Happy Halloween!

What a great time! Patrick was a John Deere farmer and Lucy was a pumpkin. Actually, if you ask Patrick, he will tell you he was dressed as "Bill' because that is the name of one of the old farmers on his John Deere DVD. We trick or treated to a couple of our neighbors and then headed over to Oakfield subdivision to meet up with Rudolphs and Hills. Lucas was a pirate, and a very cute one at that! Patrick quickly caught on to the concept of the occasion and was excitedly running up to each stoop, ringing the bell, and raking in the loot. He actually did better than we expected, being okay with not immediately unwrapping everything that landed in his pumpkin bucket. Lucy thought it was less fun, but did enjoy a fruit roll up and some teddy grahams. Off to Grandma's was a brief, final visit and then on home. Check out the slide show for more great pictures. Oh, and I included a picture of Patrick from last year. Pumpkin look familiar?

There she goes!

Lucy finally decided she had had enough of waiting on everyone else to tote her around and retrieve items --she finally took off crawling at 10.5 months. Thank goodness! And I mean took off - what was just a foot or two yesterday was the length of the living room tonight. I shouldn't say she hasn't been moving, but it's been this army-crawling for the last 6 weeks. Today was her first significant length on all a 4's, true creeping. It's the PT in me, can't help it. She has discovered a whole new world and is delighting in destroying Patrick's train set and removing all the books from the lower shelves of the bookcase. Chloe the cat is realizing she has another small tornado to reckon with. I had to post this picture because it captures how proud she is -- it just so happened to be after a container of pudding for dessert and before bathtime!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids over to Maize Farm on Saturday to pick out another pumpkin. It was pretty fun and the day was beautiful! We took a tractor pulled wagon ride out to the patch and found the perfect one for carving! Patrick even buzzed thru the hay bale maze to ring the cow bell in the middle. Monday night we carved our pumpkin--as the stench of the "guts" filled the kitchen, Patrick creeped farther and farther away until he was all the way back against the cabinets. Our little guy has a very sensitive belly, as we have found out time and time again. More pictures to follow later in the week!

Halloween cupcakes

We picked out some Halloween sprinkles at the store yesterday in addition to frosting and cake mix and, as promised, Patrick started decorating the cupcakes I baked off after his nap. He had his own bowl of frosting and sprinkles and four of the twelve cupcakes. He thought he was BIG TIME. You will notice how little actual icing made it to the cupcakes, I think he was alternating between his mouth and the cupcake. Of course, he selected one of his masterpieces for Brian to eat after dinner. Yummy. We had a great time!

Little tomboy

Lucy is enjoying Patrick's latest addition to the construction crew as much as he does. I guess time will tell if our little girl will lean towards baby dolls or trucks :)

Fall Break in Indy

The kids and I headed up to Indy for the week while Brian was at some training in Las Vegas. It was pretty perfect -- Grammie was on break from school for several weeks, so we got to spend lots and lots of time with her and Papa and everyone else. We went to the Children's Museum, the park, the library, and even visited a turtle farm. We also visited Great-Grandpa McNulty. Patrick thought he was especially cool because he gave him several pieces of candy, a cookie, and his "own" can of soda. And he got to unlock Grandpa's door by himself. The kids loved spending time with their cousins, and we met Baby Shea for the first time, who is 5 weeks old. We think she's a keeper. Patrick learned to pedal a tricycle (hmmm, Santa?) and Lucy is getting more and more mobile every day. She is pulling up to stand by herself finally, moving from belly to and from sit all the time, and army-crawling when she is really motivated. She is saying "cat" and "hi" (sometimes together) and learning how to hand over a toy when asked if you can play with it/have a taste of it. And the hair -- red and getting longer and curlier. What a fun, fun week!! Oh, and Daddy had a good time, too :)

Sweet Baby Girl

Lucy has now learned that she can use her legs to propel herself forward, so it won't be long now before she is in a full crawl. You can see her 2 bottom teeth pretty well in this picture, and we think her top two are cutting through. In addition to waving and clapping, she will give sloppy open mouth kisses and say "meow" sometimes when you ask her about the kitty cat. I am pretty sure she says "duck duck duck" in the bathtub when she is playing, too. She has long outgrown her infant carseat, loving the more upright view of Patrick hamming it up next to her. Pure entertainment. And we have moved over to the big girl high chair, storing the old monster away (thank the Lord, I hated that thing). This little girl will eat anything and everything, and a ton of it at that. Taco meat, spaghetti, pizza, PBandJ -- she'll belly up to the table with the best of ya! :) About 10 more weeks and our baby will be celebrating her first birthday!