Sadie Turns 2!!

For the last week Sadie has been asking "Is it me happy day??" She was so excited when her "happy day" finally got here!  We started the morning with Lucky Charms (a major treat, we have a no chocolate, no rainbow cereal rule in this house).  Needless to say, all the kids loved it.

After breakfast we started getting ready to party! I love when the kids birthdays fall on a weekend so that we can celebrate on the actual day!

I caught this cute shot with Daddy before the party started.

Sadie loves Elmo and especially loved her Elmo cake!

The birthday girl was escorted to her bounce house by our sweet neighbor Nate.  She is just a wee bit smitten with him!

Happy bouncing birthday girl!

Lina and Gus! We love having all the Arnolds around! They are such great friends!

Sadie surrounded by boys eating lunch.

Lauren and Sadie hung out a lot at the party, they love each other! It is so fun for them to grow up together!

Julie helped Lina and Audrey get all the eggs out of the chicken coop! We love playing with our friends, especially when they help us with our chores!

Soon it was the time Sadie had been waiting for! Cake time!

Yay for our big 2 year old!

Mmm, the candle frosting is always the best part of the cake, right?

Sadie had a lot of fun opening her gifts. She loved this stuffed Minnie Mouse from Aunt Joanne.  It spent the afternoon in the bounce house with her and now it is tucked in right next to her in bed.

Andy and Sophia were helping her open her gifts. Everything she opened she immediately wanted to play with. 

Carter kept running by keeping us all entertained!

My kids are so lucky to have great friends. I am so lucky they have great friends, friends who want to be helpers and love each other so much.  And it kind of makes sense that our kids friends are so cool, because our friends are amazing. Days like today really drive that home.

Sadie's party started at 11 and the last of our friends went home at almost 5. It was a great day with so many awesome friends. Sadie didn't nap at all, so she was early to bed, tucked in with gifts and sleeping on her new cow pillow. She is one lucky little girl, but I think we are the luckiest ones of all!!

Halloween!

 For Halloween this year, we trick or treated our way over to the Santa Margarita Carnival. We were so excited to have Uncle Monster, Auntie Kay, Uncle Stephen, Aunt Sarah, Carter and even Uncle Hal and Aunt Arlene come with us!  We really missed John, who had to work, but luckily he was able to go to Zoo Boo with us the weekend before, so he got to see the kids in their costumes.

Carter was a little less than excited about posing for pictures. He was much more excited about running down the street with all the big kids!

 But I did get him to pose for a picture with his Daddy!

 My little cowgirl was feeling a little under the weather, but she was still a super good sport.

 My Geek and I! We have spent so many Halloweens together! I love that now we get to trick or treat together with our babies!

 Chris was trying to get the kids to take some selfie's with him.  I kind of doubt he had any luck. But I got some funny shots!

 Someone made Carter this crazy monkey head. It turned Stephen into a super cool monkey lumber jack....

 Silly boys. 

My pterodactyl was so good all night. He loved going in the haunted house with Uncle Monster. Julie went through once with Auntie Kay, but he wanted to go again and again!

We made it to the carnival and the kids played all the games. They also ran into a bunch of friends from school and around town. Us grown ups enjoyed the awesome banjo music.

Sadie was intensely watching the big kids to see how the games were played. She followed every move they made!

 Julie humored me with a pose or two.

 While the boys were in the haunted house, us girls took some selfies. We were slightly more successful than Uncle Monster.

Chris and I were talking about how we got some fun shots, but not a super well documented holiday. We decided that was a mark of success, we were having way too much fun to take pictures. And it was likely the best Halloween since we were allowed to trick or treat!

Cut n Gut 2013

For years now, and by years, I mean at least 10, we have been carving pumpkins with the Hammers. Honestly since before they were "the Hammers" and we were "the Hunters"!  It has become one of our greatest, easiest, most looked forward to traditions. Every year has been different. One year it was cutting pumpkins on the floor of Chris and Kayla's apartment while pregnant with Julie. One year waiting for the kids to go to bed before bringing in the pumpkins. One year sitting around Chris and Kay's living room watching Charlie Brown.  Always with pumpkin seeds roasting in the oven, of course.

Each year is great in it's own way, and this year was no exception.

Sadie made a cameo at the very beginning. We cut her pumpkin open, she took out one seed, deemed it "yuck!" and asked for Elmo. She was occupied by Elmo and watching us the rest of the night and had no further interest in pumpkins.

Andy was so happy to finally get to cut open his big ol' pumpkin!  He really wanted to make a pumpkin with shark teeth! He spent the first 20 minutes attempting to convince Chris to copy his pumpkin design. Because all pumpkins need big scary teeth!

Julie was so excited to work on her pumpkin. She didn't have a plan like Andy did. But she was also a little more independent and did a lot of the work herself.

 "Hmmmm, now what am I going to do with this thing?????"

 Not sure if she enjoyed this part, but she did it.

Look at the concentration here! Andy even has his tongue sticking out!

 Cool shot by Uncle Monster!

The whole carved lot. It was a great year. Starting on the upper left was Julie, Andy, Kayla, Chris. Bottom left to right is mine and Johns.

 Julie and Andy holding Kayla and Chris' pumpkins. We have some talented, creative friends!

 Spooky Julie Head!

 Creepy Andy Face!

 
 It wasn't all hard work and carving. We did take some delicious pumpkin spice coffee breaks. And of course we munched on the pumpkin seeds the second they came out of the oven! I enjoy that part more than the actual carving. Mmmmm, pumpkin seeds.

Once again, a successful holiday tradition in the bag!