves and anyone who walks by our house. She says Stop, Jackson, mama, dada, kiss, cheese, and can name most animals and their sounds and point and name to all body parts. I really shouldn't try to name all the words she says because she surprises me each day with new ones.


*But more than talking, this girl is observing and learning from her big brother and everything she sees. She will help him with puzzles, color with him, play with play dough and duck duck goose. She really does understand everything we say and has the routines of the day down. She will bring me a tissue, her clothes, shoes, and even a diaper and wipes when she needs a change. I'm optimistic that she will potty train when she's 2! She loves singing and knows quite a few songs already. She might not know all the words but she knows the tune, actions and some of the words to the Alphabet Song, Three little monkeys, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald, I am a Child of God, to name a few.

When the weather warms up and she grows an inch this girl will be owning this trike!

*She still is not interested in the tv for more than 5 minutes. She'll sit on the couch with Jackson for a little while but normally just plays around in the family room while Jackson watches a show. She perks up when she sees Daniel Tiger, Elmo or Princess Sophia. We have been watching a lot less tv in our family since moving here actually and I like it a lot :)

Always busts out a big cheesy grin for the camera.

 *Her favorite toys are books, puzzles, animals and dolls. She has gotten a recent interest in her baby dolls and she will rock them, feed them, give them kisses, and pretend to change their diapers. Because of this we've got to watch out for clean diapers in the garbage since Abbie always throws away the diapers after she "changes" them. :) She'll still have an interest in what Jackson plays with too but is starting to have her own unique interests. They still play really well together 90% of the time. They've got such a special bond and she is so excited to see him when she wakes up and when we pick him up from school.

*I'm happy to report she's still an excellent sleeper! She goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up around 8 am and sometimes I have to wake her up to get Jackson to preschool by 9! She takes an afternoon nap normally around 2 hours or more. She loves the bedtime routine of books (she would have 30 books if I'd let her) and a song and prayer and hardly ever makes a fuss about going to bed. She folds her arms and says some of the words of the prayer and amen. She'll then start "singing" her lullaby song as soon as we say amen, such a cutie. If we need her to, she falls asleep in the car at naptime and bedtime very well and (knock on wood) always goes back to sleep when we transfer her to her crib. If she wakes up a little early from sleep or nap she'll want me to cuddle her for a while and then point to her crib when she is ready to go back to sleep. Seriously she's great and is making up for her never sleeping through the night as a baby!

She loves doing "races" with Jackson in the driveway.

So happy I gave her that juice box, or anything sweet for that matter...

*She was such a good eater as a baby and still is pretty good but will go through phases of pickiness. Her favorite foods are dairy items - cheese, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk shakes. She eats most fruits but does not love them with the intensity that Jackson does haha. It's gotten harder to feed her veggies, she'll spit them out most of the time. But she will eat most raw ones dipped in ranch (or guacamole or hummus or spinach dip) and loves green smoothies. She does have a sweet / junk food tooth though and loves mac & cheese, cheeseburgers, french fries, donuts, candy and cookies.  Girl after my own heart, what can I say.

*But oh the girl can be drama. My Papa told me a few months ago that pretty soon, Abbie will be running the show - he could just tell from the look in her eye. He was right we're realizing already! Wow. She likes things done her way that's for sure. She also is still very clingy to me and I hold her A LOT. If we go to a friends house or anywhere with a group of people (other than a park or library) she wants me to hold her the whole time. She will rarely venture away further than my lap! A few months ago I'd say it was worse though and she is slowly growing out of it. But I think most people would assume she's younger than she is since she's small, got no hair, and I'm always holding her. Then they might hear her say something and get surprised. 

She loves her big brother and he adores her as well.

Peephole spotting, Abbie & Jackson in nursery!

*So the big thing with 18 months for members of our church is that they can go to nursery on Sunday! We had brought Abbie in with us the weeks leading up to it to make the transition easier. Also one of the leaders is our friend, Jeanette, mom of Alice who she has playdates with every week so she is familiar with her. The first day Jackson took her by the hand and they walked together to the room, it was so cute! Tyler stayed in for the first 5 minutes or so and then when he left she definitely cried, but after 2 minutes she was fine for the rest of the time. She hasn't cried in the weeks since but always wants one of us to stay with her for a bit. The other leader mentioned to me how great Jackson is with Abbie in there. I have told him to watch out for her in there and I was hoping he would. Sounds like he is, and they say he has such pride in helping her with snacks and coloring.

I love this little girl so much and it's so fun to see her personality develop!