Halloween {2015}

This year our Halloween festivities began on October 29, with our ward party. This is the first time since we have had kids that our ward has done a Halloween party. It was fun because Boston was big enough to sort of know what is going on. It was so fun to get together with some friends of ours in the ward who also have kids about the same age as ours and have dinner. Plus they had a little section for kids to play games and get prizes. Boston LOVED that! There was also some entertainment at the party as well as a trunk-or-treat! Boston started to get the hang of saying, "Trick-or-Treat" and "Thank You" because he got candy. We let him have a few pieces as he asked for his, "choc" (chocolate). 

Halloween was on a Saturday this year so I had the kids dress in their Halloween clothes for the day. We didn't do much during the day, just kind of hung around and cleaned. But we were excited for the night to go trick-or treating!!

I was hoping that this year it would be warm like it was last year, but it was so cold and windy. So I was so happy and thankful that Boston and Ella had warm costumes to protect from the weather.

I tried to get some good pictures of the kids in both their Halloween shirts and Halloween costumes. But taking pictures of them, and getting a good one has become so difficult lately. Especially with Boston, for some reason he does not like getting his picture taken any more. So they turned out blurry or not looking at the camera. But they do look so cute in their costumes! Boston was a fireman and Ella was an elephant. 

Since our apartment is near a neighborhood, we just walked down the street and did our trick-or-treating down about a street and a half. Almost every house we went to commented on how cute Boston was and some even game him some extra candy because of how cute he was. He was a cute little fireman!

After almost every house Boston wanted to stop for a candy break! So we let him have a smartie or a dot (something little) to get him by to go to the next house. We were gone for almost an hour and probably went to about 15-20 houses, having little ones sure makes the trick-or-treating process longer. Thankfully I brought the stroller for Ella, she must of stayed warm enough because by the end of trick-or-treating she was asleep!

Boston was so excited and quite literally a kid in a candy store with his stash of candy he got! He loves the chocolate but also suckers, so whenever we went to a house where he could choose any piece he wanted, he would grab a sucker! Both Blake and I were thinking, "No grab the chocolate!" because there is no way we are going to let Boston eat all that candy! So we wanted some of the good stuff! But after looking at his candy, he actually didn't get too many suckers. So we were happy too!

After we had gone trick-or-treating we had our friends Will and Jenna over for a little Halloween party. They brought some carmel apples (YUM!) and I made a few goodies as well. It was not much we just had food, visited, and ended up watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We figured that fit with the Halloween theme, since there really weren't any good Halloween movies on Netflix.

I tried to add a little more decor and blew up some white balloons hanging them upside down and drawing faces on them to look like ghosts, but they just wouldn't stick to the ceiling, so that was a fail, but I did get a picture at least to show! 

Halloween was good this year, even if we didn't end up carving our pumpkins. We were going to but never got around to it, at least we can still use them as decor for Thanksgiving!

Ella {6 Months}

It has been a whole six months with this sweet girl! She has grown so much over that short period of time, I just want time to slow down so I can keep my little girl little, but it seems to be going by so fast! Ella has had a few milestones this month; including, learning how to sit up all by herself, and scooting around like crazy! She is now officially mobile. It is nice she can move around and not be frustrated because she can't reach a toy or blanket, but now she doesn't stay in one place! She seriously is so speedy now, inching her way across the room - she even can plank, so crawling must not be too far behind. It is weird to think I have two mobile kids now. I got thinking the other day than in a matter of months I could have two walkers! I am not ready for that, but thankfully I don't have to worry about that now!

Ella has grown like a weed since she was born. She is now almost 18 pounds and 27 inches long! A total growth of 10 pounds and 8 inches since she was born! She constantly stays in the 70-80th percentile for both height and weight! I love my chunky girl!

The more I think about it the crazier it seems that she has gotten so big and already a half a year old! Six months from today will be her birthday, and with how fast the first six months went by, I am sure the next will just fly by before I know it! I haven't started Ella on any baby food yet, but will be within the next few days! She has had a taste of yogurt and sucked on an apple and even tried some puffs, but as for real baby food - nothing yet! I don't know if I am holding back from giving her baby food quite yet, because it means she is growing up and I just want her to stay my baby!

Picking Pumpkins

Last weekend we went down to Utah to visit family, but mainly so Blake could go hunting and hopefully get a deer. On the first day we were there we spent part of the morning with my family at a local pumpkin patch picking the right pumpkins to take home. We had never taken Boston to a pumpkin patch, and it had been quite a while since I had been to one so it was fun to be able to spend some time looking for pumpkins, going through the straw maze, and enjoy the cool crisp fall air.

We went to Olson's Garden Shoppe in Payson (who also did my wedding flowers) so I was a bit surprised to find out they had a pumpkin patch. I don't know if this was the first year they had a pumpkin patch but it was a perfect size for us. We happened to get there before anyone else was there. So we had the wholes place to ourselves!! There wasn't a lot to it, just a small area, maybe the size of a backyard, that they had pumpkins and then a small little kids maze you could run through and finish in about 20 seconds. I loved that it was small and we could enjoy it with just my family instead of going to a large place with tons of people, plus it might have helped we got there around 10:30 in the morning!

Ethan was Boston's buddy and would sit on the little wagon with him as he was pulled along. I think that was Boston's favorite part! He love being pulled along on the wagon and could of done that all day. He had no real interest in the pumpkins or much anything else they had, but loved the wagons! He would want you to pull him all over the pumpkin patch and once you stopped he would let you know that he wasn't done yet! It was so worth it to run all over the place just to hear that little laugh of his! 

I tried so hard to get a good picture of Boston smiling next to a pumpkin, but he would not have it!  I even tried to be sneaky, but he had like some sort of sixth sense that you were going to take a picture and would start whining. I hope this doesn't last long, but at least we were able to got some good pictures, even if he isn't quite smiling right at the camera. Maybe next year he will be more willing to take some pictures!

Halloween Decor

This year for Halloween I wanted to decorate more than we had before. With apartment living comes smaller storage space and less room for unnecessary things, which decor seems to fall under sometimes. So I elected for more of a DIY style, and am pretty proud of myself. I can reuse it next year and it won't take much space to store. Of course I used Pinterest for some ideas, it is such a great place to look for inspiration and I am probably on it way too much. But I do use the ideas I pin, so at least I am not wasting all of my time. Anyways I made two banners one saying, "Spooky" and another "Happy Halloween". I so wish I had some machine to cut things out for me but I don't (maybe Christmas, someone please tell my husband, haha) so I did it all by hand. But I don't mind this kind of thing, it is therapeutic to me and something I do for "me" time. So while the kids were napping I cranked out the decor. 

For the front door, it isn't much but just a few pumpkins by our doormat and a little pumpkin welcome sign. I want a fall wreath so bad but haven't really looked or found one I liked. So eventually that will happen! I just don't know when!

As soon as you step into the apartment, to your left I have our chalkboard (which I change out seasonly or for holidays) I spent a good while working on it. I am a perfectionist so it takes a little longer for me, but I do it because it too is therapeutic. I know for most people they would not have the patience to dedicate so much time to seemingly meaningless things, but for me it is a chance to let my creative juices flow. 

Then we come to the "bat wall". Yes I did hand cut them all, but I did have a template. So it wasn't too bad and yes as you can guess, therapeutic. And there is one of the banners I made. I put it above our tv because there is just so much empty space and this helped to fill it up. Also not pictured is a little glittery pumpkin I have sitting on our end table. Which Boston just loves because it lights up and he knows how to turn it on. 

Lastly in the kitchen I have the "Spooky" banner hung across the window with some little wooden pumpkins I made at a Super Saturday a few years ago, that I just have sitting on the window sill. And next to one of the pumpkins in an 11x14" frame with a Halloween print that I also got at the same Super Saturday a few years ago. 

I love that I have time to decorate for the holidays and spend extra time doing these little things that I enjoy. While I was in school I did not have the chance to do this so much, so it is nice to still use some design sense I have honed in on, but be able to do it when I want and not worry about homework. It helps makes the holiday spirt stronger for whatever season.