Halloween

Halloween this year was, well....Halloween. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a Cat in the Hat and Ducky having fun at parties all week long.

Lets get to the pictures.

The Cat in the Hatand Brynnie the Ducky. We have started a tradition of carving our pumpkins to match our costumes. I thought the kids' turned out pretty well (the duck was much cuter in person).

Mason loved to play "the pumpkin game" he made up where he took off all the lids and mixed them up while singing a little theme song he made up and then figure out which lid fit which pumpkin. It was a horrible day to have misplaced the Flip.

My parents had their annual Halloween dinner with the local grandkids.

Mason, Grandpa, Brynn, Chase, Grandma, Kennedy, Cannon. Grandma had lots of fun Halloween projects for the kids, but the favorite for all of them was the Halloween balloons that we played with all night long. The older kids would blow up their balloons then let them go and chase them as they blew around the room. Brynn preferred hers attached to a stick she could shake shake shake. (Don't mind the serious costume hair she's sporting). When the big night finally arrive it was pouring rain. Mason decided he didn't want to go trick-or-treating because "if I get candy I will have to go to the dentist". I have no idea where he heard that. Instead he just wanted to stay at Grandma Nancy's and help pass out candy. Fine by me. And what a fine job he did. Are we horrible for not forcing him to trick or treat in the pouring rain? It's about doing what makes him happy.

Hope you enjoyed Halloween as much as we did!

Blackmail Material

During an afternoon of dressing up in old costumes, Mason wanted to put on Brynn's ducky costume.

I told him it wouldn't fit.

What can I say, he proved me wrong. He disappeared downstairs for a while then reappeared announcing, "Mom, you were just teasing me. See, it does fit!"

I snapped this picture on my phone to send to Scott and then realized this could be valuable backmail material in teenage years, so I'm hanging on to this baby. It's too bad I didn't get a picture of his tush hanging out the other side.

Hats

People everywhere love Santa because every December 25th he comes and showers them with gifts, but what about the rest of the year? I don't know about you, but we've got the mailman. Mason thinks anything that comes in the mail is a gift from the mailman himself. So, sorry to anyone who has sent us a package, the mailman got credit for it. Sometimes when Mason wants something he says, "Maybe we can ask the mailman to bring it." Yesterday the mailman didn't disappoint us and delivered a box with these darling hats my friend, Hilary, made for Mason and Brynn. Hilary is one of those amazingly talented people who kindly shares her talent with others on her Etsy site. I'm completely in love with them and Mason thinks it's cool that his hat has a smoke stack on it for when he pretends to be a train out in the rain, so really it's a win-win situation.

Thanks mailman....I mean Hilary.

Earth to Mason

These days Mason spends most of his time in his own world. His imagination NEVER shuts off. He often transforms into a character and dedicates himself entirely to the role. If I accidental call him Mason he will either A) completely ignore me (this happens most of the time) or B) whisper, "Mom, call me Cat in the Hat" (or whoever else he is at the time) and wait until I correct myself to respond. He doesn't always become the character himself, sometimes he just enters their world. I overhear scenes like this frequently when he's playing with his toys:

Mason: Toothless, do you want to come have a sleepover at my house.

"Toothless": Let me ask my mom. Mom, can I sleep over at Mason's house.

She said yes.

Mason: Okay, come with me. Let's go fishing first. Do you like fish?

"Toothless": I love fish! ummmm, those are Deeeelicious

And on and on. Don't think that the rest of us get to be innocent bystanders, Mason assigns everyone down to Brynn a role and asks us to play along.

I, myself, am not a very creative person so I am very fascinated watching his creativity flow. I love this phase and always want to remember the hours we've spent playing Cat in the Hat with Mason as the Cat, me as Nick, and Brynn as Sally chasing Thing 1 and Thing 2 around the neighborhood and many other adventures.

Creditors

I try not to worry about what other people think of me and my family, but I feel a new vulnerability as I send Mason places like preschool, nursery, and friends' houses without me there to edit what comes out of his mouth. For example, often times in his imaginative play, Mason likes to pretend he's being chased by predators, only he pronounces it "creditors" (I think somewhere along the line he combined predators and critters). I can't help being a little embarrassed when we are in our front yard playing and Mason yells, "Mom...Hide...the creditors are coming!" I find myself desperately wanting to explain to my neighbor getting their mail that we are not in financial trouble and teaching our children to hide from the creditors. Since Mason uses that line multiple times a day I'm sure he has said it at preschool along with many other embarassing statements. Oh well, kids say the darndest things, right?

There She Is

I feel like most of my posts lately have revolved around Mason. This is in no way due to a shortage of material on Brynn, but more not knowing where to begin. So I figure I'll do a little (almost) 16-month-old post about Brynn. So here is a little bit about Brynn along with some cute pictures from the last month.Brynn continues to be a little monkey and keeps us on our toes with her ever growing capabilites. She no longer walks, but runs. No longer asked to be lifted up, just climbs. No longer crawls up and down stairs, but walks up and down them. She doesn't let anything stand in her way of reaching her target. I am so grateful she's short, because that is the only thing that holds her back at all, although she can now reach the front door handle and knows how to open it if it's unlocked, and yes she has already escaped several times...YIKES. While she's been busy mastering control of her body she hasn't been a huge talker. Her vocabulary has been adequate but not huge. About 3 weeks ago it was like a switch inside her flipped and now she is jabbering up a storm and constantly mimicking our words. She still has her favorite words we hear over and over including "Dink" (Binky), "Dat" (That) accompanied by a pointing finger, "Day Is" (There it is) when she finds what she wants, and of course "Ma" for her favorite person in the world...me. Every day she throws out several new words and every time Mason responds, "Mom, Brynn learned how to talk!". I blame some of her silence on her refusal to take her binky out. She almost always has a binky somewhere nearby if not in her mouth. I know, I'm a horrible mom, but you don't understand the crying and whining capabilites of this girl when she wants her binky and doesn't have it. And I'm not just talking about for a couple minutes. She will not forget about it until she gets what she wants. The binky keeps me sane and makes me enjoy my child more. I've decided I'll give her until 18 months and then I'm going to restrict the binky to the crib.

Brynn is 100% girl! I have always been sort of a tomboy so I was a little worried about raising a girl and at least giving her a chance at being girly. So far it just comes naturally to her. Brynn got another haircut a month ago and this time it was long enough to give her a real bob. It is so darling and the best part is she actually likes me to roundbrush it. When she gets out of the bathtub she runs downstairs to her saucer where I do her hair. She loves to help, too. She might grow up to be a girl who has a closet full of shoes. Immediately upon waking up in the morning and after naps she asks "Seuss" and finds a pair of shoes for me to put on her. I took her to payless and the girl was giddy as she ran around grabbing every pair of sparkly shoes she could reach and tried to put them on her feet. The only problem is my little one still wears size 3 which makes it very hard to find cute and sturdy shoes, not just wimpy infant shoes.

Brynn likes to sing songs with me and has started dancing with a big smile on her face when she hears music. This is uncharted territory for me because Mason always told me to "be quiet" or "stop that" mom when I try to sing songs with him. Since starting preschool, Mason loves to sing, too, and now we are a bunch of singing fools at our house. Brynn is absolutely and completely in love with animals. She knows the sounds of seriously every animal including fish and lizards and even if she doesn't know it she just makes it up. She can't pass a stuffed animal without picking it up and smothering it with loves as she makes its noises. Reading is a favorite activity and all her favorite books are animal books.

All in all, Brynnie is a very sweet girl who will always come running into my arms and let me snuggle her tight.

Double Whammy

Last week we got not one but two new cousins.
One is a Hale and one is a Murray, and I'm not just talking about their names.

We woke up Thursday morning to an unexpected text message that

Andrew Parker Hale

had arrived 2 weeks early.

And I don't think it was a minute too soon since he weighed a whopping 8 lbs 1 oz.

He made a liar out of his parents who had been telling Rachel Faye her baby brother was coming in October...oops.

Check out that hair. That's the Hale I'm talking about.

Introducing the new and improved Hale Family

Whitney, Rachel, Andrew, and Brandon.

After I heard about Andrew's birth I immediately thought about Lisa who was past her due date. I called to find the most upbeat and optimistic overdue pregnant women I've ever talked to... no surprise there. She told me it would be ideal if she had the baby Friday so Vance could have the whole weekend without having to worry about school. I should have known that any child of Vance and Lisa's would start obeying his parents before he was even born.

Lincoln Vance Murray

Arrived on Friday Oct. 1 just as his parents requested.

And there's the Murray I was talking about. And here is the new little family

Lisa, Lincoln, and Vance.

While we are so excited to have these two new babies in our family, I really don't appreciate their parents keeping them so far away from us. The fact I won't get to hold either one of these little guys in my arms until Christmas makes me so sad. In Mason's words, "It's going to take FOREEEEVER for them to come."

Welcome to the family boys. We're so glad you made it safely!

Date Night

A couple weeks ago Scott surprised me and took me to Sundance for their full moon lift ride. It was the perfect date. It was a crisp fall night, the air was filled with the smell of the mountains, our kids were at home sound asleep in bed with Scott's brother watching them, I was drinking hot chocolate with my best friend in the world coming up with escape routes from the lift should we suddenly fall under attack. We had fun talking about random things and reminicing about the last time we rode that lift together. It was six years ago when we rode it to the start of a hike that ended at the top of the back mountain where I was surprise with a candlelight dinner and a beautiful diamond ring on my finger. Needless to say, it's a special spot with a lot of really great memories. Thanks for the wonderful date, Scott. Now anyone who is reading this, go plan something fun and unexpected for your special someone, everyone loves a surprise.

Best Buds

These two kiddos are best buds.

I think these pictures pretty much sum it up for me.

This is what our daily walks, or adventures as Mason calls them, look like these days*. One day Mason just started taking Brynn's hand and leading her around and she loves it. I love it, too.

*This particular day we were playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mason was Mickey, hence the ears, and Brynn was Minnie, but refused to wear her ears long enough for a decent picture, and I was Daisy. Other favorite roles to play are The Cat in the Hat, Toy Story things, and trains. Brynn loves Mason's hugs even though they are more like head-locks.

Mason refuses to let Brynn kiss him with her opened mouth kisses. I can't imagine why :)
But he will still plant a kiss on her cheek occasionally.