Catching Up

It's been a little bit since I've sat down and done a post.  We've had a busy couple of weeks and it's time to play catch up!  Two weekends ago, Lloyd and I decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early by spending the weekend in Chicago.  We hadn't gone on a vacation, just the two of us, since our honeymoon!  His mom came early Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon and my mom came Saturday afternoon and stayed until we got home on Sunday.  We had a wonderful time and it was a much needed getaway.  Some highlights of the weekend were the shopping, the Field Museum, The Emerald Loop restaurant, our fancy date night at Ruth's Chris, the dueling pianos bar, Howl at the Moon, and our hotel room, which had an awesome window seat hat was big enough for us both to lay in and look over the city.

Last week was busy with getting ready for Halloween, a costume party and Lauryn's birthday.  On Friday, Lucas and I went to Lauryns school and watched the costume parade.  It was a lot of fun and we loved seeing all of the different costumes.  Later that afternoon we had friends and family over for trick or treating and a get together/anniversary party.  It was a fantastic night!  Yummy food, tasty drinks and lots of laughs with great people.  Saturday night, we went to the costume party at Candlestone with our friends, Cheryl and Alan.  We were dressed as Flo from Progressive and Mayhem from Allstate and they were Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.  It was another super fun night!  Those two are a blast to hang out with and there's never a dull moment! ;)  Sunday was Lauryn's 6th birthday.  We decided to keep it low-key this year and have dinner, presents, cake and ice cream with our moms and this coming Saturday the four of us are going to have lunch and play games at Chuck E. Cheese's.  Lauryn requested spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and Neapolitan ice cream.  She got a lot of nice presents and it was a very special day for her.

I think sums up our last couple of weekends pretty well.  I'll add a couple of posts soon with the recipes for the seven layer dip, crock pot hot cocoa, and the caramel apple sangria we had on Halloween night.  They all were a hit! :)  I've been having trouble getting my pictures downloaded too so I'll post them once I get the kinks worked out. :)

Halloween

We had such a great day!  It started out with getting some things done around the house.  I got me and the kids ready and we made a few early rounds to friends' houses.  We got back home and Lloyd and Michelle and the boys were already here.  I had ordered pizza and made Caesar salad to have before we left for Trick -or- Treating.  Ed came a little while later and he, Lloyd and Lucas stayed here to pass out candy while Michelle and I took the kids around the neighborhood.  Even though it was misting out, we had a lot of fun!

 

[caption id="attachment_4471" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Cinderella Lauryn[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4472" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Zombie Lucas[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4474" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Lauryn, Me and Lucas[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4475" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Michael, Evan and Lauryn[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_4476" align="aligncenter" width="224"] The Hulk, Bill Clinton and Lucas[/caption]

 

 

Busy Halloween

What a busy Halloween!  We started the morning out by getting Lauryn ready for her second Pumpkin Party at school.  Some kids go every other day so they do special parties two days in a row.  Since Lauryn goes four days a week, she gets twice the fun.  :)  I did her hair in an updo and it turned out so cute!  I was really proud of it because I've never been that good or creative with hair.



After Lucas and I picked Lauryn up from school, we came home, ate lunch and got ready in our costumes for the rest of the evening.  Our "theme" this year was The Princess and The Frog.  I figured there probably won't be many years where I'll be able to coordinate their costumes so I wanted to take advantage of it.  :)



Then it was time to start the fun!  First we went to my grandparents and, of course, the kids got spoiled.  :)  Then we went to my Mom's house and got some yummy homemade treats.  Then it was of to my brother's but that was just a quick trip because we're still coughing and my brother and niece weren't feeling good either so I just ran to the door to drop off some treats and they sent some for Lauryn.  After that, we headed to our old neighbor's house for a quick visit.  We've trick-or-treated at their house since Lauryn was a baby so it wouldn't be right if we didn't stop by.  :)



We headed back home because our friends, Ed and Michelle, were coming over with their kids to trick-or-treat with us.  Ed wasn't feeling well so he stayed home but Michelle and the kids came and after we got them all bundled up, we headed out.



Lloyd stayed home with Lucas and handed out candy.  I don't know how many trick-or-treaters we had but we went through about 500 pieces of candy.  After Michelle and the kids left, and the streets were clear of kids, Lauryn, Lucas and I went to my aunt's house for our last visit of the night.  It's become a tradition to go there after and visit for a bit.  Unfortunately, we were all getting pretty tired, as you can see by the picture below, and since Lauryn had school today we couldn't stay too long.  We had a nice visit though and got some more yummy treats.



Once we got back home, Lloyd got Lauryn down for the night and I did the same with Lucas.  After such a long day, we were whooped.  Lloyd went to bed and after cleaning up a little, I followed suit.

Pumpkins

Yesterday we carved our pumpkins.  I thought Lauryn would like to help clean them out, because she loves getting dirty, but she got one handful of pumpkins guts and decided that part wasn't for her.  :)  After I got all of the pumpkins cleaned out, I waited for her to draw a face on hers and then cut it out.  She thought that was really cool and I thought it was cute how she used her shapes to make the face.  It has one triangle eye, one rectangle eye, a circle nose and a smile.  I used one of those kits to carve my pumpkin because I'm not artistic at all but I was proud of how Lucas's pumpkin turned out.  I tried to make it a baby face.  :)  Lloyd came home and carved his pumpkin to look like a house.  Lauryn was thrilled to see them all lit up.  I let the seeds dry overnight and today I'm going to make ranch pumpkin seeds.

Catching Up

It feels like it's been ages since I've been on my blog.  Time to do some catching up!  We have been in the new house for just under two weeks now and it's really starting to feel like home.  The main floor is pretty well taken care of but anyone who goes down to the basement will see tons and tons of boxes that still need to be put away.  I LOVE my kitchen!  I love cooking in it, cleaning it up and sitting at the bar to visit.  It's easily my favorite room in the house.  We'll eventually be making some cosmetic changes to a few rooms but those things will get done in time. 

Lauryn was the cutest Minnie Mouse ever for Halloween :)  She was thrilled to finally be able to wear her costume and to go trick-or-treating for the very first time.  Don't get me wrong, she's gone before but since she was so young, I took her around to family's houses and the neighbors.  This year, she walked the neighborhood.  Our friends, Ed and Michelle, came over with there boys and Michelle and I took the kids while the guys stayed home and passed out candy.  Afterward, Lauryn and I headed to my aunts house and to my brother and sister-in-laws.  She was exhausted by the time we got home and fell asleep on the couch.



Lauryn turned three on November 2nd.  When Lloyd got home from work he brought flowers and she was so happy!  She decided she wanted lasagna ("sagna" in Lauryn terms) for her birthday dinner and we let her open a present from us and one that Kathye dropped off.  We got her a microphone and she LOVES it!  She walks around singing her own little songs all the time :)



Last Saturday, she and I had a special afternoon.  I took her to the mall to get her ears pierced and then we went to lunch at Applebee's.  She did cry for a minute after the ladies did her ears but then she was happy again and thrilled to go out to eat with Mama :)  She loves her earrings and I'm really glad we had it done.   She has little diamonds with white gold posts and they are adorable!  I tried getting a couple of pictures but so far she's managed to turn her head or her hair gets in the way so I'll have to post a picture later. 

On Sunday, we had her birthday party.  Her Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, Uncle Shane, Aunt Trisha, Emma, Uncle Jake and Gus came to celebrate.  I had snacks set out - cheeses, crackers, summer sausage, carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper and dip - and then made creamy pasta and breadsticks for dinner.  Lauryn wanted chocolate fudge cake with milk chocolate frosting so that's what I made. All in all I think she had a pretty great birthday :)

Halloween

I finally got the finishing touches for Lauryn's Halloween costume. She wanted to be Minnie Mouse and I got her the costume but had to get some shoes and tights. I was hoping for some sparkly pink shoes but the only ones I could find were for bigger girls. I finally got some adorable sparkly black ones today. She's going to be adorable....or should I say, even more adorable!! I think I might get some little white gloves. Minnie has white gloves too and this way, I can make sure her little hands stay warm while we're out trick-or-treating.

I must say, I miss dressing up for Halloween. We haven't gone to any Halloween parties in ages so we haven't had a good excuse to dress up. I like really elaborate costumes! I could never dress up like in one of those lingerie babydolls dresses like some girls do. I've always thought Halloween was just an excuse for some girls to dress trashy and get away with it but I could never do that!

Pictures? She Thinks Not!

Today Lauryn and I went to visit Lloyd's mom for a little while and then we were all going to go to get her one year pictures taken.  Lloyd's mom offered to have them done for us and I thought that was really sweet of her.  Lauryn was not up for it though.  We tried and tried and tried to get her to smile and all she wanted to do was put her finger in her nose :)  After she very dramatically threw her head back and squished up her face, I knew it wasn't going to happen.  The photographer gave us a few minutes to try to get her in a better mood but I know my little girl and she wasn't going to have it.  We're going to try again another day.

I can't believe on Monday my precious baby is going to be a year old!  We're having her party on Sunday and I'm excited for it and I can't wait to get it over with.  We tried to keep it small and still ended up with 22 people on the guest list.  I have no idea how we're going to fit that many people into our house!  Tomorrow my mom and I are going shopping for her gifts and to get all the food I'll need to prepare.  I'm making Lauryn's cake and we're buying a bakery cake for everyone else.  I've made a couple of practice cakes to try my hand at cake decorating and they've turned out pretty cute.  Lloyd doesn't mind one bit because he gets to eat them when I'm done :)

This is going to be one busy, busy week.  Shopping tomorrow, lots of cleaning to get ready for the party on Thursday, Friday is our 5th anniversary, Halloween on Saturday and Lauryn's party on Sunday.  Busy, busy!

Speaking of Halloween...I had already picked up a costume for Lauryn.  She's not going trick-or-treating but she's going to help pass out candy so she's has to dress up for it :)  Anyway, I had a cute little pumpkin outfit picked out because when I went back for the ladybug one, they were all sold out.  Well today I found an even cuter one, an adorable lamb, so I'm returning the pumpkin one tomorrow.  She's going to be the cutest lamb ever!  I will definitely post pics!!!