Halloween 2013: Hallelujah Party

Ryan was so excited to hand out trick-or-treats but after having only 1 person stop by, he decided we better go out to find them! We went up and down the 2 blocks in our neighborhood in the stroller and every time he collected a treat, he'd say, "I have a treat for you too!" and reached into the bag to give out one of our treats. The ladies on our street got a kick out of that!

After Adam got home, we headed to the Hallelujah Party in Sioux Center and met up with his parents. Ryan had fun playing the games and didn't even care too much about the candy/prizes at the end. He did get a little sick of the pictures (see below) so there aren't too many of the night.

 Cohen did
great hanging out all night and was such a trooper through trick-or-treating and games that were really going to be of no benefit to him.  It was a great day of fun for our family!

Halloween 2013: Jake and the Neverland Pirates DIY costume

Ryan's favorite show lately, is Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney Jr. so it's no surprise he wanted to be Jake for Halloween. Instead of buy the expensive official costume this year, I decided to see if he could be satisfied with a DIY version. I'm not sure we ended up saving a ton of money once we bought the pirate sword props ($3 and only allowed at home and when trick-or-treating outside), the rainboots and felt ($12) but at least the rainboots could technically be worn again.  Ryan seemed happy with it and got to wear it at a Halloween party at daycare, trick-or-treating, and for the Hallelujah party, so I'm glad he had something pretty "wearable". 

Daycare party

 

 These boots were created with plain black rainboots from Walmart, a sheet of sticky-backed brown felt, a sheet of yellow craft foam, glue, and tape.

 I cut the felt sheet in half and then cut off only half of the backing paper. Then, I wrapped the top sticky part around the boot with the seam on the inside. This gifts the look of a "cuff". I then cut out 2 yellow "J's" and a buckle for the front of the boot. I recommend hot-gluing the J onto the felt. I used Elmer's school glue and it didn't stick that well.  I just used double-stick tape for the buckles because I wanted to be able to easily peel them off when complete.  Note: the felt got a little raggedy after a full day of wearing and it did leave some sticky residue, but nothing a little "goo-gone" can't get off.

To complete the outfit, we cut a strip of red fabric from one of my old tee-shirts for his bandana and used blue pants, a striped shirt, and khaki vest from his closet. Jake actually wears a white shirt and blue vest, but I didn't want to buy any extra clothes, so we just made do with what we had. The sword came in a $3 pirate set from Walmart that also included an eyepatch (and earring that Ryan was more interested in wearing in his nose to act like a bull than on his ear.)

Overally, he had a really fun time dressing up like Jake and the costume was fairly low-stress, so I'm calling it a win!

Halloween 2013: Batman..with a special appearance by Big Brother Batman

Cohen's "traveling" costume for Halloween this year was a comfy Batman shirt with a velcro cape. It's the perfect baby costume because he didn't really even realize he was wearing it and could wear regular clothes/shoes/coat with it.  Of course, when we tried it on the first time, big brother decided he better get his Batman costume on too and I am kind of in love with resulting (unstaged) picture.

Halloween 2013: Charlie Brown

Well, Cohen didn't actually go as Charlie Brown for Halloween since his outfit was mostly a shirt turned backwards with a sticky felt zig-zag, but I couldn't resist some pictures of my "CB" dressed as "CB"...sometimes even with our own trusty shifty beagle.

 

Emily's 7th Birthday

 Ryan was beyond excited to make a trip to Emily and Lincoln's house for Emily's birthday. My mom rode along with the boys and me and the trip up went fine after stopping at the 1 McDonalds on Hwy 3. It was a nice day for the kids to play in the leaves and on the swingset. We also made a trip to Duo's for ice cream or coffee.

Emily even showed us her Halloween costume.

On Sunday, we went to church at Orchard Hill and Ryan got to go to Sunday School with Lincoln where they all got little noisemakers to act out the Battle of Jericho. I'm guessing a non-parent decided on that take-home. :)

We ate a yummy lunch and then Emily got to open her presents. She was so polite in thanking everyone for her gifts and even let the boys help her open some of her gifts.

 

Then, we all had cake (and Ryan had frosting). Emily had made some great decorations from the party, some with the help of Anjelka. They are the host family for Anjelka, an international student who goes to Wartburg, and it was fascinating to talk to her. She is also great with kids (not so common for an engineering major)!

After hugs and good-byes, we headed home again. I was alone with the boys on the way home and it took 3 stops (including one at Casey's where I needed gas, had to go to the bathroom, and had to change Cohen...eeek!) and a lot longer, but we made it. We had a great weekend and Ryan asks all the time when we can go back.  Thanks for hosting us and Happy Birthday, Emily!

Picture Update

Here are a few random "snapshots" of life lately.

mmmmm....chocolate

Big laundry helper

A sign someone's not ready to go to sleep

Enjoying Grandma's pumpkin muffins

Watching fireworks from the marching band competition in our backyard

Waiting out a tornado warning in the basement

Reading books together

Painting pumpkins

Cohen wishing he could be outside while Ryan sits in the playhouse blowing bubbles while it's 40 degrees out.

After Cohen's face took a dip in the bathwater.

Family Pictures Fall 2013

We took our fall family pictures on a hot and windy day but were really happy with how they turned out! The backdrops are the side of the Blue Mountain Lodge restaurant and pond by the Prairie Winds Event Center. All photographs are by Hayley from Southern Belle Portraiture. She was great, even when Ryan was being less than cooperative (which is why we don't have any of the boys together). Enjoy!

Cohen: 10 Months Old

At 10 months, Cohen is a very fast crawler and is pulling himself up on furniture. He now as 7 teeth (the top 4 and a 3rd bottom one all came in at the same time) and is enjoying finger foods more, especially Cheerios and canned green beans. Some of his other favorite foods are bananas, plain yogurt, blueberries, peas, black beans, applesauce, and chicken. We've discovered he does not like cottage cheese or pumpkin, but otherwise he's not too picky.  He's drinking all formula now and has even started using a soft-top sippy cup.

He has an easy laugh and is ticklish on this feet, legs, and tummy. He also loves when you hide around the corner and jump out at him.

Besides laughing, most of his sounds are either babble or lion roars. He can sometimes roar on cue and will also roar at little animals if he's playing with them or randomly in the carseat. He hasn't made any distinguishable "mama" or "dada" in reference to us yet, but it seems like it will be soon.

Cohen likes to clap and will clap and dance when music comes on. He can also do "So Big" and wave bye-bye or hello. He loves when we do patty-cake, especially the rolling part.

Other favorite things are watching Ryan, having someone chase him down the hall, trying to get into Nika's dogfood or the piano cabinet, pulling himself up to play piano, and sitting on a cardboard box that holds his Color-pillar toys.

He is getting better at sleeping through the night, waking up to cry a few times, but usually either going back down himself or with just a little soothing by rubbing his back. He doesn't often fall alseep in my arms anymore, but it's pretty fun to cuddle when he does.

Cohen seems to have grown up so fast recently going from sitting and being spoon-fed to crawling/pulling up and feeding himself. We love watching him learn and grow each day!