Trick-or-treat!

Question: What's black, white and read all over?
Answer: A newspaper!

That's Jasper P's joke this year for trick-or-treating, and he told it pretty well. Well enough to earn a bucketful of candy from the neighbors. (Most threw in an extra piece for Miss Avery, but I imagine J will end up eating it if he hasn't already.)

Natalie's suggestion:

Q: How do you make a kleenex dance?
A: Put a little boogie in it.

J, obviously, liked mine better. He also really liked handing out the candy.

Also in this post: A pic of Natalie and I all gussied up for Adam and Heidi Kline's annual Halloween party.

Family pics

With me normally doing the photography, we don't get a lot of family pics. Here's a few we took this week. (The one with Cozmo isn't the best, but it's the best with him in it.)

Smiles

Avery was loving Halloween tonight, so I took advantage and snapped a couple of pics. So cute!

Jumping in the leaves

A quick video of Jasper jumping in the leaves today. So fun!

Altoona trick-or-treat

Altoona's business safe trick-or-treating event was last night.

Avery, as you can see, wore herself out being Tigger.

Jasper (Ironman), on the other hand, trick-or-treated for a while then spent the last hour handing out candy at my office.

He had a great time and he'd greet all the visitors by the name of their costume: 'Hi Spider Girl, want some candy?' Or 'Hey Spongebob.'

He also played some favoritism, blatantly giving more candy to the kids with costumes he liked, and being stingy otherwise.

Jasper the photog

Jasper likes to take photos with my camera. Here's one he took of Avery in the backseat of our car last night.

Bathtime - Naked Fun!

Just a few shots of naked Avery before bath! And her all warm and snuggled after a nice, relaxing bath.

Carving Pumpkins

We had quite the adventure carving pumpkins. Poor daddy had a cold so he just helped for a little bit and went back inside to take a nap, which is where Avery was at, too, as she also had a cold. So, it was just Jasper and I left to carve our family pumpkins. We had a fun time and we finished 3 pumpkins before someone got bored and wanted to play in his sandbox. We even carved Avery's for her. It has an "A" carved in it for her name. I kind of messed it up, so we have a toothpick holding a portion of the "A" so it does indeed look like that letter, and then Jasper wanted to decorate it even more by putting scotch tape all over the stem...hope she likes her first pumpkin, unique just for her :) We do have the final pumpkins glowing on our step as I write this, so I will take a picture and post the final ones soon.

Jeggings

Here is Miss Avery rocking her first pair of "jeggings" - an outfit that was a gift from the Hulse family. She's so styling...and in the second picture she was trying to eat them.

Umm...who is that boy?

So, Daddy decided to give Jasper a haircut...I mean buzz. It looks good, it just took me a second (ok, quite a while) to get used to him having short hair. It seriously makes him look like he's so much older! No matter what he's my little man and he's always cute - but I do miss his luscious locks! We need to get a better picture of the "after buzz" but this gives you an idea. He looks afraid in this picture, but he loves his new hair-do. Daddy says he's not sure if he wants to cut his hair again :)

Maternity Leave with My Little Girl

I knew the time would come that my 8 weeks of blissful maternity leave would come to an end. And when I say blissful, I truly mean it. Avery is such a great baby. She only fusses when she's hungry or tired. We usually started our day out with taking a walk around the neighborhood - she would fall asleep and I would take in the awesome August weather. We even met the stay-at-home mom neighbor that we've never actually met before, even though we've lived here for 6 years! We would then have some lunch, do some stuff around the house, and end the afternoon with hanging out in the hammock under the shade tree...which usually led to a little cat nap. I would also like to turn on the radio and dance with her as we listened to Oldies 93.3. Our afternoon ended as we ventured out to pick up our favorite brother and hang out until Daddy got home.

I was a little nervous not knowing what to expect having a second child. They say you love both kids equally and it's so true. I had so much love for Avery when I first saw her, just as much as I had for Jasper when he was born. I really hope we can teach them to grow up loving one another and caring for each other. I'm sure there will be many times they'll fight and do what brothers and sister's do, but they'll always know they have each other's back :)

I feel so blessed to have Avery in our lives. I feel so lucky to have a little girl. I want her to grow up and be passionate about life and the career she chooses for herself, to appreciate family, help others less fortunate, be thankful for all that God has given her, and to not be afraid to choose her own path. I look forward to having girl talks and celebrating the good times with her and being a support system for when times aren't so good. I love Avery so much and I couldn't ask for a better little girl to share these past 8 weeks with. Love, Mommy

More of the Pumpkin Patch

We took some time to get shots of the kiddos and our families. Mommy forgot a hat for the little girl so she borrowed mine on the hayrack ride to get the pumpkins! And Aunt Melissa posed her with her very own little pumpkins for a cute shot. She had a great time at her very first Pumpkin Patch.

It's Pumpkin Patch Time!

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch in Mitchellville. The kids love the "hay jump" in the barn, the sandbox filled with corn, and the animals and train made out of hay bales that you can run and jump on.

2 Month Shots

Well, it's that time - time to start the dreaded shots! Avery had her 2 month check-up in October and got 3 pokes, plus the influenza vaccine by mouth. Poor girl. She was so happy go-lucky and having a great appointment. She had no idea what was about to happen when those two nurses came in and mommy was holding her arms down. She screamed rather loud and cried so hard - I felt so bad for her! Jasper was with me and I warned him that Sissy would be getting a poke and she might get upset...he held onto my leg the whole time and afterwards said, "Mom, I didn't like that at all!" Luckily, a few hours later, it was all overwith and she was her happy self again. She weighed a whopping 12 lbs. 6 oz - she's a good growing girl!

Who Loves the Boppy?

So, this is seriously how Adam fell asleep one night - in Avery's boppy...yes, that is our daddy - a little odd :) Actually, he likes to put it on his head and chase Jasper with the "boppy head" and I think it was comfortable so he just kept it on...yes, again, odd - but we love him!

Just hangin' out

A quick video of Avery sitting up (with help from the boppy) watching the Iowa football game with us while Jasper is at Grandma Vicki's.

Sleepy kids

Cousin Erin Wilson married Jesse Hunsaker on 9/10/11. It was a wonderful ceremony, very enjoyable. But the kids still couldn't stay away through the whole thing.

Cuddle Time

Just a cuddling photo after a night of all 4 of us taking a walk to the park near our house and playing until it got dark. These are the best nights.

First Day at Issa's Daycare

Monday, Oct. 3 marked the first day at Issa's Daycare and the last day of my maternity leave. It was such a wonderful 8 weeks. I'm going to get just a picture of the girl and I and write a seperate "maternity leave" post, like I did with Jman...so I'll get to that soon. But here are a few pictures of us dropping both kiddos off. We are so fortunate to have found Issa. Jasper has had a wonderful 3 1/2 years there and we know Avery will have just as fun. It's amazing home times change - none of the kids that were there when Jasper started are still there - they've all grown up and gone to school or moved, etc. At Issa's now, are his best girl buds - Quinn and Delaney McMurray, Titan, Jill, and sometimes Leo and Xavier.

The first week has gone great so far! And Issa said that when Avery cried, Jasper would say, "I think she misses my mommy." After we pick him up, Jasper will usually tell us if she cried that day or that his sister isn't old enough to do crafts or eat lunch with them. He also throws in there that Issa said, "I was a dood (good) boy." He has also told us what happens with some of the other kids ("Guess what mom and dad - Jill pottied in Issa's bed AND in the hallway.") That is his latest story.

Each morning, the kids usually huddle around Avery when we drop her off and rock her carseat. Delaney usually wrestles with Adam and Quinn makes sure Avery has her blanket and is ok. Titan does his own thing, but always has this huge smile on his face! And speaking of smile, when we were leaving Avery the first day, Issa was holding her in her arms and Avery had the biggest grin on her face just looking at Issa - that was definitely the best picture to leave, too - knowing that her and Jasper are in good hands while mommy and daddy work is so important to us!

Living Mystery Farms

We ventured out to Living History Farms (a.k.a. Living Mystery Farms or History Farms - the two names Jasper called it) with Hank, Melissa, Ava, and Claire Norem and Zach, Sarah, and Katie Allison. We had such a great time and the weather was just beautiful. We got to visit the Flynn Estate, take a walk through the woods to different era farms, and visit the General Store where we got Sasparilla, gum drops, and rock candy! We even took a tractor ride and Jasper got to pick his own corn. We decided we need to make this a yearly trip! AND I think this is our first official family picture since Avery has been born. Jasper has not been into photos, so we got lucky today!