Happy Halloween!

Another tradition we have, which just started last year, is trick-r-treating down Hillcrest Avenue here in Louisville. It's right in our neighborhood, which makes it convenient, and just about everyone on the block goes ALL out for Halloween. It's a tourist attraction for the whole month of October. And it's so fun to see all the decorations. We go rather early as to avoid the crowds, in fact this year we left our house at 5:30 and timed it just right! Alexa loved to "tick teet" and she'd say "peez" and "tane too" at every house.

It was pretty cute. Alexa's chicken costume was a hit, even landing an inside appearance at one of the houses so the 84 year old grandmother could get a look at her!

We even met up with a couple other chickens!! We had a great night. Halloween sure is more fun with kids...and thanks to Alexa, we scored some good candy!! :-)

Carving Pumpkins

In preparation for Halloween, we needed to carve our pumpkins. We let Alexa decorate her own pumpkin this year and she loved it.

She's pretty proud of her lil' punkin!

And here's our own lil' punkin last year...

And now this year...she's grown up quite a bit!!

We have a tradition in our house that Kevin cuts out the top of the pumpkin and then cleans it out. Then I carve it. I think it's a pretty good system!! Here he is working hard...notice the concentration!

Alexa had to "peek" at what daddy was doing. I think she "peeked" about 15 times in the short time that Kevin was cleaning it out.

The carver at work, with my little helper!!

And the finished product! Turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself! :-)

Music Makers Trick-r-Treat

Our Stake has a program called Music Makers for toddler age kids every Wednesday morning at the Stake Center. They always do a Halloween one and so even though we don't make it that often, we wanted to go for this one. Alexa was the cutest chicken and here she is with "the guys", Olan & Quincy Carter. We tried to get Nathan to be in the picture too but he wasn't in the mood!

I even looked a little festive!!

Tribute to Lute!

We had our Ward Halloween Party tonight and Kevin went as Lute Olson, the recently retired Arizona Basketball Coach. It has been a week of mourning in our household since Kevin found out that Lute retired. So as tribute to the greatest college basketball coach, Kevin dressed up as Lute. Most people thought he was either John McCain or Bill Clinton, but a few people knew who he was which made his day!!

And here's Lute with our cute little chicken!!

Pumpkin Pickin' at Gallrein Farms

It's our family tradition to go pick a pumpkin each October at an actual pumpkin farm. Usually, we go to Huber Farms in Indiana but we thought we'd try this one in Kentucky this year. It was definitely way less crowded than Hubers and the pumpkin selection was better, but I think we'll be heading back to Hubers next year as we just like the atmosphere better. We still had a great time with our friends, the Ice's. Here are a few pics of our fun day, despite the very chilly wind!!

If Alexa was standing up straight, you'd get to see that she's close to 3 feet tall now. She's definitely grown a lot since her 18 month dr's appointment!!

I know, I know...Alexa's eyes are closed...but I sure look good, so I had to include this picture!!! hahahah

Alexa on the hayride back from the pumpkin patch with mommy and climbing on top of the haystack with daddy!

And of course I have to do a THEN and NOW to show how much Alexa has changed in the last year...here's Alexa last October,

And here she is this year!

Out in the pumpkin patch, me and my girl!

Finding the perfect pumpkin with daddy.

Our little family!

Cute as a Button!!

Last Friday, I also had the privilege of watching our friends', Aaron & Brynn Wikle's, little girl, Samantha. They dropped her off after Alexa was in bed and we had such a fun time hangin out while her mommy & daddy went on a date. Isn't she just about the cutest thing ever????!!!!

Play Date with Nay-Nay!

Last Friday, we had a play date today with Alexa's friend, Nathan (Nay-nay) Ice. These two love each other and get along so well with each other. They're only 3 months apart (as will be both of their younger siblings!!) and I hope they'll always be the best of friends! Rachael and I are secretly planning their future marriage!! :-) Anyways, Rachael had a Dr's appt and so we had Nay-Nay over and we had such a fun morning. They raced up and down our hallway with the cart and the stroller and had such a great time together!

You guessed it!

Yep, that's right, we're expecting baby #2, there's definitely a bun in this oven... our little Pablo is due at the end of April 2009. I'm a little over 3 months right now and starting to get over the initial "morning" sickness...I think! The nausea has been pretty random this time around but I'm way more tired it seems. Maybe that's just because I have a toddler to take care of as well as being pregnant. We've decided to call the little peanut "Pablo" because ever since Kevin and I got together, he's teased me about having a son named Pablo or Jorge (pronounced hor-hay). But seeing as that will never happen...I consented to letting #2 have Pablo as a nickname in utero...although I'm sure if we actually have a boy this time, the nickname will continue once he's born or perhaps we'll just have to change the nickname to Pablita or something along those lines. But we will most definitely be finding out what this baby is and will keep everyone posted...look for further news on that in December!

What a day!

Okay so apparently I need to keep a close eye on Alexa...as she seems to be developing klepto tendencies!! We went to the mall this morning to let her play on the boat play area for something to do since Kevin isn't home this weekend. Well, we wandered into Old Navy and she was playing the with balls while I wandered around. We then left the store, went back to the boat for more playtime and then headed out to the car to come home. I got Alexa all strapped into the car, loaded our diaper bag back into the car and went to put the stroller in the trunk and what did I find??? A football from Old Navy stashed in the bottom of the stroller. Great!! She was already in the car and I've been pretty tired these days so the thought of hauling her back into the mall to take the ball back wasn't very appealing. BUT...it was the right thing to do, we didn't pay for it after all. Thankfully though a couple other fellow moms parked beside me were loading their kids into strollers to head into the mall and I asked if they happened to be heading to Old Navy. They said no but asked why and I told them what had happened. They graciously offered to take the ball back in for me. THANK YOU!!! I love how understanding other moms can be. We've all been there at one time or another.

And now we're dealing with the stomach flu. Oh JOY, oh JOY, oh JOY!!! We went grocery shopping this afternoon and as soon as I got Alexa out of the car, she puked everywhere. All down her shirt and all over my pants and shoes. With my vulnerable stomach these days, it was all I could do not to do the same. Once again though, a kind, good Samaritan came to my rescue. She had just put her groceries away and came over to help me get wipes out of my diaper bag. I figured it was just from a cough Alexa has that made her gag, so we hurried and got our groceries and came home. Well, it's definitely the flu...it's now coming out both ends. I know, I know...too much information. I just wanted to share in my pain. And lucky Kevin gets to miss out on the fun.

I think I am ready to throw in the towel. However, the role of a mother doesn't end so I guess I'll be cleaning up puke and other nasties throughout the night. Wish me luck. If I don't come up for air tomorrow, please check on me!! :-)

GUESS WHAT????

CLUE #1:

CLUE #2:

So long silver...

An era has passed. On October 13, 2001, I purchased this car...and this week, 7 years later, I've sold it. No need for tears, I'm quite happy about the situation. I've never been attached to her, she's never even had a name in all the 7 years I've had her. But it is time to move on. Kevin's parents have generously offered us the use of their Buick Rendezvous while they're on their mission for the next 18 months. That's where Kevin is this weekend...he flew out to Phoenix this morning and will drive our new car back this weekend. We miss Kevin but we're looking forward to having a little more room. Drive safe babe!

Boo at the Zoo

This afternoon we took Alexa to the "World's Largest Halloween Party" at the Zoo. We went last year as well and had a great time so we were looking forward to keeping up the tradition. However, it was WAY busier this year. After the intial bottleneck though, it opened up and we were able to walk at a normal pace.

Here's our little chicken!! Pretty much the cutest chicken ever, if you ask me!!! :-)

And here she is saying "CHEESE" and strollin' with daddy!

I couldn't resist this picture!

And here's a look at THEN and NOW...Then being October 12, 2007 (Alexa was almost 11 months old) and Now being today, October 11, 2008 (Alexa almost 23 months old). She's grown up quite a lot in a year!!

Sick little girl!!

It's been a long week with Alexa as she hasn't been feeling that great. It started out with just a clear, runny nose and a bit of a cough and then Thursday the fever hit. This was Friday morning around 9:15. Kevin didn't have school and so we were getting ready to run some errands. As soon as I turned on the blow dryer to do my hair, Alexa zonked! And she slept for over an hour! Sure, she'll sleep longer stretches when she's NOT in her crib...crazy girl. Anyways, I think our usual happy little girl has started to return. Her fever lasted most of the weekend, as did her crankiness!! but this afternoon she seemed more like herself than she has in several days. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day!!

I want to be like Daddy!

Alexa was upstairs "helping" Kevin get ready for a meeting at the church and I was cleaning up dinner when she came downstairs like this!! It was pretty cute...she'll help Kevin pick out his clothes and ties and even tell him which ones he can't wear!!

This is what happens...

...when you only take a 20 minute nap!!!! It was 4:45pm and I was getting dinner ready when I looked into the living room and found this!! Why oh why won't she nap longer?????