Happy Halloween!

We headed to Earlham this afternoon to go trick or treating. We've gone there the last 2 years and since Presley and Ava are the same age, it's worked out nicely for them to go together. We got there early and had dinner and to give Presley some time to warm up to her surroundings. It didn't take long for them to start chasing each other around the house.

Dorothy and Barbie Princess (Ava's outfit was a little small for her though, it was falling in the front and couldn't be velcroed in the back...we eventually called her The Walk of Shame Barbie...we are mean, aren't we?)

Sam as the local law enforcement and Ella in her kimono.

There are so many kids in this town there are lines to the houses! It's amazing! Maybe this happens in your neighborhood...but this never happened to me growing up and I know our neighborhood isn't like this now! Some people give away full size candy bars, I'm telling ya, if we ever move to Earlham it's b/c I love Halloween in this town.

Presley did GREAT! She walked the whole time, following Ava. She reached into the candy bowls, a couple times she said 'trick or treat' and a couple times she just said 'smell my feet'. And just about every house she said thank you....so I guess that is the most important part!

Overall, this Halloween was a success! (thank you Lord!...another breakdown like we had at Living History Farms and I was willing to never take her anywhere ever again!)

The girls enjoying their candy.

Now that she is asleep, I'm going to enjoy a piece or two of her candy. Good-night!

HoHum

Well our busy week and weekend turned out to be the opposite. We did our waterbabies class on Wednesday, Steve got into the water with P this week. He was less than thrilled about it, but they needed the bonding time too! She is still a little scared to get into the water, but once she is in, she doesn't want to get out!
Thursday we ordered some pizza and did our pumpkin carving. Presley wanted nothing to do with it. Because 'her hands would get dirty'?! Really, I thought kids this age didn't care about getting dirty.
She is weird back in August all she wanted to eat was the frosting off of Boston's birthday cupcakes. Last weekend we made cinnamon rolls, and she didn't want frosting?! So she had a plain cinnamon roll. My mom made cookies with her last week and she didn't like it when she got frosting on her hands so she ate a cookies with no frosting?! Whose child is this?


Friday night we had a babysitter so we could go out for a while since we both had work outings we wanted to attend. Well Mr Goodrich thought he was 21 again and we were home by 9:30 with a slightly intoxicated daddy. I hardly slept at all that night and Steve woke up feeling like crap. Presley and I have been fighting off colds all week and with the minimal sleep that I got, I wasn't 100% Saturday either. We had busy, busy plans for Saturday and we missed out on all of it. We stayed in our pajamas all day, we all took naps and we all went to bed early!

Sweet Street

So in my attempt to start organizing the toys in the basement I went thru the boxes of Sweet Street stuff we got from Andrea. I counted 42 people and I'm sure I'm missing some, like the ones she has laying in the Sweet Street swimming pool or locked in the ice cream truck!

and a large variety of tables, chairs, beds and anything else you could ever want in a little town.

along with a detailed little hospital,

and the school house and bus. P LOVES playing with this stuff and I love watching her little imagination run wild!

Friday dance party!

Friday night when we got home from dinner I told Steve to turn on some music! I knew if the TV got turned on that I would sit down and not move, and there were some things I wanted to get done! So the music went on, I got busy while Steve and Presley danced and rocked on!

all wrapped up after her bath!

Saturday night we went with some friends to Living History Farms for their trick or treat. We had warned Presley all day that we weren't going to carry her and we thought she was prepared....we were wrong. We thought if she saw her friends walking too that she would be more willing to follow them....we were wrong. She sat down on the sidewalk and screamed b/c she didn't want to walk. So the first half of the night I carried her, the second half she got brave and walked on her own. We've decided that we just need to show up to our destination an hour early to give her time to get comfortable with her surroundings! LOL!

Our Dorothy (she really just loves her red shoes!).

and her cowardly lion, Boston!

Miss Ava, our pirate!

We tried to get a picture of all the kids together, however since this was during the first half of the night Presley wouldn't let go of me so we adjusted and had mommy/kid pictures instead. Our other two trick or treaters were Bridget (Jessie) and Conor (our wild lion!).

We even rode on the hayrack ride pulled by horses! So the night ended up a success. I will say Living History Farms vs Night Eyes....I'd go Night Eyes. We've tried both and it seems Night Eyes has more to keep kids occupied during the long walk.

Random randomness

- I obviously need to catch up on the news....Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Iowa....what the heck is this about? I know the news showed people holding signs that said that big banks were bad....ok, but a big bank gives me a paycheck every week?! So I need someone to explain in simple terms what these people want
- I saw a commercial for ITT educational institute that rubbed me the wrong way...it was about a man who did construction and was always away from him family working, not making very much money so he decided to go back to school to get a degree...now he is providing for his family and never missing family obligations. Here is my problem. Steve does construction, he is always around, he is around and has more flexible hours than I do. He doesn't miss anything due to his line of business. We have been very lucky with his employer (knock on wood!!!!) and he makes more money than people we know who have college educations, so this commercial does not portray our experience with construction and I don't like it.
- Potty training is still going pretty good, still no pooping in the potty and we've had a couple accidents this week....very not like Presley, but overall we are all adjusting and she is excited about her new princess underwear (even though she can't name a single Disney princess!) and they don't make Toy Story underwear for girls!
- The Green Bay Packers are awesome!
- I don't mind the speed cameras on I235 but that is b/c I only drive to work on it twice a week and it's usually so busy that I'm not going over 50 miles an hour anyway. And I think it's an easy way for the city to make money from the people who are breaking the law! LOL!
- I'm loving the new shows Revenge and Person of Interest! LOVING!
- We are trying to prepare Presley for Halloween, getting her excited for her costume, telling her what she should say if she wants candy....Trick or Treat, smell my feet!...... And she'll say 'smell my feet!' or 'candy please!'.....talk about two different ends of the spectrum! HA!
- The big girl bed is working out nicely, (knock on wood) she hasn't got out of her bed yet! She wants us to lay with her for a while and read a book or two...and she cries if we leave but she has yet to get out of bed, even in the morning she doesn't get up! She'll sit and read and talk to herself until we go and get her!

Weekend run down

I was lucky enough to have Friday off to be with P. My mom wasn't feeling completely up to watching Presley yet and really at this point a nice day off with my baby didn't sound so bad. We hung out all morning in our pj's and while she took a nap that afternoon I got some cleaning done. We only got dressed to meet Steve for dinner and then went right home b/c I had to be up early for work on Saturday morning (to make up hours for missing work on Friday!).
After work on Saturday we decided to head to the pumpkin patch!
Presley was not overly impressed. She didn't want to walk, she wanted to be carried! It drives me crazy that she won't walk by herself, heck some days she doesn't want to walk from the kitchen to the family room in our own home! (that usually results in one of her screaming tantrums, b/c I refuse to carry her!)

This was as close as she got to playing in the corn.


This was as far as she would go into the bouncy house.
and forget us getting on the tractor to ride out into the pumpkin patch to look for pumpkins! Heck no, the girl screamed when we got close to it...there was no way we could get onto it without ruining everyone else's ride with our screaming, crying kid.
So we walked, once we got away from all the other people she was willing to walk. She was more willing and helpful in finding some good pumpkins!

We had Brock, Jackie and Ava over to watch the Iowa game on Saturday night. The girls were a little more willing to play together this time. Jumping on Presley's bed was a big hit with them!

Finishing the Coors Light baby keg was the highlight of our night. This is how we party now!

Since Presley was up until 10 pm and had played hard most of the day with no nap....she slept until 9:30 this morning! We all did! I haven't slept that late in a long time, it was SO nice! P and I went to a baby shower this afternoon. It would've been nicer if she wasn't so anti-social and would go play without me. She wanted to play outside with me....while everyone else was inside. So we spent most of the time outside (missing the baby shower games, oh darn!) or downstairs playing (missing all the presents being opened). Fun!

We got Presley's Halloween costume, now the goal is to talk her into wearing it! She keeps saying she wants to be a princess.....which she won't be. Sorry P.

Random

- My brother-in-law Matt had hip replacement surgery yesterday, we are hoping for a speedy recovery for him to get back on his feet and start feeling good again!
- My sister Holly is thinking about moving to Colorado. She has been thinking about and wanting this for a while now, if the stars align correctly and things work out for her she might actually do it! We would miss her terribly! She is my bestfriend, the person I can count on all the time to be there for me! However.....there is no reason that she shouldn't go! Take a risk, if it sucks and doesn't work out...move back but at least you can't say you didn't try, or always wonder 'what if?'.
- My mom is starting to feel better and get moving! She actually left the house the other night and when I talk to her on the phone she doesn't sound too drugged up! :) Samantha has tomorrow off so she is going to help my mom with Presley and Friday's daycare is still up in the air. My family is awesome, I love the way we can all pull together and help each other out when needed!