Trick-or-Treat

We had a great time trick-or-treating tonight. Alia did a great job knocking on doors, saying trick-or-treat and thank you. At first she had a little scam going where she would take two pieces of candy and say that one was for her brother (Max was in the stroller) but we caught on and cut her off pretty quickly!

A few of our standard - on the front porch with the pumpkins - pictures.

Let me say ... it was NOT easy getting everyone looking in the same direction at the same time. We did the best we could!

My favorite picture of the night! Two cutest little monsters EVER!

School Halloween Party

Alia's class at school had a Halloween Costume Party today. Even though it isn't our usual day to attend, all were invited for the fun! It was absolutely adorable to see all the kids in their costumes. They were actually incredibly peaceful too! I think they were all a little overwhelmed by the difference in routine and the special, yummy lunch that they got to have!

The Go-Gurt was a BIG hit with Alia!

Pumpkin Carving

Sunday night we realized that we hadn't carved our pumpkins yet ... oops! October was a crazy month! So, after Max went to bed Alia helped Mommy and Daddy carve the BIG pumpkin. She was very interested in the whole thing and wanted to be in on the action but without actually touching any of the yucky stuff!

Preparing to supervise ...

It looks like she's actually scraping and scooping, but she was just pretending :-)

When we finished our carving, Alia enjoying a special treat ... a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie from babysitter Alex along with a cup of warm "apple exciter"!

Halloween Party

On Friday, Jamie Pulver and I co-hosted a Halloween party for the kiddos. I'll be the first to admit that she did most of the work, but I really tried to help wherever I could. We had the party at her house and she did all of the amazing decorations. I won't post all the pics here. I'm sure she'll do a blog post of her own ... Pitter Patter Parties ... check it out :-)

There were 6 "big kids" and 6 "babies" ... Max is the oldest of the "babies".

Max and his buddy Landon hanging out while the mommies got set up for the party!

After lunch, we did a little parade down the street and back and then had the kids practice their trick-or-treating at Jamie's house. We got them in a little line and had them practice knocking on the door, saying trick-or-treat, getting a treat and then saying thank you. It was hysterical!

Max enjoyed parading, but he doesn't love his costume nearly as much as the older kids do! His favorite "costume" is his birthday suit :-)

When we finished our trick-or-treat practice we let the kids frost and decorate their own cupcakes ... fun and delicious!

Pumpkin Patch - Part 2

There were so many neat things that we didn't get a chance to see at the Pumpkin Patch when we went on Wednesday, so we decided to go back and take Daddy this time!

We got to see quite a few animals ... donkeys, ponies, pigs, cows, turkeys, llamas ... Max thinks that anything with 4 legs is a dog. He signs dog every time he sees and animal and gets very excited.

Watch out! Wild man on the loose!

Mommy and Alia on top of the hay pyramid.

Alia went down this cute little tunnel slide. It took a little persuading, but once she got going she really enjoyed it. Max went down too and had the biggest smile on his face that I have ever seen! I was absolutely cracking up!

Here is another one of the neat slides that they have at this pumpkin patch. I went down once with Alia too!

We got two big pumpkins and two little pumpkins while we were at the pumpkin patch. Alia and Max painted their little pumpkins this morning after church.

Another little update ...

Just a little more about life here with the Oregon Douglas clan ...

We had Alia's parent/teacher conference at school on Wednesday and got to hear lots of wonderful things about how she is progressing there. Alia is a little caregiver and the big sister of her class. She is very concerned about all of her classmates and tries to help them when they feel sad. "Academically" she's doing well. We had to laugh because apparently our shy little Bean won't count out loud for her teacher. Her teacher was trying to ask her how many of something there were so that she could hear her count and Alia kept counting the objects in her head and then telling her the answer. At home the kid counts in English, Spanish and some other made up languages every now and then :-) In January, after she turns 3, she'll be moving up to the "Frogs" class. She is so excited about it! However, I'm feeling a little sad and nervous. Her teachers in the Hedgehogs class have been so good for her. I hate to see her move on :-(

In other news, we are still having poop in the potty issues here. I've given up stressing about it! I tried that and it didn't do me any good! Oh, well! Dance class is a huge hit (Mommy is thrilled!)! Alia asks every day if its dance day and she does lots of practicing at home. She can repeat word for word just about everything Miss Lynn says in dance class. Jason was able to come watch for the first time this week and he was pretty impressed with her. For not even technically being old enough to be in the class, I think she's really kicking butt :-)

A very brief and rare moment, luckily caught on camera ...

Can you believe that he is already 13 months old and she'll be 3 in just 2 months? YIKES!

In Max news, we are just getting over a very sudden and random ear infection. Max had a cold and seemed to be getting better and then out of the blue at 3:30am one morning, screaming kid ... for 3 hours. We got him right into the doctor (I suspected ear infection, because Jason had just been in the day before and he had one too) and got him on meds. By later that evening he seemed to already be feeling better. He's a pretty tough little guy!

Max is such a little character and just so much fun! He's really working on his signs. He can now do more, all done, eat, water, please, diaper, dog, orange (and that's all I can think of right now). His favorite move is to sign please and point. He's learned this is a pretty good way to get what you want! I think we are finally on the cusp of getting some words out of him. He can say Da (dad), Ma-Ma (mommy, but he almost never will), Ya (which we think is him saying Alia), Ba (Boo, we do a lot of peek-a-boo around here) and something that sounds like All Done. However, with the exception of Da, none of these come out with any consistency. It's crazy, because at this age we already couldn't shut Alia up and Max just isn't at interested. However, he can climb up and hang on the baby gate like a monkey and is nearly breaking into a run these days. He's also a big fan of playing fetch .... He loves to throw the ball and then run after it and get it and then throw it again. Keeps him nice and busy and burns off some of that boy energy :-)

Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday we met our play group friends at Plumper Pumpkin Patch. We had never been there before and what a neat place! There was so much to do and see and we didn't get to half of it. We are really hoping to make it back there again before Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough hands to bring the good camera along, so here are a few pictures from my phone that I managed to snap.

Silly girl enjoying her lunch. They had little covered picnic areas (kind of like greenhouses) which protected us from the light drizzle that started to fall and was actually pretty warm and cozy.

I love how Max looks like he's trying to pick up the pumpkin in this picture! Too funny!

Peek-a-boo going both ways :-)

Absolutely too cute for words! He looks like such a little boy here.

She couldn't get any sillier if she tried!

Time for an Update ...

Well, clearly we've been busy because its been a LONG time since my last post. Since then every member of the family has had a cold in one form or another and now its making its way back through the family. Jason had a cold, then I had a cold that mutated into a sinus infection, both kids got colds with nasty coughs and now its made its way back to Jason and he has an ear infection. Good grief! It's only October!

We've been busy with life too. I have been busy teaching and subbing BodyPump. I have my regular class two times a week and I now have a string of three Saturdays where I will be teaching as well. I had a great girls weekend with some of my Blazer Dancer friends two weeks ago. We danced and hung out and had some quality grown up girl time that I was VERY overdue for. Jason has been ridiculously busy at work, but it looks as if things are finally slowing down for him. Hooray!

The kids have been keeping busy with dance class, swim class, Gymboree, school and starting the preschool/nursery at church. All activities are going well!

Alia helped me make cookies for my girls weekend. This was the first time that I just let her have a real go at licking the beater when we were done. Needless to say, it was a big hit!

When both kids were sick, I was attempting to keep them "down" to get them any rest I could. This adorable moment of both of them on the couch cuddled up with their "lovies" watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse last all of about 3 minutes.

Alia REALLY loves posing and smiling for the camera!

All pictures that you see of Max at this point are action shots! The kid can really move! He is everywhere faster than you can chase him!

Super Alia with her cape on :-)