the little lion feeding the trick-or-treaters

Maggie has chosen her favorite holiday. I dressed her in her lion suit and painted her face (she was so excited to be getting to wear makeup "like Mama's makeup"). Caleb wore Maggie's bunny costume from last year and I carried him and held Maggie's hand as we walked down our street trick-or-treating. Maggie seemed so amazed that people were giving her candy. After going to a house or two, she was going straight up to the door and banging on it, yelling, "Knock-knock! Trick-or-treat!" before I could even get there. Everyone wanted to give Caleb candy. I was so surprised how many people said, "I'll give him a sucker- that's something he's big enough to eat". One lady even game him a huge reeses candy bar. She said it was perfect for him "because it's soft". !! We only went to a few houses, and then we came home and waited for our own trick-or-treaters. Casey went to put Maggie in her high chair for dinner, and she was very disappointed to leave the big candy bowl. She was still holding a sucker and asked him to open it. He told her no, she needed to eat dinner first. She said, "Please, Daddy. Open it?" and he said no, so she started to walk away and put it back in the bowl, but then stopped and came back to him. She held the sucker up and said in her sweetest voice, "Trick-or-treat, Daddy?" After dinner we had trick-or-treaters coming ever few minutes for about two hours. Maggie got so excited every time someone knocked on the door, and carried the bowl to the trick-or-treaters to let them choose their candy. It turned out that Maggie's cousin, Cori Lee (10 days younger than Maggie), was also a lion! They stopped in and we took some pictures.

running really helps

Casey and I have been getting to run together a lot lately and it is wonderful! We are making an effort to run three times a week: Sunday, and then whichever other two mornings he can get someone to work for him during the week. Last Sunday we ran 4.5 miles, Tuesday we ran 5, and today we ran 6.5! We are feeling awesome, and I know a huge reason why is the weather is amazing. It makes such a difference to have cool weather. We run at Beechwood (his uncle's farm) and we literally have not even come close to running through all the different trails/fields there. It goes on for miles and miles. We call it "exploring" while we're running, since we've never even been to some of these fields. It's so nice to be able to mix things up and run somewhere absolutely beautiful, and with no cars around. We were watching the leaves slowly fall this week, just one or two at a time. They are just starting to change colors quickly now, with red and orange and yellow, but still lots of green. The farm is gorgeous.

caleb grows up

My little Caleb is growing so fast, I feel like he is going to pass Maggie in size any day now. In reality, I think he's only about 14 1/2 or 15 lbs, but that's a big change from a month ago when he was a little 12 pounder :)
He is all over the place. His favorite spot right now is the bathtub, where he crawls up and down, chasing toys and Maggie, and looking for anything he can pull up on. Here are some pictures from this week and last.

less waste and more fun

Lately I have been trying to be more careful to not be wasteful. With money, for one, but also with things. I realized in the last few months how much money I was wasting on buying odds and ends that either weren't really necessary or that I could buy used rather than new and save not only some money but also prevent used things from getting thrown away and new ones from being made unnecessarily. I started realizing a few months ago that although I'm always a very careful shopper and use all kinds of great strategy, there are lots of things that I have bought that I simply don't need, no matter what kind of bargain I may have conjured up between sales, coupons and gift cards. The problem was mainly my attitude towards shopping. I think I have been almost addicted to it and use it as one of my greatest sources of entertainment. I really enjoy shopping... for ANYTHING, whether it's clothes, groceries, or something Casey wants me to pick up from the hardware store. So in the last few months I have almost completely cut out shopping other than our basic necessities. It has been such a fun time! There is something very freeing about not having everything you "want". It really makes life more exciting. Casey and I have really enjoyed reminding each other to be careful and less wasteful. And we still do get to do fun things... we just don't agree to whatever it is we feel like doing, just for the heck of it. Last Saturday I went to some yard sales and had a blast. I got loads of clothes and shoes for Maggie and Caleb.. some of the cutest clothes they have.. and I spent exactly one ten dollar bill. It was awesome! My favorite part so far was showing Casey our personal credit card bill for last month. It was the smallest it's been since the year we got married, before babies and all :)

my big boy and his little helper

Caleb had a check-up today to see whether he's been gaining enough weight, and he did great! He is 6 months old now, and weighed in at 13 lbs, 13 oz. The dr. was very excited, telling me he has jumped all the way up to 2nd percentile :) He was an impressive little boy, trying to crawl all over the table and pull up on whatever he could. He is my little wild one. He crawls across the room so fast now. He loves to go under the dining room table to see what he can find to put in his mouth! I have new motivation to keep the floor clean :) Maggie continues to amaze us all with her sweet attitude and talking in complete sentences. She talks to me all day long, asking me lots and lots of questions. I'm always amazed at how good her memory is. One of her favorite activities right now is feeding Caleb his baby food. She stands on a chair and carefully feeds him every bite with a spoon. She is such a big helper, and who would have thought, at 20 months!?

on the farm

this afternoon we went over to beechwood with lots of cousins and a few aunts to take some pictures for a book casey's cousin donna is making. i took a few pictures alongside donna, so they aren't as good as hers, but you can get the idea. :)


Here's the link to the rest of the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010936&l=4b90a&id=84000857

maggie and her baby

Today Maggie took a special interest in one of her dolls. She is such a good mommy. She helped her baby participate in all kinds of activities, including swinging in Caleb's swing, jumping in his bouncer, eating baby bottles, and she tried to give her a bath. Several times throughout the day she came to me after putting her baby in one of Caleb's favorite spots, telling me that the baby was "too little". Once when she couldn't find her baby's bottle I gave her an empty one of Caleb's, but after trying it out, she told us her baby was too little to use it. Maggie's little attitude is so precious. She has such a sweet spirit about her that she certainly didn't get from her mama or daddy :)