Trying to avoid the ghosts!

Every other car and person handing out candy Juliette went right up to, said trick or treat, thank you, but these two...she was not a fan of their trunks.

Candy!!

Yes she wore a glow stick and glow bracelet. If they had made glow vests I would have put one on her!! :) I didn't think I would feel like that but I wanted to make sure even though she was holding my hand or Josh's no one else would miss her or run into her if she was glowing like a stop light. She thought it was great!

Happy Halloween!

Juliette was soooooo ready to go Trick or Treating tonight. As soon as I picked her up Cindy asked her what she was doing tonight. She said Trick or Treat! We went to Massaponax Baptist Church's trunk or treat since it was right down the road from the house. It was nice and quiet and not a lot of people so it was perfect. The only snag we hit was when one of the decorated trunks had a ghost that moved and made noise when you walked by. I have never seen her walk backwards so fast! There was one other trunk with ghosts and she was very cautious of it, but didn't run away. She liked the little barrel train ride--picture a can of soda on it's side with a hole cut in it.

Pumpkins

I just realized that I never put the pictures up from the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Here they are! I managed to switch out the pumpkin she picked so we didn't go home with a green one. She loved feeding the horse and hugging the cow.

Leaves!

It is very exciting to realize that this is the last fall we will be in the woods and have to deal with all these leaves. I think the new house has only one tree in the backyard. Juliette really wanted to help rake.

Just us

Fall Fest at the Mall

This afternoon we went to the Spotsylvania Fall Festival at the mall and Juliette couldn't have been more excited. As soon as she got up we told her we were going to the mall and she was ready to leave that instant. She got into her costume and away we went. She is totally in love with her silver sparkle shoes I bought her this morning at Target. They fit her despite not being a wide width so yippee. A lot of the games and activities were a little too much for her, but we found plenty for her to do. I tried getting her face painted...she wasn't having it.



I couldn't believe how crowded it was.




Josh wasn't a happy person. I don't think any of the parents were too thrilled to be there.




She loved digging into her treat bag.

Ready for Halloween

The other night Juliette asked for her Halloween basket, grabbed it, and headed to the door saying Come on, let's go Halloween. We told her it wasn't for a few more days. After some why questions, we told her if she wants to get candy she has to go up to people and say Trick or Treat. She didn't like that idea. Then I held up one of her lollipops and she started laughing and said Trick or Treat! well...tick or teet is what it sounded like--still adorable. Then she kept asking for another trick or treat. I can't wait to see what she does this weekend and Monday when it's for real. I wonder how I'm going to convince her that Halloween is over next week.

Where's Mari?

So cute reaction to not finding Mari at the house to thank her for the card.

FOUND IT!!!

Ok so I should have been packing....but I found a box of pictures and I HAD to go through them. When I did I finally found the picture I had been looking for- Josh and I in front of the lighthouse at Knoebel's. Damn I looked good.

Back to the Pumpkin Patch

The first time I took Juliette to the pumpkin patch, she was five months old so not really "into" the whole pick a pumpkin activity hehe. Last year she liked walking around in the hay and rubbing the pumpkins. This year was so much fun for her. We told her she would be seeing animals- she really wanted to see a cow and I couldn't remember if Sneads had a cow- they had a calf on a leash. She fed the horses hay she picked off the ground, pet the goats, and wanted to hug the claf which she did since it was laying down. She wanted to go through the tunnel into a kind of teepee hut, but she heard older kids scream and that was it, she wasn't going in there. When she saw the pumpkin patch, I think she wanted to take them all home! Her heart was set on a green one that she could lift, but I persuaded her to also love a huge orange one that looks nice on our porch. I think I'll wait until Papa gets here before we cut into it....I really don't want to touch the goo and I don't think Josh wants to either. It was a great weekend too- warm and sunny. Sunday we tried a new little playground we spotted by our house and Juliette had it all to herself for a little bit and liked running around and kicking up the mulch. When another little girl her age showed up, the fun really started. She saw the little girl climbing up to go down the highest slide and, well, she had to try it too! It was cute. Josh and I also caved in and bought her the four foot tall Minnie Mouse from Costco. We put it in the Jeep and called her over to the car. When she saw it (I got it on film) she was so excited. It was hard to get her to leave it at home this morning, but Nana promised to take care of it for her.

Time to Gush

I just have to write about how much I love this kid of ours. Even though dinners are no longer a quiet time of the evening, demands not met in an instant result in tears and tantrums, and the house is not exactly the cleanest that it has been in the past two years....it's been the time of our lives. Some of the things that Juliette says and does are sure signs of survival of the fittest and a parent's behvior of not eating their young. When she snuggles and cuddles and just looks up at us and smiles, when the greatest part of her day is when she gets to find the plastic egg with an M&M, when all she wants to have is to lead us by the hand to play "choo choos", when she crawls into my lap and says she's safe, when we do something with her and she hugs us and says "I so happy", that's when it's easy to forget the tantrums, blueberry poop blowouts, and being woken up at 5 am. She's also started to come up to us and say I love you which is pretty awesome. When we put her to bed at night lately, she looks up at Josh and says "Daddy?" Josh- "Yes?" Daddy? Yes? Daddy? We keep waiting for something profound and meaningful to come out of her mouth, but in reality she's probably just stalling bedtime and trying to keep us in the room--it works. Ok so that's all for now...very exciting that a publisher called me yesterday while I was out about the little good night story I threw together a few months ago-hope he calls back!

LOL

I had to laugh yesterday. I was changing a poopy diaper, opened it up, and Juliette's eyes got really big and she said "Woah baby!" I almost died laughing. I have to remember times like that during the fits of hysterical screaming because I took off her favorite pair of socks. I bought her Mickey Mouse character socks- Daisy, Donald, Mickey and Minnie. She loves them--hates to take them off. This morning we just ended up putting them back on her--how dirty could they get while she was sleeping?? We were so happy too last night at dinner. She finally tried macaroni and cheese again after refusing to eat it for about the past year. I think helping me pick it out of the cabinet, pour it into the pot, and watching it boil may have given her some motivation to eat it- I don't care though...she ate it! If I could get her to remember how yummy grilled cheese is, dinner choices for her would be so much easier!

Cold night

Juliette wanted to cuddle under the blanket tonight...our first really cool night.

Working with Daddy

Josh was doing work at the table while Juliette ate breakfast and she said she wanted to work. So I gave her paper and a pen and she went to work!

Playtime

Clear the roads!

She is having a lot of fun rediscovering her car from the summer. Thank goodness because that thing was a pain to haul back from PA!!

Helping Mommy

Juliette wanted to help me pull the sheets to make the bed. She got a little frustrated...and a little caught in the blankets!

Trains

Juliette got some early Christmas presents from Nana after a trip to Toys R Us. She loves trains so she got some Chuggington trains. It started out as one little wooden circle track. Then Josh and Nana went back and got more tracks....then I found a train table on Craigslist. She likes crawling under the table- she thinks it's her tunnel. She wakes up everyday and wants to play with her trains. I think Josh had more fun setting it up and making sure it was "safe" for her!

Juliette and Amelia

Ok so here are the pictures waaaaaaay back from Labor Day weekend of Juliette and Amelia making pizzas for Amelia's birthday. I didn't think Juliette would like it, but she saw Amelia eating so she tried some of the crust, pepperoni, and cheese--BEFORE we baked them. I think she liked standing on the stool more than anything else. They painted together, played together, sang together- Yes Juliette sang Happy Birthday to You...it was so cute. Just realized that I uploaded the pictures backwards in the whole pizza making adventure :)

































Drawing with sidewalk chalk on the deck before the rain.

O