Halloween Happiness

Hello, daily readers. Here I am, 3 days in, and still feeling good about blogging daily. It's been fun! I have to confess, I did most of the work for this one ahead of time since it's a LONG post. Here are all the pictures from our Halloween festivities, which spanned almost a week.
First up is me with a Kate Gosselin wig at my book club. Savannah came along, too, in her Tootsie Roll finery to join me and my cute friends, who were the witches from Hocus Pokus, A 40's pin-up gal, and Strawberry Shortcake.

Mid-week was one of my favorite times at my mom's club. Every year we dress up all the kiddos and it's a hectic, loud, but fun group. Here is Savannah as the Tootsie Roll, Nathaniel as a football player, and Wyatt the scarecrow.

Here is Sydney as the Duck cheerleader with Madison and some of the older kids.

Here is Melissa trying to wrangle the twins and their buddy Kelton into a picture, but this was about as good as it got! I think this is a fairly accurate visual description of how Melissa spends most of her days.

So Savannah's Tootsie Roll costume, while cute, wasn't very practical and couldn't be worn in the carseat, so she had this little pumpkin costume, too. Love that gummy little smile!


So towards the end of the week (we're not even to Halloween weekend yet) we took the girls to Chris' office, where they had games and trick or treating. Nike is a fun place to work. It's not uncommon to see people playing a game of soccer on the field, or running the track during their lunch, but this was a first for me...

Creepy, huh? I thought this one was even creepier...

Looks like a tragedy, huh? I half expected Gil Grissom or Leutenant Dan to come busting in and declare the area a crime scene. Anyhoo, as we were trick or treating at the offices, we ran across a worker dressed as a U of O foootball player and she wanted a picture with our little cheerleader.

Ok, so now we're up to Halloween day. I decided donuts were in order and this is what they gave us, aren't they cute?

And here is Miss Savannah in her costume...

And both of the girls together in their costumes...

And Sydney with her cheer sign. Part of the weekend was also spent watching our Ducks spank USC and make it to #1 in the BCS polls, which was very exciting!

We went to the church where Sydney goes to preschool for their activities. We saw this little beaver cheerleader there, too, and the lady who ran the event wanted a picture of the Duck and beaver cheerleaders together. Sydney, in true Duck pride, didn't want anything to do with the little beaver and the lady had to BRIBE her with ADDITIONAL candy to stand next to her for a picture! Everybody was laughing so hard! While I am certainly no beaver fan (shudder), that little girl was super cute.

This was one of the games at the church. They had made a "Goliath" and the kids threw balls at him to knock him over. So fun!

Sydney trick or treating at the church! She had so much fun.

Savannah had the important job of holding big sister's candy bucket during the games. I guess that's the extent of her trick or treating this year!

And finally to wrap up the night, Chris and Sydney went around our neighborhood while Savannah, my mom, and myself manned the door for trick or treaters.

What a fun week it was!

Don't Forget To Vote!

Happy Election Day, all y'all! The day we get to make a difference. A few weeks ago Chris and I busted out the ballots and the voters pamphlet to do our civic duty. Sydney really got into it, too. She got out a card and, after looking at her little "pamphlet," voted on her card, too. It was really cute, and it teaches her the important lesson that we can all make a difference.


And the best part is, win or lose, the political ad's on tv commercials are DONE!! WOO HOO!! We can all safely watch tv again, at least until next year.

Matching Shirts!

Welcome to my first day of daily blogging for the month of November! Today I will start with some cute pictures of Sydney and Savannah. Because of the difference in their ages, it's not often I can find matching clothes for them. I did manage to find little matching halloween shirts this year. They say, "I'm so cute it's scary!"

Aw, so cute :)

NaBloPoMo

November is National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo for short. A few years ago, or maybe it was last year (?), my friend Jill blogged every day for the entire month of November. It was really fun to read her daily posts, so I have decided to try my hand at marathon blogging, as well. I am going to do a blog post every day for the month of November, unless something really out of the ordinary happens, like a power outage or something like that. I'm really excited about it! I'm going to post some recipes, introduce you all to some of my friends, and of course, post more cute pictures of my cute girls. Stay tuned!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last week Melissa and I went with Sydney and Madison on their first ever field trip to the pumpkin patch. They had so much fun, and so did we! The girls were so grown up, hard to imagine it's the first of many field trips we will go on over the years! I know I haven't done a slide show in a while, they can be a pain to look at, but there were too many pictures for a single post. It runs through pretty quickly.

What A Team

So last week I was sitting on the couch nursing Savannah, which is how I spend a lot of my time these days, and my mom was sitting in the recliner reading the paper. Chris and Sydney had gone outside to play, Sydney still in her pajamas (insert me mentally shaking my head at my husband for taking her outside in pj's). All of a sudden my mom starts laughing so hard and jumps up for the camera. This is what we saw out the window...


Apparentely Sydney didn't want to ride her bike anymore, but she wanted to push Chris on it! What a good daddy!

Love, From Betsy

This is my best friend Melissa. Isn't she cute? I don't even know which one of her twins that is, aren't I a horrible friend? To be fair, I can usually tell them apart when they are together, but with just one like this, there's no way. I'll wager a guess that it's Mason. Anyway, today is Melissa's birthday and I wanted to come on here and brag on her a little bit. I think she's pretty awesome. Have you checked out her blog on the right hand side of my page? She is the proud owner of 5M Creations, where she makes cards, birthday banners, cupcake decorators, and much more. She is my party friend, the two of us together can come up with some pretty great themes and party ideas. Someday when our 5 combined children are in school, we may go into business together. I still can't believe we have 5 children between the 2 of us, it seems like just yesterday we were in high school, wearing our matching Gap shirts and jeans, and dreaming of when we would be older and married with children. I'm so proud of her for all she's done, and I am so thankful for her in many ways. She truly knows my heart and can read me better than anyone, which is the sign of a true best friend and someone who has been around in your life for a long time. She is my true bestie, aka best friend. When we first started using the title bestie, she was in the hospital on bed rest with the twins and I sent flowers. I wanted the card to say, "Love from your besty" but they wrote "Love from your Betsy." So we had to change the spelling. Now our girls call each other besties! Melissa, from your bestie Betsy, I wish you the happiest of happy birthdays today. You enrich my life and others everyday. You're a wonderful mother, wife, daughter, sister, and to me, a fabulous bestie friend.

Savannah's Baby Dedication

Last night at church we had Savannah's baby dedication. Our church doesn't do infant baptism or christening, but we do believe in dedication. It's basically saying that as parents, Chris and I promise to raise our children in the faith and according to God's will as best we can, and that the church members promise to help up and to surround our children with love and help steer them towards a life of faith, too. It seems like it was just yesterday when we dedicated Sydney and Madison together, and now it's Savannah's turn.

So I LOVE this dress. It was a bit of a splurge, but I don't feel bad about it because she wears a lot of hand-me-downs and it was a special occasion. It will also be worn for 3 month pictures, which are coming right up, and for Christmas. And speaking of hand-me-downs, these little ballet slippers were worn by Sydney at her dedication, too, and I just love them! I'm so glad I get to use them again!


Here we are up on the stage while the pastor prayed for us. As I was looking out over the congregation, I just felt so thankful for our church family. Each of my parents, my sister, some extended family, and friends were all there, plus our church family. I'm so thankful to have been raised in the church and to pass it on to my girls, too.



After the dedication, I went back to the mom's room to change Savannah into something more comfortable, but Melissa came with me and snapped a few of these before we changed her! When our older girls were dedicated, we went to the mom's room together and got some really cute photos of them, and they are some of my favorite pictures to this today. When I went back there last night I was thinking how bummed I was to not have my camera (Melissa had it to take pics during the service) and I couldn't take more pictures of Savannah. Then, Melissa, having snuck out of the sanctuary, showed up with the camera so I could take more photos! She is a true bestie, she knew without me even saying what I had wanted and how sad I would have been to not get some more photos.

Our Little Pumpkins

Today was one of those beautiful Oregon fall days. It's freezing cold but nice and clear, which makes it a perfect day for the pumpkin patch! We went to Roloff Farms, where they film the show Little People Big World because it's less than 5 miles from our house and it's a pretty neat place. They have a petting zoo, a hay pyramid to climb on, a tour of the farm, a place to eat (where they have elephant ears the size of a pizza), and of course, the pumpkins. We really like the pumpkins there because they cut them and take them to a field, so it's not all muddy and you don't have to fight the pumpkin vines. Sydney of course had a blast and it was so much fun to take Savannah for the first time.


Savannah all wrapped up in her baby carrier.


Some pretty amazing carved pumpkins.


Some family shots...





Both of the girls in the little wagon.

It was such a fun day, we got a pumpkin for all of us and one for my sister who is away at school. I love this time of year, and I love baking with pumpkin. I've made quite a few pumpkin desserts and breads and this year, and can't wait to make some more!

Scootin' Along

My mom got Sydney the cutest little scooter. Unfortunately, Sydney isn't the bravest of souls and was a little freaked out by the idea of pushing herself along, so Chris stepped in and pushed her around on it for a while. We'll keep trying, I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon!


Love this action shot!



Meanwhile, this is Savannah watching her big sister ride around on her new scooter. She's probably thinking, "I don't know what she's so scared of, it looks like fun!"

Thanks, Carye!

My aunt Carye bought Savannah the most adorable shirts and shoes with lots of bling on them, and we love bling! Here she is modeling one of the shirts that has her name in rhinestones, along with a cute hair flower.



I love this one, doesn't it look like she's holding the camera and taking a self-portrait?

What's For Dinner?

Last week Savannah was really fussy at dinner time and no matter what Chris did, she just wouldn't settle down. We were trying to eat dinner, of course, and she just wasn't having it. Finally Chris just laid her down on the table and she perked right up!

A 3 Year Old's Style

Last week Sydney and I needed some serious one-on-one time, so we decided to take a walk, and this is what she wore...

Oh yes, we have entered the season of life of crazy 3 year old fashions. Purple nail polish, bright colors, and princess dresses are all the rage right now in Sydney's little world. I didn't mind, though, isn't she cute?

2 Months Today

Today sweet Savannah Faith is 2 months old! I don't have stats on weight, length, etc, but her 2 month appointment is next week so I'll have some then. I really can't believe it's been 2 months already since she was born. The first month seemed really long, but this second month has flown by. We love her to pieces and are enjoying her so much!