Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Here is the obligatory post-halloween blog:

Ethan is crazy is about Star Wars these days, so our Halloween pretty much followed the theme.

I know, I know, it looks a little like Dora the explorer,

but obviously this is supposed to be a Darth Vader pumpkin.

(We also learned that in Arizona, pumpkins last about 25 minutes from the time of carvage to complete decay into a teeming pile of orange mess. Duly noted. We'll remember that next year)

"When nine hundred years you reach, look as good, you will not"

Since Mariah is too young to have an opinion on her costume,

she got to be Yoda to round out our Star Wars trio.

This is young Obi Wan Kenobi in a pre-trick or treating picture.

He made quite a haul this year, and spent the morning of Nov. 1st puking his little Jedi guts out.

Hayley humored Ethan and went as Princess Leia.

Of course, what goes around comes around, and next year,

Ethan might have to dress as one of Cinderella's stepsisters.

October Tribute Cont.

Our "hike" around the lake.

Roasting hot dogs. And later- smores, of course!

Our tent (that we borrowed from our fabulous neighbor!). But, only 3 outta the 5 slept in there- Mariah was being a "noisy neighbor" to our fellow campers so Brandon took her to the van where she slept half of the night.

This is how I spent the whole camping trip- holding her. Crawling babies aren't condusive to camping- neither are crying babies. She's still so dirty and bug-bitten, regardless. I can't believe we were camping in OCTOBER. It was so nice!


I've been trying out new hairdo's on Hayley. I'm trying to expand my repitoire (sp?). I had to take a pic. of this cause it reminds me of a cute picture of Brandon's mom where she has her hair in braids and is about the same age- they look alot alike!

We're so excited for Halloween- I've already been scoping out the King Size Candy Bar Neighborhoods! Brandon and I went to a Halloween party last weekend and the theme was something SUPER - so, he's Super Mario and I'm Super Glue. We're such dorks- but, we had a good time! ;)

Where have the days gone?

I can't believe I haven't posted since Mariah's b-day. Here's a quick recap of the past 3 wks.

MORE painting: BEFORE pics-
More painting- BEFORE:

AFTER:

Camping trip. We took a picture of this tarantula and then went down the road to a diff. camping spot!

Fishing at the lake

Mariah's 1st B-day!

I can't believe she's one already! Here she is sporting some new birthday duds (I got Hayley matching capris and shirt- I couldn't resist, it was on clearance!)

More b-day duds- yes, she's playing w/ the darts from Ethan's "police gun"

First cupcake. YUMMY!

This is her new stroller/walker. She still can't walk- so we're hoping this will help! I'm not sure, though, because this morning she was trying to climb inside and wouldn't push it! My cute, lazy baby!

Ethan planned her "birthday party" which consisted of: pin the diaper on the baby game, a crawling race, and ring pop party favors! ;) What a fun day!

Date with DAD!!!

Since Brandon's been gone a lot with his first year of Residency- the kids have been missing their dad! He got home yesterday from working a 30 hr. shift and after having a little siesta (sp?) he took the kids on individual dates. First it was Hayley's turn. She wasn't feeling very peppy, but she was excited to go. Out of all the things they could do she chose to go and pick out a toy for her date. Here she is sporting her new baby doll backpack. When they got home- she ran into the bathroom and "tossed her cookies". Besides that, they had a good time. ;) Ethan took Hayley's lead and instead of going to get icecream or going fishing at the lake- he went to the toy store and picked out a little lego policeman car. I didn't get a picture of him with it, but I did snap a shot of him doing one of his favorite activities (rocking chair aerobatics).

You'll have to scroll down to the previous blog to see what these two pics are all about. (I can't figure out how to add more than 4 pics to the blog at a time. So, these are meant to go w/ the rest).

Before and After

This is our living room w/ it's vaulted ceilings and hospital white walls.

This is the after shot- Brandon and I painted it a "Belgian Sweet" color to make it more cozy. I need to get bigger pictures for my walls, because the ones I have look teeny-tiny. Any cute, cheap suggestions for large wall art?

Visitors

We've had our first visitors here in AZ! Hooray! We hope that it's just the first of many (hint, hint to all of you out there reading this!) My parents, my bro. and his wife (and 3 kids) all came and stayed with us last week. We went to the Zoo, went to a baseball game, went swimming at the pool everyday, and last- but not least, we went to Chuck E. Cheese! Where a kid can be a kid! Here are some pics. from the trip.

Cute Cousins- they both have super straight hair and wanted it curly so we played beauty shop and put sponge curlers in. Here's the after pic.