Trick or Treat!

I love holidays...I often feel like I get more excited for them than my kids, and someday, they may be a bit embarrassed by my enthusiasm for them! Till then, however, I shall allow the giddy anticipation, and use it to create fun, if not crazy, memories for my kiddos.
This is officially our first Halloween without family (parents, cousins, etc.), and as I realized this this morning, I also discovered I had no clue what to do to celebrate.
So when I got up this morning, I made a batch of pumpkin waffles, which were quite tasty, and then we had a relaxed day at home, just playing and enjoying Daddy having the day off! After the kiddos naps, we ALL got dressed up, and decided to brave the mall in Bellevue for trick or treating. Since it was pouring rain outside, it seemed everybody and their brothers, cousins, grandmas, friend of friends, had the same idea. It was PACKED. The kids enjoyed seeing all the other costumed kids, and since Hobbes was a fireman, he pointed out every other fireman we saw. After getting a few candies, playing at the kids area, we decided to pick up Chinese food, and head home. Altogether a fun, crazy, day! We miss you all!

Yes. We are this crazy.
Bray's pose...
My turn.
The Froman, The Fireman, and The Flower.
Hobbes was fascinated by the wigs...he kept asking us to put them on all day.
My firefighter and my beautiful flower.My little hero.
For the first time in their lives-they BOTH wanted to smile and say cheese-at the same time! (gasp!)
Cute, cheesy, and I love it.
Just sitting-sugar's wearing off by this point.
CHEESE!
Sliding down!
Froman helping Miss Flower down the slide.
Enjoying the rewards of the evening.
Happy and eating candy.

My family

I love taking pictures. I may not be very good at it, and I don't have a great camera, but I still frame my faves, and they usually entail Bray, the kiddos, and my extended fam.
These are a few from today that I just love. Because of Bray's crazy schedules, we try to jampack as many family events and memories as we can into short periods of time. Today was one of those days-and these pics are the result. I love them, because they're crazy and full of joy-just how I would characterize our family!My handsome, opera-hair husband and me.
Kisses from my girl.
Me and my girl.
Camera hog! Naked baby, fresh out of the tub, trying to steal the camera, and saying "Cheese" the entire time!
My buddy-boy's new big-boy trick=putting his head under water, so he's swimmin.'
Cuddling her baby doll right after a nap.

Pumpkins!

As you can probably guess from the title, we carved pumpkins last night! The kiddos actually participated (for about 20 minutes) and they even helped scoop out the pumpkin goop! Hobbes was a little better at it than Madeline, but I think that's just personality talking. (I was always the first one to bow out of frosting Christmas cookies, fully-milling applesauce, and the fun but more tedious holiday traditions. So, I guess she comes by it honestly? Anyhow, now I'm usually the one left at the table, finishing all the cookies! Thanks Mom!)
Bray designed the pumpkin faces, and made them incorporate the 'essence' of the kids. They turned out pretty cute, I think, and the kids had fun!This is her new "cheeeese!" face. They had chips while they were helping-thus the orange mouth.
Telling his pumpkin to say cheese.
Doing a great Vanna White impression.
Trying to get a cute pic, and instead getting, "No, cheese, Mommy, no more cheese!" I guess she was ready for bed!
Grumpy-face.
The 2 pumpkins! Madeline's is on the left, Hobbes' on the right.
Madeline's pumpkin.
Will post a pic of the parent pumpkin later!

I Adore Fall!

Yesterday, our 'clubhouse' (the office building for our apartments, which has a beautiful lobby/gym,etc) had a halloween party from 4-8pm. We weren't supposed to dress up or anything, we could just stop by, get some junk food, and say hi to people. As Bray had to work late, I decided to take the kiddos-and I'm glad I did! There were a few other older kids there, one in a Spiderman costume, and Hobbes was sooo excited to follow them around! He kept saying "Spiderman! Come here, where'd you go??" They each got a bag of candy, so I decided to take them down to the lake before the sun went away, and let them eat some candy on the way. It was one of the prettiest days yet since we've moved here, and I had to take some pics!
After our walk, I let them play in the leaves by our apartment building. They had a blast just running around, hitting the leaves with sticks, and throwing them at Mommy. Fall is such fun, free entertainment!Eating their Tootsie Pops on the path. Like the blue lips?
Hobbes, warning me to avoid stepping in the goose poop. He was quite fascinated...boys!
The geese (for my Mom).
Isn't our area absolutely gorgeous?
I could live here forever.

Sorry-but the beauty didn't stop!
Showing me his stick-sword. (Have I mentioned he likes Sword in the Stone now?)
Throwing those leaves.
Running as fast as she can go-and decked in her new headband from Ama and Ampa.

He ran SO fast in the leaves-it was cute!Killing the leaves with their sticks.

Ama and Ampa!

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents came to visit this weekend. We all had a great time,walking down to the lake, playing with trains, eating at Red Robin, and just catching up. We were very sad to see them go, and Hobbes was especially sad. Last night we told him to pray for Ama and Ampa's trip, and he said, "Ampa! Come here! Hobbes is prayin for you!"
Then this morning, he came running out, and said, "Ampa! Where are you? come out from the door!" He had a blast. Madeline kept going to my mom, grabbing her hand, and leading her somewhere to show her something 'special.' So cute. These are a few pics we took after church...we went and ate lunch at Belle Square, while the kiddos played on the equipment-Jill Fagan was really sweet and came and said hello, too!
Miss you all-and come visit if you want!