i made these

While my mom was here, I asked her to help me make a little outfit for Anna. Mom made the leggings (which unfortunately shrunk in the wash, so they're now capris) and then she walked me through making the shirt. I finally finished it last week.




I made this gorgeous hair too. What a wonderful genetic coincidence to get such beautiful hair.



And finally, my little bear cub. Every day I'm grateful we made his little growl-y self.

splooky

Anna has a new favorite adjective. It is splooky. This is the latest in a long string of made up words and mispronunciations like, kerrible (rhymes with terrible), boobiebobbie, yeshi, peetypete, tumma (meaning tummy), etc. They are her go-to words when she needs a word but doesn't know the right one.


We've always enjoyed her nonsense words and trying to divine their meaning, but we've really embraced splooky. It's fun to say, can mean anything, and is often used onomatopoeically. Here are a few things Anna has described as splooky:

• Levi's spit up
• Food on her hands
• Water used for painting with water colors
• How her stomach feels
• Being slippery and soapy in the bath
• When she can't do something (like do a button, or put a difficult toy together)
• Dirty diapers
• Pebbles at the shore of Walden Pond

It's so much fun to have a peek into that little creative brain of hers. She's feeling better from a week-long, whine-inducing illness and was all sunshine and singing and hugs and helpfulness today. We just laughed ourselves silly the whole day and it made me glad to be a mom, even during the splooky times.

i never thought it would start this young

Anna is into cosmetics. Here are some of her favorite products:

Lipgloss

Nail polish

dip the brush

wipe off the extra

and apply

the final product

Anna even did my nails

Mascara

I love this face. If you want to know Anna's personality, it's right there.

happy halloween

Our fun started on Thursday night with a party at our apartment complex. We had a pizza dinner with cider and fruit and veggies. Anna loved seeing all the other kids in costumes and was most excited about a little firefighter. We tried to stay for the BINGO game, but Anna didn't really get it and it was too noisy for Levi, so we left. Anna could not believe that she actually got to take candy home in her pumpkin bag! What a great holiday!

(A HUGE thank you to Anna Jo and Jeff for Anna's costume this year! They sent us the costume over 2.5 years ago when they found out we were having a girl and this is the first Halloween it has fit Anna. She LOVED it and put it on several times at home just to admire her cute self in it.)

The excitement was impossible to contain

After getting a little taste of Halloween fun, Anna was all geared up for our church Halloween party on Saturday night and kept talking about how she'd get to wear her costume and get more candy.

Anna's cousin Isabelle sent a little Halloween package with some treats and a craft foam jack-o-lantern to make, so on Saturday morning, we did that and Anna was screaming with excitement after lunch when she got to eat her Halloween fruit snacks (Thanks Belle!)

After lunch we went to the pumpkin patch down the road and picked out some pumpkins. Anna was a little surprised to find that all the pumpkins had dirt on them, so I was glad we got to show her how pumpkins grow on vines on the ground before she gets weird ideas that the magically show up at the grocery store in October.



We came home and gutted one little pumpkin. Anna enjoyed scooping out seeds and guts that I had pulled away from the sides, which I was pleased with. Sometimes I worry she's too sissy about getting dirty, so I'm pleased when she digs into a project like this. After the pumpkin was clean we showed her a few faces we could do but she wasn't really into it. Then Sam suggested we carve BOO ("Like on your bum!"-- see the pictures above) and she loved that idea. She colored while we quickly carved and then we went into a dark room to light a candle in the jack o lantern. She was amazed. There's nothing more fun than seeing kids delight in holiday traditions that are brand new to them.

While the kids napped, I made dinner in a pumpkin for our ward trunk-or-treat, and then we got the kids up to get them dressed so we could go finish setting up at the church. The whole evening went pretty well and Anna had a marvelous time trick or treating at all the cars. Her favorite was a car decked out in Christmas lights with Christmas trees and carols and stockings. She touched every single little colored light. I can't wait for Christmas decorating now! She'll love it!

Post Trunk or Treat pics

Sam tried to moderate Anna's candy consumption while I helped clean up after the activity and then we all went home, exhausted. Anna has been enjoying her halloween candy by sucking on the hard stuff for about 10 seconds before forgetting about it. I then sneak it into the trash. I think it's a good arrangement :)

Happy Halloween!