Happy Halloween!

     Avery and Harper were especially excited for Halloween this year.  Avery was talking about it all week.  This morning she was able to wear her costume to school for her little Halloween party in Kindergarten.  She was Princess Leia from Star Wars Angry Birds.  I was surprised that she was not only able to put her jacket on over her puffy costume, but she even wore her backpack too.  Daryl and I took Avery and Harper around our neighborhood trick or treating while Emery held down the fort with my parents.  We ended up being gone for an hour.  One house was all decked out for Halloween with inflatables, spooky music, lights, and fake people in the car in the driveway with a strobe light going.  Avery tried to tell us that Daryl needed to carry her and Harper quite dramatically declared the the house spooky.  I love those two girls!

Avery ready for school this morning.

Emery rocking the ladybug costume.  I put this costume on her took a picture, and then off it came.

Avery and Harper in costume before trick or treating.  Harper is a butterfly.

The sweet candy aftermath.  The girls' scored Capri Suns at one house.

Harper very pleased with her candy haul.

Earlier in the day Emery decided to do some quality assurance tests of baby boy's car seat. I just love how Emery makes herself cozy in random places.

Pumpkin Carving

   Last night we got around to carving our two pumpkins.  Avery went with her Kindergarten class to Remlinger Farms a couple weeks ago, which was great because our family has been struggling with some gross colds that prevented us from getting out to the pumpkin patch.  On that field trip Avery was able to pick out a pumpkin.  She drew her own design on her little pumpkin and then Daryl did his best to carve it out just as she designed it.  Then Daryl carved out our bigger pumpkin into a cat design with the new Dremel pumpkin carving tool that we bought this year.  It turned out pretty good. Now we are ready for Halloween.

Avery insisted on wearing these gloves that are clearly to big for her to help clean out the pumpkins.  I did the bulk of the work cleaning out the pumpkins, so Daryl could concentrate on the carving.

Here's an action shot of Avery cleaning out the pumpkin.

Avery was pleased with how Daryl rendered her design.  She thought it looked scary. 

Here's Daryl carving the big pumpkin.

Here is the finished product.  Not bad for Daryl's first time using the power carving tool.

Later that night I went to check on the girls real quick before I shut their door for the night and saw a pair of knees sticking up on the top bunk.  I had to come back with the camera of course,

Avery's School Picture

  Oh Lifetouch.  Here's Avery school picture and it's pretty cute, except why couldn't they have swept that little piece of hair back?  Apparently I didn't shellac Avery's hair with enough hairspray that morning.  I suppose this is what retakes are for.

Tyler Turns Seven

   Last Friday was Tyler's seventh birthday. We celebrated in style at McDonald's.  Avery was absolutely sure that Tyler needed to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy for his birthday.  She has really been into Ninja Turtles and Batman lately in addition to her regular more "girly"  fare.  I took her and Harper to Target where they picked out a Leonardo action figure and some Raphael body wash.  Avery was sure Tyler would love them and she was right.  I can't believe that it's been seven years!

Emery just keeps getting cuter.

Harper saw me taking a picture of Emery and wanted her picture taken too, and this is the face she made.

Tyler and his awesome Costco sheet cake!

Avery was so excited to see Tyler open up the birthday gifts that she picked out for him.  

Random Picture Time!

  Here are some pictures that I've taken in the last month or so that have been burning a whole on my hard drive.  The first two are actually from September when Karl, Aimee, and Tyler came by to visit.  Then the others are from this month.  Life has been pretty busy.  Daryl transitioned from contract worker to full time employee at his job, and also found out that he was accepted into UW's Technology Management MBA program that will start in January.  We are anticipating that our house in West Seattle will be officially sold this week, and I am about four weeks away from my due date.  

Aimee really is great aunt and mom.  I like how they put a blanket on her first before they forced her to be their horse.

I had some awesome snuggles with Tyler, and he also told me that it would be okay if the baby should end up being born on his birthday October 24th.

These two crack me up.  They insisted on taking a picture once we got done putting this sweet cat puzzle together.

Here's a better shot of Cats from Around the World.  Avery made everyone go around and say which was their favorite cat.

Harper was on the floor when Emery decided she would make a nice chair and sat down in her lap.

Avery had to get in the picture too of course.