The End Of Our Octoberfest-ivities

My favorite holiday has come and gone. We filled our month with many a festivity to make the fun last as long as possible and it was great while it did! I especially love that the best festivity of all comes last (and on the last day of the month to give you lots of time to anticipate it!). I was really excited to take Lola out this year as she had no clue what was up last year and this year she is walking and able to hold her own bucket! She still wasn't too sure about what all was going on but she was a great sport and let us take her door to door for a couple of streets and didn't cry or freak out about any of the costumes, scary decorations or cold, rainy weather. I think she was just trying to keep up a brave face in front of her big sister, who came over with her mom, step-dad and their kids to join us for a few streets ;) Also there to celebrate with us were my parents, Taylor, Paige and Lincoln! We all had a great time and I already cant wait for next year!!

Lolie showing off in her Flower Fairy costume. Being as tiny as she is, we lucked out that she still fits a 6-12 month and could wear last years costume again. Isn't she the CUTEST little fairy you ever did see?!

Cute little baby wings and pink, scrunchy leg warmers!

A pic with cousin Lincoln who wasn't able to go out this year due to an ear infection. He stayed behind to have a bath instead. Lola was definitely more into him this time around bc he brought his own mommy with him and she didn't have to compete as much :)
All ready to go out. Here she's doing her latest favorite- waving and telling you 'bye' one-hundred times before she actually gets out the door.

Baby Brooklyn was a Leopard this year. She is at such a fun age for Halloween and gets so into it. I love it! She would have stayed out all night if we had let her :)

Lolie going up to the door with Brooklyn and Daddy. She's getting to be such a big (little) girl!

Checking out her Halloween loot. She got to eat her very first Tootsie-Pop!

Does this face say "I love Halloween!" or what?!

Photo Friday!

It's just about that time... Lola will be 18 months in 2 weeks and I'm finally going to take down her monthly photos from the side column as well as do away with the monthly Misc. Pics. posts. Instead I'm going to try to do a Photo Friday and post one to a few pictures from the week of the girls. Here's pictures from this last week and well see how well I can keep it up moving forward...

The CUTEST face EVER!!! I absolutely can't get enough of this smile!

Showing off her teethies :)

Not sure if she thinks momma's make shift handcuffs are funny or not

Brooklyn had crazy hair day this week. Being unequipped in the hair styling product area (bc I never use any on my own hair), I just did her up with a bunch of ponies all over. So yeah, not really that crazy... but she thought it was pretty cool :)

Festivities Part 4

Carving Pumpkins!

Daddy and Brooklyn carved one together and I carved one for Lola and I. It was good times :)

I just had to get a photo of Brooklyn using her tongue to help her concentration. Ha!

My Birthday

My birthday was this weekend and it was a pretty great one (despite being another year older)! Luke and Brooklyn did a great job of surprising me with some of my birthday favorites- flowers, handmade b-day cards, Magelsby Chocolate Cake and dinner at my most favorite restaurant!! To make my day extra special, Luke let me sleep in, made me breakfast, took care of some of my least favorite things (including dirty dishes and dirty diapers), let me pick where we went for lunch, helped Brooklyn secretly clean her entire room, and then surprised me with a sitter lined up for Lola so we could go out for the night. It was a great day and even though Im now older than I ever cared to be, Im really lucky to have such a sweet husband and adorable girls who care about making my day as special as it was!

My sweet B-day set up including trick candles that made Brooklyn giggle like crazy!

Sometimes Brooklyn surprises us with how un-photogenic she can be... This was seriously her best face out of the 5 shots Luke took :)

Lola is finally starting to understand that you smile when people take your picture... Isn't her little cheeser smile SO cute?!

Me and my ultra-handsome husband whom I adore and am still madly in love with 5 years later :)

Happy Birthday to myself!!

Festivities Part 3

Decorating Halloween Sugar Cookies! This is one of my favorite festivities... It's probably why I insist on making sugar cookies to decorate for every Halloween, Christmas, Valentines and any other holiday I can make the excuse for them. Luckily, Brooklyn very much shares my enthusiasm for this particular festivity and as soon as I mentioned them, she was asking every 5 minutes how soon we could decorate them! And even better, Brooklyn doesn't really care about the cutting out and frosting parts, just the sprinkles, which lets me be all picky (ahem... OCD) about baking the perfect cut out cookie and then frosting it just perfectly so (minus the ones Daddy helped frost) :)

Daddy and Brooklyn decorating their cookies

Our finished masterpieces!! Can you tell which is the one that Lola reached up to the table and swiped frosting off with her fingers?!

Poor Lola was a little sad when she awoke from her nap to find that we had decorated all the cookies without her, so to make it up to her, we let her have her FIRST and very own frosted sugar cookie to eat!! In which she thoroughly enjoyed as you can see :)

Festivities Part 2

Trip to Cornbelly's corn maze and pumpkin fest!
It was hot, it was crowded, but the girls had a lot of fun! This was our first time (minus Brooklyn's) to Cornbellys and it was definitely good times. There were slides, mazes, games, creepy walk throughs inside a dinosaur's body, rock climbing, a pumpkin princess play land, cow train, and much more! The girls were entertained for hours and hours making this visit well worth our time and money and could just possibly become a new yearly family tradition?!

Brooklyn Rock climbing. She is afraid of heights so Im still not sure why she insisted on wanting to do this... She never made it higher than the second picture but there' s always a next time right?!

Lola (with a mouth full of snack bar) playing around in a wooden train

Brooklyn and Lola dressed up as Cinderella and Tinkerbell in the Princess Playland

2 Under 2

No, I'm not pregnant with a another baby due before next May. And after these past few days, Im pretty sure Im glad that Im not!!
I went to St George this week to watch my little nephew Lincoln while my sister Paige and her boyfriend Matt went to party it up in Vegas (and get engaged!!). So it was just me and the 2 babies- 17 and 3 months old. Surprisingly, it wasnt nearly as bad as I thought it could be, mostly because Lincoln is the EASIEST baby ever! He pretty much slept and ate and hung out with us during his awake times. He loves to lay on his blankie and have you to talk to him, sit up in his Bumbo and watch whats going on, lay on his stomach on the Boppy pillow and just chill. Basically he was content with whatever and happy as could be. Lola on the other hand was not so easy going about it. As soon as she realized it was just Mommy around to take care of both of them and that she was going to have to share my attention with Lincoln, she got pretty bugged. Out of nowhere, she became needy, clingy, whiney, grabby, sneaky (taking Lincoln's blankie when I wasnt looking) and even a little aggressive! She would come over to him all sweet like and give him a hug (because hugs are her new favorite thing lately) then pull away and bonk him on the head! I seriously could not believe that my sweet, loving baby girl had turned into a little jealous monster right before my eyes! It was a little rough to be honest, so I tried to give her extra attention when he was napping and such but it took her the whole 3 days to finally warm up to him and not be jealous every time she saw me holding him. By the last day she decided he wasn't so bad and was actually pretty sweet to him- laying on the loves, reading him stories, bringing him toys, and even smiling and talking to him. Poor buddy... He just wanted to be her friend. He loved watching her run around and play with her toys and always smiled SO big when she gave him the time of day. He really is such a sweetheart and I hope he will help teach Lola a thing or two about being nice to babies when he's a little older and its his turn to share his momma's attention. Because as of this week, there's no way Im having another baby anytime soon! I think Ill wait until Lola is in 1st grade... or even later if at all!

Smiles for Auntie!

Lola trying really hard to be sweet- with a hug for her little cousin,
reading to him,

sharing...

more hugs...

and even helping dress him in his jammies.

How cute is he?! I just adore him and how easy going he is!