First Halloween

While I would love to write that I was a super prepared and have 100s of pictures of Ellie Jo's first Halloween.... I cannot. I have been so exhausted this past week, trying to get everything done. I'm counting it a blessing, because big things are happening in our lives, but I was also very grateful for 2 full nights' rest this week. (Not Elizabeth's fault; we just get to bed super late when we're working on the house!)

Yesterday (Halloween), I was at work for most of the day, as it was my boss's birthday and Halloween. It's a huge celebration day! We had a breakfast banquet for her, and then an Open House in our department. (I missed out on the Logistics Open House this year, which was sad!) At 11:45, my awesome mother-in-law brought Ellie Jo in her pumpkin costume to join in the festivities! (She has those pictures, I will post them later!) We did a costume parade in the Student Union, along with 500ish other people! It was crazy! Elizabeth did so well! No tears, no fussing. I can't tell you how many people snapped photos of her, undoubtedly to Instagram the cuteness. Glad that kind of thing doesn't bother me very much, it was kind of funny!

I ended up leaving with Leah after the parade, because my office was being used by other people, so I decided to come home.We stopped at Great-Grandma Crombie's for a surprise trick-or-treat!

Great-Grandma was thrilled!

Ellie Jo was happy, too!

"Look, Great-Grandma! I have feet!"

"Great-Grandma hold me, and I
hold my feet! Hehe!"

Great-Grandma snuggles :)

Such a happy baby! :)

Happy Great-Grandma, happy Ellie Jo!

I went out to the car to get Elizabeth's
diaper bag, and saw a huge figure
crossing the driveway. I came in and
said, "Did you guys see the huge deer?!"
Right when I said that, a young buck
came down the driveway!

Poor lost baby!

He had some little horns!

Bye-bye, Mr. Deer! (He walked through
Aunt Kathy & Uncle Kelly's yard after
this picture was taken!)

After our visit, Leah and I packed up Ellie Jo, and then we dropped off Grandma. Ellie and I went straight home.

I carried everything in, put it all away, and came upstairs to change into some comfy clothes. I brought Elizabeth up, and nursed her. I started my nursing app on my phone, and laid my head back on my pillows. I picked my head back up to see that I had been nursing her for 55 minutes! WHOOPS! She was still nursing! Didn't seem to bother her, lol. So I pulled her off, burped her, and laid her next to me.

I slept another hour.

When I finally woke up, we went downstairs to find my stepdad home. He didn't even think we were here, because we were so quiet! Crazy!

Anyway, after that, Robert came home and we loaded up to go to his parents' house for the Halloween party. Elizabeth had fallen asleep in the car, so we let her rest until she woke up.... at 8:00!

Baby got sweet potatoes for dinner!

She loves sweet potatoes!

We stayed until 9:00ish, and then drove a mile or so away to trick-or-treat at my Auntie's house. I had called ahead to let her know, so she put Jullian back in his costume!

Here are the kiddos, a bumblebee and a pumpkin!

They sort of tolerated us taking pictures.

The laughing pumpkin!

Sort of holding hands

Pretty cute!

We did not get a family picture, mostly because we were so busy doing other stuff! Robert and his dad went to our house to attempt finishing up the baseboards - not easy with 0 workspace now, as our storage unit has been unloaded into our garage, due to the $200+ rent on it! We weren't going to keep it more than a couple months while we have been at my parents, anyway, but still! It has made me decide that I will be doing some major purging every week as soon as we get settled.

We have made some more progress on Elizabeth's tree! Ashley and I have learned that we really cannot do it all at once, or even a lot at a time. We aren't artists, and although I did attend private art school and enjoy creating and painting, we just really underestimated how much time and car is needed for this kind of project. It's not a bad thing at all, we're just changing our plan a bit. We're working on it slowly, a little bit more every day that we can. Sometimes, we can't work for more than an hour. Sometimes, we get 3-5 hours in on it. But it requires so much concentration! We want it to be very special for precious Elizabeth!

Anyway, we're heading to the house to do a lot of work this weekend, including having a dryer vent installed! The previous owners did not have one, so we are going to have to get that taken care of before we move in. Thank goodness we have had an expert for every step of the way - including the dryer vent. Our friend, Vance, is coming up tomorrow to take care of that for us.

I promise to continue posting pictures!