Pre-Halloween Activities

This week we've been busy getting all set for Halloween.  On Monday, we went over to Mom's to carve pumpkins with everyone.  In keeping with our costume theme for this year, I carved Captain Hook while Jason helped Leila paint a pumpkin and decorate some sugar cookies.

Then I carved this Disney Love pumpkin the next day because we had an extra pumpkin.

This morning, Leila got to dress up in her Tinkerbell costume for preschool.  She loves everything about it, except for the fact that her wings don't let her fly.

Ellie is ONE!

My sweet Ellie belle turned one today. And what a year it has been! She started life with a bang by arriving six weeks ahead of schedule and has just been the sweetest angel ever since. It took nine months for her to make it onto the growth charts, but she continues to make up ground with each checkup (a whopping 16 lbs. 9 oz now). Still no teeth but she can flash a smile that melts my heart every time. She's also pretty dang close to walking! Happy birthday to my little conqueror!

Here's some of what she's up to these days:

• Sleeps 12 hours straight pretty much every night
• Still eating baby food, probably waiting to get a couple teeth before we switch to table food
• Walks along furniture or with assistance
• Refuses to drink her bottles being held.  She prefers drinking it by herself, in her crib.
• Is such a sweet, happy-go-lucky baby

It certainly doesn't feel like its been a year and yet she has grown so much that I guess it must be true.  She is a much needed calming presence in our home and adds balance to our little family.  I'm so happy that I get to be her mom!

Field Trip to Hee Haws

I had the opportunity to go with Leila on her preschool field trip to Hee Haw Farm.  She had so much fun being there with all of her friends, especially when they all got to go down the big slide together!

Crazy Corn Maze

My good buddy Laurel and her husband moved to Utah and we celebrated last night by meeting up at the Utah Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan.  It was a pretty chilly evening, but we had fun following our Leila leader as she pretty much ran through the whole thing.  Hopefully we can get together more often now that she lives so much closer!

Pumpkin Patch Birthday Party

Yesterday we threw a double birthday party for our girls.  Since they both have October birthdays, I figured a pumpkin patch party was apropos and sounded like a lot of fun to put together.  I was right!  I am very pleased with how everything came together but am certainly not planning on making this an annual tradition cuz it was a TON of work!

The invitation

The decor included 2 decoupaged pumpkins with pictures of each birthday girl, a wreath for my front door, 3D paper pumpkins on the tables, a homemade birthday banner, pumpkin window clings and other dollar store pumpkin finds.  The best part of this decor is that I get to keep most of it up for the rest of autumn now!

We started the evening off by decorating pumpkins as the guests arrived.  We ended up with a full house of guests with most of my family (missed Taylor), Jason's parents, Jessica (and her boyfriend), and my cousin Laura's family.  

As the pumpkin decorating was wrapping up, I got dinner ready to serve.  We had a chili bar (complete with toppings like cheese, tomatoes, avocados, Fritos, rice, sour cream, and onions), veggie tray, chips and dip, pumpkin shaped dinner rolls, caramel popcorn, caramel apple pudding, and pumpkin juice.  I also added stems and leaves to the plates to make them into pumpkins.  I found several orange serving dishes at the dollar store.  My other favorite dollar store find were pumpkin shaped ice cube trays!

After dinner we opened gifts with Leila graciously volunteering to help Ellie open hers.  My daughters are so loved!  It seriously felt like Christmas morning for them!!  We wrapped up the evening with cake and ice cream.  And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take a picture of the cake but we just got a big ol' death by chocolate cake from Costco and I added some Oreo crumbs and pumpkin candies to the top so that it fit in with our pumpkin theme.

Unfortunately Ellie was not feeling great during the party (I'm really hoping she's getting ready to pop her first tooth) so she was a little ornery.  But she devoured the ice cream we gave her and screamed for more.  Leila also exclaimed several times throughout the day that this was "the best party ever" so I'm considering it a strong mommy win.

Happy birthday girls!

Leila is FOUR

Here's a shout ot to Leila for her FOURTH birthday!  I can't believe what an amazing, intelligent, independent little person you are these days.  You always live each and every day to the fullest.  Your memory is incredible as you recall specific details from months past.  You are super friendly and hate to see anyone be sad.  I have loved watching you take on the role of big sister this last year and couldn't be prouder of how much you love and take care of your sister.  Your imagination grows daily, maybe even as fast as you do.  I love you sweet daughter of mine!

Right now, you:
*Love all things princess
*No longer take regular naps
*Sleep through the night about 75% of the time
*Love going to preschool
*Know all of your letters, their sounds, and several words that start with each letter.
*Can write your name
*Like to play with your sister and make her happy.  You especially like to make silly faces for her when she is sad
*Love to sing songs

Birthday Interview:

Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Aubrey, Hailey and Brynn

What is your favorite color?  Blue!  And green and yellow and orange and red.

What's your favorite show to watch?  Frozen

What's your favorite clothes to wear?  Belle--Belle is pretty

What song do you love?  Frozen song

What's your favorite cereal? "Craptin" Crunch

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Tinkerbell

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Strawberry

What is your favorite Disneyland ride?  Peter Pan

Birthday Zoo Trip

My mom has made it a tradition to take Leila to the zoo every year for her birthday.  This year it happened to work out for us to go on her actual birthday.  Annie and Grandma Ziebarth joined in on the fun too.

The zoo had a Zoorasic Park theme going on and there were several dinosaur figures throughout the zoo.  Leila was not a fan of any of them until the very last one because it spit water.  She played with that one for 20 minutes and we had a hard time getting her away to go home.

But head home we did and she crashed in the car with a chicken nugget in her hand.  Another lovely day at the zoo!