Thanksgiving 2014 (with Halloween thrown in also!)

Hi all! Oy vey! November was a whirlwind month. So sorry I didn't post more, but our external hard drive with ALL of our photos on it decided to die.....insert mommy panic attack. It's still being repaired but I hope to get back all of the photos, especially the ones from the hospital and our baby's first moments. Although my photo Christmas ideas now have to be rethought since we wont be getting our data back until after the new year.....SOBS!

Anyways, I thought that I would do a little recapping of Emma's first Thanksgiving and a teeny recap of her Halloween as well....since I missed it! Oopsies! Let's start with TG since it was the most recent. It was a very low key holiday at my parent's house. We arrived Tuesday evening late and grandma played with Emma while we unloaded the car. The crazies dogs decided that 10pm was bark and playtime since they hadn't seen each other in so long.

Wednesday morning, Emma had playtime with her G.G. and daddy, then I helped my grandmother make pies, six in total for 13 people.....a bit excessive. We made cranberry sauce, sweet potato's, and various other things. I helped my mom hang artwork, and clean as well. Thanksgiving day Emma woke we all awoke at 730 to finish prepping, cleaning and cooking. Lil miss protested her naps like usual and we entertained her on her jumper, bouncer, with toys....just to keep her happy. She managed to get an hour in before the commotion started but that was pretty much it. She didn't want to miss any excitement. My aunts and cousins arrived in the midst of the craziness and were put to work setting the table, which I had to finish! I guess I can do a cornucopia like nobody's business. Emma was entertained by all her aunties and had a marvelous time laughing and munching on anything she could get in her mouth, that tooth coming in is really bugging her.

The rest of the weekend was filled with relaxing, my grandfather taught Darin and I how to play cribbage....and now D is obsessed. We ate leftover turkey sandwiches, pie and turkey soup. We also managed to get my mom's Christmas decor up before she was struck with the stomach flu. Poor thing. We headed home early Sunday and just chilled out on our couch catching up on some snoozing. It was a warm and fun filled weekend. And now a photo dump:

Halloween was just as fun, but I have far less photo's to share. If you remember my mom and I made Emma's Halloween costume. I was so excited to parade her around in it too! We realized that afternoon that it was going to be a wet Halloween, a first in California in many years. D brought little miss into my work for our office party dressed in her Sleeping Beauty costume from Grandma L and everyone oohed and ahhed her cuteness. We even won some prizes! Pup got a bath at the groomer next door also. Once I got home from work we tried to get her to nap, but she wasn't having it.

We dressed her up, got pup ready and loaded in the car to T.O.T. in D's parents neighborhood. We hit up about 5 houses, but most were still getting ready. Grandma had a grab bag with teething goodies for Emma and full sized candies for mommy and daddy! SCORE! We hung around for a little bit before heading off to our little party.

Our good friend lives in a neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween. It was the perfect place to take Emma for her first Halloween. We took her around to about 6 houses, just to hear people say how cute she is, I mean she was! Then went and relaxed by the firepit and passed out candy.....we went through 10+ bags of candy, just at our house alone! That's how many kids were around. We had great conversations and Emma enjoyed just people watching....her favorite thing. Around 9pm we headed home, just as the rain started coming down. It was a great holiday!

Me as the Cheshire Cat

Getting ready to T.O.T.

Doesn't she look thrilled?!

Stay tuned I have a lot to update you on with regards to moving and getting our own place, a sneak peek into Emma's nursery and much more!

DIY Halloween Costume - Lil Birdie Emma

Since this is Emma's first Halloween, you know I couldn't stand idly by and get a store bought generic costume did you? Did I peruse the newborn and infant section in the party stores online? Of course I did, but mostly was fairly unimpressed by the selection and really wanted her first costume to be special. My mom made almost all of my costumes and I had some really cute ones as a child. My favorite was a Maleficent costume that was the Best! I was also a playing card and a pumpkin....she did not make the devil costumes, but my cousin and I are just too adorable not to post!

So in true form I had to follow in my mom's footsteps and make my baby girls first costume. I know I know, it's one of those things that I just needed to do. I didn't really make her anything while I was pregnant so I am making up for it now!

Since my nickname for Emma is Lil Birdie, I knew I wanted her to go as a bird. I google searched for

bird infant costumes and found a ton of owls, some peacocks and various other birds, but nothing made me jump up and say yes, until I saw a photo of an adorable little boy dressed in a blue bird costume.

Little Starling Photography made a Martha Stewart pattern blue bird for her son's Halloween costume. I instantly fell in love with the look and how adorable her son looked in the costume. I knew that between my mom and I we could totally pull off this look and do it on the cheap because it is made with felt! Of course when I went to buy the materials, lovely Martha's pattern was so vague that I just guessed how much I would need. Little did I know that I would buy YARDS too much felt and now have so much left over.....oh well. I have my sights on another project for Emma's nursery to make with the leftovers.....more on that later!


On a girls trip to my parents; Emma, my mom and I sat down to make this adorable costume. I knew I didn't want it to be blues, because of the people that would comment and ask about "him" so I picked girly colors and she is going to be dressed in pink. Instead of sketching the wings out, I printed them in a large format and cut out the templates, pinned to the felt and cut them out. I pressed all the seams, and that was all I did. Emma decided to protest her naps that day, making it impossible for me to do any sewing. My mom completed the rest of the costume and it turned out better than I could have imagined!

 

We can't wait to take her trick or treating, yes you heard me. My hubby is more than excited to parade her around in her outfit to a couple of houses and reap the candy.....I guess I can eat Skittles. (since I am still off dairy) Hope to get photo's and to do a follow up post with her in her costume tonight!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2013 - Better late than never

I know....Halloween was last week and like I said on Thursday we went over to our good friends house for a barbeque and passing out of candy. I had no idea that he was going to go all out for the event. Using a power drill to carve his pumpkins and pulling his grill and fire-pit out onto his driveway and setting up a buffet style hamburgers for us. It was awesome.

As per Thursday I did not dress up and neither did Mrs. H. We both went comfortable as she is 7 months pregnant and I went in leggings and a baggy sweatshirt to be warm. The guys however did dress up. The hubs and J.P. went as fake cowboys with their hats and plaid shirts and Mr. H went as a giant panda....as per his usual. He sat next to the fire pit with the candy bowl in his lap, scaring half the children with the costume alone.

We enjoyed ourselves looking at the cute kiddos costumes. I was on Minon count but it seems like the Avengers were a heavy choice this year. All I can say is when did we become old enough to be those people hanging out in their driveway passing out candy? All we were missing was the cooler and the fake dead body in the grass and we were the epitome of my memory of trick or treating as a kid!

I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween. We also found ground zero for our kids trick-or-treating! Uncle Jayes!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I would like to wish everyone out in blogland a safe and Happy Halloween. This Halloween we will be heading over to a good friends house to pass out candy and BBQ. Since we live in an apartment we never get trick or treaters so we will get to ooh and ahh over all the cute kiddos with some great company. I'm sure that the hubby will overload on a couple of pieces of chocolate and perhaps indulge in a little cocktail action....it should be a great night! I am not really into Halloween, but we usually carve the obligatory pumpkin and watch Hocus Pocus, but this year we are not dressing up so I thought that I would give you a glimpse into Halloween past! Some of our crazy outfits.

2008 Jack Sparrow

2008 Pumpkin Carving

2008 Pimpette

2009 Costume Event

2010 Scottish Highlanders

Fright Fest

For most people Halloween is a holiday where you either A: have children and dress them up in silly costumes and take them around your neighborhood to get candy from your neighbors, or B: dress up in costumes that either make you look like you belong in a haunted house or an adult magazine, go to parties just to get drunk and act like a teenager. Well since the age of twelve I have been too old for option A and now that I am in my later twenties it seems like I am too old for option B as well. I don't really care to have the out of control feeling of too much alcohol and I do not like to act like most do on this holiday. So what's a girl to do?

When our friends Mr & Mrs. B asked us if we wanted to go to the local theme parks Halloween event, I was slightly less than thrilled. Reason being I hate Halloween and roller coasters. I am terrified of heights and do not like to lose my stomach so the idea of falling from many many feet in the air is not my idea of a good time. But since the hubbs loves that sort of thing we decided that it would be good to go. Mrs. B doesn't really care for roller coasters either so at least I would have someone to talk to. We met up with Mr. and Mrs. R and once the entire group got situated and we ate we started making our way around the park. Like most theme parks, they had employees dressed up with fake blood and prosthetics trying to scare people. Of course they were doing a good job with some of the teenagers who would scream at the top of their lungs and run away, which of course made the characters follow just to get a rise out of them. But when they would come up to use, we would just say things like "Hey how are ya?" or "What's up?" Not exactly the reaction they were looking for. We poked around in a couple of mazes, which were fun. I am the type that expects something to jump out of every corner so I didn't really get scared, except for the one time I let my guard down. I was staring at this "statue" thinking, ok that's fake. Then I turned away to keep walking, of course the hubbs who was right next to me decided to walk ahead a little. When he did the statue jumped at me and made me scream so loud. It was funny. I went on a couple of baby rides, and everyone else went on a couple of big rides including the wooden coaster that was running backwards. Although we were standing by the funnel cake stand forever and I wanted one desperately, I never got one. I guess that's a good thing though, can't ruin the diet on one pastry. Even though I had been skeptical of the whole evening I did have fun. I am glad that we at least did something in relation to Halloween this year.