Halloween

If this isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen than YOU ARE BLIND!

Miles made thee cutest JOCKEY and Magnus made a great horse.

The Jockey made his debut at our churches Trunk or Treat.

He loved carrying around his "unkin".

We went to the first car and he held his UNKIN up for candy and once the piece of candy hit the bottom of the pumpkin he literally threw the pumpkin down and cried! 

We picked up his pumpkin and tried it again.

He got the hang of it by car 3!

After we went back to our car where he passed out candy to the other trick or treaters. 

Miles was a generous candy giver....(handfuls per kid) I didn't mind, he was loving it.

A few days later was the actual day of Halloween and we went out with our dearest friends.

Miles knew exactly what to do.

Every time the stroller stopped, he hopped out and went up to the door.

He can't say Trick or Treat but he can say thank you so we made him say 

"keek you" to every candy giver!

Miles was 100% content with his sucker thee entire night.

This picture below cracks me up. 

He looks tough with his little hat twisted and giving a dirty look...

but his voice is oh so sweet.

Fun Facts on his costume:

hat- spray painted 7.00$

sleeves - woman blouse from goodwill 2.00$

Front of shirt- kids soccer jersey from goodwill 1.00$

 tights- from gymboree 8.00$

boots- paper towel tubes wrapped in black fabric 5.00$

St. George in October

Miles and I spent a few weeks in St. George while we are STILL waiting to get into our new house.

SO many fun things went down during our stay.

1.) my sister had a baby. 

A miracle girl made her debut 7 years after her older sisters.

She's going to have lots of little mommies.

2.) Miles went down the slide belly first!

3.) Since Grandma was in Chicago with the new baby, Miles got the opportunity to hang with "ampa" LOTS!

4.) Romneys sister Penny and her kids came down to visit us for the weekend.

We went to the Dinosaur Track Museum...

....rode the carousel around and around and around...

....we went on some awesome little hikes....

 

Miles wanted to be down hiking with his cousins but sometimes we needed to move faster so we had to strap him in the "back back" as Miles calls it. 

 

...he loved being by "Eh-E" (ellie) and Keegan...

5.) MICKEY MOUSE!

Oh my goodness! 

This little St. George trip has created a Mickey fan!

He watched it everyday and held (and continues to hold) his new stuffed Mickey all day everyday.

He calls it BICKEY MOUSE.

So I drag out the M sound MMMMMICKEY

and he'll say MMMMMickey.

Its adorable.

(too bad he wont even come close to Mickey at Disneyland....he FREAKS out)

and LAST thing to report from our trip is 

Miles is a great traveler.

He does so well listening to Toddler radio, playing with his cars, shaking noise makers and reading his books.

He told me he wanted "eyes" so I gave him these awesome glasses and when I turned around he was reading. 

It made me belly laugh out loud. 

He looks awesome head to toe!

Moving....

What have we been up to? 

Oh just moving....

No big.

 Miles was a champ thee entire move.

He played in boxes, and climbed in empty cupboards.

He loved "helping" me pull down all the baby stuff to pack up.

"Mommy....a chew!"

I turned around, and he was indeed in a chair.

Romney worked his tail off.

He packed the garage, the shed, the office, you name it....

He did it.

He was off for 4 straight days so we had to take full advantage of it. 

He was exhausted. 

The kitchen was thee worst!

Dreadful.

There was so much STUFF everywhere.

We were so surprised with all the little junk we store in random drawers and cupboards. 

Our living room was a little sad when the rugs were rolled up and hauled out...

Our mantel was devastated when the candy jars were carefully packed away.

 People keep saying they can not believe we sold our house...

well...

we cant either!

People keep asking if we are sad to move....

well...

I wasn't sad until Miles and I picked our last batch of tomatoes from the garden... and ate them all at once.

I wasnt sad until Miles cried when we packed up the toy closet.

I wasn't sad until Magnus went upstairs to lay in his usual spot...only to find an empty room. 

I wasn't sad until I vacuumed Miles bedroom on moving day.

I wasn't sad until I left my house key on the counter and walked out of my first house.

 

But, a house is just a house.

Where ever my crew is .... is our HOME.

(boys taking a break from packing)

For curious minds:

We made an offer on a house closer to more family.

It has almost everything we want in a long term house.

We are excited for the next chapter in our lives.

Goodbye first house.

You have been exceptional.

You will be missed!

 I hope the new owners love you as much as we did and remember to use the special cleaner for the wood floors.

BOSTON

What a FUN FUN trip we had back east!

We have every intention of returning again next summer.

My sister and her family have a darling summer colonial home that we got to adore for 10 days.

My parents were able to come too.

Were hoping next summer our brothers can make it.

We purposely picked a red eye flight hoping Miles would sleep.

He had his jammies on and drank his milk and YEP....the boy slept.

We, on the other hand were exhausted.

But, easier to be tired than deal with a 18 month old on a 5.5 hour flight!!

We started our trip going to a colonial village.

We tried on leather shoes, watched a pottery demo, listened to the fiddle,  we were fascinated by the water log saw, drank from the well and took this AWESOME photograph.

It makes me smile every time.

Miles slept at the foot of my bed and woke up every morning staring out the window saying...

"GGGUUUKKK" (goose/duck)

They have a chicken coop full of chickens and Miles could see them.  

He wanted to see them first thing.

The girls were so sweet to Miles!

They kept telling him that they have been training the chickens to be held so Miles could hold one.

Miles never did hold one. 

Just wanted to see them and maybe touch one every now and then.

The kids played in the "water park"

It was so peaceful to be outside all day.

They have over 20 acres to themselves.

It was lovely to crank up some tunes and not bother anyone. 

Honestly we were in our own little bubble.

One of my personal favorite stops was:
THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM.

It was beautiful scenery and such fun artwork.

Auntie Ali was muggin on Miles

I loved all the artwork.

He had such an interesting story.

I love that Norman lived during his artwork prime.

He wasn't someone appreciated hundreds of years after he was gone.

We went on the swan boats.

Its a tourist thing...but a must.

This picture makes my heart smile.

Duck park.

Concord Bridge! (the shot heard around the world)

This was a cool monument.

The story is bravery and heroic.

On a very RAINY day we went to tour John Adams home.

We left Miles at home with Auntie Ali and his cousins so everyone would be happy.

It was fun to have a day with my parents and make memories with them.

This is John and Abigail Adams retirement home.

Some days we stayed home looking for bugs

 Avrie caught a grasshopper.

Miles loved climbing "UP UP UP" the rocks.

What is a Boston trip without a baseball game???

Fenway Park was pretty cool I must admit.  

We kept calling Alisons' family the PinkSox...(girl #4 on its way)

We bought t-shirts, hotdogs, and ice cream...

Miles would dance in between innings to the music that was blaring. 

He had ice cream all over his face, french fries in his hands and was totally interested in the foreigners behind us.

There are 2 things that I miss about this trip:

1.) Miles sitting in his tiny chair in the middle of the field by himself!

I cannot stop laughing at this.

2.) the colonial house.

I'm still giggling that my nieces made a handicap sign for my mom who just had two knee replacements. They put it on a door with a ramp so my mom didnt have to do the stairs.

Thee best!

It was such a fun vacation.

During this trip, I became a big fan of two people.

One being Paul Revere.

Two being Abigail Adams (john adams wife)

Next summer I'm sure I'll learn more and become big fans of new people.

Thanks Sister for being such a great host and loving our little family.

We cant wait for your baby girl to come and join the party.

18 Months

I thought time flew by before...

Nope.

In a blink of an eye Miles is a 1 1/2 years old.

There are some things that he does that are SO BIG BOY and some things that are SO BABY.

The joys of being 18 months I guess.

He cracks us up daily.

He has the deepest dimple and the softest voice.

He is such a mamas boy!...(no really, take it to the extreme level)

He is pretty quiet in new situations and has the clinging thing down.

He has all his molars in and is currently working on all the incisors...(no fun)

He LOVES peas, watermelon and Cheese.

When he hears music he clicks his tongue and sways back and forth. (he's quite the dancer)

He likes to take the fork and spoon away from us and feed himself.

He likes playing with balls, cars and dinosaurs.

He loves pushing his popper around.

He loves to wear our shoes around the house.
He runs.
He tries to jump all the time. (it's adorable)

He is constantly poking at our eyes and says "eye".

He naps once a day and sleeps great at night, sleeping in til 7:30-8:00am.

He has started to get CRAZY in the bath...were talking cannon balls and crocodile rolling.

He loves cuddling his blankets with his "mina" (bunny) at nap/bed time.

He really likes going down slides.(I love when he yells " MOMMY!...wheeee.")

He has just over 30 words that he can say.

Some of my favorites are:

mommy, woof (dog), cracko (cracker), wawa (water), Chi (cheese), 

Nay New (thank you), PEEE (please), up, chew (shoe), Ow-I (outside), Caw (car), 
Ahhh-D (all done), appica (popsicle)

  

 We had to get rid of the high chair because Miles was starting to stand up...

so we got a new little seat with a better buckle. He loves opening and closing the tray.

He loves being OW-I. 

He goes to the back door and says it often.  

He enjoys being pulled in the wagon, and playing with his popper.

We fill up the wagon with veggies from the garden and Miles tags along for the ride.

This is his "cheeeesssseeee" smile.

Under the tree you can see a tiny Miles pulling his popper.

He walks around the trike track poppin away.

While popping the popper he'll usually yell across the yard MOMMY, MOM, MOMMY....

and I validate what he is doing is thee coolest thing ever.

The boy cannot stay dry...ever.

He doesn't care if its 8:30am or 8:30pm.

He doesn't care if he's in his jammies or church clothes.

The kid LOVES wawa.

Every time the freezer gets opened he says "appica" (popsicle).

I could be pulling dinner out of the freezer, or getting ice for a drink but he doesn't seem to notice that. He just wants his appica.

I started blending up fruit and freezing the juice in popsicle molds and HE LOVES THEM!

He just has to eat them outside in a diaper...they are messy!

Miles love of books kills me.

It melts my heart.

He likes to look at books during diaper changes, road trips, and church.

Miles gets a hair cut once a month.

He has too, it's out of control.

Except now--- books and crackers aren't enough to keep him entertained...

but we figured out that SUCKERS work!

Now I pack water and dum dums for a good hair cut.

Miles loves to brush his teeth when we brush our teeth.

He likes to sit on the bathroom step and get ready with us.

Sometimes he even grabs our hair brush for quick grooming too.

He also likes to shut the bathroom door on us and play peek a boo.

He thinks its fun to close the door and quickly cries when he realizes that he cannot open it.

Silly boy.

 Happy 18 Months Little One