Lucy's Blessing Day

 Jared was able to give Lucy a name and a blessing. We had a few family members come up and celebrated afterward at our house with brunch.

 I have come to realize that my children bring out my strengths and my weaknesses. I have become much more introspective as a parent. As a mom I am always looking back on my day and thinking how did my attitude or actions shape that day, not only for myself but for my children. I am suddenly more accountable for my actions and attitude. I love it though because even on the worst days I have two little reasons to smile and make the best of it. I am beyond grateful for my two beautiful girls. 

Halloween Shenanigans

We started our Halloween celebration with a trip to Black Island Farm with our joy school group. Ellie got to pick a pumpkin and play in the play yard with slides and tractor rides. 

We headed to the little slide, I figured this was more Ellie's size, but no she wanted to go on the big slide. She has become quite independent lately. I see her doing things that big kids do, like climb the rope ladder to the top of a giant slide and go down all by herself. She doesn't skip a beat, doesn't need help climbing, totally confident. 

After running around going up and down the slides until she was red in the face we took a tractor ride and headed home, just in time to hit traffic and have Lucy scream for 30 minutes all the way home. Screaming so loud I was praying out loud for traffic to move. A moment in which I had to remind myself that car seats are for our child's safety and not mechanisms to cause them pain and stress. That was probably the worse day, things have gotten better. 

We caved and bought all the Jurassic Park movies. We have watched every episode of dinosaur train multiple times, land before time and the preview to all Jurassic park movies. We couldn't take just watching the 2 minute preview so we bought the movies. We skip a few parts that are a bit scary but Ellie's dreams came true when she saw those "real" dinosaurs on the tv. 

Ellie  playing Jurassic park with her train set while humming the Jurassic park theme. Bum Bum Ba Bum Bum Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba....

Lucy, the baby that wouldn't nap, until recently. 

I hosted Joy School twice this month. We made friendship wreaths with our hand prints.

First ride in the stroller together, clearly Lucy is amused. 

I was hosting the Joy School Halloween party so I had to decorate to front door. This may be one of the easiest and cutest crafts I've ever done. Thanks Pinterest!

Gift bags for the kiddos

We painted pumpkins, Frankenstein crafts and decorated cookies.

Ellie was so excited to wear her pteranadon costume. 

We started the party with a little costume fashion show. All these kids are so cute!

There was a lot of sugar consumed!

Pumpkin carving fail. Jared helped Ellie carve a raptor in her pumpkin, it came out great.

Night one of trick or treating, trunk or treat at our ward building was a success. 

Ellie did so well trick or treating this year. She walked up to houses all by herself, she wanted to go to every house. We walked the blocks through our charming neighborhood and collected lots of candy. Ellie's costume was a hit, kids thought she was the REAL Tiny pteranadon dressed up. It was a great night.

October Outings

One month after having Lucy and I was feeling fantastic. Like lets go out and about fantastic. I still can't believe it since it took 6 to 8 weeks for me to feel like doing anything after I had Ellie. 

We took a drive to the Great Salt Lake Shore lands Preserve in Layton. I had seen a few photos of this place and decided it was time to check it out. 

The boardwalk circled about a mile of the wetland with benches and information station about the ecosystem. These structures were awesome. Too bad the one with the stairs was covered with bees and we couldn't get to the top to look out. 

"mom not another picture!"

I usually tend to stay far away from free days here in Utah, but when there was a free day to the natural history museum we had to take advantage. Luckily we were able to reserve tickets so it wasn't insanely crowded. So Ellie and Dinosaur bones = heaven.