Halloween

I use to have a fantastic memory, then I had Henry and it has steadily decreased since that time.  I've been bad about blogging routinely but I want to break that habit and get some of the things I've missed up while I can still remember them. So. Halloween.

 No skeleton pjs left in Henry's size, sadly. The ones he got had a zombie and mummy instead. 

 We did the witches in between General Conference. 

Henry's is the drugged out looking one on the left, Thea's on the right. 

 My mom got Henry a Halloween puzzle for them to do together during her break but after she started it then left for an appointment he went ahead and finished it without her. Stinker.  

 Typical. 

 Leo's 6month Halloween jammies a friend got for him that he was able to fit into once, maybe twice. 

Henry found Johann's 'Beatles' wig and tried it on and asked if he looked like Professor Snape. Nope, but you could make a cute girl if we got the hair color right. 

 So I finally ordered the kids' costumes but didn't tell them when they came so they would still be in good enough condition for trick-or-treating. Henry asked about a million times every.single.day. I finally got sick of it and said, "they're coming today." He and Thea got a book and sat by the door waiting. For an hour. Luckily he had to pee at one point so I put the packages back outside and there you have it. 

 Insisted on being Daniel Tiger.

 Finally settled on Robin after 2 days deliberations. The mask is super creepy though so we had him use a super hero one he already had. 

The only picture I got of Leo in his costume that was Henry's first costume :( 

The Young Women were in charge of the Halloween party so I was running around the whole day and didn't get time to take pictures of Leo. I'm still sad about it. If he wasn't so ginormous I'd put him back in it and take some but he was barely fitting it that night. Third child.

 Grandpa, Abuela, Uncle Kaleb and cousin Apollo as Link all jointed us for the ward party. 

 Thea's costume was super baggy but we had no idea just how 'too big' it was until Henry showed us he could get it on and it covered his whole body. 

For family night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins (on a disposable St. Patrick's Day table cloth, no less):

During the week we painted some pumpkins 

And then poor Henry got sick and missed out on trick-or-treating. Thea tried to take him water or toys and he just completely ignored her and didn't move. He was actually pretty mean to her while sick, and she didn't want to leave him alone and tried to take care of him. It was a sad time. 

Thea went to a few houses with Johann since she'd never gone (she was sick last year) and had a good time. 

Then she passed out reading her favorite Halloween book. 

And I found this old Halloween goodie in the shed a day later. My older brothers Aaron (pirate) and Jacob (tiger) and me (pumpkin) with my mom, circa 1987. 

!Happy Halloween!

Leo, Leo, Leo

I hope Leo will know I love him because aside from keeping up with getting these growth over time pictures, I haven't been good about taking ones of him. He really is the family baby though and we all love and adore our happy, smiley guy. 

Leo will be six months in only a few weeks! He's rolling all around the house (generally he only rolls left), scooting backwards and sitting up until he tries to lean and then he tumbles on down. At his last well-check for 4 months he weighed-in just over 18lbs. and measured 27 inches. As far as personality he is much more of a baby than either of the other two were. He likes all the baby toys and snuggly type things that I couldn't get Henry or Thea to attach to until much later. He is a super mama's boy and is still refusing a bottle which means I haven't been away from him for more than 2 hours. He'll go to other people but not for long, except for one of my beehives who he has even pulled onto from me once and fell asleep while she was holding him too. 

He doesn't suffer in silence and when the older two harass him or do something he doesn't like he squeals like crazy. He's also pretty different in that he likes his sleep. He'll starts shrieking when he's had enough and needs to be put down *now*. He still wakes up one to two times, mostly in the morning, usually to nurse but goes right back to sleep and most days I can put him in the crib once I'm up to sleep for another hour or so. We love our little big guy and are loving having this spirit be a part of our family! 

Odds and Ends of Summer

A few of the things we want to remember we did during the summer: 

Johann camped in the backyard overnight with Henry. I thought for sure Henry would want to come in because he would get scared but he did great. 

 A small but fun trip down the hill to a little splash area in Victoria Gardens followed by a trip to pick up empanadas from Empanadas To Go for dinner.

A few of the ladies in my ward had a little shower for Leo and he got this Batman onesie Henry was stoked about.

Our dear friends we met while in Provo were in California before heading off to Illinois for their new adventure where Lev will be teaching and conducting at Wesleyan University so we had to see them before they left. They had a little boy we never met and we had Thea and Leo whom they had yet to meet as well!

 (At one point I looked down and saw this, I suppose it's the older siblings job to harass their younger sibling)  

 We looked around the mall, let the kids ride the merry-go-round, chatted had ice cream, took the kids to the park and just had fun catching up. There is nothing like friends who you feel instantly comfortable with even after two years.

Henry's obsession on and off was making Word Girl cut outs as well as Skylanders.
And more plating. We sure did watch a lot of cooking shows...

 Finally the day came that Johann had to go back to work. So the kids and I did the best we could, we busted out the water colors and playdough and tried to make the most of the day until daddy came home.

Then the day before school started in the district here we got to see Abba girl, Dean and their mom as well as some other 'family' and friends. It was such a joy to see they kind of just pick up wherever they left off and to see everyone's families growing and everybody doing good things with their life. Hopefully we won't always live so far away from each other!

And with that, summer was finally, officially at an end for our family.

San Diego and Oceanside

Last year my mom decided on a birthday tradition of going to San Diego. Since it was incredibly crowded in SD when we went last year we talked about staying in Oceanside this year instead. She thought this summer would be a fun time to test out a hotel in Oceanside to make sure there was enough to do for everyone. She booked a room but when the time came to stay, she was off in Utah on a sudden trip with a friend and they decided to stay to see another friend from Idaho. So off our little family went to test it out.

We started by heading to SD first to stop by Seaport Village for lunch and a look around.

 (I almost cropped out Johann and this weird angel on the the horses butt, I think everyone will appreciate I didn't.) 

Next we headed to the tide pools at Cabrillo Point. 

Once it was closing we headed over to Oceanside and the hotel. It was good we went to get the lay of the land; they don't have parking (you have to do valet), there are bellhops accosting you, you need cash for tipping, keys for the elevators etc, etc. I mean, the last place we stayed in had goats...so this was different for us.
Despite feeling a little out of place at first, once we settled into the room and got to the pool it was worth the awkwardness we first felt.

The next morning we got ready and headed to the beach which was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel.

The kids absolutely loved it at the beach. We only stayed a few hours because we needed to get back for check out (and we didn't want to stay too long with Leo) but I think they could have stayed all day. 

 (Leo's first time at the beach!)

Too soon we had to head back, pack up and head home. The kids are definitely Johann's when it comes to their love of the beach. I'm coming around to it now too. I've never been to the beach in the morning like we did this time and I really liked it. It felt so fresh and peaceful. Looking forward to our December trip!