Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Jacob is finally at the age where he truly anticipates special days, in addition to enjoying the day itself. All month he's been so excited about trick-or-treating, pumpkins, and spooky decorations! Lydia doesn't understand yet, but she thought all the festivities were pretty great, too! We kicked off our Halloween celebration with carving our pumpkin. Jacob drew a picture of what he wanted our jack-o-lantern to look like and gave Scott specific "constructions" (instructions) from his diagram.

 Looks like we had a full moon this Halloween! :)

After pumpkin carving on Sunday night, I took the kids to Hickory Nut Gap Farm the next morning. I can't believe we've never gone there before. It was so fun! We climbed pumpkins, had a picnic, looked at farm animals, played on slides, attempted the nature trail, and made "snow angels" in the silo corn pit!

Jacob had costume day at school on Thursday, and went as a fireman. He didn't want to wear his costume in the morning, but he put it on for Mrs. Amy at the very end of the day for a class picture. He was very happy about his treat bag!

Then on Friday, we went back to school for the Fall Festival. Jacob had been talking about it nonstop all week and was so looking forward to going, but then spent the majority of the time we were there whining and begging to go home. He finally played a few games, but it was so not worth it. Sigh.

We decided it's time our boy starts earning his keep. We put him to work raking leaves! There may have been some playing involved, too!

And finally...the big event...Halloween!

The Hayes hosted a little get-together at their house. We joined them, as well as the Joneses, for pizza and play before heading out to trick-or-treat. The kids had so much fun! Our neighborhood really goes all out with decorations, and the biggest attraction was the motorcycle riding skeleton.

Jacob lost trick-or-treating steam pretty quickly, probably because he was too excited to take a nap earlier in the day, but we persevered! Afterwards we headed back to "Benjermend's" house to hangout around the fire pit and pass out candy to other trick-or-treaters. It was such a fun night with friends!

Happy Birthday, Maddox!

I am so behind on my posts, and I can't even blame my kids or computer issues this time! Scott and I have started watching The Walking Dead on Netflix, and we are obsessed. So instead of being productive in the evenings after the littles go to bed, we've been binge watching. We haven't been this mutually invented in a show since LOST!

A couple of weekends ago we went to Kernersville to celebrate Maddox Houston's FIRST birthday! It is so fun to see the next generation of Badens and Houstons together. It just wouldn't be right if someone (usually a Baden someone) wasn't crying in our group shot! :)

Maddox's Mickey themed party was so fun! Its so special that Megan and I have gotten to share the baby experience together twice! Maddox is such a sweet little guy, and we wish him many more happy birthdays!

On the way to the party, we stopped in Morganton to eat lunch with Grandma and Grandaddy at Chick-a-lay! It was great to see them and break up our drive a bit.

"The days are long, but the years are short."

Well, lets just say the days have been extra long around here. I've found the majority of parenting isn't all that fun. I'm not trying to be a Negative Nancy, but the reality is that the day in-and-out of mothering little children is often thankless, tedious, monotonous, and messy...

But then they sneak in little moments like this one,

and all the crying, all the tantrums, and all the spilled Choco Chimps don't seem so bad. Its funny how the memory of a whole day of awful can be dimmed by just five minutes of wonderful.

Lydia is 11 Months Old!

11 Months? Already??? I say it every month, but I just can't believe how fast my sweet girl is growing. She is becoming her own little person, and she's a little person with a BIG personality! She brings so much joy to our little family!

At Eleven Months, Lydia...

• Weighs about 19 plus pounds
• Measures about 30 inches long
• Has made huge sleeping improvements! The biggest skill she's learned is putting herself to sleep. Ever since she was a newborn, it has been nearly impossible to put her down without her waking up in the process or shortly thereafter. So for most of her life, she's either been held, worn, or snuggled with during naps. Its been really difficult to juggle keeping up with Jacob and making sure she gets the rest she needs during the day. But it looks like we're making it to the other side! Whew!
• Continues to do her spider monkey crawl, but sometimes crawls on her hands and knees. She is very fast and gets into EVERYTHING!
• Started standing independently! One day she just started trying to stand in the middle of our living room on her own. She kept falling back on her bottom, but kept working until she could do it!
• Has an increased interest in Daddy. She gets so excited when he comes home from work. We're usually eating dinner when he gets home, and when she hears the key in the door she starts doing her lion roar and saying, "Da-da!!!!" She also loves playing chase with Jacob and Daddy in the evenings.
• Mimics everything - sounds, motions, words, facial expressions! Just like Jacob, she is very observant and expressive!
• Can drink from a straw. I am so impressed by this skill! Jacob was almost 18 months old before he figured straws out. :)
• Is a climber - I find her on top of diaper boxes, Jacob's chair, the step to the bath tub. You can't turn your back for a second.
• Loves shoes (tries to put them on), her kitty, playing in her kitchen, and pulling off headbands! She also loves to play cars with Jacob. (Side note: Jacob does not like to play cars with her!) She pushes them around and makes "vroom-vroom" noises.
• Is a little chatterbox! New words are Pa-pa and bye-bye. She also holds things up to her ear like a phone and says, "Hey!"
• Understands so much! I think we don't give babies enough credit for how much they understand. For example, Lydia will crawl to the bookcase, touch a book, say "no-no" while shaking her head, and then scramble away before I can get there!
• Got her 8th tooth on 9/18 (left lateral incisor).
• Gives hugs and (open mouth) kisses! This is my favorite! She squeezes our necks and says "mmm....mah" as she gives her kiss. She is a sweet, happy girl!

And this is why we don't let Daddy "fix" her hair... :)