Halloween Spooktacular

Well, our beautiful fall did get totally trashed from that big first storm. Most of the trees hadn't lost their leaves with the 80 degree weather we were having so the sudden weight of all the snow meant lots and lots of broken branches all over the neighborhood. What a mess. The snow was quite beautiful that first day and the girls were mesmerized by it... but we got over it quickly. Luckily it has pretty much melted and we are back to lovely fall temperatures. Just in time for trick or treating. :)Our first big storm and just my luck the very next day I had agreed to watch these two dogs for SIX days. Oooof. Lots of muddy little paws in and out of the house all day long. I do love pooches but I won't be devastated to see these two rascals head home tomorrow.
We have been up to all kinds of Halloween fun. We've been watching scary movies almost every night for about two weeks and my girls and I enjoyed It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown today. Classic. We hit up two pumpkin patches, carved pumpkins, baked a ridiculous amount of halloween treats for various events, went to our ward party, a baby party with my moms group, and a neighborhood halloween parade.


I didn't realize it would take me so long and cut it pretty close with the girls butterfly wings, not finishing them till minutes before their first party. But they looked adorable. They were a little uncooperative in the beginning wearing their costumes but as soon as we turned them loose to play they loved waddling about in them. The antennas would not be worn...pigtails will have to do.We went trick or treating tonight with the girls and they had such a great time going door to door. The weather was perfect. Evie insisted on walking everywhere and Rosie walked, crawled, and rode in the stroller. This has been one of my all time favorite Halloweens. Last year Rosie and Evie were tiny babies and it was so fun having toddlers this year. I'm sure it's just going to get better. The girls loved going to parties, trick or treating, and dumping out their candy on the floor and playing with it before bed. We had tons of trick-or-treaters, drank hot wassail, and are heading down to watch Wait Until Dark.

I love holidays and insist that they be celebrated to the extreme. My goal is to wake up on November 1rst and not feel any sense of sadness that the holiday is over- I want to feel completely halloweened out by the end. This year was a success.

Full House

Finally finding a minute to sit down and post. We have had a busy couple weeks. I'm sitting in our enclosed porch listening to the rain thud, thud, thud on the metal roof and hoping the forcasted 10 inches of snow that is supposed to hit us tonight doesn't take Fall away permanently. The weather has been unbelievable. Even though I'm starting to get blisters on my hands from all the raking, I have really enjoyed being outside in the yard so much the last few days...just soaking it all up. I have been so impressed by how gorgeous it is here and am wondering where I was last year when all the bright fall colors came out. I'm guessing I was under a rock somewhere pining away for Utah and not even noticing my surroundings. I am in a much better place these days.We have had a full house the last little while. Ben's little sister Cindy, her husband Chris, and new baby Sadie moved in with us about two weeks ago. Chris just finished law school out in Virginia and they have decided to make Colorado their new home. They'll be residing in our basement until he finds a job. They have been very good house guests and so much fun to have around. Hooray for having some family close by! (very close by for the time being :) ) And I'm just loving this little girl. I've been feeling a little bit baby hungry the last few weeks ever since a good friend announced she was pregnant and Sadie bug is helping me get my fix. It's funny how you forget just how much work new babies are...but oh so dear.
Also my darling friends Shelley and Meagan came out from SLC for a visit. They are just fabulous girls and it was so great having them for a few days. We baked and decorated Halloween sugar cookies, had lunch and shopped in Denver, watched scary movies, went on a walk up the canyon, ate out in Boulder, went on a long hunt for new boots, and just had a lovely time catching up. They are so easy to be around and were so sweet to Evie and Rose who seriously just adored them.In other exciting news, little miss Rose is finally walking! She has been thinking about it for a few weeks-- secretly taking steps from here to there when no one was prompting or watching her. But now she seems to have gained a little more confidence and is walking a lot more to get from place to place. She is such a funny girl and never wants to show off for the camera (unlike her sister). She still needs practice and is still on her knees quite a bit but I'm just proud she is finally showing some interest and making progress. Go Rose!
(this video is from a little while ago)

Nawlins

Back from our trip. We had a fantastic time. New Orleans, albeit a pretty dirty city, is a very fun place to visit. It's like no other place I've ever been and I thought it was very romantic: the street cars, the Mississippi River, jazz music playing EVERYWHERE, enormous oak trees, and charming narrow streets with colorful buildings and cast iron balconies overhead. Kind of a weird mix of lots of places: San Fran, Las Vegas, Paris, and Disney Land...but dirty. :)

We went to the National World War II museum and spent over 4 hours there. It was incredible. We went on a swamp tour and saw about 10 alligators and the Cajun swamp people. We visited the amazing and spooky cities of the dead and the grave of Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen. The New Orleans water table is so high that the dead float right back to the surface if they are buried underground and are thus in huge aboveground tombs. We had a very romantic riverboat dinner cruise up the Mississippi River the night of our anniversary. We went on a run through Tulane University campus and Audubon park. We went on a walking tour of all the huge old mansions in the Garden District and read all the interesting history. We saw a couple movies and went to a voodoo museum (or I did...Ben was too scared). We took the street cars everywhere. We ate at the very popular restaurant Jacque-I-Moes. We toured an old haunted house. We spent a lot of time in the French Quarter listening to jazz, shopping in the French Market, sitting by the Mississippi or in front of the St. Louis cathedral watching the nutty street performers and fortune tellers, strolling Bourbon street, and eating at Cafe Du Monde. We ate an enormous amount of delicious food. Red fish, cat fish, shrimp jambalaya, craw fish etoufee, alligator cheesecake, and red beans and rice. And Oh the Beignets! We had an order of beignets I believe every single day. Amazing.

I loved being with my Benny. It was so good to just be us and spend some time one on one. You forget how easy everything is and how many things you can't do with babies in tow. I seriously felt like some sort of celebrity on the plane ride out to New Orleans. Sitting in my own seat with lots of room, leisurely reading my book, beating Ben at ipad chess, and having someone bring me a cold drink. Ah, yes. A very far cry from air travel the last 15 months.

But I must say that we missed our girls MUCH MORE than I ever would have imagined. Their were tears at the airport and conversations about them all day long, every single day. We called to check in and just hear what they were up to CONSTANTLY. There were many more interesting things to do in New Orleans than we got to(although expensive!)-- we wanted to tour an old plantation, go down to the Lower Ninth Ward where Katrina hit the hardest, tour Mardi Gras world where they keep all the floats-- but we started wishing our time would go by faster because we were so anxious to get home to Rosie and Eve. They of course had a wonderful time with their grandparents who did a stupendous job taking care of them. We will be forever grateful. We keep saying over and over that we will never leave them for that long again...but I guess we'll see how we feel a year from now. :)

We are so lucky to have been able to get away for a bit. So lucky to have such a great, supportive family. And so especially lucky to have these two little girls to come home to.