Harvest Festival

On October 31st, commonly known as Halloween, my friend Shannon invited us to join them at their church for a Harvest Festival, in place of the normal Halloween trick-or-treating. I was thrilled for the idea, being I'm not so into the actual holiday since having kids and researching it's background. Kent wasn't going to make it home in time, so us ladies just took the kids. It was freezing cold and got dark in a hurry! But the toddlers enjoyed playing some games and getting candy. Naturally.

 Miss blue eyes loves being worn in the front pack.

Jaxon Willard and Shayla Jade

Baby Rhianna Alexis

 First things, first! Climbing the straw bale pyramid

 Quickly made his way to the top!

 Waiting to see if Shayla was going to join him...

 She wasn't coming, and then a guy randomly dropped a big scoop full of candy on the lower bales, then she came running ;) Jaxon was funny and didn't just take any ol' piece he saw, he made sure it was a kind he liked!

 You can see with his once piece and her bag full, who gets candy often and who doesn't :P Shayla didn't care a bit what kind it was!

 Begging them to pay attention and smile..I asked for them to show me their teeth. Shayla gladly pointed to hers :)

 And on to the games. Jaxon was pumped to get to use a 'shoot gun'. If they hit the target they got more candy than if they didn't. Of course he had to hit it!

 This was just a bunch of straw spread out with candy mixed in. Once again he was being picky, but did get a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup for his Dad!

 It had been advertised that there would be a bbq there, so we went hungry of course, but something fell through. We had to hit McD's drive thru on the way home! I was amazed at all the parking lots having trick-or-treating things set up sponsored by radio stations and such. Better than most neighborhoods these days!

 And I purchased myself a caramel apple for 25 or 50 cents, now I can't remember for sure!

Snickerdoodles

Last Friday I was in the cookie making mood, and snicker doodles just sounded like a good choice. Well, soft snicker doodles were my plan, but that deemed to be harder than I thought.

Jaxon is always wanting to get his hands into what I'm doing in the kitchen. This wild rice and popcorn seed mixture, a few kitchen tools and some monster trucks kept him busy for much longer than necessary.

 He can be a picky kind, so I was pleasantly surprised when he enjoyed them so well.

And sister was no longer content with her saltine cracker and came begging for my sweet cookie! She knows whats best ;)

Little Sister is 10 Months old already!

Fresh evening air! 

 She pushes this activity table across the kitchen while she walks behind it. Kind of looks like a little old lady using a walker :)

(Kaia-noticing it's normal for her to have one sock on, one sock off?)

 "Hi Sister!"

Check out that wild hair!

She ended up having her 9 month well check up a few days after she turned 10 months..oops! When leaving her 6 month and Jaxons 3 year check up I was just ready to get out of the place and didn't take the time to schedule her next appt. and then forgot to call until it was getting too late. Not that it really matters, they adjust all the stats to their actual age anyway.

20lbs~60th percentile

28 inches~50th percentile

She waves at anyone who will give her a glance. Crawls and pulls up to stand at almost everything. Jabbers, dadada, ahhhh, and many other noises besides mamama! Loves bath time-if she hears the water going she can move quite fast, yesterday she pretty much did a burn out coming around the bathroom door :) Despite her obnoxious seeming to never end teething, she loves to play with toys and is often found in her brothers bedroom emptying baskets of toys, or underwear.

pumpkins and apples

Kent carved Hayden's pumpkin and I did Jaxon's. We're so creative, right? :)

J still wanted to sing happy birthday to the pumpkin like last year, and when I wasn't sure if we had any candles he was sure to remind me that I had mentioned earlier maybe there was some in the attic.

I like how H looks as if she's considering eating the pumpkin and J is making sure to hold on to her.

 Testing out some fresh apple cider from Grandma and Grandpa Rhoades.

Daddy giving lessons on how to core/peel/slice apples for dehydrating..

Even if he wasn't watching, he did a pretty good job!

 And this is how I make my way around the kitchen lately..with a couple extra legs :)

Love

Just barely enough hair to hold a snap clip! Oh. So. Cute!

Sick with a puke bug Monday last week :( That was not fun to witness, poor baby girl!

Oh the love!

Last Monday (same day Hayden was sick) Kent took Jaxon with him to the grandparents for two days and a night. Upon their return, all he cared about was seeing his sister. He asked if he could hold her and ran straight to the couch. I could tell she was missing him on Tuesday, too. I must be boring :)