Trick-or-Treat Night

 Our little horse was so excited to wear her costume again and practice putting candy into her plastic pumpkin.  But when the actual trick-or-treating began, we asked her to walk up to the neighbor, who she knows well, to get something to put in her pumpkin, she clung to Joshua with all of her might.  Of course, after knocking on a few houses, she got the hang of it and was then trying to transfer all of their candy into her pumpkin. 

We only visited a dozen neighbors (the ones who were especially excited to see Alma, since she won't be eating the candy anyway) and then came home to sit on the porch, hand out candy and watch the parade of costumes go by while Alma enjoyed a lollipop.

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Happy birthday to a husband and father whose love is always apparent.  You mean the world to us.

Zombie Pumpkins

Every year we end up throwing away our pumpkins before Halloween even happens.

Halloween horse

Not sure if Alma could love this costume more.  Joshua and I had a great time bringing her to story hour at the library dressed as a horse on Monday. 

Cannot wait for trick-or-treat night!!

Lemony Snicket's Take on Occupy Wall Street

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.
2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.
5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.
8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.
9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.
13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.

22 Months and 30 Weeks

Exciting that Alma is almost two years old and I'm 3/4 of the way through with this pregnancy. I'm not going to say that I'm feeling better because every time I do something else happens -- i.e. more nausea, a rash that covered most of my face and arms, killer heartburn, etc. Yeah, this pregnancy has been one thing after another and this time I won't be as sad to see it end. Plus, knowing first hand the awesomeness of the prize of a snugly babe at the end of this ordeal makes it totally worth it and makes me want to rush the process even more.

Uncle "SOT!"

{Visiting the piglets at the farm where we picked our own pumpkins.}

Godfather Scott visited last weekend and Alma had a blast.  It was so fun to watch them bond.  We are so blessed to have Scott as a good friend and future mentor for Alma.

{Playing Angry Birds on Scott's ipod; She could not have laughed harder.}

New Adventures in Food

Enjoying a pretzel at the mall after starting our Christmas shopping. (When you are due on Christmas, you have to start prepping for Christmas early!)

Eating a crepe filled with blueberries, strawberries and bananas during a mommy-daughter date night

Alma's first lollipop (ever) enjoyed after a swim lesson in which she swam by herself underwater from my standing lap to the wall (~3 feet)

Crayola Factory

Today Alma and I ventured over to Easton with our friends for another visit to the Crayola Factory. We went there in February and it was neat to see how many more things Alma could do this time around. Painting! Coloring! Enjoying more of the exhibits! It was great.

Lupus Loop

Once again, at the end of October we will be walking in the Lupus Loop to raise awareness and funds to fight lupus. If you would like to support us, please visit the fundraising page of our team, The Queen's Team by clicking here. Thanks!

Bread maker: Joshua --> Machine

After over five years of marriage and begging for a bread maker, I finally got one!

The bread maker was surprisingly inexpensive + the recipes are super easy + the bread is so good = I keep thinking that I will slowly win Joshua over to my side.  However, even though he is enjoying tasty toast for breakfast, I think he still isn't sure about giving up the role of bread maker to a machine. 

On another note, I'm realizing that I've totally become a gadget head.  Not with any fancy technology (computers still seem to repel me), but with household gadget that make life easier.  On a daily basis, I use a Roomba to clean my floors, a Cuisinart Mixer, a bread machine and an electric tea kettle.  I love them more than I imagined I would.  Remember back in the day when everything I owned fit in the trunk of my car as I moved to Seattle?  When we first got married, I didn't even want to own a toaster because then we couldn't pick up and move as easily?  Yeah, I'm a different person. 

Chat with a 21.5 Month Old

As a typical child, Alma will chat up a storm until the video camera turns on. While not the best video of her, I was able to catch her chatting a bit. (Yes, we are testing paint colors in the dining room. I think we are going with the lighter blue color. Hooray!)