Halloween

Halloween really couldn't have come at a better time for us this year. Mason's latest obsession turned to zombies and mummies right before the Halloween season started so we had a fun Halloween season full of  reading books, playing games, and making projects that all centered around these spooky creatures. After going back and forth on which of these he wanted to be for Halloween he finally settled on a mummy. As soon as he slipped his costume on Mason was in full character.

Brynn had known for months she wanted to be Cinderella.

She made one beautiful princess!

I decided Miles would be a monkey for Halloween since we already had the costume from when Mason was his age. The only problem is Miles absolutely would not, under any circumstance, let us put the costume on him. When we asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween his response was one of two things: mailman or big truck. Let's be honest. He had no idea what we were asking him he was just naming a few of his favorite things. I went ahead and threw together this big truck anyway and he agreed to wear it...at least long enough for a pictures.

Ellie was an adorable little mouse.

Cinderella and her little mouse friend.

Ellie has started doing this where every time she smiles she sticks her tongue way out. I absolutely love it!

We had amazing fall weather the week before Halloween which allowed us to set up pumpkin carving stations outside which was really fun. 

As always I manned the pumpkin cleaning station since Scott can't stand scrapping pumpkin guts. Mason dove right in this year and cleaned his own pumpkin entirely on his own.

Scott then headed up the design and carving station. Per the kiddos request we stuck with our tradition of carving their pumpkins to match their costume.

Sorry for the picture overload, but it was impossible to get a picture of all the kids together with their pumpkins.

Mummies

Brynn's was Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.

Remember how Miles was supposed to be a monkey? We couldn't keep him away from the pumpkins all month, but when we wanted him to sit next to one for a picture he all of the sudden wanted nothing to do with it. But it was nothing that couldn't be handled with a sucker bribe.

Ellie loved her Mouse pumpkin.

There's that tongue again.

While we had fun diving into the Halloween spirit at home, we kept things pretty simple as far as Halloween parties were concerned. We still keep pretty well to ourselves these days and so something has to be really enticing to pull us out of our little bubble. The only thing that did that this year was Grandma Nancy's annual Halloween bash. It was full of all it's usual fun, the only thing that would have made it better is if Rachel Faye, Andrew, and Kendall were there.

Miles would only sit next to his big truck for the group picture, but was happy to put it on to go outside with Grandpa's big white truck, the inspiration for his costume.

In the middle of the party Mason disappeared. While checking in one of the back rooms I walked into quite the theatrical performance of Mason the Mummy coming alive out of his "coffin". After his scary performance he posed himself like this and asked me to take a picture. I actually think this is a really creepy picture. This kid is one of a kind.

Until next year, Happy Halloween

Lately

It's been too long since I did a post about the cute and random things the kiddos have been up to. Believe it or not, that is what this blog was once dedicated to. So here are a few stories about the kiddos lately.

Our annual Fall picture in the leaves in our yard.

About a month ago Brynn and Mason both had the opportunity to earn a backyard movie night. They were each given 5 stars on Monday but if they were disrespectful (a big issue in our house with a certain someone these days) they would loose a star. As long as they had any stars remaining on Friday they could invite a friend over to have a late night and watch a movie in the backyard after dark. Long story short, Brynn earned it and Mason didn't. When Friday rolled around sweet Brynn approached me and asked if she could invite Mason to be her friend because she didn't want him to feel bad. So Mason had a great time being Brynn's guest and watching Sleeping Beauty in the backyard.

I laugh to think that just a few months ago I was concerned about Miles' speech.  If he was behind at all he has definitely made up for it, and then some. The boy just walks around the house talking and we can actually understand most of what he says now. The thing I love more than the actual words he says is how he says them. He talks with so much enthusiasm and great facial expressions. A few of my favorite things he says include:
'No Waaay!!' when he is excited about something.
"Oh Noooo!" when he does something wrong.
His favorite adjective is Big. 'Big Truck' and 'Big Shoes' are a favorite conversation point of his.
'No-nurt' is what he calls yogurt. There is just something about the way he says it that kills me.
He says "noooo" in a sweet voice with a scrunched up face and shaking his head like, 'sorry, but no'.
When Mason and Brynn are at school he walks around saying, "May, soowl. Bri, soowl" He puckers his lips and puts so much effort into saying school.
He sings the ABC song really well, but always finishes with "...now I know my EFGs..."
Still calls his blanket his "uh oh".
He's turned into a Baby Einstein monster and whenever he is bored, or sad, or tired he whines for "Bay Einstein" over and over and over.

Ellie had repeatedly rolled from her stomach to her back when she was only 6 weeks old, but after being on her back in the hospital for a month followed by over a month of not being able to do tummy time due to her new and healing g-tube she was no longer capable of rolling. Last week she started rolling from her stomach to her back again and she is so close to rolling from her back to her stomach that I am convinced a if a strong breeze came along she would flip right over. She has mastered grabbing her toys and anything else she can get her hands on. Basically we are just thrilled with how great she is doing with her development.

One morning Ellie started coughing and Miles shouted out, "Su-sun!" and ran into her room and turned on the suction machine. I had never heard him say suction before, let alone know exactly when Ellie needed suctioning. He knows how to take care of Ellie better than most adults would. I will be shocked if one of our kids doesn't end up working in the medical field after all this early exposure.

Playing in Ellie's room where we spend most of our time.

Scott has been after me for drinking too much Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke lately. He never believes me that I only drink one....okay sometimes two cans a day. I don't know what makes him think it's happening more than that.

Miles regularly walks around pretending to drink an unopened Diet Coke. Don't worry, he never really drinks it.

We spent the day at Cornbellys with all of our Hale cousins (including Allie and Gabe who are technically second cousins but we just consider part of our Hale family cousins). I was grateful to have so many helping hands to keep an eye on Brynn and Mason as they ran around with everyone else because it was a full time job to keep up with Miles, but I loved every second of it. He was crazy about jumping on the big inflatable pillow and we couldn't get him off of it. Brynn and Allie ran around in their matching beanies holding hands the entire time. They are such cute girls together. Mason was the only person who successfully made it through the entire monster (a big inflatable monster you walk through that is really pretty scary) without getting too scared and turning around.

The Girlies.

Miles "helping" Gabe down the slide.

Mason in the bounce house

The Mamas. Rachel, Leslie, and Whitney (with cute Kendall)

 My mom offered to spend the night with Ellie so we could take the big kids and use a gift certificate for a free night stay in a hotel by Thanksgiving Point over Fall Break. Based on the kids' excitement level you would have thought we were going to Disneyland instead of a hotel 20 minutes away from our house. Our stay-cation in Salt Lake City last year was one of their favorite vacations ever, so they were pretty excited to be doing it again . I may be the first person in history who took 3 kids under the age of six to a hotel and got the best night sleep I've had in 5 months. It was glorious.
Our itinerary went something like this: dinner at Texas Roadhouse (saw a baby girl with a feeding tube like Ellie's...made me miss her), Cornbellys, hotel swimming pool, bedtime, Saturday morning cartoons, hotel swimming pool, Barnyard Boo, and home.

Cornbellys

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Brynn and Miles asleep next to each other in the hotel because it shows the difference in their personalities perfectly.

Brynn laid out a towel out on her pillow because her hair was wet, put her hands under her head, gave a big fake yawn (she does this every night) and fell asleep. Her bedtime routine looks like something you would see on a princess movie and it works like a charm for her. Miles on the other hand tosses and turns and wrestles with his 'uh oh' until he collapses in exhaustion.

5 months

This little one is 5 months old today.

A couple weeks ago we were able to spend the afternoon with my friend and coworker Rachel Lark, of Rachel Lark Photography, and her darling baby boy. Remember the awesome family pictures she took for us last December? It was so fun catching up with Rachel since the last time we saw each other we were both super pregnant. The plan was to take some pictures of Ellie, but as usual Ellie revolted against the plan and was being a grumpy gus (Scott insists it was because he wasn't there to make her smile. It's true that she always smiles for him.). Good thing Rachel is super patient and just waited until Ellie fell asleep and then snapped these gems. Thanks Rach!

"Not funny, Mom. Where's Dad?"

Love those long lashes and hair!

The toenails Brynn insisted we paint for Ellie.

Thank you to Ellie's Build-a-Bear for letting us use her skirt :)

Speaking of coworkers, have I mentioned that I started back at work a few weeks ago? Right now I'm just picking up shifts here and there while we figure out how to best make this work. I have mixed feelings about it, but it is necessary since someone has to pay the bills. If only I could figure out a way to get paid to be Ellie's nurse rather than having to go take care of other trach patients to get a paycheck. Oh well, it is fun to see all my friends again and I do genuinely love my job.