Eager for Christmas

I've felt the excitement for Christmas slowly build inside me. I tried to bury it, because I've been feeling it since the beginning of November. But when Travis walked in one day and declared he started listening to Christmas music in the car, I let myself go. We've been listening to Christmas music in our house and the car since the beginning of this month. We're usually strong enough to hold off until after Thanksgiving. Our goal was to get our tree up a week before Thanksgiving. We got all of our boxes of decorations and things out of our little storage shed. But then we just didn't have the time. It sat around for a week, until finally, on Thanksgiving night, we said, "enough it enough!", and just made time. 

We turned on the Christmas Pandora station and got to work, making Christmas come alive in our home. Hailey loved helping Travis decorate the tree. I was feeding, changing, and taking care of Emma, so our tree was decorated by Hailey and Dad. We've collected ornaments for memories we don't want to forget and from vacations for the past few years. We've accumulated enough that we don't need too many others to fill our tree. We hung our souvenier ornaments and a few small silver balls to fill in the tree, and Tada! Done. And she's a beaut. Our tree is only 3 or 4 feet tall, so we put her on our side table in our family room. It's the perfect size for our small home.

Halloween Festivities

Hailey was at the perfect age this Halloween. She finally understood the concept of dressing up, so we got her a lion costume- her favorite animal! We thought it would be fun to do a family costume theme, so we decided to do zookeepers and animals. Emma was an elephant and Travis and I were zookeepers (or safari people since we had two African animals.. your choice). Our costumes were all super cheap (from consignment sales, thrift stores, second hand from other people). I think I spent a total of $10 for all of us. Not bad, eh?

First up was the Trunk or Treat. 

First we walked around playing games set up by the primary but ran by the young women.

We started at the face painting. I had the young women paint a nose and whiskers since I never got around to doing it. 

Then we continued onto the games. Hailey had fun.

This ring toss game was the one Brielle and I made.

Hailey walked around the cupcake walk forever, trying to earn a cupcake. She ended up earning the last one. Phew. That was a close one.

   Then it was time to go trunk to trunk!

Look at that cute lion! I was obsessed with the tail.

  

One of our ward members brought his green screen and edited everyone's pictures. I thought ours was hilarious!

Next up, trick or treating at a local retirement home. One of my friends works there and invited us. They set up rows of chairs and had them holding buckets of candy. It was so fun. And I loved seeing their excitement looking at all the kids. 

Then came Halloween. 

 

 That night, we went to a neighborhood close by since we live in an apartment complex with no Halloween action. Hailey was so shy. She would knock on the door so lightly that even if they were sitting right by the door they couldn't hear. Then she would muster out a, "twick teet". But to them it was more of a little mouse squeak. haha. Eventually I started walking her to the stairs and she would go up by herself. So big! Her knocks got a little more confident, and her squeaks turned into a loud whisper (hey it's an improvement).

She would put her bucket down every time she knocked on a door. Then she'd lean over to pick it up and be in the way of the door opening. This happened every single time. But she was so brave to do it by herself!

We only made it down one street, on both sides, before she got tired. Her bucket was too heavy and it was bedtime. The Royals' game was on, so we were fine with heading home. ;)

We had a great Halloween. I'm sad Hailey doesn't have a reason to wear her costume anymore. But I can see her asking to put it on in the near future. I feel like it will enhance her lion fights with Dad. We love our fiesty (but shy) little lion and cute little elephant. 

 

Life in Action

Here are some videos of our life lately. I thought some of you (grandmas and family) might enjoy seeing some of these. Hailey is so funny. She talks so much but nobody gets to see that because she's shy around people. So enjoy this real life post!

This is my favorite!! She played her guitar with her violin bow and sang her favorite primary song. Love her sweet voice!

This was the first time she used her "evil" voice for one of her toys. haha. It's hilarious!

Hailey broke her Buzz and explains how he broke. But her story sounds a lot like the scene from the movie... 

Hailey and Emma are starting to play together (with a little assistance from Dad).

I love these girls. I hope you enjoyed at least one of the videos!

Shaake's Pumpkin Patch 2015

This year we visited the same pumpkin patch we've gone to since 2013- Shaake's. We decided to go on a Monday for Family Night. It was dead, so it was a great choice for that reason, but the wind was wild. If we opened our mouths to breathe and talk, we ate dust. If we opened our eyes to see, dirt flew right in. So basically we walked around looking a little crazy with our eyes as closed as possible and our mouths tightly shut. Luckily everyone looked the same, so no judgment there. We also figured out walking backwards helps too! ;)

Hailey always loves looking at the animals. They had chickens, cows, and goats.

 

The goat had her finger in its mouth. Hailey freaked out. haha.

Hailey enjoyed playing on their playgrounds. They have three or four different ones!

Poor Emma didn't like the dust in her eyes.

 Look how much Hailey grew in a year! *tear*

And our annual fun ones.

2013, 2014, and 2015

Poor Emma missed out on the pictures because she was strapped to Dad. It was way too dusty to try and get cute pictures of her.

 This was the first year we were able to enjoy the hay bale maze. Hailey LOVED it!

I felt like the maze runner trying to keep up with her.

 At every "fork in the road" she'd stick her hands on her face and say, "Oh no! Which way?!"

She took it personally at every dead end.

And then on to the pumpkin pickin'.


Hailey was really particular about which pumpkin she was going to bring home.

It took her 20 minutes to pick. She'd pick one up, look it over, and set it back down. I kept offering perfectly perfect pumpkins to her and she turned them down in a heartbeat. I felt like it was a small scale example of what my future has in store.

This is what I imagined Hailey was thinking in her head.

Me: Here Hailey, look at this pumpkin. It's perfect!"
Hailey: No Mom. Not that one. It's no good.
Me: Yes it is! Look how orange it is, and the perfect shape! It doesn't get any better than this!
Hailey: Mom, you're old. That's not how it works anymore.

She then proceeds to pick out a pumpkin speckled with green spots. Definitely not what I would have picked for her. haha.

 

That's the best smile she could muster with the yucky dust blowing. ^^

Dad found his Daddy Pumpkin and a little one for Emma.

I love these people so much.

Hailey kills me with her silly smiles.

We had a great time, even with the wind blowing crazy. I love our annual pumpkin patch tradition and being able to compare to the years before.