Trick-or-Treat!

What do you get when you have: one circus monkey, one zebra, one Fancy Nancy, and one Big Bird? A very Happy Halloween!!! Our night started with a drive by to Granne and Gramps, and then progressed to dinner and trick-or-treating at the Potters. These pictures say it all...a bunch of cousins, a bunch of fun, a bunch of candy, and a tradition underway!
















Thank you Aunt Heidi for the delicious meal and for making this memory happen! (We should do the same dinner menu next year... DELICIOUS!!!!!)

Our little Big Bird

Our community had a Halloween Spooktacular tonight, so of course we had to go! Rylie walked around in a bit of a trance, gazing at all of the huge blow-up creatures and kids in costumes...all the while nibbling on a pumpkinn cookie. Her favorite part was the big blow up monster in the corner because it reminded her of Monsters Inc...her favorite movie as of late.

The Pumpkin

It was pumpkin carving night at our home. There was excitement in the air!



Rylie "won" a free pumpkin for a coloring contest in the local paper. (Everyone is a winner!) So we decided just to get one great pumpkin this year.

Usually the hardest part is cleaning out all the seeds...but to our amazement, there were litterally only 30 seeds inside! Our lucky day! But on the flip side that only meant we got 30 cooked seeds, too!



Here are a few pics from the carving party. Chad was the master artist.











Ta-da! The finished masterpiece! Isn't this incredible!? I am sooooooooooooooo impressed with his creation!



We got Rylie out of bed to see the finished product. The minute we lit the candle in the pumpkin and turned off the light...she began to sing "Happy Birthday." Quite funny.

A snowbox!

It was so cold outside today, that we decided to bring the snow inside...and play in a snowbox!



Rylie is still not so sure about touching the snow...but she did like to scoop it into bowls and push it all around. We squeezed a few snowballs together and created our first snowman of the season, too!

Snow Day!

We heard last night that we were to get 12-24 inches over the next 48 hours. After a quick text to a friend (thanks Jane!) we had a snow suit in hand ready for the first storm!



Rylie woke up this morning asking "Snow on the porch?" When we pulled open the blinds, she just stood there and stared, and said "OOOOH!" She wore her boots all morning long...until we finally put on her snowsuit and went outside.



With all of her excitement, the minute we stepped out into the snow, she was not thrilled with it and wanted to go back inside. She was certainly more excited about the snow clothes, than being in the snow. Alas, that sounds such like a girl! Ha. We will work on this...

Here is our snow bunny:

Date Night with Dad!

Chad took Rylie out on a date last night, and aftter 1.5 hours Rylie came home squealing with joy through the front door with:
- one red balloon
- one spider ring
- one pizza
- one new DVD Pixar movie (Surf's Up)
- one new book (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatlballs)
Nice job dad!!!!

Needless to say we had a very good night with all of the new fun stuff!

When we woke up this morning, Rylie grabbed her spider ring, and kept on sinigng the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over again. Here is one of those times...love it.

Fun in Seattle

Rylie and I flew to Seattle for a visit. We spent the entire time at Nanna and Pappa's house. Rylie made herself at home rather quickly, chasing the kitties, playing in the backyard, playing at the lake and parks, and enjoying lots and lots of toys, books, and Veggie Tales! The reason we chose this week to visit, was because cousin Finn turned One while we were there! We loved time with Finn and family...he is soooooooooooooooooo cute. We had to celebrate his big milestone!!!








This is my childhood best friend, Stacy, and her three kids. She was my only friend who dared to visit because I had the flu all week. She and her kids already had it! Ha!


We hit the park a few times in between the raindrops...the same beach I grew up going too. (New and improved toys now of course!)

New things...

The Count...
Rylie has reached that age that we are continually in awe what she can say and what she knows. For example, yesterday while playing at the playground, we were counting something...and I started, "one" and she continued with "two", then I said "three"...and we did this all the way up to ten. What!? Since when did she learn how to count to ten!? We have not been intentionally really working on numbers...and walla...she can count...to eleven no less! What a kid.

The Parrot...
It is no surprise that Rylie learns most phrases and words from us. Thus, she is a parrot, copying what we say. There are times that we have had no idea that we said certain things, until she shows us. For example, one phrase that she has said at times is "Can you hear me?" It was not until yesterday evening, when Chad and I were out on a great date, that I realized I ask Chad that question, when he is a little spacy. I had no idea that I apparently ask him this often enough that Rylie picked it up from me! Ha! Hilarious. A good communication tool!

The New Kitty...
The twins upstairs just brought home a new kitten. The kitten's name is Snickerdoodle...because she looks like a Snickers. She is sooooooooooooooo cute. Before they even brought it in their front door, that brought it in ours. Rylie LOVED petting it...as the little kitten just purred away. I think we will be visiting upstairs more!!! (Maybe Chad will someday be open to having a cat, as he see how much Rylie enjoys them! Wishful thinking, I know.)