November Festivities

So a couple of pics in this post are out of order, but blogger is just not that user-friendly sometimes and is not letting me move them around. Grrr. Oh well, I'm surely not going to start over. :)
Brighton LOVES her Aunt Lexi (so do we) and it has been so fun having her close by. We can't wait to play with her some more next week!

As you can see, the festivities of the last few weeks have worn these two out. November started off with a bang. I had H1N1 followed by ear surgery for Don. Lovely. The rest of the month though, has been busy and fun. Bren, Meg, Ellie, & Cam are staying here for a few weeks and it has been so fun to have them here. Brighton is in heaven having her cousin Ellie to play with at all times of the day. We even had them sleeping in the same room for a few days. They thought it was the greatest thing in the world, but as you can imagine, sleeping was not on their agenda. Lots of giggling, dressing up, and reading each other books though. It was cute so we hated to break up the sleepover fun, but we all prefer non-cranky 3 year olds during the day so Ellie got moved to the playroom. Sorry girls.

Ralf and Nita came up for Thanksgiving and Lex drove up from Corvallis so we had a pretty full house for Turkey day. We had delicious food and it was great to spend time with everyone. We have so much to be thankful for. I took a whopping two pictures on Thanksgiving so I'll have to steal Lex's pics and add them later.

We also celebrated Ellie's birthday while she was here. She is such a little cutie and like I said before, Bri loves her playmate. It is so fun to have them together. Their conversations are classic and for the most part, they play really well together.

So we are all about getting Christmasy the second Thanksgiving is over. We have gone to the same place the last few years to cut down our tree. It's fun. They have treats, llamas, and trees. What more could you ask for? We ended up getting two trees this year. They are all decorated and Christmas music is blasting and will be until New Year's. I love this season!

Halloween 09!

We had a great Halloween this year! Brighotn has been so excited about it for so long! This week was filled with Halloween parties, crafts, pumpkins, and treats. Oh the fun. Bri was Snow White this year. Last year she was Cinderella. I wonder if we will just cycle through all of the princesses.

Brighton had a great time trick-or-treating and got plenty of candy. Good thing, because we got a million trick-or-treaters and ran out of candy so we started handing out Bri's candy. We gave away about half of it along with a box of fruit snacks we had in the pantry before Don made it back from the store with more. Of course, as soon has he got back, the trick-or-treat traffic slowed WAY down. Bri loved handing out candy! She might have even liked it more than the trick-or-treating. She may not have been so excited about it if she had realized she was giving away her own candy though. (Shh, don't tell).

(70's detective, if you were wondering)

Did you know Snow white carried a magic wand? Well she does.

Alexis came for the weekend and helped out with our pumpkin carving. She carved the two on the right. I'm sure you can tell what they all are, but in case you can't...from left to right: The Joker, a cat, turned owl, turned raccoon, Bella & Edward, and Snow White.

Pumpkin Patching

We had lots of fun picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch the other day. I think Brighton would have run around in the pumpkins all day if we would have let her. Such a great time of year. I love the leaves changing and the crisp air and the and sweaters and Halloween and carmel apple cider and pumpkins and the pumpkin spice candles I always feel the need to burn this time of year and pumpkin pie. Mmmm. I love the fall!

Brighton Lily

We got Brighton's pictures taken at Eric Cable Photograpy and he was so great! He talked to her about princesses and ballerinas the whole time and captured her so well. We love these pictures!

Welcome to Oregon Lex!

So my sister Alexis is starting her PhD this fall at Oregon State. Woo-hoo! That means she will just be an hour and a half away for the next three years. We are so excited to have her so close! My parents drove up to help her move in so we got to spend a few days with them too. As always, it was so great to see them!

We had fun at the Oregon State game (even though they lost) and Bri was a trooper (even though she's not much of a football fan).

Brighton LOVES her grandparents! She hasn't stopped talking about them since they left. Come back soon! We miss you!

My parents brought down my bike and Brighton thinks it is the greatest thing in the world that the grownups in her life can ride bikes with her now.

Lexi turned 26 yesterday! Brighton insisted the cake be orange (Lexi's favorite color), she also made her an orange card with orange stickers, picked out these lovely birthday hats, which have an orange stripe on them, and some balloons (she made sure a couple of them had orange on them as well). She's also been talking about an orangey, sparkly, fancy dress that she was going give Lex for quite some time. For those of you who know my sister, you know she is really into sparkly things...and fancy dresses. We never did find the perfect sparkly orange dress. Sorry to disappoint Lex. Maybe next year.

As soon as one person's birthday ends, Brighton asks whose is next and begins the party planning immediately. She has been pumped for Lex's orange themed b-day since Don's Spiderman party was over a month ago. This girl LOVES birthdays! So if anyone needs a good party planner, you know who to call.