Whirlwind October

Well we have had a whirlwind of a month! It seems like everytime I wanted to blog, something else was happening so I waited. But at long last here it is... pics, captions, and fun stories!

We went out one day to take our family pictures and they came out better than I expected. I think it is our best family photo yet! I sent it out to some people and posted it on my Facebook, and I had such a great response from everyone. Some people even asked me to take their family photos too! Yea! I can't wait to do this professionally!

Here is Levi with his three friends at our complex. Wyatt, Brennan, and Max are pretty much all he talks about. He loves his friends so much! He's learned all sort of games from his friends, one of which is a pirate game. So yesterday when Justin asked him to do something, Levi responded, 'Aye-aye Captain!' He even used a pirate accent. It was so hilarious!

As usual we went to a pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins this year. It had been rainy for a while, but we only had one day we could do it, so we went anyway. It actually was sunny for the half an hour we were there, so good timing for us! It was so slopped in mud, though, that the tractor's tires on the hayride to the pumpkin patch dug about 8" divets in the ground! It was amazing! Levi got to go through a hay maze, play in a corn feed box, and play with their duck races.

This was a fun year to carve pumpkins. Hazel didn't mind the goop, in fact she loved it. I remember Levi crying when he touched the goop, probably because it was so cold to touch. But she loved it. We decided next year Levi will be carving his own pumpkin, with help of course, instead of me carving one for him. While I was carving his pumpkin he was mutilating Hazel's by stabbing it and poking anything he could into it. But we had fun all the same, even if mommy was a little stressed at having to carve three pumpkins and draw designs for four! Next year Justin and I are going to try sculpting our pumpkins. We may buy one now and sculpt a turkey for T-day, just to test the waters, but we'll see.

Alas the Hazel. She is so sweet. She can be our little lady of sweetness and an adorable ball of cuteness, or she can be a holy terror and scream at everything. Luckily those moments are becoming fewer. She has started a new smile lately. We call it in my family the bunny face. She will get a big grin, like below, and then scrunch her nose and sniff/snort really loudly... kind of like a bunny. It is so funny sometimes we bust out laughing, which only makes her do it more!

Oh our little Levi! He is such a boy. Now I know that statement is obvious, but he really is. Although I can say he officially potty trained. I honestly don't think it was anything Justin or I did to make this happen. He really just decided to do it on his own. Granted the punishments for going #2 in his pants, a cold shower and he had to clean up the mess and dispose of the underwear, may have had something to do with him learning to do that in the toilet. But for the most part it really was just all his decision. He still has an accident or two, but he usually cleans it up before he even tells me it happened. He has developed quite the attitude lately, and we have had to curb some back talk and snotty language. We are teaching him you don't call people stupid, and he now points out to us and everyone that you don't say stupid at all. So I know he is learning!

Also, the poor Baze has been so sick off and on again for a few weeks now. She is currently sick again with what seems like a cold. Poor thing can't even breathe!

Ah Halloween, my favorite holiday. We got to do some real decorating this year, and I loved it! I can't wait until we have our own house and we can do a mini haunted house and go all out on the yard. I love Halloween, and I would love to make it a fun (not scary) holiday for all! Below are our pumpkins: Justin-Darth Vader, Daphne-Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, Hazel-Silly Face, Levi-Transformer's Autobots Icon

For Halloween this year we decided to be a bunch of crooks... trying to play on the last name. Not many people got it unless they knew us, and even then it took some people a little bit to get the joke. Justin and Hazel were in black and white striped inmate outfits, and Levi and I were in orange inmate outfits. I think next year Levi will be Wall-E, Hazel will be Eve, and Justin and I will be the huge fat people from the movie (using the air-blown costumes)! It will be hilarious... hopefully.

This wasn't her costume, but we put this on her for one day. She was comfy at least!

Our trick or treat bowl. I thought it would be fun to use some dry ice. The kids didn't even notice when they took their candy, so next year I will be putting the dry ice to better use.

Just today, the kids in a bath! They can be so cute and so sweet together. Levi loves to play with Hazel, and if he does it right, she loves to play with him. It is really a sweet sight to see him play so gently and kind with his sister, and they go play so rough and tumble with his friends outside, I'm glad he knows the difference.

That's all from us! Happy Halloween!