Happy Halloween!

Tonight we headed over to Mill Creek Town Center to start off our trick or treating. The businesses hand out some really good candy and it's fun to trick or treat in the daylight so you can check out the other kids' costumes. The most popular costume we saw this year was "Hannah Montana." And for the dogs...bumblebees. We saw several dogs wearing bumble bee costumes, it was funny.
We were hoping to meet up with Cole this year again like last year but we had to stick to a tight schedule and had to leave before they arrived. Papa was meeting us at home and we had a date with our neighbor Justin to trick or treat.

Sydney chose to be a doctor this year. She had her choice of Cinderella or a doctor and she wanted to be a doctor like Pop-o. She was so proud of her costume!
Dr. QT Patootie (that's what her jacket said.)


Mam-o dressed up as Sydney's patient. Only a few people actually got it...we think most thought she just looked a little strange. (She's wearing a hospital gown and check out that black eye.)
The weather was great! It rained nearly all day but stopped before we began trick or treating. My car registered 57 degrees on the way to the center.

Sydney was afraid of all these characters just six months ago at Disneyland. She loved them tonight. She even gave this squirrel a hug!
This pic is a bit washed out-but a photography studio takes pictures of the kids each year and posts them on their website to buy later. I snuck in a quick pic.
Our neighbor friend Justin and Sydney, getting ready to trick or treat around our neighborhood.
My dad came along with us since Nana is off to Mexico with the girls this week. Sydney loved having both Papa and Mam-o with her tonight.
Papa showing Sydney and Justin the neighbor's Halloween display.
The kids made it around the whole neighborhood tonight-all 49 houses! They were pretty tired by the end but Justin's lollipop gave him the energy he needed to make it through. The thought of all those M&M's waiting for Sydney at home kept her going. What a fun night! Thanks Papa and Mam-o for joining us!

Yee haw!

My little cowgirl-we found her cowboy hat so she jumped on her horse and gave me this pose...
Ride em cowgirl!

Welcome baby Brady!

Cole's little brother Brady arrived early this morning, two weeks early! We visited Brady and his mommy Kristin at the hospital today. He is sooo cute! Kristin had a really great delivery and is doing very well. Brady is spending most of his time sleeping, and he's nursing like a champ.

Here's the little man and his mommy...
Ahh, so cute!!!
Sydney fell in love with Brady and has been talking about him all day. She calls him her other little brother. She had to hold him twice at the hospital, great practice for when her little brother arrives. Boy, she is going to be such a great big sister!

Congratulations Mark, Kristin and Cole!

A couple funnies

Funny videos from the last couple of days....




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Pumpkin Patch with the kiddos

Yesterday we headed to the eastside to the South 47 Farm in Redmond. They have a program called "Farm Tots" where the kids do an activity (we made bees), get a hayride and get to pick a veggie. We picked out sugar pumpkins yesterday. They also have some animals you can pet and it's just a fun place for the kids to play. This is actually our third year in a row doing it, that's how much we enjoy it. We had another beautiful day yesterday! My car registered 64 degrees after we left. Is this really fall???

Pictures through the years...
October 2006 (Sydney at 13 months)

Kristin and Cole
Angie with Cordelia and Ivy
September 2007 (2 years old)

Oh how I miss Maddy's enthusiasm. She is such a character.
Samantha! I can't get over how short her hair was a year ago, it's so long now!
Picking beans
My all time fave picture of the girls-Syd and her bestest girlfriends
And this year...
Showing off the bees!
Sydney...or Samantha! I thought Sydney looked like Samantha here and when I showed Sydney this picture she said, "There's Samantha!"
Samantha...or is it Sydney?
Having fun on our hayride
Unfortunately there was a much needed potty stop right as the hay tractor was driving to pick us up so Lisa and the kids missed out on a hayride. Here we are driving by!
Searching for the perfect pumpkins...
Sydney found it!
The kids showing off the bestest pumpkins ever!
We tried getting a picture of the kids in front of the scarecrows, but 2 out of 3 (the two on the right) weren't too excited about those scarecrow dudes.
Jakey
Samantha saw me take a picture of her little bro and said she needed to be in the picture too. Silly kid.
Dane-check out those cheeks! I love them.
Ride em' cowgirl!
Cowgirl Samantha

Cowgirl Sydney
The top of the hay pyramid

My little Picasso

Yesterday we pulled out the paints and enjoyed some creative time in the O house. I will admit that we don't pull out the paints often. I am not a big fan of cleaning up what always seems to be such a big mess. After watching Sydney and how much joy those paints brought her-I am hooked. We will be painting a lot more often from now on. She absolutely loved it and she spent an hour and a half painting. It would have been longer if we didn't have to clean up for dinner. I have a feeling a trip to Michael's craft store will need to be in our immediate future.

One of her favorite things was mixing the paint. We watched an episode of Curious George the day before and it was on mixing paint to make different colors-so Sydney decided to see what colors she could make by mixing her paints. My Christmas colors weren't quite doing the trick though.

We also listened to special music while we painted. Reggae. Yup, apparently that gets my child in the painting mood. I started playing running music for her and daddy when they run around the family room each night before bedtime-80's music-and now we need to have special and different music for each event.

Here are the pictures...

Starting out by painting lines Adding some circles
Then we decided to do some hand prints
And then it all broke loose...
Tada!

What Sydney's been up to

Okay, well there's this. Sydney and Anthony partake in nightly acrobatic routines. I will admit I am a little nervous they'll be running off to join the circus soon.

A funny conversation with Sydney the other day...

Me: "Sydney, how come you are so cute? Where did you get it from?"
Sydney: "Mam-o and Pop-o!"

Today...

Me: "Sydney, how come you are so cute? Where did you get it from?"
Sydney: "Big Bird."

Sydney has also become the polite police. A few weeks back we were watching "What Not to Wear" and everyone on the show said, "Oh my God" like a zillion times. So of course Sydney picks it up and starts saying it. So not cute when your three year old is running around saying, "Oh my God." Nice. Although I admit, it could be way worse. Anyone been a passenger when I drive? So we've been working on saying, "Oh my gosh" instead which Sydney says, "Oh my josh." Now whenever we hear it, she corrects people. I was at Leiann's house and apparently I let an "OMG" slip and Sydney told me about it and corrected me. Later Leiann said, "Oh my gosh" and Sydney pointed out she said it correctly. We were watching another episode of "What Not to Wear" this week and they literally said this phrase 20 times. Sydney caught every single one, corrected them and told me, "You call them and tell them not to say that. They need to say, "oh my josh!"

One of my favorite things are her made up songs. Besides the fact that her little voice is so darling, she sings about everything from Dora to her friends to her family. It's adorable. I need to catch these on tape, but normally she clams up when she knows someone is listening.

She is still in love with her little brother. She loves to cuddle up to my belly, give my belly kisses and hugs and tell baby bro how much she loves him. I really hope this continues for like...ever. She asks him, "What are you doing in there brother?" And then he'll kick when her head is on my belly and she says, "He kicks my head to tell me hi." Let's hope that doesn't become a normal occurence later in life. I will admit there are two things that get him going-sweets and Sydney. Every time I eat something sweet or Sydney talks to him he moves around quite a bit.

And here are pictures of Sydney's new big girl room. Beverly was up last month and her and I worked on this room. I have to admit-I am in love. I actually want it to be my room. This used to be our guest room/my craft room so it was hard to say goodbye, but I know that any day now my wonderful husband will get his man room cleaned out to make our new office. Any day now...

Sydney's favorite part of this room is her playhouse. Her and her friends LOVE this thing. She even takes naps in here every once in a while.
My favorite bookcase ever, thanks to Mam-o and The Land of Nod. Toys in the bins and most her books fit into the bookshelves. Sydney LOVES her pictures. I think my next purchase for her room are more picture frames. She looks at her pictures daily. The playhouse is from Nana and Land of Nod from last Christmas, it was so exciting to finally hang this thing up!
We sponged the butterflies on both sides of the window as if they are flying out of the window. The corner bookshelf is one that I think all my friends and I bought back in the late 90's from Ikea, just recently painted. Funny how now they are all in our kid's rooms.
Sydney and her toddler bed and the Sydney letters that were most recently pink. I've been a painting machine lately.
Close up of the cute bedding. Notice how the polka dots all come together-the letters, the quilt and stuffed animal bin? So love that.
Storytime in the playhouse. Not sure why Anthony looks a bit frightened...