It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Before I get started with my post, I need to say "Thanks Dad and Carol for Brooke's cute outfit!"
Snuggling with dad before bed:
It's really windy here. Dried up leaves are blowing across the yard and across the road, tree branches are shaking as if waving hello, it's overcast...ahhh... the perfect Halloween atmosphere!
I don't know why I love this holiday so much, but I do. We finally decided to carve our pumpkin last night and of course Brooke had to be dressed appropriately to do so:
The only way to carve a pumpkin is with a jig saw! It cut our carving time in half. Brooke was scared of it though and clung to me the whole time it was on. (sorry this picture is blurry)I love this picture, even though her eyes are closed. Brooke sat in her high chair while we cleaned & carved the pumpkin just watching us with this very interested look on her face.The finished product:
Introducing our Little Miss Lady Bug:
Attempting to eat the pumpkin:We went to a Halloween party last week where Brooke met another lady bug friend:
It was super warm that day, so Brooke isn't wearing her hat
They had a cute backdrop to take pictures, but all Brooke cared about was watching the older kids jump on the trampoline and trying to eat a leaf!

We have another Halloween party tonight for Blake's work where he and I are both going in costume and then the trunk or treat on Saturday! Happy Halloween Everyone!

So nothing really exciting or new has been happening in our lives. Just the same old stuff. Since it's disease-fest around here, I haven't taken Brooke to the Rec Center for a long time & we've been spending a lot of time indoors.

My visiting teachers brought me these cute pumpkins the other day. I thought it was a cute, easy gift idea
Blake went hunting last week and killed a deer. Nothing big as far as antlers go, but it's meat in the freezer. If deer/elk meat is marinated properly or hidden in fajitas or stew it's actually not bad.

Brooke and I went to a Halloween party on Wednesday (pictures to come). I had to bring a Halloween treat, so following my sister's wise advice I made Halloween themed cupcakes using a spice cake mix and cream cheese frosting with candy corn pumpkins on top (FYI: the Duncan Hines brand of cream cheese frosting is not nearly as good as the Pillsbury brand). I was at the store buying supplies and I thought I had white cupcake wrappers at home. Come to find out all I had at the house was 4th of July themed wrappers. Then, when I went to put them on a paper plate to take to the party all I had was Christmas themed paper plates. Oh well, I never said I was Martha Stewart.

Brooke has been doing some funny things lately. I got this Little People Playhouse, but figured Brooke was still too young to really play with it. I kept it in the closet with some other toys that are too big for her. One day she crawled over to it and realized there is a button you can push that makes a dog barking sound. She loves to push the button over and over. Finally I got it out of the closet for her to play with. But what really captures her attention is finding a piece of lint or stray hair on the carpet. She will roll over onto her back and hold up her hand so she can see it and just stare at it for the longest time.
Usually I can put her in her room and it's big enough for her to play with her toys and crawl around in. I love that her room is the only room in the house where I don't have to worry about what she'll get into--everything is baby safe for her. Well now Brooke has decided to make her escape...This is not a very exciting post, but things have been pretty low-key around here!

Here's to the little things...

A series of random occurrences has made me appreciate the little things in life:

1. I wrote a few months ago about how our library's drop box is only open after the library closes at 9p.m. Who drops off library books that late? This made me very annoyed because if I didn't need to use the library, just drop off books, I had to park, get Brooke out of the car, shuffle through the door with her in tow all for the 3 seconds it takes to lay my things on the "return counter". Anywho, I went to the library today and on their drop box was a sign that said "open all day" YAY!

2. Similar to #1 a Redbox is going in at a gas station near our house which makes me extremely happy because all the other redboxes are far away and inside a store.

3. I made brownies & double frosted them with a layer of peanut butter and then chocolate. I went to eat one and it was stuck to the inside of the pan. I was so mad, but then realized the rest of the pan was okay. I must've just forgotten to spray that one corner.

4. Brooke's flu shot came in 2 doses. One last month and one this month. The nurse told me I didn't need an appt. and just to stop by sometime in October. I went to the clinic today and saw on the door that they are all out of flu shots. Again, I was pretty ticked off. I go to the counter just to make sure and they had just gotten a new shippment so Brooke is all vaccinated, making me so relieved!

These seemingly small things have made a very big impact on my day.