Monday, November 2, 2009

October Fun and Halloween

October was a great, fun-filled month. In the weeks leading up to Halloween we visited several pumpkin patches, rode on lots of hayrides, painted pumpkins, fell in love with candy corn, decorated Halloween cookies, and watched lots of cartoons about Halloween.





We also went to Bauman Farms and Lee Farm, but I don't have any pictures of those two.


Can you tell which one Sean painted? He was very thorough!


Cookie decorating! When I was a kid we would decorate cookies at almost every holiday. I would like to pass that tradition on. I think Sean would be fine with that.

Halloween night:

Sean was awesome this year. Last year he only went to 3 or 4 houses. This year, he totally caught on to the idea of trick or treating. We went trick or treating with all the Brady cousins. Sean was a dinosaur and Matthew was a little frog. When we started out, Sean was diligently following his older cousins, but about 5 houses in, Sean started leading the pack. He figured out that he needed to say "Trick or treat!" at each house to get candy. He would say thank you and goodbye to everyone. After each house, he would run back to Jon and I on the sidewalk and say "Look Mom, look what I got!" Then he would run at full speed to the next house. I left Sean with Jon and brought Matthew home after the first street. Jon told me more stories about Sean. He said that Sean would knock at the door and say "trick or treat" before the door even opened. When the people would open the door he would just look at them expectantly. He also would try to walk into houses. That was exciting.



Sean pulled the head part of his dinosaur costume off. It's too bad because it was seriously cute.


Matthew the frog. Complete with tongue sticking out.

Matthew was an adorable frog crawling around. It's the same costume that Sean wore 2 years ago. A couple weeks ago, I put the boys in their costumes and Sean wanted a turn to be a frog too. It's a size 6 to 12 months outfit. It fit Sean ok- but the arms were super short and the legs were only up to his mid-thighs. He kept trying to pull the legs down. It was pretty silly.

It was a great October. Jon is still looking for work. He had some really good interviews though, so we're hoping something will work out soon. Until then, we are loving all the time we have with family.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Brady Cousin Dance Party

One of the wonderful things about living in Tualatin is that all Jon's siblings live 25 minutes or less from us, so we get together often. Michael's birthday was this week which is what brought everyone over for this:

7 cousins under the age of 6
+ music
------------
= dance party

video

Avery and Mackayla are in dance class and I love when Avery tells us to watch her do an arabesque. Matthew is the only one that doesn't walk, but he seems to be able to dance anyway. I love watching these cousins play together!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Corvallis Visit

A few weeks ago, we went to Corvallis to see some of our friends. The kids (well, not Matthew) jumped on the trampoline plenty, played in the sand, ate ice cream, and just had a lot of fun together. The adults had fun too. Jon helped frame some windows (he installed them before we moved), Angie taught me how to play Gin Rummy, we played pool and just enjoyed each other's company. It was such a nice weekend.

Sean, Clara, and William


The kiddos parked in front of a movie (I don't even remember what it was, but it must have been good)

As we were driving around a little bit we were feeling a bit homesick for Corvallis. When we were heading back to Tualatin, we went by our old apartment and Sean pointed it out and said, "There's Mama's house." That Sean has a great memory!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Matthew's chompers

Matthew is still just as cute as ever at ten months old. This picture is from almost a month ago, but you can see his two little front teeth. I think he is working on some top ones now, but they haven't broken through quite yet.

Matthew crawls so fast now. He loves climbing the stairs, but doesn't know how to go down them yet. He likes to stand anywhere he can pull himself up (couches, chairs, back door, etc.). He will walk with us if we hold both his hands. He will not eat baby food, but is happy to eat what's on anyone else's plate. He is so cheerful and has a smile that just beams! We just love this little boy.